"He was now in that state of fire that she loved. She wanted to be burnt"
- Anaïs Nin

He saw murder and evil daily in his line of work. Everyone in the BAU did. But despite of it all, Spencer believed life had become kinder to him again. Everyone he loved was well. Veronica was flourishing in her playschool. She had begun to use prepositions. And she could count up to thirty now.
"Veronica? Veronica... don't punch Bunny"
He was keeping an eye on her while he got ready for work. Monica had left for the university at 7:30 AM, as usual, which left him with the task of getting Veronica ready for playschool. His little hellion was definitely a morning person.
"Hey, hey!", he gently pulled her away, "Bunny's your friend. We don't kick our friends"
Veronica explained.
"Bunny an' Nica play fight"
"Fighting is not nice. Now sit straight. Daddy has to do your hair"
He made her sit before him. She asked,
"Can we play Hayuh Salon, Daddy?"
He was smiling as he turned her around.
"Maybe tomorrow"
Spencer prided himself on being a self-taught man. But no matter how many tutorials he watched online, he hadn't been able to figure out how to do a little girl's hair right. It took Dr. Knight's expert coaching.
'One hand by the base of her hair and only downward motions'
Monica's voice guided him from his memory as he combed the tangles out. He listened with genuine interest to Veronica's chatter about her friends. In a few minutes, he had coiffed her curly hair into two pigtails, bows and all. Spencer asked,
"Is that okay?"
Veronica dashed towards the dresser mirror, saw her reflection and gave him a grin.
"Yeah!"
She added, in the manner Monica had made her recite,
"Thank you, Daddy!"
He smiled and grabbed his wristwatch.
"You're welcome. Now go get your bag"
"Okay!"
Spencer picked up her beloved Bunny from the floor and took him to the drawing room. Veronica came dancing and bouncing, with her bag over her shoulders.
He grabbed the keys and hit the alarm code in the dial next to the door.
"Say bye to Bunny and Bubbly"
"Bye, Bunny! Bye, Bubby!"
Veronica kissed Bunny goodbye. She blew another kiss to Bubbly, who was watching them from the floor. Veronica was immediately by Spencer's side again, holding his hand. They stepped out of the door to start with the day.

In the evening, he got the check-in call from Monica.
"Nah. I got home a while ago", she said, "How's your day going?"
"Not bad. How was yours?"
"Pretty boring. Nothing worth mentioning"
"Come on. You know you can tell me"
She exhaled a long sigh.
"Well, I had classes back to back from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm. When I thought I could sit down to lunch, the Dean called an emergency meeting which lasted three hours. Then I picked up Veronica from playschool, took us both to get some ice-cream. Then I got a call from Bob, saying he had to check on the new plumbing. So he dropped by a while ago. Then Veronica and I had a nice warm bath, after which I ended up doing the laundry. To continue my oh-so-exciting streak, I finished cooking early too. Then I called and checked up on our mothers, checked in with Nicole's psychiatrist, talked to Max on skype to feel a little better, and now I'm sitting on the couch. You asleep yet?"
"I'm actually amazed. That sounds exhausting"
"I can handle it"
"I know", he sounded grateful, "But I don't know how you do it. You are..."
"Just a regular human being, who does not want to be praised. If you want to thank me, there are other ways"
He smiled.
"Yeah?"
"Mm-hm. Maybe try not to nod off when I put my hands in your pants next time"
There was a tone of amusement in her voice, but Spencer couldn't stop feeling guilty. Their on-going abstinence had been as much the fault of his unconventional work hours as her almost 18-hour day.
"I'm sorry I haven't been the most affectionate boyfriend lately"
"It's okay. I am sorry too"
As if to uplift his mood, she said,
"Hang on a second... Veronica, do you want to talk to Daddy?"
He could hear his little heart's reply.
"I'm busy!"
Spencer grinned.
"What was that about?"
Monica told him,
"She is making Bunny fight her other toys. Looks pretty intense"
"Where did she pick that up? She never mentioned fighting before today"
"At the playschool, I guess. She even called me a doodiehead today, when I wouldn't let her sit on Bubbly's back"
Spencer smothered a laugh. He said, more for her sake,
"You told her that's a bad word though, right?"
"I did. She made it up to me later by giving me a bouquet from the garden. And guess which flowers caught her eye?"
"Not the bloodroot"
"The bloodroot, yes"
Amused by their daughter's antics, he smiled. That plant was one of Monica's prized possessions.
"How did she figure out the door?"
"She didn't. She insisted that I take her out in the yard. Then she pointed to the bloodroot flowers and asked me to pick them"
Spencer was surprised.
"You plucked the flowers? You have been trying to cultivate that plant for over a year"
"I know", Monica groaned, "But she wanted those flowers specifically. My will power for denying isn't as strong when it comes to her"
"Touché", he smiled.
She said about Veronica,
"She could have scraped herself on the net if I hadn't been there. And the doodiehead thing, it's still bugging me. I mean it's funny but..."
"I would say it's a lesser evil compared to her interest in fighting"
"Nica isn't violent, don't worry. And this is nothing. When George and I were little, we wrestled. I would pretend to be an Amazon and he would be a Valkyrie"
"Weren't those female warriors?"
"He didn't know that. Not until Cat made fun of him. Then he started being the Hulk. Needless to say, I kicked his ass every time"
Spencer smiled and said,
"Of course"
"Hey, um... I was thinking"
"About?"
"About us"
He stopped fiddling with the pen in his hand.
"What about us?"
"Well, not just about us. About the bed. About the new black sheets on it. About how we haven't... warmed the bedroom since the renovation"
That got his absolute attention. Spencer turned the chair, so his back was to his team. She asked,
"Are you still in town?"
"Yeah"
"Veronica's bound to fall asleep soon. Mrs. Swan told me she didn't have her nap today", Monica whispered, "Think you can come home a bit early?"
64 days. Spencer could have wept with joy.
He said casually,
"Sure"
"Good. And Dr. Reid?"
The tiny hairs on the back of his neck rose. Monica continued in that midnight sound of her voice.
"It would be better if you can take a half-day tomorrow. When we are done...", she gave a soft, coquettish laugh, "I doubt you'll be able to make it to work on time"
"O-okay"
"Hmm", she said, "I can barely wait for you to get home"
He reached frantically for his bag and ended up tumbling the files from his table. Holding the phone to his ear, Spencer gathered the papers from the floor.
Monica asked,
"What was that?"
'The sound of my brain about to explode'
"Nothing", he said, "I'll see you when I get home"
"Definitely. Bye, handsome"
"Bye"

