Just a quick note before this chapter... thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review this story, your reflections and encouragements are greatly appreciated so thanks for taking the time. Unfortunately, I probably won't have time to respond to them, but if anyone specifically wants one, just ask and I'll do my best. This story basically started out as a writing exercise while I've been having writer's block on my own works, but I've really enjoyed writing this and since I never do anything halfway, this will definitely be a full-fledged story so prepare for the long-haul on this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, never have, never will. This is strictly for fun.
Something soft and sweet was moving over him, each passing brush eliciting the most delicious tightening in his abdomen, and Booth struggled to drag his brain back into consciousness even as those so-tender caresses threatened to lull his mind back into that most satisfying, dreamless sleep. He purred and snuggled his face tighter against his warm pillow, his lips parting slightly so that his deep, even breaths tickled the skin underneath him while a voice in the back of his mind urgently reminded him that time was so, so precious. He heard a soft, melodious humming break through the silence and wondered if she was having as much trouble clearing the foggy haze from her brain as he was.
"You awake, Bones?" he grumbled against her skin, already knowing that she was but longing for any excuse to have her voice caress his ear while he was still in a position to feel the vibrations of her speech against his cheek.
They had fallen asleep together as they had laid, neither having the energy or the desire to move away after he had collapsed on top of her chest, enveloping her body with his much larger frame. His head still rested on her warm body, his ear pressing against that steady heartbeat that had pulled him willingly into sleep, finally able to rest with the evidence of her thrumming beneath him. His arms held tight to her body above his head, his large hands wrapped delicately around her ribs as he caged her with his limbs, unable to let her go even as he slipped from this world into that calm, peaceful darkness.
"Hmmm," was all she was able to respond, the sleep that still drugged her making speech difficult as her lips felt too heavy to articulate any intelligent language. Even her tongue felt thick and uncoordinated as she sucked on it lightly and forced her eyes to flutter open in the darkness.
Her hands continued their slow and lavish journey up and down his back, stroking him lazily as she focused her every attention on absorbing as much of his warmth, of him, through her fingers as she could. Booth purred again as he finally recognized the feeling that had coaxed him so gloriously into waking. It looked like she had missed him during their sleep as much as he'd missed her, as it sounded as though she hadn't even really been awake when she'd first started stroking him.
With his eyes still closed, Booth slowly twisted his head, dragging the burn of his short whiskers across her skin until his lips were pressing against her, placing a soft, wet kiss on the swell of her left breast. It was Brennan's turn to purr, helpless as it bubbled out of her throat, and when Booth lifted his head to perch his chin against her chest, he could see the pale column of her neck arch invitingly as her head rolled back in gentle, quiet ecstasy. Still groggy, Booth could already feel his body react to her presence and her slow, sensual writhing, his chest and groin swelling with the simmering need that threatened to quickly overwhelm him body and soul.
Relaxing to rest the full weight of his sleep-heavy body against her, Booth stilled, waiting patiently as Brennan awakened fully back into herself, finally lifting her glowing blue gaze to meet his through the shadows of his otherwise silent bedroom.
"Hi," he said softly when finally she looked at him, an easy grin giving the slightest tug at the corner of his lips.
"Hi," she whispered back, her gentle smile setting her bright eyes ablaze with love and desire, and Booth wanted to feel that fire burn so hot against his skin that he would never heal, never wanting to let the scars of their passion fade from his body or his heart.
Moving with slow and deliberate feline grace, he pushed himself up with his arms just enough to allow him to crawl up her body, dragging his naked chest across hers, feeling her heartbeat quicken against his own as their nipples brushed enticingly. All the while his dark eyes never dropped from where they were snared by hers, a willing prisoner of her mesmerizing adoration.
Settling deeper into her while still supporting most of his weight on his arms, Booth lowered his face to hers before pulling her lips into a slow, drugging kiss, rolling his tongue through her waiting, parted lips and over her own, stroking smoothly across the roof of her mouth as he retracted teasingly, only to repeat the action in response to her throaty, desperate whimper. His eyes remained open, connected with hers, speaking silently to her through his gaze and his kiss until her own tongue finally caught his, pressing him between hers and the silky wall of her inner cheek. A delighted moan rumbled through him and into her as his eyes closed heavily, focusing all his energy on the heady feel and taste of her.
Brennan's hand gripped his bicep, her nails digging into that toned, smooth muscle that bulged just right beneath her fingers, heightening her desire as she palmed the sheer strength of him with her hand, feeling the power of him coil so protectively around her. Her other hand slid languidly up between their bodies to delicately finger his throat, lightly scraping her fingernails over the prickly whiskers near his Adam's apple.
Finally, reluctantly, they pulled their lips apart, panting heavily into the short space between them. Booth gazed down at her tenderly, reaching up to gently push a wayward strand of hair from her face before running the pad of his thumb high across her delicate cheekbone.
