A/N: Voila! T-rated hijinks. My beta suggests that it actually may have slipped into M. If so, it would be a very mild M, but just a warning to anyone who might be offended.

So much for the one shot I hoped to write this week. No time, no energy. Thanks to all the people who have taken time to review and to give me encouragement as I slog through these last few days of school. And thanks to EternalDestiny304 who betas and encourages and whose friendship has been such a blessing this long, long year. She just posted her first story in a long time, "Just a Kiss," and it's highly worth a read.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Whatever it takes. Just … are you sure we should be doing this before you're healed? I mean it, Bones. Once you're underneath me, I'm gonna lose it."

"Then you should be the one underneath."

Booth's brain short-circuited momentarily and when the smoke cleared, they were somehow standing in front of each other, twin nervous expressions on their faces for different reasons.

"Don't let me hurt you," he warned.

She ignored his command. "Take off your shirt."

"Anybody ever told you you're bossy?" Booth reached back and pulled the damp T-shirt over his head, drawing it deliberately slowly along his back and shoulders to give himself time to brace for the scientific assault Brennan's eyes were about to unleash on him. Consciously or not, she'd be measuring him up to all the guys she'd ever been with, along with every bone she'd ever identified.

He worked hard to get his muscular build, and not just for the sake of catching bad guys without getting winded. And yet—he suddenly found himself feeling like a teenage kid, hoping Brennan wouldn't find him lacking. She'd seen him shirtless, even naked, actually, but … he dropped the shirt to the floor and straightened.

As he'd expected, Brennan's gaze was on him before her hands ever made it to his skin. Booth struggled not to squirm when the intensity of her eyes felt almost like fingertips following along his collarbone, down his arms, over his ribcage all the way to his navel and lower yet before starting back up again, this time using her hands.

He swallowed a groan at the light touch she exerted on his abdomen, slowly dragging her nails along the hard ridges.

"Play nice, Bones."

"I am very nice." She proved her point by pushing him backwards, so he landed on the bed in the same position he'd been in when they first got inside the room.

Booth laughed a little nervously as she knelt over top of him, her knees caging his thighs in. Brennan's answering smile was predatory. She kissed his right bicep. It wasn't a spot he'd ever thought of as arousing, but whatever she was doing with her mouth—some kind of combination of half-parted lips, tongue and teeth and shallow little nibbles—made him change his mind permanently. She repeated the kiss on his triceps and deltoids, clearly enjoying each sharp inhalation from him.

Her hair blocked his view of her face as she repeated the torture on each of his pectorals, the soft brush of the long strands across his skin making him crazy until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Bones."

She intently tracked the muscles on either side of his neck, muscles which were significantly more corded than they had been a few minutes earlier as they bunched up in a futile attempt to keep Booth from shuddering.

"Come on, Bones." He was aware he sounded like he was pleading nervously, mostly because he was. Usually he didn't get this turned on until much later in the game.

Brennan did that thing with her hands on his stomach, making him flex automatically. "I've fantasized about this significantly."

"About …" he groaned as she settled more comfortably onto his hips.

"Tasting you." She started on his ribcage in similar fashion, like he was just going to let that one go without retaliating.

"Bones," he growled warningly.

Her mocking laughter, vibrating through his whole body like he'd become an acoustic instrument or something, snapped the frayed threads of his self-control. Ordinarily he would have grabbed her under the arms and dragged her upwards, but her physical state meant he had to do things a little differently. He scooted upright instead, forcing her head to lift when her playing field moved places.

Booth grinned at the annoyed look on her face. "My turn."

"I was just begin—"

He cut her off with a hard kiss, coupled with a deliberate rotation of his hips that knocked her off balance. When she wobbled in her precarious position over top of him, he carefully caught her by the waist and lowered her to the mattress beside him. Before she had a chance to recover, he slanted his body over hers, never letting his weight rest on her chest, and kissed her lightly before sliding off the bed. Brennan looked up at him, her face flushed, her damp hair fanned out across the bed.

"See, Bones." Booth shucked his jeans rapidly and stepped out of them. "I have my own fantasies." He unsnapped the button of her own jeans. It took a minute to pull off her shoes and socks and peel the wet denim off, but the build-up was worth it.

"What are your fantasies?"

Booth couldn't move for a minute, or even consider answering. Nothing he'd ever come up with on long, lonely evenings came close to the vision of his partner lying practically half-naked in front of him, knees bent invitingly.

"Bones." He finally located his tongue. "You're—I—wow."

Brennan's teasing reply was much more coherent. "Your vocabulary is now even more limited."

He managed to drag his eyes up to her face, lingering at various places along the way including the scrap of black lace riding low on her hips.

"Always."

Brennan raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

"You've always." He kissed the curve of her hip right where the line of her panties ended. He smoothed his hand along the outside of her leg, still half-thinking he was going to wake up and be forced to work with her all day while remembering this dream. "Always." He stroked her right leg from the top of her thigh all the way down to her calf, deciding along the way that all skin was not created equal. Nobody he'd ever been with had skin as soft as Brennan's.

When he lifted the hem of her T-shirt just enough so he could press a kiss to her stomach, Brennan grabbed his hair and dragged his head up so she could see her face. "Always what?"

"You've always been beautiful to me."

She released his hair, apparently satisfied by his answer, but he wasn't finished. "You've always been. You always will be beautiful to me, Temperance. That won't ever change." Booth tickled her just enough to lighten the mood and she squirmed and kicked at him. He caught her foot and planted a kiss on the inside of her ankle. "Even your knees are sexy. Who the hell has sexy knees?"