Apparently, his jerk friends had caught a whiff of what was going on.
'Profilers'
Luke stood in his way. He smirked.
"Where ya off to in such a hurry?"
"I have to get home", Spencer cleared his throat, "Veronica..."
Jennifer said,
"Must be asleep by now. Toddlers fall asleep pretty soon, don't they, Matt?"
'Not you too, JJ'
Matt, probably envious that he wasn't the one going home early to his woman, blocked his path too. Spencer could have sworn - the whole world was conspiring to keep him celibate.
Matt said,
"An active kid like Veronica, I bet she falls asleep by 8 at most. It doesn't explain though why the good Doctor should be hurrying home so soon. Or maybe..."
Spencer interrupted him.
"I..."
He felt a bejewelled hand on his shoulder from behind. Garcia said,
"Or maybe, he is rushing home to someone who is not a two-year old"
They had crowded around him in a circle, like a pack of hyenas. Luke said,
"Could that be why he has been so distracted, since he got that call a while ago?"
"Hey. Knock it off, you guys"
Saying that, Emily joined them. She cast a disapproving glance over her team. Spencer smiled in relief at her, feeling grateful. Emily returned his smile and touched his face in a sisterly manner.
"Your face is burning up, Spence. Is it a fever?", she asked innocently, "Or are you just hot for Monica?"
That made them all guffaw. Tara coughed in the distance.
"Night with Dr. Knight"
Emily joined in the laughter. Spencer shouldered past Matt and Luke, mumbling.
"You all are worse than twelve-year olds"
He wouldn't let them see his coy smile as he walked out of the bullpen amidst wolf-whistles and Garcia's atrocious exclamation -
"Go get her, playah!"

Thank goodness he had begun taking his car to work. The metro would have made him waste precious time. Spencer stopped at the store. In less than two minutes, he bought chocolates and peaches (her favourite).
He told the cashier,
"Keep the change"
Driving home as safely and speedily as possible, he pulled up in the driveway. He had half expected Monica to come running out and jump on his waist, like she had done for the first time they had spent the night together. This anticipation, the nervous excitement, it felt much like that day. But as he got out of the car, all was quiet at their place. Taking in a deep breath, Spencer used his key and opened the door.

The lights had been dimmed in the house. It meant Veronica was asleep indeed. He walked to her room first, knowing well he wouldn't be stepping out of the bedroom any soon once he went in.
Hugging Bunny, dreaming sweet dreams, Veronica lay fast asleep. Spencer smiled at her softly snoring form and stooped to lay a kiss on her forehead. He whispered,
"Good night, Veronica"
He stole out of the room with a quiet step. His paternal senses were lulled the moment he was away from her.
Now he needed to see the object of his want and need.

