3x22 au with castle and beckett in the pool together pleeease
Castle wades in the shallow end, the pool mostly empty save for a man swimming laps and a woman, whom he just watched dive into the deep end. Her gaze snags on him the second she comes up for air.
She swims over to him with irritation in her eyes flaring like the sun overhead.
“I told you to stay on the deck,” Beckett growls.
“Beckett, people have seen us here together,” he reasons, trying so very hard to stop his eyes from wandering past her face, down to the exposed skin of her chest, sun-kissed and decorated with rivulets of water that race to converge at the v of her swimsuit. “Don’t you think it might look suspicious if I sit by and sip piña coladas while you seduce Royce’s killer?”
She doesn’t buy his reasoning. Not at all.
“Okay, okay, I also wanted to swim in the pool. It’s a nice pool, Beckett-”
Kate curses under her breath and flicks her eyes over his shoulder, her gaze landing on something that has her straightening in the water. Russell Ganz, he’s certain, and she confirms it when her gaze snaps back to meet his.
“Okay, since you ruined my original plan, we’re going to have to improvise.”
“I’m game. So how-” He chokes on his question as Kate places her hands to his bare shoulders. Her fingers dig into his skin ever so lightly as she uses him for purchase to reel herself in close. Her body glides through the distance between them, drifting through the water until her arms are lacing snugly around his neck.
"Castle," she snaps, but her lips are curled in a tight smile. "You're making me look bad. Touch me back."
"Say less," he mutters, reaching for her thighs.
She gasps in surprise when he hefts her up, her legs instinctively curling around his waist.
"I said touch not - grab," she huffs, but her arms remain folded around his neck.
"I didn't grab," he murmurs, slipping his palms up her thighs, past her hips, and splaying them wide at her spine. Her lips purse. "I'm just playing the part of a very interested male companion."
Beckett smirks, leans forward to tilt her mouth towards his ear. "So your normal role?"
"Funny," he mutters, but he's trailing his fingers up the line of her vertebrae, savoring the hitch in her breath, the stutter of it in his ear. "But you're not wrong. Though, I'd call this a more hands-on approach."
"Castle, I am trying to get Ganz's attention, stop-"
"Distracting you?" he grins, one of his hands lifting to curve along her shoulder.
He loves the structure of her bones, the strength he can see carved into her shoulders. He traces the bone of her clavicle with care, hooks his thumb under the strap of her suit.
Her head turns, nose bumping into his cheek. "He's on his phone. Not looking yet. Stop."
"I'm just touching. You said to touch-"
"I'm going to hit you," she mutters, unfurling her arms to cup her hands at his nape, lean back in his grasp. And oh, her eyes are... dark. "When he looks this way, I'm going to shove you away and get out of the pool. He'll follow."
"How can you be so sure?" he asks, lowering the hand at her shoulder back to her outer thigh. Which is pressing snugly into his hip. Holy shit he can't believe he has Kate Beckett wrapped around him.
"Because I have a plan," she shrugs, her own eyes tripping down his face, over his mouth, down to his chest.
The elegant line of her throat ripples.
Her thumb is moving in a maddening circle just below his ear, her palm draped at his pulse point. She's so close, her lips just inches away from his, the heat of her body flush with his, ruining the reprieve of the water.
He's going to kiss her. Again.
Her eyes flutter and she shakes her head.
And then she dunks his head under the water.
He's dripping wet and waiting for her when she meets him behind the bushes. But before he can say a word, she's poking him.
"Ow!" he hisses, protecting his chest before she can stab him again while she whisper yells at him.
"He called me green, Castle! What the hell were you doing?"
"I saw his phone in the cabana after you tried to drown me," he scowls. "I thought it was worth the risk."
"No, I took a picture of his recent calls list while you were busy flirting it up."
"What?" The smile spreads wide across her face. "Where is it?"
"Don't poke me," he warns as he digs for the phone in his pocket.
"Poke you? I wanna kiss you," she grins, taking the phone from his proffered hand.
He tightens his grip on the thick towel around his waist. His life can be so unfair.
"I'd like that," he risks. "Least you could do after you dunked me."
"Oh please," she sighs, glancing up at him with mischief in her eyes.
"Beckett, water went up my nose. Do you know how unpleasant-"
She lifts on her toes, lips at his cheek and dangerously close to his mouth.
She presses a kiss to his skin.
"Better?" she husks, and he curls his fingers at her hipbone, fisting the slinky, wet fabric of her wrap, her swimsuit, in his hand.
He exhales slowly. This new game they're playing, teasing the fire between them... he's not sure he can survive it.
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