Castle makes a face when she tries to out-rationalize him, rubbing his palms together for warmth. "Ah yes," he says, dropping back onto the pillow with a wily smirk. "The whole 'did they arrive in the same cab?' thing. Don't worry, I'll clean any lipstick off my collar before coming within one hundred yards of Esposito and Ryan."

He reaches out and cups her hip underneath his palm, reeling her in toward his chest. "Unless you were talking about how it's really late and that you've got to get up in a couple of hours and save the city from its own damning iniquity," he amends, nuzzling beneath the drape of hair at the back of her neck. "In which case --" he reaches blindly for the clock and turns it to face the window.