"I can see you, Booth," she panted softly, noticing for the first time since she awakened that her vision was no longer completely useless to her.
"I see you too, Bones," he said huskily, pecking her lips in a chaste but intense kiss as he steeled himself to look away from her, casting his glance towards the open bedroom window for a moment. Light was indeed cutting through the darkness now, silver, celestial moonlight bathing them in its snowy haze. The cloud-thick sky must have cleared sometime during the night, stealing their desperate, passionate darkness from them and replacing it with something softer, more ethereal and yet more intimate than their previous groping blindness.
There was nothing left to shield them now. Clothes had been stripped off, their bare bodies left exposed and vulnerable to one another, but the darkness had stood between them, casting a thin veil of anonymity between them, allowing them to touch, to feel, to know but never to see each other even as they were locked in the most intimate of embraces.
But now he could see her. He could see into those oh-so familiar eyes that now shone like quicksilver as the moonlight stole the blue from them, allowing him to slip inside her soul as easily as he had previously slipped inside her body. She enveloped him, ensnared him, and he knew then that even when he was forced to tear himself away, he'd be leaving a piece of his soul behind in hers, but knowing and trusting that she'd keep it safe for him whenever he returned.
When he returned to her. It was never a question… only a matter of time.
Brennan cast a small, hesitant smile up at him, cupping his cheek while she soothed her fingers across his temple, caressing his furrowed brow. His expression had turned serious all of a sudden, sadness pooling inside the black, bottomless eternity of his eyes, and she reached up towards him with her lips, trailing delicate, tender kisses over his jaw, his forehead, his eyelids, the bridge of his nose, each of his cheeks, finally coming to rest against his lips as she sought to relieve his pain by taking it into herself, not knowing that in a way, she already had.
Booth swallowed hard against the storm battering his mind, trying to push away thoughts about how unfair it was that he was forced to leave her just now when they'd finally found their way to each other. His chest felt hollow and cold at the very idea of letting her go, knowing that, despite every other hellish nightmare he'd suffered and somehow survived, that was the moment that would break him. But somehow he would find his way back to her, drawn back to the shard of his soul that he'd lost inside hers, the only part of him that was ever truly safe. She was his protector, he realized suddenly, just the way he'd always been hers. And suddenly he'd never felt stronger or more alive… knowing now that she kept him as he has he had always kept her.
Gazing down at her, tasting her on the air between them, Booth cocked his head slightly, studying the planes of her face with solemn, glittering eyes, flickering from her lips to the slight, worried crease on her brow before finding her eyes again, sighing breathily through his nose as his lips thinned with concentration.
"I see you," he repeated softly, his voice barely audible over the thickness of the silence that had settled between them.
Brennan tipped her chin and nodded with slow but unwavering certainty, not daring to even blink, trying desperately to show him that she understood he meant so much more than those simple words literally implied.
"And I need you," she answered.
The moment flared between them, fire sparked and set ablaze by the moonlight that revealed them to each other the way nothing else ever had. And they were helpless to the flames that licked at them, urging them to action, both more than happy to surrender everything they had as long as they burned together.
Brennan shifted her hands, one gripping onto him where his neck and shoulder joined with solid muscle and smooth bone, fingers digging into the hard bulk of him while the other slipped higher up the other side of his neck, her thumb resting against the line of his jaw while her fingers slide through the short hair behind his ear to the base of his skull. Booth was still hovering on his arms, his face watching hers intently, his hips having never left where they nestled between her thighs, so it was an easy move for him to press forward, spearing himself inside her all at once with a fast, hard thrust.
"Uhhhmmm," she moaned as she welcomed him home.
Booth growled as he fought against the urge to clench his eyes shut at the sudden ecstasy of her hot, tight body gripping him, cradling him, binding him to her forever, and he found himself hoping desperately that there was something beyond forever because even that would never be enough for him. Instead he locked his gaze onto hers, his face hovering inches above her own, watching her as he drove himself deep. Now his eyes didn't flicker, didn't waver, drowning in the quicksilver of her.
"Do you understand what you do to me?" he grunted through gritted teeth. "Do you understand what you're asking of me?" And what you're allowing me to take, he thought to himself, afraid to breathe that particular question.
"Yes, I…" she cried as her body arched, her hips thrusting to meet him, their bodies roiling together, rolling against one another as waves of heat flooded them while they moved in unison. "I do. I… I see you, Booth… all of you, please…"
Their gaze cemented the emotion between them, desperate and longing-filled adoration ripping through them, tearing and slicing even as it healed and soothed and rescued. Metamorphosis and resurrection dismantling, rearranging and finally putting them back together, though never quite the same for having been broken, but it was better that way. They were better for the wounds they bared. And they offered them to each other, needing the stories of their lives to been seen by that one other person. Both needing the other to love them despite the scars they carried… and because of them.
