Hello! Loving the reception on this story! With this update, we've caught up to everything I've written and published for this story so far, but I do plan on continuing, it will just be a whole lot slower than updating every other day.
This chapter takes place on the ride back to the Jeffersonian, after they arrested the murderer, but before the ending scene of this episode.
Also this chapter was definitely a product of my hormones, holy shit, ovulation goes wild.
Hope you enjoy! ;)
"You know? I still don't get it." Booth threw the words out carelessly into the empty space of the car.
"Get what?"
"The way 'relationships' worked around there." He put heavy quotations around the 'relationships' and stared out into the DC traffic.
"What do you mean?"
Her partner glanced over to her quickly, letting out a sigh. "C'mon Bones, the way everyone was sleeping around with everyone else, it just doesn't make sense."
Brennan felt a burst of impatience. "It makes perfect sense! These people obviously knew they couldn't be satisfied with only one sexual partner, so they sought others. It's simply biology. They understand how I feel better than most."
Curious, she watched as a muscle ticked in Booth's jaw and his hands tightened and released against the steering wheel. "That's not what I meant, just-" he let out a heavy sigh and drummed his thumbs against the leather of the car.
"Okay," he said. "Jealousy, right? Very normal emotion, and I'm sure it has some significance to you . . ."
"It does," she said. "Jealousy as an emotion within sexual relationships is usually attributed to the male partner, and anthropologically speaking, this would be due to the fact that either consciously or subconsciously, he wants the female to only have his children."
"Exactly!" Booth jabbed a finger in her direction. "So why were all those slippery little scientists so okay with sharing partners like sharing candy?"
"Well obviously we've evolved past that, and rational, realized scientists like myself and those at the Collar Institute understand that jealousy has no part to play in our society, and that multiple sexual partners can help keep us satisfied. It's really only logical Booth, I don't see why you can't understand it!"
"No, no," he said emphatically, shaking his head. "Do not lump yourself in with those slimy little geniuses."
"Booth!"
"You're not like them, Bones."
Affronted, she shifted in her seat to stare more directly at him. "Yes I am! I am a genius and I do believe that a person's needs can't truly be fulfilled by one person, and you know my opinion on monogamy Booth! I don't see why you're so disgusted by them, because it's what I believe too!"
All he did was give a tiny shake of his head as he turned into the Jeffersonian, still infuriatingly calm. "No you don't," then he scoffed a little. "They didn't believe in love."
"You can't tell me what I think Booth! And you should know that I don't believe in love either!"
Pulling into a parking spot in the underground garage, he stopped the car and turned to face her fully. "So then tell me," he said, hard; brown eyes glinting and sharp, so unlike the warmth she was used to. "Why do so many people commit to monogamy, and marriage, and love, if it's not real."
"Obviously, they need some sort of connection in their lives, so they delude themselves into thinking that love is real and that one partner is enough for them! There's no harm in the fact that they haven't realized it's all a lie."
Her partner stared at her, mouth tight, and gaze unreadable. "Right," he said. Without another word, he got out of the car and slammed the door so hard the whole structure shook.
Scrambling after him, Brennan rounded the side of the vehicle to see her partner striding away from her. "Booth! Why won't you believe that I'm exactly like them?"
Stopping in his tracks, he spun around and began to make his way back towards her, his long legs eating up the ground between them. Alarmed by the look in his eyes, Brennan stumbled back a few steps as he approached, a raging storm, an unstoppable force.
"I don't believe you," he began, deadly quiet as the moment before a hurricane hits. "Because I think that you do believe in love."
When she opened her mouth to protest, he took another step closer to her even as she stepped back, magnets repelling.
"I think," he said, the energy of lightning strikes crawling up his words and causing the hair on her arms to lift. "That you're afraid."
She shook her head mutely, her words stolen by the man in front of her, who was suddenly the most interesting thing she'd ever encountered. This was a Booth she'd never seen before, this one who came prowling towards her.
"You know what else I think?" he asked lowly.
Mouth parting on a sharp inhale, she could only blink as he stalked even closer, this version of her partner was predatory, mahogany eyes rich, and hungry.
"I think that your excuse for having multiple sexual partners is bullshit." He spat the last word, and she took two more steps back before her palms encountered the smooth expanse of Booth's Sequoia.
"What?" The word fell unbidden from her lips and hovered in the air between them.
Lazily, he sauntered into her space, something like primal satisfaction filling his eyes as she squirmed, but couldn't escape.
"You're telling me," he said, each word like a rumble of thunder against her. "That if we were lovers, then you would have to find someone else, because I wouldn't be able to satisfy you?"
A tidal wave of heat crashed through her, causing her whole body to thrum with an energy she could barely contain. Struggling to take a breath, she met Booth's molten eyes.
"Because," he said, bracing one hand against the car behind her and leaning into her ear, his breath ghosting hotly across it. "I don't think you would need anyone else."
Heart tripping a beat, Brennan stared at him, wide-eyed as he pulled back from her, entire body tingling with arousal.
"And about the monogamy you don't understand?" His fingers captured a lock of her hair and twirled it around his fingers absently. "If you think for one second that if we were together, that I wouldn't want to own you, you're dead wrong."
Vague outrage sputtered to life in her chest. "Own me? That's- you can't own another human-"
Tugging sharply at her hair, he captured her gaze, his liquid fire starting to ignite her. "Oh, I can. I would own you, body, mind, and soul."
"But-"
He leaned in close to her, the smell of his aftershave wrapping around her, the heat of his body radiating through her. "No, Bones, you don't understand. This is important. I would own you, but you would own me." His cheek grazed against her as he spoke, quietly, just for her. "We would belong to each other."
As he drew back agonizingly slowly, Brennan could feel her heart thundering through her chest, leaning heavily back against the car as her legs weakened underneath her. His eyes found hers, and he slowly scanned her face, before his eyes dropped down to her lips, causing a frisson of energy to slide through her.
"Bones," he whispered, hoarse against her lips. "You would be mine."
Booth slid his fingers ever so gently under her chin and tipped her face up, sparks of fire in his wake. Coming impossibly closer, until their lips brushed with every breath and Brennan could do nothing but stand there and tremble, she couldn't think, could barely breathe.
His nose trailed along her cheekbone as her head tipped back against the car, exhaling on a gasping note. His breath was hot and wet against her ear again, and doing horribly arousing things to her insides as she shuddered, a tiny whimper escaping involuntarily from her throat.
"I could own you in the back of this car right now."
Stomach flipping, and a pretty little blush spreading across her cheekbones, Temperance Brennan could only stare at her partner, practically doe-eyed and panting as he leaned back and tugged on a piece of her auburn hair gently.
"But that's not what you want, is it?"
With those last, coffee-dark, rasping words, Seeley Booth backed away and walked out of the parking garage without a second glance, leaving his partner flushed, weak, confused, and hopelessly aroused behind him.
Brennan took a huge gulp of non-Booth tainted air, and trembled.
What just happened?