Just read it.

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CHAPTER 18

I wanted to scream at the sky until I felt better, because containing energy like this made me dizzy. The wind was whipping my hair around me and ruining the carefully combed ringlets, but I could care less.

Lightning.

I almost laughed, because I'd once described Booth's kiss as lightning. But I'd been wrong; lightning was cruel and deadly because it let me see the city more clearly for an instant. It was huge, full of buildings and streets, alleys and dark corners… there were so many places to hide a frightened girl. The lightning was taunting me because I didn't know where she was, or even if she was alive…

"Anne."

My lips moved without my permission. I walked slowly toward the storm, feeling guilty for every second I'd thought of Booth and not of her. Was she in pain?

"Anne!"

The roaring wind took my words. No one would hear if I shouted. And, really, who would care?

I took the final step and felt the cold rain immediately soak through my dress, plaster my hair to my face and mix with the tears stinging my eyes.

"I'll find you, Anne!" I told her. But she couldn't hear me. It was irrational to say things nobody would hear…

Right?

"Bones!"

"Go away!" I whirled around, feeling sick, to face him. He still looked calm, suit unruffled. Not a hair out of place.

"Bones, come back inside, you'll catch something terrible!"

"Leave me alone, Booth!" I knew I must look pathetic, shivering and wild-eyed, like a madwoman. But I didn't care. I still didn't care what he thought because I couldn't, and he had to leave now or...

The look on his face ended this thought.

"I'll never leave you alone! Never, Bones!"

"I know you won't. Of course I know." I whispered to the wind, which understood and quickly stole the words away from his grasp.

"Come back!"
"No!"

I drew myself up to my fullest height and murdered him with my eyes. "For once, Booth, just do as I ask or I swear I'll…!"

He walked right toward me. The instant he took a step away from the shelter of the Jeffersonian's columns and roof, the water was on him. Hair drenched, suit ruined, and he'd never, ever looked more attractive.

Like an unstoppable force he came toward me, grabbed my wrist and tried to drag me back. He was too strong, the vice-like tug impossible to fight.

"I don't care about your feelings right now, Bones, I care about your health. You're coming back in…!"

I managed to twist away from him in a fairly basic self-defence manoeuvre and he stumbled. I felt like a stubborn child, but I didn't care.

"Fine! You know what? Fine, Bones! Catch a cold in that ridiculous dress and die, see if I care!"

"People don't die of a cold in the United States, Booth!"

"Then just… fuck, Bones!" and he took off his jacket and threw it at me. "Put that on!"

I did, because if putting it on meant he'd leave me be, I was willing to comply.

Another flash of lightning.

He stood staring at me, and I looked back at him. The noise was deafening, the force of the wind meant I had to be careful to stand, and the rain was ice-cold.

But as the light illuminated every inch of him for the briefest of moments, time seemed to freeze. What really happened was that the surge of adrenaline stimulated my sensory capabilities and made me able to process every detail more clearly. But it felt as if, for a second, silence created a cocoon around us.

Only us.

The raindrops fell slowly in this timeless zone, some landing in his hair, most of them plastering his now transparent shirt to his muscled chest. Two fell on his eyelashes, and I envied them with a fervor I hadn't even known existed in me before. One landed on his parted lips, dripping, taunting…

"Booth…" I gasped, my voice shaking. In slow motion he flicked his head to shake the water off, his eyes never leaving mine, and I was lost. I snapped. Failed. Finally let go. I'd been right to fear what would happen tonight.

Except, right now, I wasn't afraid anymore.

"We should go inside."

He didn't shout, but in this bubble made for us I knew what he said.

"Yes." I answered just as softly, taking a step to him.

"Everyone will be wondering where we are." He also walked toward me, and his eyes weren't squinting against the curtain of water falling between us. I knew why this was, even though he'd never told me. Too used to observing targets and choosing ranges in bad weather.

A shattering desire to cleanse everything that made his eyes lose their light made me shiver. I wanted to make him feel… ecstatic.

"They'll be worried, Bones."

"I know."