Shadows floated between them, dancing across the planes of their faces as they read each other's lives through their eyes, unguarded, naked and frighteningly honest. Her silver irises sluiced through the viscid blackness she found in his while Booth was shocked by the chilling wave that struck him at the blatant offering he saw reflected in her own metallic stare.
Booth gave a panting gasp low in his throat as she unknowingly tore a confession from him, the press of her warm body making him wish he could somehow bare more of himself to her. "Bones, I… for so long I've been so angry, so lost… everything that's happened, and I… the things I've done… that I hate that I've done…"
A harsh cry strangled his words as his body sped up, the heat of their friction scorching him as he glided over her, inside her, through her. But he couldn't hide behind their passion… he needed her, needed her to know…
Brennan was struggling, digging her nails so deep into his shoulder she was sure there'd be bloodied crescent memories for him to see later as she fought not to break eye contact despite her desperate need to taste him. But somehow she managed to stay steady, her body undulating beneath the pounding force of him, her head rocking slightly against the pillow from the thrusting speed in which his body claimed hers.
"It's alright, Booth," she cooed, stroking his cheek with her thumb. No matter what he said or didn't say, it was alright.
Booth grunted, forcing the words through his struggling lips even as he drove himself higher and harder, his voice quaking in rhythm with his surging body. "There are things missing inside me, Bones," he hissed quickly before he lost the courage that honesty required. Honesty was the heart of everything between them. "Things I don't think I'll ever have again.
"But I found enough of me, Bones… I found myself the minute I lost myself in you."
He broke her heart, her chest muscles tightening in painful spasms so strong she thought her ribs might break at his confession. That he questioned his humanity and found himself wanting, lacking, that this man who against all the logic she could muster managed to embody every irrational, romantic ideal she'd always been too scared and disappointed to believe in, that he doubted the goodness in him hurt her so much that tears glossed her eyes, wetting her lashes. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, biting gently as she fought to control the hurt she felt for him.
She felt the heaviness of his head against her palm just as he threatened to drop his face, seeking to hide his gaze from her as he was overcome with embarrassment at his quiet, ragged admission, ashamed that maybe he had put too much on her, asked her to share too much of his burden with him. But Brennan wouldn't let him.
"Look at me, Booth," she demanded, squeezing his hips hard with her thighs, pushing her pelvis up into his at the height of a rough thrust, earning a surprised sucking gasp from him as his eyes flew obediently back to hers, desperate and terrified of what he would find there.
"What do you need, Booth?" she asked, her soothing voice laced with patient understanding, begging with him not to hide himself from her. "Tell me what you need."
"You," he breathed.
"You have me," she promised.
"I need more," he agonized.
"Then take it, Booth… take everything… take all of me," she pleaded, offering her own scars to him in return.
Her hand slipped down his clavicle to cover his heart, her slender fingers splayed out across his sweat-slick, glistening skin as she pressed into the wall of him, palming his heartbeat, the most precious thing she had ever experienced. With a grunting cry Booth fell on her, finally bringing his dry lips to hers, moaning as she immediately glossed them with her tongue soothingly while he dropped his weight to rest on his forearms, bringing his upper body in tight against hers, sinking into the warm, soft body beneath him. Her hand was now trapped between their writhing bodies, reveling in each quickening beat of his heart as it pulsed against her fingers. Shifting his weight, Booth forced a hand between them, finding her hand and entwining her fingers with his own so that they shared the pounding heartbeat between them.
Brennan sighed her satisfaction against his thrusting tongue as he reacquainted himself with her, seemingly starving from the short time it had been since he had last tasted her. Wanting him to take all that she offered him without fear or hesitation, she curled one of her legs high around his rolling hips, resting it against the small of his back while she traced the ball of her other foot up and down the back of his hard calf muscle. The change in position opened herself up more to him, and he sank deeper, biting her lip with a surprised groan.
She arched her neck as he pushed in again, but Booth refused to relinquish her mouth in favor of her alabaster skin. He curled over her slightly, his longer frame allowing him to chase after her lips as her head tipped back in ecstasy, her head tossing mindlessly from side to side while he pursued her mouth, catching her chin and jaw with a few rough pecks before finally catching her, slanting over her swollen lips, anchoring her to him with a deep, exploratory reach of his tongue. She moaned in delight, and the alpha male in Booth growled in satisfaction at the willing surrender of his quarry.
A scream ripped her lips from his by its sheer ferocity, and Booth felt her body clutch him in a deliciously unbearable vice, her fingers snagging his hair as she wanted to ride out the pulsing heat with the heady flavor of him coiling around her tongue. But Booth held back, pressing his forehead against hers as he waited for her to open her eyes to him, knowing that when she did, he'd glimpse a flash of that forever beyond forever that he wanted so, so badly.
