Oh, gosh, thanks so much to all my lovely reviews. Well, you seemed to like the kissage in that last chapter. Agh! The pressure! This is a continuation from the last, you'll hopefully be happy to know.
Bones is not mine. If it were, Brennan would have jumped Booth a long time ago. Or, at the very least, I would have.
"Oh wow. Oh, sweetie. Oh that's just…"
Apparently Angela's words alone weren't adequate enough to describe Brennan's new dress. Instead, she showed her admiration by gripping her friend's hands and pulling her around in a circle. The joyful gesture was rendered rather awkward, however, as Angela was bouncing around in delight and Brennan was standing extremely stiffly, only shuffling slightly when the momentum absolutely compelled that she must move or risk toppling over.
Eventually the little display of appreciation around the sumptuously decorated entrance came to a halt when Hodgins reached out and caught Angela around the waist, chuckling, "I think she gets it." Brennan nearly fell over with relief that the whole incident was done with, but that could have had something to do with the fact that Angela had increased the speed during the last minute and poor Brennan's head didn't know whether she was up or down.
"Glad you like it." She managed to gasp before promptly stumbling into the wall. She gestured a hand towards Angela's wobbly-legged figure and panted, "I love yours too." Of course, Angela knew this already, having shown it to Brennan at least six times since she'd bought it and having received many, increasingly disheartened, words of praise at each displaying. Still, a compliment was always a compliment. Giggling madly, Hodgins managed to prop the two women up, one leaning on either hip until their worlds stopped turning and they could move unaided.
Brennan glanced around the large entrance hall, desperately trying to regain her balance. The Jeffersonian had rented out the entire ground floor of a very well respected hotel for the dinner this year. Normally, a tasteful but modest conference room was reserved for the event. This year, however, the institute felt they had much to celebrate. As a result of the many cases Dr. Brennan and her team at the Medico Legal Lab had managed to solve as part of their work with the F.B.I., the Jeffersonian was gaining in prominence. This fame was accelerated due to the phenomenal popularity of Dr. Brennan's best-selling books. All in all, the Jeffersonian felt that something a little bit more upmarket would be more appropriate to hold their annual dinner. After all, increased fame led to increased donations.
Unsurprisingly, Brennan's thoughts drifted to her partner. Their kiss hadn't been discussed. The two had left the shop, the new dress carried almost reverently in a bag in Booth's hands, and had driven to Brennan's apartment without alluding to the incident even once. She had been in the process of gathering up her things when she suddenly blurted, "Do you want to come to this dinner?"
He had looked, for a moment, as though he'd slapped with a rather wet fish. Slowly, his eyebrows raised and his lips curled upwards.
"You mean, like as a date?"
She had instantly started humming and hawing. Eventually, he had caught both her wrists in one of his strong, broad hands.
"I'd love to."
She shivered self-consciously and glanced down at her pale wrists. Why could she still feel his touch burning across her skin all this time later? It was exceedingly odd and was hurting Brennan's head to think about it.
"More to the point, sweetie, did Booth like it?"
Brennan was dragged, kicking and screaming, from her reminiscing into reality once more. She could feel the heat instantly rise in her chest and spread like wildfire to her face. Did Angela somehow know what she had been thinking? It was best to pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary. Of course, with Angela, this was far easier said than done. Brennan shrugged delicately, or at least, she meant to shrug delicately but she was so flustered that the movement came out somewhat differently than expected and Hodgins was lucky not to lose an eye.
She hastily stepped back from the widely grinning pair, feeling the need to distance herself from their intense knowing looks before she could answer. She opened her mouth to scoff, rather eloquently, at the suggestion but something must have gone wrong in the process as all that came out was a high-pitched squeak.
Hodgins wandered off into the main hall chuckling to himself and muttering something about "having it bad". Brennan glared darkly at his retreating figure.
An obstacle, in the form of a peppy Angela, was placed in her line of vision.
"Can I remind you that that's my man you're currently shooting darkies at?"
Brennan shuffled slightly and mumbled nonsense to the ground.
