154. Chapter 154

After A Chill Goes Through Her Veins

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: It'll be a cold day in Hell when I claim I own Castle. Rating: T Time: See above.

"Yes?" The desk clerk asked with practiced politeness.

"Mr. and Mrs. Castle." Rick said. "We have a reservation."

The desk clerk checked his computer and smiled. "Yes, sir. You have the Presidential Suite for a week. And your reason for coming to the Park West?"

"Pleasure. We just needed a little break from routine." Rick put his arm around Kate and pulled her close. Kate grimaced, but hid her face by leaning into Castle's shoulder.

"Bell!" The desk clerk called. At once, a bellman approached and carefully placed the Castle's luggage on a cart and led them to the elevator. Once inside, Rick put his arm around Kate's waist again and hugged her, then kissed her lightly on the top of her head.

Once inside the Presidential Suite, Castle tipped the bellman generously and asked that room service send up a bottle of champagne.

As soon as the bellman had closed the door, Kate was on him. "Castle, what the hell do you think you're doing? Groping me in public? Kissing me? Don't you ever, ever, do anything like that to me again! Do you understand?"

"No. Not at all." He said calmly.

She stood on her toes and pushed her face into his. "Do. Not. Touch. Me!" She said, emphasizing each word.

"What in God's name were your parents like?" Castle said, puzzled.

"What? Don't you dare ever say anything about my parents! Ever!"

Castle shook his head. "If this is going to work, we have to act like a happily married couple. Did you know that happily married couples sometimes hug each other? They've even been known to kiss. In public, even." He frowned and his voice became more serious. "Happily married wives do not go rigid when their husbands touch them. They don't bitch about being kissed by their husbands when the bellman is still close enough to hear them through the closed door. Do you understand me?"

Kate glared at him, but then stepped back from him. "Sorry." Then she quickly added, "But you don't have to be so physical. And what did you mean about my parents?"

Castle shook his head and for once, he was the one who rolled his eyes. "I've been married twice. I know how married couples behave. If you keep up the way you've been acting, we'll have to change our cover story. I'll be here to blow off a little steam at an illegal high stakes poker game, and you'll be here trying to hire a hit man to kill me. And I'm sorry about the crack about your parents. I know that's a sore subject with you, but your parents must have shown each other very little affection in public."

"Of course they showed…" Kate began. She could remember her father putting his arms around her mom and nuzzling her ear a week before she was murdered. She remembered… "I'm sorry, Castle. This is very new to me. You and me being…You know. I'll try to…do the right thing."

"Okay, Kate. And call me Rick, will you? We're married, remember?"

There was a knock on the door. It was the champagne. Rick tipped the waiter and turned to Kate. "Champagne's here, darling."

Kate smiled. "Great…Dear." She said through gritted teeth.

Rick sat next to her on the couch with a glass in one hand and the bottle in the other. "Better, Kate." He poured one glass of champagne. "I know. You're on duty." He drank some champagne.

They changed for dinner and Rick led Kate to the dining room, holding her hand. Someone seeing the happy couple might have thought that the lovely wife must have had a slight headache. Or a raging migraine.

Once seated, Kate looked at the menu. Then she looked again. "Cas…Rick." She whispered. "The prices are unbelievable. I can't afford this!"

Rick smiled and whispered back. "Montgomery's whole undercover budget can't afford this place. Which is why I volunteered to pay for everything. Karras is smart enough to know that cops can't throw money around like this, therefore we can't be cops. Therefore we aren't a danger to him. So, what would you like?"

Kate looked at the menu and gulped. "I'll just have a salad. And coffee."

Rick called the waiter over. "We'll have the surf and turf for two." He said. "That's the whole Australian lobster and Kobe filet mignon?"

"Excellent choice, sir." The waiter said. Kate's eyes widened in shock, but she quickly looked down.

"And the lady will have coffee. I think the Ethiopian and Sumatran blend will suit her. And I'd like a Scotch." Rick consulted the drinks menu. "Laphroaig, I think. You do have the twenty five year old, I assume?"

The waiter nodded. "Of course, sir."

When the waiter had gone, Kate spoke. "Castle, do you have any idea…" She whispered.

"Rick. I'm Rick, dammit. And I know very well how much this costs. It's not the first time I've eaten here, or someplace comparable. Okay?"

Kate had to admit the food and the coffee was the best she had ever had. He was still in shock when the meal was over and Castle took her hand and led her back to their suite.

They watched TV for a while and then got ready for bed. Kate was sitting on the side of the bed dressed in her sleep clothes, a pair of running shorts and a NY Yankees tee shirt, when Castle walked into the bedroom. He grabbed the pillow and punched it a few times, tossed it down and then pulled the sheets on "his" side of the bed down.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kate said, outraged.

"When the maid comes in tomorrow morning, she'll expect that I slept on this side of the bed, not on the couch. My side has to look like it's been slept in." He shook the sheets a few more time until he was satisfied. "Do you have a sexy negligee with you?"

"Of course, I don't have a sexy negligee with me! Why would I?" She snapped.

"I'm going to leave a pair of my boxers at the foot of the bed. It would look better if you left a sexy negligee on the floor or someplace. No problem. Just put your shorts and shirt back in your suitcase in the morning. The maids will think you sleep in the nude."

"Sleep nude! With you?"