But abruptly the moment ended. Time was no longer slow, it was back to normal and he wasn't walking to me, he was running. I was too, and we collided with fury, just as the thunder rolled…

And our lips met, mouths immediately opening to taste that forbidden, delicious taste that kept me awake at night. His hands were everywhere; my back, pressing me closer, my hips knocking me to him and grinding his erection against me, wet hair, cheeks, neck, breasts…

I didn't have time for buttons, so I ripped the shirt open. He groaned…

"Do that again."

I tore at more cloth and his mouth went to my neck, biting and licking. It was freezing cold, but we didn't care. I shook his jacket off and grabbed his hair, pushing his head back so that I could explore more of him. First the outline of his jaw, then lower, to his chest.

"You look so fucking beautiful I could barely think for a while there, Bones…"

I looked up at him. This time, we didn't avoid each other's eyes. It was almost violent, the force vibrating between us.

"You think that open neck didn't have me wondering what you'd do if I bit the hollow of your throat?"

"Then please…" he grabbed my face and pulled me up. His lips crushed mine for a moment, then he tilted his head sideways, exposing his neck.

I didn't bite immediately; first I savoured this new place which before had only been made for my head to rest in. I licked up to his earlobe and down, up and down… and he groaned in pleasure, the pressure against my thighs increasing with his arousal.

Then I bit, softly, and I heard his sharp intake of breath.

"You kill me, Bones." The rumble as he spoke made me smile, and I remembered missing this the most, the way his every word seemed to be inside of me, too.

I kissed his lips again, taking my time to taste again, so I never forgot.

As we stood, entangled and soaking, I felt very exposed for a moment. Anyone could come, the storm still raged on around us, we were alone on the white expanse of the steps…

But his fingers raked my hair and I forgot.

I kicked off a high heeled shoe and wrapped my leg around him. His response was to cup my butt and lift me entirely so that my other shoe fell off and neither of my bare feet touched the ground. I was now above him, kissing from a vantage point, able to claw at his back from my height.

One of his hands went to the straps of my dress, fingers closing around it but not removing, as though hesitating.

I tore my mouth from his and yanked at the wet fabric until only my chest stopped it from sliding down.

"Pull." I ordered, lifting my arms and throwing back my head, letting the rain wash the make-up off my face. And pull he did, but not with his hands. He bit the hollow right between my breasts and slid the dress down, his pupils the size of the moon above us. I looked down at him and saw, just as another strike of lightning threw his features into sharp relief, the fire blazing in his mind.

And I smiled, forgetting the yearning between my thighs for a moment, forgetting my own, terrifying, all-consuming desire.

His eyes slid to mine, and I tried to get back to the furious, violent passion of before, because he defined the word "disarming". I had wondered about it's origins for a while now. It seemed to have nothing to do with removing concealed weapons off of someone, or extricating their arms. So what was it that "disarming" represented?

And now I knew. He did take weapons, although they were hidden so well I hadn't known they were there myself.

So I lifted my arms again and waited, interlocking my fingers, looking down at him with a wicked grin. Quickly erasing the love from my features that would surely give me away.

The strapless bra was black, like his eyes became when they feasted on the sight revealed. He removed it with more care than he had the dress, with a slightly disbelieving look on his face, as though he wasn't certain this was happening.

I felt incredibly exposed as the black cloth fell on the wide marble steps. But Booth didn't give me time to think, he gently put me down and did something I hadn't expected.

He kissed my lips. He looked into my eyes and kissed me, and I felt confused by this attention, this care he emanated.

This wasn't supposed to happen. I looked at him intently, willing him to understand that this couldn't possibly happen. He grinned and brought his hands to my waist, moving up, slowly higher until they were touching the sides of my breasts. I clenched my hands around his hair and pulled him closer, deepening our kiss again, standing on tiptoe now that I was barefoot. When he still didn't do anything, I took his hand and put in right on top of my breast.

The moment the rough skin touched me I swayed, and he had to quickly encircle my body with his other arm and steady me. I couldn't help it… I laughed. This was due to the pent-up tension needing to leave my body, and not because I found the situation particularly funny.

But Booth smiled, and our eyes met honestly for the first time.

"Once." He said.

"This once." I answered.