Angela reached a hand down and managed to pull Brennan's head skywards once more. She held her gaze, a twinkle gleaming somewhat manically in her dancing eyes.
"So…what did he think? What did he say? What did he do?"
Brennan was rescued from answering, perhaps not in the way she would have liked, by the arrival of 'he' himself. She was surrounded by his familiar scent, a mixture of strength and sensuality, before she physically clapped eyes on him. She was used to Booth's intoxicating aroma, comforted by it even, but for some reason it seemed to affect her more than usual tonight. A tingling began in the base of her spine and rapidly worked it's way up her back, sending shivers racing across her body. Her eyes rolled slightly and she gave out a contented little sigh. Of course, none of this went unnoticed by the practically buzzing artist.
Booth took her hand and gently spun her around so that she was facing him. Almost without realising it, Brennan stumbled slightly. She ended up pressed against his firm chest. Looking down on her with smiling eyes, Booth couldn't help but comment, "I didn't pull you THAT hard."
Feeling the colour flame in her cheeks, Brennan took a hurried step backwards. She could see Angela off to the side, giggling madly at her friend's antics. Her smile looked painful, like it was being held in place by a particularly long hanger. Brennan vowed not to look over in that direction if she could help it.
Her posture instantly went poker stiff when she saw Booth catching Angela's eye and grin broadly. They were ridiculing her! Of all of the... Well, she'd just show them that she wasn't in the least bit perturbed by her partner's smouldering presence.
She raised a hand, rather rigidly, and offered it for him to shake. His eyebrows looked set to launch skywards. After a number of seconds, when he had made no movement, she moved her hand in an impressively straight line at a right angle to the floor to remind him that the gesture must be acknowledged.
"Agent Booth."
Her voice was low, even.
Glancing somewhat frantically at Angela, Booth took her hand in his and shook it a number of times.
"Dr. Brennan."
He flashed her a smile and arched an eyebrow enticingly.
Not to be outdone, Brennan increased the speed of the shake.
"Agent Booth."
Lips twitching manically, Booth tightened his grip on Brennan's rapidly warming hand.
"Dr. Brennan."
Angela quickly came skipping over, lest the greeting competition go on all night. She glanced curiously between the pair.
"You two alright?"
Brennan turned a cool and collected gaze towards her friend.
"Perfect, Angela. Just thought the occasion merited some formal introductions."
Booth directed his reply at his beautiful partner.
"Yeah, Angela, just getting into the spirit of the thing. We're all dressed up so fancy, a little formality seemed right."
"Oh." Angela drew out the syllable for perhaps six seconds longer than necessary.
"I see."
She glanced between the two once more.
"A little formality…."
The two silently nodded their agreement to her statement, never taking their gaze off the other's eyes.
"Right...so, tell me, if you guys are being so prim and proper, why are you still holding hands?"
The partners both shot their gaze downwards so quickly Angela was somewhat concerned they might get whiplash. She was absolutely right. Their hands were still entwined, Booth's thumb absently stroking Brennan's knuckles.
With a surprised "Gah!", the two jumped about a foot apart. Glancing down once more, they realised their hands were still enjoined. Each shook themselves somewhat forcefully out of the seemingly vicelike grip exerted on both sides.
The partners then stood rubbing their respective, apparently injured, hands and occasionally shooting hostile glances at the other. A running, under-the-breath mantra was continued with the phrases "inappropriate" and "overly familiar" being heard more than once from both camps.
Giggling inwardly at the pair's nonsense, Angela gestured over to Hodgins, who had just popped his head back into the entrance hall to see what was taking the women so long to join him. Zach followed closely at his heels.
The five spent a number of minutes engaged in frivolous small talk, occasionally punctuated by some observation on social behaviour from Zach and, once, from Brennan. Angela was paying scant attention to the conversation flowing back and forth between the friends; her mind was focused on the two partners who continued to flash each other squinty-eyed glares whenever they thought nobody else was looking.
Deciding it was high time to get the party started, Angela rolled her shoulders back, plastered her most engaging smile on her face and purred, "So, Booth, you never said what you think of Brennan's dress."
