A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Only two chapters left!

Booth walked into the Jeffersonian and noticed the squints milling around waiting. "Hey guys." He said, looking them over. Zach and Hodgins were both in similar looking tuxes and Angela was in a very pretty blue dress. "Angela, you look fantastic." He said.

"Thanks Booth." Angela said, smiling. "You look like James Bond in that tux!"

"Excuse me?" Hodgins piped up. "I think you're MY girlfriend." He said, looking at Angela.

She started laughing and kissed Hodgins on the forehead. "Sorry about that." She replied.

"So who are we waiting for?" he asked.

"We are waiting on Dr. Brennan." Cam said, coming up to them. "I am not sure where she is."

As if by magic, Brennan appeared, striding across the platform and squinting at an x-ray. "Zach." She started. "This doesn't make sense."

She was wearing her lab coat however he could see the end of her dress underneath it. He idly wondered what the rest of the dress looked like.

"Unfortunately it will have to wait." Cam said. "The limo is waiting."

She looked up and saw everyone looking at her. "Right." She said, putting the x-ray down and heading over to where they were.

"You wearing your lab coat to dinner, Bones?" he said, laughing.

"What?" she said, confused. "Oh right." She peeled off the lab coat and placed it on the stool beside her.

"Damn, Temperance." He said before he could stop himself. She looked gorgeous. She was wearing a strapless floor length dress. The top was a corset and accentuated her body in all the right places. It was dark green and brought out the colour in both her eyes and her hair. He could have stood there and stared at her all night. He broke his gaze away and turned to the others, noticing that they were staring too.

"What?" she asked. "Is there something wrong?" she said, touching her dress to make sure it was alright.

"You look perfect." He replied, trying to act nonchalant. They all headed out the doors together. He looked at her again and groaned inwardly. He just wanted to grab her and kiss her and he couldn't. 'This is going to be a long night.' He thought to himself.

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They arrived at the banquet hall and headed inside. She tried to control the flush in her cheeks when he had grabbed her hand and helped her out of the limo. She had never been with a man whose simple touch could bring her to her knees. She had seen the way he had looked at her when she took her lab coat off earlier. She couldn't help looking at him too. He looked good. So good that all rational thoughts flew out of her mind and she almost grabbed him and kissed him. But they both kept their emotions under control.

Part of her believed that this would end when they had sex. After all, Angela kept rattling on about their sexual tension and how they needed to relieve it. She had thought that when it was relieved, the spark would die. But it just made it worse. And now she knew that she was really in love with him. This didn't bother her as much as the side effects of this love, one of them being the urge to tell everyone that they were together. And she wanted to tell him that she loved him. When he had practically said it in the restaurant, she had freaked out. But the last few days he had made her feel like she had never felt before. Like she belonged to him and he belonged to her. She shook her head and tried to focus on what was going on around her.

"You okay?" he whispered into her ear as he squeezed her hand under the table.

"Yeah, why?" she replied.

"You just looked a little serious there, that's all." He said, smiling at her.

"Stop it." She said, keeping her voice hushed.

"Stop what?" he said innocently.

"Stop using your charm smile on me. Let's just get through tonight so we can go home, okay?" she replied.

"K." he said and then turned and started talking to Cam. She turned to Zach and soon they were in deep discussion about new forensic techniques.

She didn't even hear Booth call her name. "Bones? Bones?" he said.

"What?" she said, turning towards him and seeing Cullen and his wife standing beside her chair. "Oh sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Apparently not." Booth smirked.

"Dr. Brennan." Cullen said. "It's good to see you again."

"The same to you." She said, rising out of her chair and shaking his hand.

"You remember my wife Laura?" Cullen said.

"Yes, hi how are you?" she said to Laura.

"I'm okay. How are you enjoying the evening?" Laura said.

"Well it's not too bad right now." She replied. "But after dinner, it will get worse."

"Worse?" Laura questioned.

"Yes, that's when us scientists get paraded around to all of the major donors and I have to answer never ending questions about what I do all while making it sound … romantic, I guess. And I get asked ridiculous questions about my book." She said.

"I promise I won't ask you ridiculous questions." Laura said, smiling.

"We should get to our seats." Cullen said. "It looks like they are serving dinner."

"Dinner is always good." She said. She could feel her stomach growling.

As they left, Booth leaned over to her. "So how long after dinner do we have to stay?" he whispered, touching her leg.

"Booth!" she said, pulling away from him and making sure no one saw.

"Sorry." He said, giving her his charm smile again.

'Oh god.' She thought to herself. 'This night will never end.'

She was about to take the last bite of her dessert when Dr. Goodman walked up to her, a woman following behind him.

"Dr. Brennan, I would like to introduce you to Amelia Thorpe, one of the Jeffersonian's generous donors." Dr. Goodman said.

She sighed inwardly. "Nice to meet you." She said, extending her hand.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine." Amelia replied. "I just love your books. Although I wish they had a little less crime in them, you know the bones and stuff? I love Kathy and Andy though."

"Umm, thanks." She replied, trying to sound sincere.

"Well, Amelia why don't we go say hi to the Klein's over there and leave Dr. Brennan to her meal." Dr. Goodman said, gesturing across the room.

"Absolutely." Amelia replied.

"When you are done, Dr. Brennan, I have some people who would like to meet you." Dr. Goodman said before walking off.

"Dr. Brennan." Cam said. "Did she just ell you your books had too much crime in them?"

"Surprisingly that will not be the most ridiculous question I get asked tonight." She replied.

"I an see why you don't like coming to these things." Booth said.

"Yeah, well there's only so many times you can be made to feel like a freak in a fancy outfit." She replied.

"Amen to that!" Hodgins said. "Once they hear what you do for a living they look at you weird. And then they give you the pity look."

"Well I am going to get this over with." She said, rising from the table.

"We all should." Angela said.

The squints headed off in various directions, ready to start the torture.

1 hour later.

Booth sat in his chair at the now empty table and watched Temperance as she talked to yet another person. He could see by the way she held herself that she was uncomfortable with whatever was being said. He just wanted to go over there and put his arm around her waist so that at least she would be a bit comfortable. He let out a sigh. Pretending not to be a couple was a lot harder than he thought it would be. They had barely spoken during dinner, he got the feeling that she was slightly miffed that he kept touching her. So he had chatted with Cam and Hodgins and ate his dinner and listened to the extremely boring speeches. The band had started playing and he noticed Hodgins and Angela dancing in the centre of the floor. He turned his attention back to Bones, where she was still talking with the same person. 'She looks beautiful' he thought to himself. Not that she didn't always look beautiful. Even in the morning when her hair was messy and she wasn't wearing makeup. He thought back to yesterday morning, when he had woken up with her in his arms. She was sound asleep, her head pressed to his chest and a hint of a smile on her lips. He had felt completely content.

"Earth to Booth." Angela said. He shook his head and turned around, seeing Angela sitting next to him.

"Sorry, Angela, what?" He said.

"Umm, you might want to make it less obvious, Booth. You have been staring at her forever." Angela said, with a grin on her face.

"Damn, you are right. Do you think anyone noticed?" he said, looking around.

"I don't think so." Angela replied. "But they are going to figure it out eventually. You two can't keep this a secret forever."

"I know Angela." Booth said. "But this thing between us is really new and I don't want to jeopardize it. I don't want Temperance to get freaked out."

"I wish there is something that I could do." Angela said.

He suddenly had a thought. He turned to Angela and smiled. "Actually Angela, there is one thing you can do for me."

"What's that?" she replied.

"You could dance with me." He said.