I think a BB fic is a good way to take a brief break from the unending hotness of . . . BB fics. So I am going back to properly finish a story which I have sadly neglected. And . . . I would like to take the time to thank the reviewers, who make this totally worth the effort. THANK YOU to all y’all. I appreciate every one.

Oh, and the award for Most Self-Restraint When Jumping A Wet, Sudsy Seeley Booth goes to: reviewer and reader Charlie Winchester, for the grand total of 3 seconds. Woot! Yay Charlie. Way to be disciplined.

Anyway, here’s your next chapter. Enjoy!

Last time: She squirmed desperately, pushing at his chest to free herself, but he held on, and suddenly she fell back against the cabinet, and she was so close, and so beautiful, and so unusually playful - and she glanced once at his lips, and before he knew what was happening she had pulled him closer and was kissing him.

Rational thought was long obsolete by the time Booth’s mind returned to him. He was running on sheer sensory instinct alone, pressing her back against the cupboards as her fingers slowly ran through his hair, her nails lightly scratching his scalp. It took him a long time to get past the most basic facts. Temperance Brennan was in his arms. The most beautiful woman he’d ever met was kissing him. She was in his kitchen, pressed against his cabinets, eagerly letting her mouth open beneath his and letting him - encouraging him - as he devoured her. This had to have been somewhere on the list of fantasies that he had never let himself think about. Near the top, even - somewhere on the list behind her office, the backseat of the car, his office, the decontamination showers in the lab - but the difference was that this was really happening. Right now. And it was . . . it was . . . so good.

Way too good.

She pulled back desperately, gasping for air, and he was treated to the utterly appealing sight of Temperance Brennan flushed, breathless, and looking up at him with a look halfway between shyness and temptation. She was always beautiful, but in the morning, sparkling like she was now, she was downright bewitching. Temptation walking. Temperance be damned . . . he had no desire to be temperate right now.

“You taste like syrup,” she mumbled, trying to catch her breath, completely oblivious to just how hot he thought it was when she bit her lip like that. How much it made him want to try it himself.

“So do you,” he managed. It was taking all his self-control not to grab her and continue right where they had left off. Because she did taste like syrup. And syrup was delicious. But she had her own ideas, and before he could even begin to think of saying Wait, her hands were on his chest and she was pulling him in for something that he knew he wasn’t going to want to escape.

“Bones, just - just wait a second.” If she didn’t stop, all his good intentions were going to be useless by the time he remembered them. She paused, looking at him with an unreadable expression. “Look, there’s something you need to know.”

“What is it?”

“Your dad was here this morning.”

It obviously wasn’t what she was expecting. But she took it in stride, staring at him with confusion. “What?”

“Before you woke up. He must have broken in.”

“Why?”

“He wants to make sure you’re safe.”

Her face settled into a mildly irritated frown. “I can take care of myself.”

“He knows that, Bones. He’s just being a father.”

“Overly protective?”

“Exactly.” He smiled a little in relief, and at least for the moment, decided not to include the details surrounding the precise direction Max had pointed the gun and the particular anatomical pieces he had threatened to remove. She didn’t need to hear all that.

“Why’d he come to you?”

“He told me to take care of you. He wanted to make sure I knew he was serious.”

She seemed to accept it. At least, the frown had smoothed away into a more thoughtful look. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand him.”

“He’s your dad. You don’t have to,” he pointed out. “He’ll love you anyway.”

She looked up at him skeptically, setting her jaw as her mind processed the information before she spoke. “It’s not rational.”

“Love usually isn’t.”

She fell silent for another moment before speaking again. “Why did you just kiss me?”

It caught him off-guard. “You kissed me first.”

“You could have stopped.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“Why not?”

He stopped short. Only Bones would ask that question. Why did you let me kiss you? - the question would be laughable, if he didn’t have such a solid answer.

“Because I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time now. You just beat me to it.”

Her eyes were wider than usual as she regarded his answer, face still unreadable. She was still backed up against his kitchen cabinets, leaning back on her wrists as she stared at him with her head slightly tilted, a sight so altogether and utterly appealing that he had to remind himself that they weretalking right now, not abandoning mental processes and picking up where they had left off.

She took a deep breath and seemed to decide something. A smile turned up her lips and he let out a small sigh of relief. Good, so she wasn’t going to kick his ass. Because she could if she really felt the need.

“You wanted to kiss me?”

“More than you ever realized.”

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“I thought you might kick my ass.”

“I might now, for keeping me waiting.”

“Believe me, if I’d known it would be like that, I would have done it months ago.”

“We have lost time to make up for.” He was coming nearer, pinning her back against the wall, smelling so good and so undeniably masculine that something inside her flipped and shuddered and she willingly let him trap her in his arms. “So what do we do now?”

“Well, we were in the middle of a very important conversation,” he pointed out, nuzzling her neck and planting soft, distracting kisses down her throat. “I think we should continue.”

“What about the dishes?” They were piled neatly on the counter, half-done, forgotten but unimportant.

He whispered in her ear, his breath hot as a smile curved her lips upwards. “They can wait.”