"You do not."

"Hey!" he protested, glancing uncertainly at his legs. "My knees are plenty sexy."

Brennan laughed and sat up, scooting all the way down the bed. She wrapped her legs around Booth and pulled herself in close to him, reaching up to urge him into a kiss. Booth resisted, pretending to be miffed.

"No way. You can't just insult my body and then put your hands all over it, Bones."

"So I shouldn't do this?" She sucked his lower lip into her mouth and trailed the lip of her tongue just below it.

Booth pulled away and tried to be stern. "No."

"Or this?" Brennan pressed an open-mouth kiss to the juncture of his elbow.

"No." He glared at her suspiciously. "I'm pretty sure that never felt so hot when someone else kissed me in the same place."

She shrugged. "Other women are not as familiar with the location of nerve endings." She was almost eye-level with his waist and used this to her advantage, running her fingers just along the inside of his waistband. "Are you sure you don't want me to do this?"

"Nope." Booth swore as tiny darts of pleasure shot through him. "That's not fair, Bones, using squint magic on me."

"Knowledge of human anatomy isn't magic." Brennan pressed a kiss about half an inch south of his navel and Booth almost jumped out of his skin.

"Nuhhh-uhhhh …"

"Should I stop?" she asked innocently, drawing circles on his skin with her fingertips. "While in the womb, the navel and the clitoris grow from the same tissue, making them neurologically linked. Given that the clitoris and the penis are homologous to one another, sexual stimulation of the region is erotic to both men and women. "

Belatedly, Booth started to realize the real advantages of being in love with someone whose whole life was devoted to studying the human body. The smug little smile on Brennan's face only further did him in.

"You're saying if I kiss you here …" He nudged her back and pressed his lips to a spot right above her belly button. She moaned approvingly. "You feel it … there?"

"Yes."

"So I should keep doing this."

Brennan's hands fisted into the waistband of his boxers, guiding the pressure of his hands and lips. "Yesssss …"

Booth stopped, knowing he was playing with fire by teasing her when they were both already on the brink. "But that's all nerve endings. So what you're feeling is kind of fake."

She looked so confused that he almost laughed.

"Bones, you remember that case with the people who turned themselves into sexual ponies?"

Brennan frowned. "Yes."

"You remember what we talked about afterwards, in the diner?"

"You said that those people and their role playing were crappy sex, at least compared to the real thing."

Booth slid his thumbs under the straps of black lace and tugged them downwards, smiling as understanding suddenly registered on her face.

"That's right. I'm a Coke guy, Bones." He preempted her question with an answer, "I'm all about the real thing."

Brennan's moans signaled her approval really loudly.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The only sound in the darkened room was shallow breathing as the partners slowly came down to earth again. Brennan pillowed her head on Booth's broad chest, enjoying the rapid rise and fall of his ribcage beneath her cheek almost as much as the large arm wrapped around her waist pressing her closely to his side. In addition to being euphoric from the repeated release of oxytocin, she felt strangely safe.

Typically over-protective, Booth broke the silence first. "You okay?"

She pondered his question for a moment. "I am … excellent."

He chuckled. "What you're saying is I'm excellent."

"You were the first one to beg," she reminded him, invoking a wager they'd made shortly after he demonstrated the difference between a kiss by proxy and the real thing. "You owe me breakfast."

"No way," Booth retorted. "You broke the rules. You're buying."

She raised her head in surprise. "We didn't establish any rules."

"Some rules are automatically part of the game, Bones. Like, no use of squint magic to get ahead."

"It would be impossible for me not to use what you term 'magic,' she protested, thumping his ribcage for emphasis. "I can't turn off my scientific knowledge anymore than you can suddenly pretend not to know how to shoot a gun."

Unusually, he conceded the argument quickly. "Guess I'm one hell of a lucky guy."

"I do not believe in luck," she replied, sliding back down beside him.

"Bones, the woman I'm sleeping with knows more about the human body than Dr. Frankenstein. Tell me I'm not lucky."

"I would agree that you are fortunate to have me as a sexual partner. However, in the literal sense, you haven't actually slept with me yet," she pointed out.

"You're right about that, at least." Booth smiled. "The neighbors would definitely say we've been very awake."

She grinned evilly. "We have most likely kept them from sleeping."

He rolled onto his side, the mischievous glint in his eyes almost as arousing as his naked body. "You wanna keep them awake for another few hours?"

Brennan wrapped herself around him, fleetingly considering how different it would be if she was also shirtless. "Human beings only require five hours of sleep to function at least minimally."

"See? There goes that squint magic again …" His eyes widened as she dug her fingers into a certain pressure point. "Oh, baby, I am so lucky …"

The awareness came to her as they made love a second time—she was equally lucky. For so many years Booth had patiently worked at wearing down her personal shields. Until their yearlong separation and the equally long time it took for them to reconcile, he had never made her feel as though she was less of a person for hiding behind such safety nets. In the same manner, he now acted like the shirt wasn't even in between them, accepting it as just another part of Brennan to be loved without question.

A/N: I know this chapter was almost entirely from Booth's perspective, and I usually try to keep a more even balance. However, the muse has been screaming for him lately, and I'm too tired to do anything counterintuitive just now. Next week may be another chapter, or a one shot. Either way, you'll definitely have another update by June 2nd, at which point my brain will be more rested. =)