Chapter 5 No Shirt in His Sleep
Brennan opened one eye and surveyed her situation as she did every morning. Most days now it was in appreciation of how wonderful her life was, but in earlier years, she had acquired this habit out of self-preservation; during foster care, on anthropology digs in sketchy places, during the interminable three days she'd been held captive by Latin American guerillas wishing to stop her investigation of a mass grave….
This morning, she luxuriated in the peaceful quiet and soft rose-tinged gray of her early morning bedroom. Stretched out next to her snoring relentlessly was Booth; the reason for her optimism and security. He had broken through her self-imposed black and white, logical rational view of the world; the mechanism by which she'd survived from age fifteen to thirty. And despite his foibles, his steadfast integrity and rock solid friendship had disproved her theory that love was merely a chemical reaction.
As a result of relinquishing her resolute iron-tight control over circumstances, she'd fallen in love with the best man ever to walk the earth. And gained a delectably enjoyable and virtually effortless hobby: awakening early before her spouse, when his continuing slumber allowed her to gaze upon and appreciate his wonderful physique. As wise caring parents, they both kept night clothes within easy reach for times when their children had nightmares or needed a drink and came knocking at their door at 3 am.
But both partners enjoyed the freedom of sleeping in the buff and Booth's current shirtless condition gave her a delicious view of his impressively-muscled chest. She knew his firm curves so well that she didn't need to touch him to enumerate each beloved ripple of pectorals and abdominals. Just as she knew the feel of his bones, she had his skin and torso memorized.
She stretched carefully to avoid waking him, and relished the landscape of alpha male warrior sleeping beside her. Whether they had 30, or 40, or 50 years together, she knew she would love him forever. Her aetheism didn't negate a romance, a friendship, a partnership that would extend into eternity.