Brennan's attention suddenly became focused on her shoes and she hissed angrily, "Angela!"
The artist tossed her head airily and laughed, "Oh sweetie, I'm not trying to be embarrassing, I just wanna know."
Booth grinned easily at the enquiring woman and straightened his stance ever so slightly. The only way to play with Angela was to match fire with fire. After all, there was no point in getting burned.
"To be honest, Angela, I think the dress is exquisite…and Bones looks just ravishing."
Brennan let out the breath she hadn't even realised she was holding. Angela couldn't help but make a little squeaking noise at Booth's comment. Brennan was just lifting her head to shoot her partner an appreciative glance when he went on.
"Although, I have to say, I think she looks at her most beautiful when wearing just her underwear."
Brennan's eyes took on a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression. She spluttered furiously as Booth reached in and ran a hand ever so softly down the side of her face.
"The set you had on earlier was just too sexy for words."
The entire crowd currently gathered in the entrance hall turned around in alarm, and a number of people came rushing out from unknown depths within the hotel, to find out what the high-pitched screaming coming from the jumping brunette was. It took Hodgins almost five minutes to convince everyone that, no, there wasn't a problem; she had simply received some VERY good news.
The rest of the evening was passed in relatively good spirits. Angela took every possible opportunity to allude to Booth's surprising revelation. Hodgins quickly realised that there was no point in trying to stop her so he contented himself with laughing heartily at every comment and innuendo she made. Zach seemed to have trouble meeting Brennan's eye and studiously avoided even the slightest display of amusement over Angela's increasingly raunchy statements when he found himself in Booth's line of vision. Booth, after all, had a gun.
Brennan was getting redder and redder with each passing hour. Her scalp prickled uncomfortably and her lungs seemed to be quite constricted, helped in no small part by the proximity of Booth's body. Booth himself took it all in his stride at first, but even he was getting slightly hot under the collar the more outrageous and acrobatic Angela's suggestions became.
Eventually Brennan decided it was time to go home. She refused Booth's offer of a lift, insisting that she didn't want for him to miss any of the party. She called a taxi for herself. Booth pronounced that if he couldn't bring her home, the least he could do was wait with her while the car came to pick her up. Realising it was useless to argue, she nodded her agreement and bid the others goodnight.
The cool evening air was refreshing against her blushing skin. She cast a fitful gaze over the bustling traffic. She was suddenly nervous in his presence.
"Are you alright, Bones?"
Her fist suddenly shot out and smacked him on the chest. He laughed in surprise and held his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Why did you embarrass me like that?"
"I didn't embarrass you."
She held his gaze firmly. He sighed.
"Ok, maybe I wanted to get back at you for acting like our kiss didn't affect you at all."
She looked back over the moving vehicles.
"It didn't."
"Oh, really?"
Before she had time to protest, he had pushed her up against the hotel wall. Her breathing was instantly shallow. He raised his eyebrows.
"Not even a little bit?"
She shook her head slightly frantically.
Not offering any words in response to her manically bobbing head, he moved his face closer and watched her eyes darken. The contrast of the cool, coarse wall against the bare skin of her upper back and the heat radiating from the stimulated man before her was, quite simply, delicious. He watched her eyes drop down to his lips as he slowly, and very, very deliberately, spread his tongue over them. He pushed his hips firmly against her abdomen and heard her moan softly, heat rushing to her centre while her buttocks ground against stone through the silky fabric of her dress.
"Still nothing?"
Brennan was saved having to make a breathless reply by a voice calling, "Taxi for Brennan?"
She pushed Booth away and stumbled forward, nodding quickly at the bemused looking man. She settled herself into the car without looking behind once.
As the taxi pulled out from the curb the man asked, "You not want to say goodbye to your boyfriend?"
Brennan's steely gaze met his in the rear-view mirror.
"He's not my boyfriend."
The driver chuckled softly to himself and eased the car out into the busy traffic.
"Only a matter of time, honey. Only a matter of time."