Title: Beyond the Fear

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Rating: This one is just a T.

A/N: How pleased am I? Pleased as punch. I got so many reviews, my head became terribly inflated and my husband needed to have the doorframe altered. Now it's too big, and I need some more reviews to make my head JUST big enough. Thanks.

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"Isn't this surreal?" Temperance asked, breaking the corner off her croissant, smoothing orange marmalade over the sweet bread. Across the table, Booth glanced at her over his newspaper, a cup of coffee in his hand. Above their heads, rain pelted heavily against the opaque roof of the gazebo, a steady, almost musical beat. She saw his eyes darken, perhaps with adoration, she didn't want to speculate.

"What?" he asked, almost as though he knew perfectly, yet he wanted her to verbalise.

"Having breakfast together as if…" she sucked orange jelly off her fingertip, allowing the zesty flavour to linger on her tongue. "As if we have been doing it for years." She wasn't a woman who indulged in romantic sentiment often. Today, however, she was gluttonous. She'd showered, thinking about him, dressed, thinking about him, and in Temperance Brennan's experience, thinking too much about one thing often resulted in disappointment. Not with Booth. Her delight was tenfold, when she saw him sitting in the gazebo, sheltered by the rain, his eyes calmly, almost erotically following her as she hurried along the garden path to him. "I'm not a prude, Booth, we had sex last night, for the first time, yet I don't feel any of the 'post first time sex' awkwardness." He folded his newspaper, his attention no longer captured by the finance section.

"I like this side of you, Temperance," he said. "In ten years, when we have been doing this forever, I hope you look across the table, and say the same." She blushed, the colour of spring roses, and dropped her eyes to the linen table cloth, her fingertip tracing the white pattern sewn into the material.

"In ten years, I should hope we're beyond first time sex," she murmured, her voice sultry and suggestive. She noticed how his eyes twinkled, lustrous and filled with mischief. "Do you think this will last ten years?" she asked, the realist in her rooted so deeply that she couldn't relinquish it, not even for a day.

"Do you?" Booth asked, filling her coffee cup to the top before replenishing his own. She touched the sticky marmalade again, not quite sure that her giddy nervousness would permit her to eat.

"I asked first," she said, sounding as petulant as she felt. He chuckled, leaning back in his chair, folding his hands over his torso. She remembered, all to vividly, how his hard skin felt beneath her fingertips the night before. A shy tremble shuddered through her body, and she glanced up, meeting his eyes. By the brooding look he gave her, she suspected he had read her expression perfectly. He knew what she was thinking, and Brennan realised just how difficult it would be to disguise her feelings from him. The thought terrified her.

"I hope it lasts," he said eventually, slowly, deliberately. She continued to watch the soft play of his features, and she realised that, even with all the conflict they faced, back in the real world, with Camille, Rebecca and Parker, she hoped they would to. It was an amateur's mistake, really, falling so deeply for someone after just one date.

One date, she mused. In the real world, one date ending in hot, sex in a guest house would make her something of a loose woman. With Booth…? It was inevitable, really. "Me too," she said, pulling the segment of croissant into her mouth, her tongue curling around the jelly again. It tasted bitter, and she loved it. "Is this homemade?" she asked, and Booth smiled, understanding her desire to move away from the sombre, serious talk. She avoided conflict, and she knew it. It felt as though she were exposed when he looked at her, seeing through her.

A long moment passed in companionable silence. At the bottom of the garden, the ocean brushed against the cliff edge with combined whispers that sounded like hushed pleas, and despite the miserable weather, gulls cried, swooping and diving, disappearing beyond the rock, and resurfacing. The rain tapped against the roof above her head, splashing against the plants in the flower bed. The air smelt fresh, filled with a vibrant cleanliness that she could inhale. It cleared her lungs, feeling her body to the bottom of her stomach with pure, unadulterated air. With each long breath, she felt vigorous, prepared to face the challenges of life.

As she drank her coffee, became heavily aware of his eyes on her, sharp and piercing, urging her to look at him. With an unspoken pull, he drew her attention away from the cool rain and the relaxing ambience that surrounded her, touching her like the massaging hand. When she met his gaze, he was looking through her, cataloguing her thoughts in the way only Booth could.

"I think it's going to rain all day," he said, his voice low and gravely, the sound brought a tingle to her spine and she shifted in her chair, surprised at the intensity of her own desire for him. Had she really been so good at ignoring it, until now? "I don't think there's much we can do…" the insinuation was barely veiled, the implication hanging heavily in the air like a carrot before a donkey. Would she reach for it? Would she encourage his blatant sexual invitation?

"I'm sure we can find something," she replied, tilting her body towards him. She had left an extra button undone in her shirt – something she'd been conscious of earlier when she'd been dressing. When his gaze dropped now, she saw him shift, visibly aroused by her. "We can relight the fire," she suggested, picturing the cosy haven of their bedroom, and how he had touched her by the glowing light of the fire – sensual and erotic.

"Which fire?" he asked, leaning forward. She smiled, placid and suggestive.

"Booth…" she whispered, pressing her thighs together, almost worried by the urgency with which she needed him. Hadn't he already made her come once today? "This is crazy…" he nodded, reaching across the table, tracing his fingers over the pale blue veins of her inner wrist, stroking the soft baby skin. Her eyes fell closed, her coffee forgotten.

"Crazy," he agreed. "But God, Bones, if crazy is bad…" she exhaled, her lips parting.

"…you don't want to be right?" she guessed, and he chuckled.

"As terribly trivial as that sounds, yes," he admitted. "But then, I can't see how feeling for you what I feel could be bad. Never bad." Her eyes opened and her heart stilled in her chest. With each movement of his fingers over her wrist, her body responded more, as if the subtle touches were a prelude of what was to come.

"And what would that be…?" she asked. Below, as if nature were signalling a momentous moment, the waves crashed thunderously against the cliffs, so hard that a spray exploded along the garden wall, and she jumped, momentarily stunned by the sudden interruption. Her lips formed a circle of surprise and her eyes widened. Booth turned calmly back toward her, and she saw the words form in his eyes, the three words, so close to slipping off his tongue, and she knew it would be more trivial to speak them now. Suddenly, she didn't want to be told she was loved. She wanted to wait, until they had faced the challenges of DC, their jobs, their partnership. She wanted to be sure that they could endure difficulties outside of their blissful Virginian haven. His lips closed, and the words disappeared almost as quickly as they had formed. All at once she loved him for knowing when was a good time and when was not.

Lacing his fingers with hers, he pushed his chair back. "Come back to the bedroom, Temperance," he said, "and I'll show you exactly how I feel about you."

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Woo! Now, I know this chapter is shorter than the others, but I hope you enjoy it just as much. Next chapter will be M rated, and hopefully completed tomorrow. My shift is from 11am-7pm tomorrow… so tomorrow night maybe. Also, I've just realised that people all over the world now know my rota. Too much information? Maybe, but alas, my life is an open book.

Review!