Rick shook his head. "Try to get into the spirit of this, Beckett. Will you?" He went off to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, he had breakfast delivered to room and had it set up on the balcony where they could see the New York skyline. When Kate came out for breakfast, he politely pulled the chair out for her. When she sat, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She glared at him and pushed him away.

He sat across from her. "You might want to consider calling Montgomery and telling him this is never going to work. Blame me, if you want to. Tell him I'm too immature to bring this off, or something."

They ate breakfast in silence.

When he was done, Rick grabbed his jacket. "There's a sports bar in the basement. I'm going to go down and see if I can find out where the poker game is, and maybe wangle an invitation. I'll be back."

An hour later, Rick was talking to a bartender about the designated hitter rule when a pair of soft hands wrapped themselves around his waist and turned him around. Kate's soft lips were pressed against his and her mouth opened, inviting his tongue into her mouth. He explored her mouth, then broke the kiss.

She rested her head on his chest. "I'm sorry, darling. I've had a beast of a headache since yesterday. I know I've been a complete bitch. Forgive me?"

"Of course. There's nothing to forgive."

"I'm going to lie down for a while until the headache goes away." She reached up and nibbled on his ear. "I'll make things up for you tonight. Okay?" She kissed him again, driving her tongue into his mouth.

When she broke the kiss, he stammered, "Um, I may be a little late tonight, darling."

"Well, if you're too late, I'll come and get you." Kate walked out, her hips swaying rhythmically.

The bartender watched her go. "You're leaving her to play poker?"

Rick nodded. "Sometimes I think I must be crazy."

"I know you are."

That night, Rick walked down a hallway in the depths of the hotel. There were no guest's rooms here, just rooms full of linens, towels and everything needed for a first class Manhattan hotel. At the end of the main hallway was a darkened hallway off to his right. Deep in the shadows stood the hotel detective, a long retired New York cop who made a nice living protecting a high stakes poker game from being raided. Hey, no one was getting hurt, right? He gave Rick the directions to the game. Down the hall, turn right, go down the freight elevator, across an empty storage space, through the double doors, not the single doors, and the third door on your right. If the cops ever did show up, he'd hit the number on the speed dial on his burner phone and by the time the cops got to the players, all they'd find was a group of men playing bridge with no money in sight. Sweet, huh?

Rick followed the directions, and soon found himself sitting behind fifty thousand dollars worth of chips, looking at his fellow poker players, especially George Karras, a slender, very well dressed man who oozed arrogance.

Rick had been there for an hour and was up by twelve thousand dollars when there was a knock at the door.

"Who's that?" Mike Orland, a prosperous lawyer asked.

"Whoever it is got past Rollo, so they must be okay." Karras motioned to the bartender to open the door.

When he did, Kate walked in. She smiled at Rick and he smiled back, mostly to cover his shock. Kate was wearing a canary yellow dress that showed her cleavage down to her navel. That and the fact that her nipples were poking through the thin material of her dress proved she wasn't wearing a bra. The skirt stopped only an inch or so above her knees, but it was slit on the right side up to the top of her hip. She walked over, sat on Rick's lap, pushed her boobs into his chest and kissed him. Hard. "Naughty boy." She whispered, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "I told you I'd come for you if you weren't back."

"You're not leaving while you're ahead, are you?" Karras grumped.

"Ricky, who is this gentleman?"

"George Karras, love."

Kate smiled. "George Karras? Why, I know a George Karras."

Karras brightened up. "I'm sure I'd remember you, sweet thing. Where do you know me from?"

Kate reached under her skirt and drew her pistol. "The NYPD. You're under arrest for the murder of your wife."

Seconds later, Ryan, Esposito and a host of uniforms burst into the room.

Ten minutes later they were standing in the lobby of the hotel while everything was sorted out. Kate felt Castle come up from behind her and drape his jacket over her. "Everybody is getting quite a look at you." He said softly. "And I know. What happened today was strictly in the line of duty. I'll never mention it."

Kate blushed slightly, but said nothing.

"Where did you get the dress? I didn't see it in the closet."

"I put it on our hotel bill. Don't worry. I'll return it as soon as were done here."

"I'm afraid you can't." Castle said. "The hotel dress shop has a strict policy. You can't return an item once it's been worn. Too many older gentlemen were buying expensive dresses for their "nieces" and returning them the next day."

Kate swallowed hard. "You can have it then."

Castle chuckled. "Yellow isn't my color."

"You can give it to…"

"Alexis? No way. Not now. Never. And not to Martha, either. You keep it."

"Castle! Do you know how much this dress cost? I can't take it from you."

"You were happy enough to sleep in the Presidential Suite, eat an expensive dinner and breakfast all at my expense. Why not take the dress? What would I do with it?"

"I'll pay you for it then."

"No, you won't." He said firmly. "I know what designer dresses cost and I know what an NYPD detective makes. I will not have you scrimping for the next year to pay me off. If I have to, I'll take this up with Montgomery. You know what he'll say."

"He'll just want to get rid of the problem. He'll tell me to keep it and not bother him."

"Just keep the dress, Beckett. Who knows? Some day you may find a use for it."

Oddly enough she did find a use for it some years down the road. And for a sexy negligee. But she slept in the nude anyway.

Author's note: This is an After…for A Chill Runs Through Her Veins only because of Kate's reaction to Rick's suggestion in the apartment that they were married. I started thinking. What if…?