Not in the kitchen. Not in their study. No problem. He had known she would be waiting for him in the bedroom anyway. What he didn't know was that the bedroom would be locked.
"What the fu...", he almost swore.
Spencer fiddled with the doorknob.
It was definitely locked.
He didn't care if that was Monica's idea of fun. 64 days, god damn it!
His phone beeped. He would have ignored it. But that was the ringtone he had assigned to Monica's texts. Spencer read the text she had just sent -
"You will need the key. Thought I might send you on a little treasure hunt. Find the book where the quote's from and follow the clues. The front yard and the garage are off limits. Everything you need is inside the house. Have fun. ;)"
He smiled despite of himself. She wanted to make a game of it? Fine. Dr. Spencer Reid wasn't afraid of a little challenge. He was going to find the book, find the key, then find Monica and make her pay.

With an air of determination, Spencer read the quote she had sent.

"You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought"

He scoffed. It was easy as pie.
The quote was from The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. What was Monica thinking? Now all he had to do was look for the book.
Spencer went to the study first. He scanned their enormous bookshelves one after another. Her copy of the book was not there. He rummaged through the study with the care and thoroughness of the FBI agent he was. But somehow this felt more urgent than catching an UnSub. It was 9:00 pm already. He didn't want to waste a single second that night.
"Finally"
He found the book in the second drawer, hidden under her notes. With a champion's smile, Spencer opened the book which held the key to their bedroom.
...which he had supposed held the key to their bedroom.
"What?"
He turned the book upside down, shook it hard like a rough cop shaking down a perp. What fell out of it wasn't a key. He picked the object up from the study floor.
Using her eco-friendly garbage stationery, Monica had written the next quote on a slip of paper, which had been tucked into the book's pages. He unfolded it and read.

"You and I, it's as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught"

How romantic.
And it was pissing him off. There was a second book he had to find now.
Spencer exhaled aloud, trying to recall the name of the book. It came to him after the fastest cross-referencing ever done inside a human mind.
"Doctor Zhivago"
He put the book in his hand on the table and turned around. It was most unlikely that she would keep both books in the same room. Spencer followed his instinct and looked elsewhere.

He searched every inch of the drawing room for that damn book.
'Kitchen?'
Walking into the kitchen and turning on the lights, he looked around. His options for starting the search were the cabinets, the overhead "cupboards" (as she called them), the... fridge?
Monica, who had more than a touch of the crazy librarian in her, would never keep a book in the fridge, fearing humidity. But what if she had? Just to throw him off.
Spencer opened the fridge and looked inside. Nope.
'I know you like the back of my hand, Dr. Knight'
The cabinets were next.
'Not here. Not here. Not here'
The cupboard over the microwave.
"Yes!", he hissed.
In his hands he held a paperback of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. He hoped to God the key was in there. Alas...
'You are making me hate treasure hunts, woman'
The next quote, written on the small slip of paper, was -

"It's not that I want to have you. All I want is to deserve you. Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I'll do anything you say"

Spencer's eyebrow rose. Was that... he licked his dry lips and cleared his throat. He imagined Monica saying those words to him. On her knees in bed, with one strap of her mauve nightgown off the shoulder, her eyes dreamy and arousing...
"Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I'll do anything you say, Dr. Reid"
The fantasy was enough to make his blood rush in the opposite direction of his brain.
'Get a hold of yourself'
Frowning in deep concentration, he thought about the quote. He had read it for sure, but where? Foreign literature. Russian? No.
French. It was French!
Monica had given him some of her favourite French books (translated into English) and this quote was definitely from one of those. His lips moved as he recalled the titles to mind.
'The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Man Who Laughs, Dangerous Liaisons...'
"Dangerous Liaisons"
That had to be it. Spencer rushed out to the new room.

Monica's house - their house, what she insisted he call it - now had an additional two rooms. Her backyard and most of the space on the sides of her house had been used to make those. The colourful room was Veronica's, whereas the other, the bleak one, was where Monica worked out. Their renovator Bob had installed a pull-up bar at her request. Spencer hardly ever went into that room, except when he wanted to watch her work out. Now he stepped into the room and looked around. His gaze reached the pull-ups bar, making him reminisce about the other day.
It was Sunday. Veronica was asleep. He had woken up early to work from home on some case load. When he had sauntered into the extra room, with his cup of coffee in hand, he had found Monica doing her pull-ups. Spencer stood close by, watching her in admiration. He teased her.
"Do you need a hand?"
Monica dropped noiselessly before him on her feet, with the ease of a cat. She smiled at him. Spencer's gaze fell on her sweaty, heaving bosom. Or what he could see of it from her tank top.
"What brings you to my lair, fair prince?"
She was sweating from head to toe, wiping her forehead with her forearm and a napkin. He thought, this is what pre-historic women must have looked like after a tiring hunt. It sure explained the very primal attraction he felt towards her in that moment. He tried to remind himself that he was a cerebral being, a sapiosexual, that he loved her for her mind'
And yet he found his arm around her waist. Monica gave him a smile full of surprise.
"What are you doing? I'm all sweaty and gross"
"But..."
She waited for him to speak. He said,
"You're my gross"
Monica laughed, putting a hand on his chest as he pulled her closer. His mouth placed a firm kiss on her cheekbone. Spencer found himself wanting to lick the bead of perspiration that glided along her throat and disappeared between her breasts.
Feeling much aroused, he said throatily,
"Monica..."
"Goor mowning!"
Veronica hugged their knees before they could see her. Monica kissed the top of veronica's head but stepped away from her.
"Sorry. Monica is sweaty and needs a shower. But good morning to you too, sweetheart. What would you like for breakfast?"
Veronica chirped,
"Cake!"
Monica gave her that look Spencer knew too well. It was a softer version of her "You wish" look.
"How about pancakes?"
"Yay! Pancakes! Come, Daddy! Sywup!"
Veronica pulled him along by his wrist. He looked over his shoulder with longing and saw Monica smothering a smile. She waved at him and mouthed,
"Buh-bye"

