Castle's stomach is now halfway up his chest, getting chummy with his heart. He can't have heard that right. Beckett wouldn't have memorized the love scene in Heat Wave, would she? There's fan devotion and then there's fan devotion. She knew it right down to the page and all of a sudden Castle's wishing he had kept his coat off because the whole room is starting to swelter.

He manages a grin, quick and tight, his eyebrows rucking toward his hairline. "In the business, we call that 'poetic license'," he says, unable to resist the temptation to goad her on a little bit. "You did a lot of cool cop stuff in the book, too."