The next morning, he woke up with his back to her, but her arm was around him, her elbow near his waist, her hand cupping his shoulder lightly. He could feel her breasts against his back and he thought he might be dreaming. It took a moment for him to remember everything that had happened. He never thought he'd wake up in her arms. Of course he'd also never imagined almost killing her with poison ivy, so…it was another first in a long line of experiences he'd had since he met her. He turned his body to his back, and her hand slipped from his shoulder to rest on his chest. Turning his face to look at hers, he could tell she was either thinking or dreaming of something bad. He didn't like that. He wanted her to have peace when she slept. Without much thought, he reached his thumb up to smooth her brow, and she woke with a start, eyes flying open.

She quickly pulled her hand back, and he did the same.

"Hi, Bones."

She cleared her throat. "Um…hi, Booth."

He closed his eyes at the huskiness in her morning voice. Another first.

His eyes flew open when he felt the press of her thumb against his bottom lip, the swollen spot where she'd bit him the night before.

Brennan felt a surge of heat at the softness of his lip against her thumb. She wanted to lick it, not in a sexual way, but in a soothing way, like a wounded animal would comfort itself, but…she looked in his eyes.

"It's okay, Bones."
"What?"
"You were going to apologize, and it's okay, you don't have to."
"Oh, well, I wasn't going to say that. I mean, I am sorry, but…that's not what I was going to say."

He sighed, "Okay, Bones. What were you going to say?"

"I don't want to fight anymore"

Oh…

"I don't think that's possible, Bones."
She looked up at him, surprised.

"It's kind of our thing, you know?" His mouth tipped up in a half smile, letting her know he was only half kidding.
She smiled. "No…I don't mean…" she searched for the right word… "bickering." He smiled, and she continued, "I mean, this…meanness. I don't want to do that anymore."

"Yeah, me neither." The skin of her neck didn't look as affected by the poison ivy, that was good. She was lying on her side, with her hands tucked under a pillow by her head and she looked really cute. It was easy to agree with her when she looked like this. It was also harder to remember to keep his hands to himself.

He mirrored her by placing his hands under the pillow holding his head, pausing when he felt something underneath it. Moving up on one elbow, he pulled it out.

"What's this, Bones?"

Bred in the Bone.

He looked at her.

She reached for it, but he pulled back.

"Booth…"
"You read your own books, Bones?" He laughed as she moved to reach further, but he held it out of reach.



"Booth…sometimes, I guess I read them."

"Uh, huh…well, let's see here…" he opened it up, keeping it high where she couldn't reach… "here's a page that's been turned down…what does it say here…"

"Booth!" By now she was practically crawling on him to try to get the book back from him, but he wasn't having any of it.
"Not so fast, Bones." In a flash, he pulled the book down and turned to his stomach, and she lost her balance, and ended up laying on his back. He pulled the book up a bit to read out loud.

"Andy slowly unbuttoned her shirt, his dark brown eyes smiling as he kissed her…oh…" he stalled when he realized what he was reading, suddenly aware of the press of her nipples against his back. Her hips were spread against his ass, and her legs were on either side of him. He could feel her heat, and if he just turned over...

He closed the book. He didn't need to read more. He'd already read it, so he knew what happened next. He didn't have it memorized or anything, and he certainly didn't have it dog-eared and under his pillow, but yeah…he knew what was next.