6. Chapter 6

Castle carries Dash into the condo, letting the door hit his back so that he can hold it open for Kate. She steps slowly over the threshold with Ella in her arms, blanket draped over the little girl.

"Same room, or separate?" she whispers, meeting his eyes in the darkness.

Castle guides the door closed, softly, then places the keys on the little table in the entryway. The tile is cold; Kate can feel the chill of the air conditioner against her ankles, drifting around her flip flops.

"Same, in case one wakes up, strange place," he murmurs back.

Kate's not entirely happy about this; Dash will wake too early and Ella will want to sleep until noon, if they let her, but it's only the first night. Plenty of nights still to go.

"Follow you," she says, reaching out a hand to brush her fingers down the back of his tricep, not sure why she needs the touch but needing it anyway.

Castle leads the way down the short hall to the first bedroom on their right, just before the guest bathroom. It's small. And has bunk beds.

Kate tugs on his tshirt, but Castle is already shaking his head and turning around. They back out of the first room, go past the bathroom, come to the second room. Two twin beds with Hawaiian print bedspreads, wicker furnishings. Kate moves to the bed furthest from the door and eases her daughter down.

Ella is out, her head lolls to the pillow, her round, bow of a mouth going slack. Kate slides the bedcovers out from under her, takes her sparkly pink shoes off her feet, then carefully tucks her in. She kisses the girl's forehead, brushes back her hair, kisses her cheek, breathes in the night-sleep-sweetness of her child.

"Night, baby girl," she breathes, and straightens up.

Castle is murmuring to Dash, who has apparently roused a little bit. She thought he might. Kate heads to the side of his bed, watches Castle tug off the boy's shoes and socks. Dash's toes curl, then he flops over onto his belly with a long sigh.

Kate gets on her knees beside the bed, leans in to kiss him, brushing her hand down his back, making slow circles. She feels him relax under her touch.

"Gonna sleep?" she whispers.

He grunts back at her, a sure sign he's fading already, so she helps Castle pull the covers up over their son. She gets back to her feet as Castle moves to the other bed, his lips skimming Ellery's forehead, his large palm curled around the back of her head.

Kate stands in the dark doorway, waiting on him, watching her children sleep, all of the sudden amazed at how she's gotten here. All this love in one little room. The frantic clutch of her heart as she sees the tenderness in Rick's hands as he brushes his fingers in Ella's hair.

She smiles, sees Castle's answering smile as white teeth in the dark; he meets her at the door to the kids' room and nudges her out, closing it behind him.

"Hey," he whispers.

She wraps her arms around his neck and sinks into a wonderful embrace, his arms strong as cords around her. He cups the back of her head with his palm and a lazy trickle of desire unfurls in her belly, slow and savored.

"Hey," she says back, pressing her lips to his chin, the side of his jaw, brushing the soft edges of her mouth against the rough scrape of his stubble. "Mmm."

"Mmm, yourself," he murmurs, opening his mouth against the skin at her neck, sucking softly.

She shivers, surprised at her own reaction, hears him chuckling in her ear.

"Wanna get our stuff from the car?" he says.

"No."

She does, at some point. She's too in-control, too Type A to feel comfortable with all their luggage sitting in the rental SUV twenty floors below them, but right now she wants to luxuriate in finally being on vacation, finally being at the beach with this man who still makes her insides go liquid with just the scrape of his teeth or the curl of his finger.

"Liar," he says back, letting the silence, the dark, and his mouth work their magic on her. He could say anything and she'd agree.

"Yeah, but not just yet. Keep doing that."

He laughs against her neck, more vibrations than actual sound, and then propels her backward slowly, pushing her further down the hall. She opens her eyes to catch a glimpse of a wide, spacious living room, shining kitchen, and a sliding glass door to the balcony. A far door, off the living room, is probably the master bedroom, but she stops him before they get that far.

"Balcony," she breathes, and tugs on his hip to get him following her.

He reaches for the sliding door's lock, flips it with some effort, and pulls it open, all from behind her, his body close and hot against her back. He slides his arms around her waist as they stand in the faint breeze coming off the gulf, his mouth at the nape of her neck. She smells salt, and bleached sand, and the crisp edge of arousal.

She reaches back and pulls her hair down, letting it fall over him, and he laughs again, licks her spine, making her shiver so hard her elbow knocks against his ribs.

Just the breeze.

"Watching your skin quiver, Kate Beckett, is so gorgeous. Moonlight and the ocean and your body-"

She shudders at the tone in his rough voice, brings her arms up, wanting to reach for him and pull him around, but he captures one wrist, holds it against her stomach, their fingers lacing, sliding low. She gets a palm against his cheek, lets her knuckles drag across his five o'clock shadow, gathers up her hair to move it out of his way.

His teeth on her earlobe, her jaw, the pressure of his lips, his hand making insistent circles against her stomach, the heel of his palm pressing against her belly, bringing her hips back against his, her legs parting.

"What you do to me-"

"How your body feels-"

"Your mouth-"

She's not sure whose whispers they are, doesn't matter, she wants her husband, this man, please-

Her back is suddenly against the glass - must have begged him out loud and not just in her head - her mouth on his, even as she forgets all about moonlight and ocean.

He's humming when she wakes, or his humming is why she wakes. He's got on shorts, bare-chested, moonlight splayed like silver along his skin.

"Last of it," he says with a happy smile, dropping back to the couch where they'd fallen earlier. Her thighs are still weak, her body hot. She hooks a leg around his waist and lifts up, close to him.

"Last of-?"

"The luggage."

Kate jerks her head to the open living room, sees all the way down the hall where he's left the kids' suitcases, the beach stuff, the toys, all of it in a neat row by the front door.