And after that no more words were spoken. Time now sped up, blurring into a maddening need to touch him everywhere, to lick that scarred finger and put it in my mouth, to hear his groans of pleasure as many times as possible…

To feel his hands on my breasts, touching and teasing sounds from me I hadn't known myself capable of emitting. The water still falling on us only made everything better, slicker, faster. The crash of thunder was a soft breeze compared to Booth's panting breaths. The flash of lightning was a faint glow before Booth's eyes, burning with savage hunger. The freezing cold had nothing on Booth. He was warm enough, strong enough. He was enough.

When my hands unbuckled his belt he licked my nipple and the kissed it, and I had to stop because it was difficult to feel so many things at once. We crashed to the floor, and he grabbed me and flipped us so he was on top. But I was having none of that. If a single drop of water fell on my eye, obscuring my vision for an instant, I wouldn't be able to bear it. So I smiled and, in a quick movement, beat him down.

The fabric of his pants was impossible to negotiate because my fingers were shaking slightly with cold, and the wet made it cling tighter. Booth got rid of them himself, and I finally saw the extent of his arousal, tenting his underwear.

I could feel everything; every blink of his eyes and every indentation in his skin. Every scar, which I kissed and healed. Every single splash of water falling on my bare back, every drop from my hair onto his chest.

His hands slid up my thighs, moving the dress up with them, higher, higher until I was only wearing my panties. Everything was a blur. I needed to have him inside, now. I couldn't speak, but my moan was enough and he understood.

He tore the final barrier away, breaking the fabric until it was no longer there and I was completely naked. The water, our bodies, the frenzy of pleasure and desire was too much. "Please…" I panted, feeling tears stinging my eyes again. "Please, now…"

I couldn't bear anymore. It was almost painful, this aching need, almost frightening. He kissed me quickly with passion, and I tore his underwear away.

And then put his hands on my hips and in a brutal gesture lifted me up with only his arms.

He brought me down so that we fit, exactly, and he felt so perfect and large it only took ten seconds for me to explode into a million pieces of pleasure. My scream was wrenched away from my body and the storm took it from me, but Booth heard. And when he shouted out, I heard and felt it too, and he made me come again just because it was me, I was making him feel like this. It was the most fantastic thing I'd ever felt in my entire life.

A warmth that defied the cold all around us spread through my body like wildfire. It was more than pleasure. It was love. I was in love with Booth and he'd been right. There was no such thing as just sex...

My nerve-endings fizzed and the spasms rocking my body meant I couldn't control the words pleasure ripped from my mouth. His name, oh fuck everything about him, wordless exclamations, swear words, oh God, everything. Hearing him with me only made it better, hearing him scream my name and swear as much as I was, feeling him shudder with the pleasure I had caused, cursing his God and his heaven...

I finally shuddered back into myself, exhausted, and I fell on top of him. His hands gripped the hair on the base of my neck so tightly... I kissed him deeply, beginning to shiver but not feeling the cold. Not yet, because he was right there and I lay against him feeling perfectly safe.

Quiet on the white steps, with the loud rain all around us, naked, soaked, freezing, we still kissed, still entwined in each other. Only one thing was missing, only a detail which would have completed my bliss. I couldn't whisper in his ear the words which begged to be spoken even now as I looked into his eyes, for once unafraid.

'I love you, Booth.' I wished I could say. The thunder was still rolling, but he'd hear. 'I love you, I love you, I love you…'

Instead, I looked into his eyes, and surely my secret would be revealed now? Surely he'd realise? Water clung to his eyelashes and I let myself kiss them, softly. He looked at me with fascination. Like I was something special, with that expression he'd already let me see twice before. He kissed a drop right on the corner of my lips and I smiled. He kissed me again, but soon he stopped because only once.

Only… once.

When tears slid down my cheeks he propped himself up and licked them away, his rough hand stroking my cheeks. I wondered how he could tell I was crying if the pouring rain barely let me see, but I didn't ask. Words would ruin this moment, this precious jewel I would keep forever.

He put his arms around me and held me closer, murmuring words I couldn't understand, soothing, with his deep voice, like a lullaby.

We stayed like this, and I'd never felt so peaceful in my entire life.

And then…

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four…

Three…

… Two.

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One.

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You know what to do.