What I Wish I Could've Said

Rated: T

Disclaimer: I own nothing... Obviously. Just playing in someone else's sandbox for a bit.

Summary: Hindsight is always 20/20. Everyone has a single moment that they wish they could have said something better than what they actually did. A completely random series of what-if vignettes.

A/N: I think this is a first for this series…back-to-back chapters. Don't get used to it. It just so happened that the muse latched onto Booth's one-liner about escorts and wouldn't let go…or even let it rest for later in the series. So, just in case you missed it, obviously, this is a sequel to Ch 28: "That Time Booth Said Brennan Missed Him." Now, without further adieu—

Ch 29: That Time Booth Commented on Escorts

To say that the day had not gone in any way, shape, or form like she'd expected it to was somewhat of a mild understatement. Her lips were still bee-stung from his kisses, her cheeks were still rubbed raw by the frenzied caresses of his jaw against her soft skin, and certain muscle groupings in her thighs and lower legs ached in a very pleasant way. In a word, Dr. Temperance Brennan was satisfied—quite satisfied, if she were allowed to use two words, given the stolen moments that she'd had with Booth earlier in her office that morning.

But, now, standing next to him as the demands of work required their full attention, despite the advancing hour of the day, Brennan found herself with an unusual conundrum. She not only didn't want to work, but she was finding it increasingly difficult to do so. You aren't helping things, either, Booth, she mentally groaned. How do you expect me to stay focused knowing what you feel like now, knowing what you sound like when you say my name in a moan like you did this morning, and knowing what you taste like? I'm a very exceptional person in many ways, but I'm not that good. I'm just not. And, I think I might even be willing to admit that fact if I didn't know that it would stoke you're already huge ego to even higher proportions.

As Zack finished talking, Booth purposely turned his gaze away from Brennan's assistant to his partner for more reasons than one. God, Bones—he thought. I can't take much more of this. I mean, I know we gotta do what we gotta do while there's a murder to solve and all, and we're on the clock, but geez…you're killing me here—especially standing there next to me where I can smell you. I mean, I've smelled you before and knew you smelled good, but now? God help me…all I want to do is pull you over and bury my face in your hair so that I can just wrap myself up in that sweet vanilla and amber thing that you've got going on over there and die a happy man. But, no—instead of doing what I want to do when I want to do it…since I already played that card when it really needed to be played today, I've gotta be a good boy and behave and talk to your junior squint over there by not talking to him. God help me…

"Only two people have had access to this machine in the past seven years," Booth nodded at his partner as he really conveyed the pertinent information to her mini squint. "A city maintenance foreman and a city maintenance worker by the name of Ray Sparks. Sparks has got a jacket so…" He stopped as an idea suddenly popped into his head. Now that is a good idea…huh. Why didn't I think of that before? Hmmm… now the only question is…will she go for it? Booth lifted his gaze to meet his partner's eyes as he smiled at her. Yeah, of course she will. "What do you say, huh? You want to come with me to go talk to him?" He punctuated his offer with a small slap of one hand against the other and flashed her another grin.

Already, the results of Booth ignoring Brennan's assistant had paid off, as Zack hastily swallowed a smile to keep his obvious pleasure from manifesting itself too prominently in the direct presence of the FBI agent. However, he did lean in towards his mentor a bit with a knowing look in his eye as he said in a low tone of voice, "Told you." Nodding once to confirm his words, and trying miserably to bit back that smile that was threatening to crack his normally stoic face, but obviously failing, Zack added, "It's a guy thing."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at Zack, Brennan nodded to Booth, "Ummmm, yes. I'd like to come."

Ha, ha! Booth mentally yelled in happiness. I knew it. I so knew—do I know you or what, Bones?

Unable to help himself, Booth moved towards his partner and smiled at her. "Alright," he nodded at Brennan as he gave her a light push towards his SUV, scurried around her, and opened the car down for her. "Here we go."

Swallowing one of her own smiles at Booth's exuberance, Brennan turned her attention briefly back to her graduate student. "Let Angela do the escort matching," she told him. "I have something a lot more interesting for you and Hodgins."

As Booth waited for Brennan to get into the car, the forensic anthropologist knew she was the only one who heard his muttered comment when next he spoke with a slightly confused look on his face.

"What's more interesting then escorts?" he asked, shaking his head as he tried to make sense of Brennan's words to her intern as his hand lingered on her door while he waited for her to finish speaking with Zack.

Temporarily ignoring his comment, Brennan forced herself to concentrate on Zack to give him the requisite instructions to conduct the relevant experiment using the wood chipper to determine a potential dispersal pattern so they might be able to locate more bone fragments. Once she'd sent him on his way, happier than she'd seen him in weeks since Booth's unexpected absence in their case work, Brennan quickly got into the SUV. Climbing into the passenger's seat, she pulled the door shut with a heavy thud, locked the door, and when she turned to see Booth staring at her with his infuriating smug smirk of his, she did what an normal, self-respecting woman would do—she pounced.