"You did."

"I did," he hums, pressing a kiss to the edge of her lips. She feels rubbed out, alive, thrumming.

"Rick," she breathes, turns her head. "I love you."

He laughs and kisses her again. "You're too easy, Kate. Should make me work for it."

"Why? What's the point?" Kate smiles back at him and frames his face with her hands, rubbing her thumbs along his cheeks, over his lips, the beautiful and frustrating man, the father of her children. "I like working at this instead." She wraps her other leg around his waist, slides into his lap.

He grins back, wolfish in the moon's lapping glow. She glances over her shoulder to the sliding glass door, the ocean just beyond.

"Had to close the sliding door to open the front door, by the way." His arms are tight around her, tug her in closer. "If you don't, it makes a wind tunnel."

She smiles at the thought, feathers her lips against his, light and elusive. "Lock it?"

"Both."

Good. She won't have to worry about Dash getting up before them and making a break for it out of boredom. The lock on the sliding glass door was difficult; the sound as it flipped open was something like a heavy-duty dead bolt. Ella, of course, won't move from her bed until someone comes and gets her.

"Kate, babe, stop thinking."

He can call her anything if he keeps talking like that. The want in his voice, dripping sex and cracking with energy.

His arms are bands around her back, his thighs flexing under her, and then he's standing up, bringing her along with him. She smiles wide, impressed despite herself, and hooks an arm around his neck, curling her hand around his ear, brushing his cheek with the tips of her fingers. He's carrying her, the romantic idiot.

He grins back. "Kids are safe. Doors locked."

She nods, watches the way the light and the shadows play along his face as he head towards the master bedroom. He opens the door, closes it with his foot, carries her to the bed and dumps her out in a tangle of limbs.

She laughs and gets to her knees, reaching for his hips, bringing his chest against hers. He rubs his hands down her back. "Let's get this off you and let me do it right, slow."

Yeah.

Kate raises her arms over her head and flips her white tshirt off; the bra went ages ago, and his eyes darken even in the already-black of the room.

He ducks his head but Kate grabs his ears and tugs, holding him still for a moment.

"Kate," he whines, bringing his hands up her ribs, making her resolve fluctuate.

"Wait a sec," she whispers, closes her eyes briefly to gather her will. "First-"

"This first," he murmurs, tries to lower his head.

She pulls back, brings her lips to his instead, regains his attention. When his eyes are open and on hers again, she releases his ears, soothing her fingers over the soft edges. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Mm, this. Making me take a break. Arranging everything. Loving me enough to do it."

"Only enough?"

She shrugs at him, her smile tugging the corners of her mouth. "Just enough. Just barely."

"Barely," he repeats, an eyebrow raised. It looks good on him - her. All her looks look good on him.

"Yeah, barely."

"I barely love you," he says, his voice growling with arousal, need, excitement. Something else. "I want to barely love you all night."

"Yeah," she says back, kind of inanely, transfixed by the rough lick of determination on his face.

Stubborn. That's it. That's the other part-

He claims her mouth, his teeth catching her lips, then her questing tongue, both hand pressed flat against her back and tight, no space left, one of his knees sliding between hers, knocking her over in the bed so that he falls on her, his weight a dark pleasure, heavy and solid and male.

"Barely. Just enough," he says again. "Scant. Miserly. Pitifully."

"Yes, yes," she answers, because with each word, his mouth finds a new home, lower and lower.

"Hard. . ly," he pants, his legs between hers, his hips already moving.

Hard. "That too. Mostly that. All of that."

Castle tugs her arms from around him and presses her wrists over her head, holds her there so he can drag his mouth down her body, his litany continuing but indecipherable.

She hears the sharp cry first, her body stiffens, then again, and this time it's Castle who pulls back, both of them breathing harshly, ragged.

It comes again and she jerks upright. "That's Ella." She scrambles off the bed and looks for her shirt, but Castle hands it to her, pushing her out the door with a hand at her back. He grabs his own tshirt from the floor in the living room as they hustle back to the kids' room.

The restless, grieving cry comes again just as Kate gets to the door. She opens it a crack, then eases inside, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

It is Ella. The girl is sitting up, the green polka dot blanket in a death grip, tears streaking down her face. Kate feels Castle behind her and heads for her daughter.

"Ella," she whispers, wrapping her arms around the girl.

She gets a hot face against her neck, the baby's little body burrowing into hers.

"Tell me what's wrong," she says softly.

No words though. Just the slow cessation of tears, a ragged intake of breath. Kate glances over her shoulder at Rick, chews on her lip. Castle glances around in the dark, then sighs and stands up, gesturing for her to stand with him.

When she does, Ella wrapped around her, he pushes them out of the room.

"Night terrors?" she murmurs to him as he shuts the door. But Dash's developed so much earlier-

He shakes his head, holds up a finger for her to wait.

"Ella B, want to sleep with Mommy and Daddy tonight?"

She nods, her wet cheeks sliding against Kate's neck.

Kate, a little bewildered by Castle's sudden decision, turns her head to frown at him. Her body is dampened, sure, but it wouldn't take much-

"I didn't find Totoro in the car," he says gently, his mouth against her ear.

Oh. Oh damn.

Kate closes her eyes, feels her shoulders sag. "My fault. I was supposed to-"

"Not tonight, Kate. Not here. We'll look for it again in the morning, then figure something out."

Castle cups his hand at the back of her head and kisses the corner of her mouth, delicate and soft and rain check. Kate rubs a hand up and down her daughter's back, then sighs and heads for the master bedroom, Castle at her side.

Ella's little arms are tight around her neck, her knees drawn up to Kate's ribs. Her silence is unforgiving.