The incident had reminded him of something Derek had said to him on Hank's second birthday.
"Mark my words, pretty boy. Your child is God's way of stopping you from having sex. You think you can catch a quickie in the kitchen? He will suddenly want Mommy. You think you can step into the shower with her? He will bang on the door asking what you two are doing in there and if he can join. You want to put her on top of the laundry machine? He will come in and ask you to play with him"
Spencer, in his innocence, had asked,
"Why would I put Monica on top of the washing machine?"
"Because when a man is desperate, he won't care that the only alone time he's getting with his woman is in the basement, doing dirty laundry. A guy's got needs, kid"
Veronica, much like her "Hank-bwo", was God's way of laughing at Spencer's arousal.
'That's why tonight is important'
He was finally going to have Monica all to himself. If he could only find that stupid, epistolary...
"Thank god", he exclaimed.
With a smile, Spencer reached under Monica's treadmill. His smile didn't last long as he pulled out, not one but, two books.
'Dangerous Liaisons and The Man Who Laughs? Monica, you...'
The she-devil had achieved her purpose. Now he was confused. Which book did the quote belong to?
Reading the books, even with his super-speed, was out of the question. He didn't have that much time.
'Think'
The right one would have the key. Simple!
Spencer shook both books hard. And a slip of paper fell out from each. Almost despairing, he picked the one that had fallen out of Dangerous Liaisons.

"Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness"

Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd.
The note that had fallen out of The Man Who Laughs read -

" Make her blushing cheek a pillow for thy head"

Spencer repeated that to himself. It sounded familiar. He gave it a thought.
"The Monk", he said, "Matthew Gregory Lewis"
It was one of Monica's favourite books. However, his problem still stared him in the face.
Was he to follow the quote in Dangerous Liaisons, or the one in The Man Who Laughs?
'Think', he urged himself.
He was 98% sure that the third quote was from Dangerous Liaisons. Spencer tried to convince himself.
'The Man Who Laughs didn't have such dialogue. Or such eroticism'
He glanced at his wristwatch. 9:13.
"Screw it"
He walked out of the room, in search of Far From the Madding Crowd.

The only room left in the house, one that wasn't locked, was Veronica's. How was he to search her room without waking her up?
'If it's here, it can be found easily. Monica wouldn't risk any noises waking up Veronica. Not tonight'
Spencer passed by Veronica's crib, giving her an affectionate glance. He pulled up the blanket she had kicked off in her sleep and tucked it under her arms.
'Wait'
His hand found something hard under Bunny. Veronica wasn't just hugging Bunny. Spencer gently pried the book from her grip. She was holding a well-thumbed hardcover of Far From the Madding Crowd.
'How did I not notice this?'
In his haste to pounce on his girlfriend, he had not looked closely enough. Monica knew he went to Veronica's room first once he got home. She must have placed the book there on purpose. He would have gotten the damn key sooner if he had only looked.
With trepidation, Spencer opened the book and shook it above his outstretched palm. He caught the key that fell from it. He curled his fist upon the key until the cold metal was digging into the heels of his palm.
Placing one last kiss on Veronica's forehead, Spencer stole out of the room.

His hands were fumbling so bad the key fell out the first time. He put it into the lock again and turned it. The door gave and Spencer threw it open. He stepped inside like a conqueror, looking around for the cause of his misery.
The room was empty. Black silk-cotton sheets were on their bed, and a bunch of pillows.

A/N: I am going to post the follow-up chapter tomorrow. Man, I haven't written that much smut in a long time. But I'm convinced it's hot. I had a "friend" read it and all. I hope you will like it. :3
Leave me a cutesy review on this chapter maybe? It would make my day. Thanks for taking the time to read! :)