"Look at me, Bones. Please… let me see you," he urged, his lips brushing hers softly as he whispered to her.
She couldn't deny him what he wanted. Forcing her eyelids open against the heavy, drugging pleasure that was coursing through her, melting her into his hard, smooth body as he pulsed around her, inside and out, Brennan somehow found the strength to bring her eyes to meet his. Those black eyes speared her, so intense, feral, primal, and oh-so hungry and yet somehow so heartbreakingly gentle, so human that she wondered if there had honestly ever been anyone who better represented that glorious utopian potential to which the rest of mankind had yet to evolve to. Bringing both her hands up to cup his face, Brennan kissed him sweetly, cradling him with all the tenderness that she had it in herself to give.
They stayed like that long after their writhing had ceased and their orgasms subsided, just holding each other, Booth cupping the back of her neck, caressing the base of her skull and the nape of her neck while Brennan still cradled his face to hers, her swollen lips continuing their sweet, gentle, unhurried assault on his while their bodies draped exhaustedly against one another.
An orange glow caught Booth's attention unwillingly as it filtered through his closed eyelids, and he reluctantly pulled back to notice that the sun was just starting to peek through the window pane, signaling that more of their precious few hours together had dwindled away during the night, bringing them one step closer to goodbye.
"You should get some sleep," he whispered against her lips with a sad smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly to match the narrow creases that had formed along his brow.
Brennan pressed her lips together in a tight, thin line, shaking her head vehemently as her fingers played delicately across his cheeks like the keys of a piano before dragging his face back to hers for another kiss. He felt wetness against his cheeks as her tears were branded onto him while she opened her mouth hotly over his lips, barreling into his mouth with her demanding tongue, desperate for him to make her forget that sometime soon they'd have to leave not only his bed but also each other, with no guarantees of a happy reunion.
He let her fill him with her presence, working out her aggressive denial on his mouth as she bit him, chewing on his lips before attacking his tongue with hers, stroking him faster and faster with her own, trying to stoke an equally violent response from him before sucking him into her mouth, letting her teeth rake across his taste buds as though she'd be able to permanently burn the flavor of him into her mouth.
When he felt her shoulders start to shake against him with the force of her sobs and felt the angry, violent desperation in her kiss increase, he reached for her arms, gently putting some distance between them.
"No," she growled, tears streaming silent and unacknowledged down her face, pushing back up against him, straining to reach his mouth with hers, but Booth gripped her arms tighter and pressed her into the mattress, holding his head just out of reach. She cried out in frustration, her eyes flashing dangerously at him before she snapped them shut and turned her head away from him, trying to smother her tears into his pillow.
"Hey," he tried to soothe, but she just clenched her eyes tighter as tears slipped from the corners, refusing to allow him to turn her face back to his when he tried gently hooking a finger under her chin to guide her back to him. Instead of forcing her, he allowed her to turn from him for the moment, giving her that small privacy with her sorrow while he stroked her neck with his fingers softly, just a slow whisper over her skin while he tucked his face against the side of hers, pressing a sweet, lingering kiss to the hinge of her jaw. He nuzzled his nose into her hair, his breath tickling the shell of her ear as he hummed soothingly to her, hoping to calm that violent surge of emotions that she'd momentarily lost control of. He understood her pain; it was the same that clawed his insides with icy talons every time he allowed himself to dwell for too long. He knew how badly that hurt.
Finally she stilled beneath him, her muscles relaxing as he hummed soft, wet kiss along her clavicle, up the side of her neck until he reached her jaw, discovering that she'd turned back to face him once again. Kissing her chin and then the corner of her mouth, Booth opened his eyes to find hers watching him, sparkling brighter for the tears they'd shed.
"Are you okay?" he whispered against her cheek.
She didn't answer. She didn't really know if she had an honest answer to give him, so instead she kissed him softly, reassuring him as best she could while she soothingly stroked her fingers through his hair, watching his eyes intently.
Sighing tiredly, Booth shifted his body off of hers, settling onto his side next to her as she turned on her side to face him. Their legs seemed to entwine of the own accord, and Booth reached for her hand, slipping his fingers between hers as he brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss against her knuckles before tucking their hands between their chests. From across the span of their shared pillow, they watched each other silently, letting their eyes do all the talking between them. He dragged his thumb slowly back and forth across her knuckles as he started to drift off while she stayed awake longer, waiting for him to fall asleep before reaching up to brush her fingers across his cheek, watching his lips part slightly in his sleep. She sighed and dropped her head back onto the pillow, watching him until her tired vision blurred and her eyes would no longer stay open.