Leaning over the center console, she grabbed for the wrinkled lapel of his rumpled suit jacket, wrapped a couple of lengths of the material around her fist, and used it to pull her towards him. When their faces were only a couple of inches apart, her light blue eyes already darkening to a pale indigo, she breathed a warm puff of air against his square jaw line as she gave him a small smirk of her own. "Escorts?"

"What?" Booth said, a sheepish grin breaking out onto his face. "It's not like I—"

"You better not," Brennan said as she leaned in to drag her soft lips across his jaw line. "I don't normally like to broadcast the fact, given its triteness, but I'm a very jealous person, Booth."

"Oh, really?" he lightly moaned as she began to lick her way from his chin to his earlobe. When she pulled the skin there lightly with a little tug of her teeth, before making a small rumbling sound in the back of her throat, Booth couldn't help himself as a full-fledged groan escaped his lips. "I never buy, Bones—just, ya know—look sometimes…when I'm bored."

"Uh huh," she said as she began to nibble on his ear. "So, you're telling me you've never had any sexual experiences with a hooker, Booth?"

At some point as she spoke, Brennan had used her grip on his jacket lapel to keep him tight against her and then used her free hand to go to creep low on his hip. It hovered there for a minute before she began to caress a firm line from his hip across his abdomen, to his navel, and down further towards his groin. When her fingers danced at the edge of his belt buckle, the warmth of her hand penetrated the suddenly far too thin fabric of his suit trousers to go straight through to the core of his very being.

God, Bones, Booth thought as he felt an uncomfortable pulling of the fabric tight against his groin as his arousal caused the material to stretch. You're killing me.

"There's no way I can answer that question that won't end badly for me," he finally finished managed to gasp.

"Probably," Brennan grinned evilly. "But, I was just curious. I mean, this is the second time you've brought up the issue of call girls, and after the crush you had on the hooker when we were in LA—"

"I didn't have a crush on her," Booth quickly defended himself.

Brennan arched an eyebrow at him as she used her hand to caress him in a type of sweet torture. Knowing that she was trying to make a point, Booth yelped slightly in spite of himself. Pulling away from her slightly, he narrowed his eyes as he prayed his voice wouldn't crack again as he repeated, "I didn't have a crush on her."

"Better not," Brennan said again with a calm nod. This time, she let the hand grasping his jacket lapel to fall away as she went to the open neckline of his French blue dress shirt. "Hmmmm, you know what?"

"What?" he barely managed to utter, his voice already thick with desire.

"I think that I'm very glad that I got rid of that ugly tie of yours this morning in my office," Brennan murmured. "And, I'm not giving it back, by the way."

"Yeah," Booth groaned as her fingers adroitly unplucked another button on his shirt, and he rolled his head slightly at the pleasurable sensations her efforts were making him feel. "About that—"

"Nope," Brennan said with a shake of her head. "Not happening, Booth."

"You're just lucky nobody saw me leave the lab looking like I did," he murmured. "Because you got the grabbies with my suit jacket here—and, if you keep that up by the way, I'm sending you the bill for the drycleaning—"

"Don't care," Brennan said with an evil grin on her face. "It was worth it—still is, actually."

"Not that I'm complaining, Bones, because I'm not," Booth said. "But, with you pawing at me like that, there's no way in hell that no one would've looked at me and not known I'd just gotten laid—"

"And might again, if you're very lucky," Brennan said with a throaty chuckle. "And, for the record, I seem to recall that you did your fair amount of pawing at me. I'm just pleased I had a spare lab coat in my office that I could use when you ripped the buttons off of the last one."

Booth chuckled a deep laugh at that memory. "Yeah," he nodded at her. "Now, that was cool."

"See," Brennan said as she leaned in against his cheek as much as she could with the center console of the SUV separating them and deeply inhaled his scent. The smell made her toes curl with want. "Hmmm…I can think of something else that would be 'cool', Booth, because while I know it's horribly inappropriate, my suggestion would be that we have a slight delay in the schedule of plans before we go to interview Mr. Sparks—unless you want to see how limber I really am in this government-issue vehicle, Agent Booth."

Booth looked at Brennan as she pulled back slightly from him and licked her lips. He could see from the look in her eyes that she wasn't kidding. As he stared at her, Booth thought about her offer. If it weren't daytime, and if they weren't parked in front of the Jeffersonian, he might've considered her offer since they'd already defiled her professional workspace. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, the thought echoed in his mind. But, then another thought occurred to him.

"The next time we have sex, Bones," Booth said, "I intend to have use of a bed to show you what I can really do."

"Fine," she said as she gave him one last kiss before leaning back into her seat and buckling her seatbelt. "Then, I believe my place is closer. Since I have two separate beds to choose from between the master bedroom and the guest bedroom, will that suffice?"

"I guess we'll just have to find out, Bones," Booth told her with a mischievous wink, knowing that the interview with Sparks could wait an hour. "But, let's go see, shall we?"

-TBC-