Author's note: thanks again for all the wonderful reviews! Today I present you with the final chapter; I hope it was worth the wait.

Rating: I started out with a T rating, but I feel that perhaps it should be upgraded to M because of this last chapter. Let me know if you agree and I'll make sure to change that.

Disclaimer: Bones and all the characters therein are owned by FOX, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Bet Me belongs to Jennifer Crusie. Thus, anything you recognize doesn't belong to me.

Chapter Six: The Odds

At six-thirty, Booth had a bottle of wine and a box of Krispy Kremes ready to take to Brennan's apartment and an hour and a half of rabid sexual frustration to kill when the phone rang.

"Booth," Angela said when he answered. "You have to go to Bren right now."

"Angela? Aren't you supposed to be on your honeymoon?"

"Yes, which is why I can't talk any longer, I have to make love to my husband now," she grinned. "And you have to go over to her apartment right now. She's in trouble."

"What…" Booth said, but all he heard was a dial tone. He hung up the phone and headed over to Brennan's apartment, deeply suspicious.

When he knocked on the door, Brennan opened it, hauling him inside. She was dressed in a short black trench coat and had a glint in her eyes. She was grinning at him and his pulse kicked up.

"Angela gave me this coat right before she left for her honeymoon."

"Oh." He didn't know what to say, or what that even meant.

"I have news for you, Charm Boy. You are not going to throw this bet."

"Charm Boy?" Booth laughed. She had never given him a nickname before.

"Yes, because of your charm smile, which I can't resist for some reason."

"That's good to know, but I am going to throw this bet," Booth told her, retreating around her couch. "If we sleep together now, there will come a day when we're arguing about the electric bill and you'll say, you only dated me for the bet. I'm not paying for this for the rest of my life when all I have to do is wait an hour and a half." He looked at the clock on the wall. "Well, seventy minutes."

"The rest of your life, huh?"

"Yes, Bones, the rest of my life. You'd think I'd go through all this just for sex?"

"Did I mention I'm not wearing underwear?" Brennan said and slid around the couch and he backed around to the other side.

"You do this to torture me, don't you?"

"No, I'm doing this to get you into bed. The torture is just a perk."

"Bones."

"No. I don't want to spend the rest of my life as the bet you lost," she told him and pulled a ten-dollar bill out of her trench coat pocket. "I've got ten bucks says I'm going to have you naked and inside me before eight o'clock."

Booth went dizzy for a moment and couldn't belief what he was hearing. Is this the same woman I've worked with for three years? When he'd shaken his head to clear it, she'd slapped the ten on the table by the couch.

"There it is," Brennan said. "You going to be a wimp, or are you going to play?"

She was smiling at him, heat and love in her eyes, and he started to laugh. "It's seventy minutes, not three weeks and a day. You really think I can't hold out that long?"

"Yep."

He got out his wallet, took out a ten and slapped it on top of her ten. "You're on. Let's see what you've got, Bones."

She unbuckled her trench coat, dropped the belt onto the couch and took off the coat. She was wearing a strapless black lace nightgown and, as far as Booth could see, there was nothing holding it up.

"I know it would have been better if I'd been naked."

"Actually," Booth said, staring at her. "Now I'm going to think about ripping that off you for the next seventy minutes, so this may be the way to go." He looked at the top of the nightgown where the lace cut into her flesh. "It doesn't look that hard to get off."

Brennan put her finger inside the top of the lace and snapped it. "Elastic. One good tug and…"

"Not for seventy minutes." He looked at the clock. "Sixty-five minutes. But I want to make it clear that when the time's up, you're mine."

"Oh yeah," Brennan said, nodding.

"Well, then," Booth said. "Read any good books lately?"

"No," Brennan replied. "I can't read, or write, because all I can think about is you."

"That must be boring."

"Not really," she answered, moving closer.

"You know, I'm not that good in bed."

Brennan reversed direction and surprised him, grabbing his shirt. "That's alright. I'm fantastic."

She straddled him, her soft weight pinning him down and Booth thought, I should do something about this, but even as he thought it, his hands were on her, feeling her heat through the scratch of the lace. She leaned into him and he closed his eyes as her breasts pushed softly against his chest. She kissed him and her mouth was hot and sweet.

He tightened his hands on her and pulled her close. "Christ, I've missed you," he said against her mouth.

"I missed you, too," she said, not playing anymore. "I don't ever want to be without you again."

"You never will," Booth said. "I'm not walking away from you again. Ever." He made sure she knew he was serious, for he knew she'd been left one too many times before. "I mean it. You've got me for life."

"Thank you."

Brennan sat back and took a deep breath and Booth watched, heat rising. He lost his own breath and put his forehead against her shoulder.

"Men are very visual."

"Yeah." Booth slid his finger under the elastic edge of her nightgown. "That's why I like this thing you're not wearing. But I still want a chance to rip your sweats off you, too."

"My sweats?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about that ever since you opened the door in them. But that will have to wait until later," he said, remembering the bet. "Sixty minutes. What do you want to do? Got a Scrabble board?"

"I'll use dirty words. You'll be uncomfortable."

"Alright, so that's out of the question," Booth said with a smile. "So, what's new with you?"

"What's new with me?" she laughed. "That would be saying to you that you can have me any way you want me."

She sat up and pulled him to her again. He shifted on the couch to make more room for her and felt something dig into his hip. Brennan kissed his neck and he shivered as he reached behind him and pulled out her coat belt, buckle first. Then she bit him.

"Ouch."

She leaned back and smiled at him. "You're going to win the bet with Hodgins and lose the bet to me, Special Agent Seeley Booth," she said. "Think of it as breaking even."

He looked at her and thought, she's right, and then looked at the belt in his hand. "Just for the record, no matter what I'll do, you'll love me?"

"Yes."

"Good."

He tipped her back onto the couch and stretched her wrists over her head. "I like being in control, Bones."

"I know," she replied and smiled up at him. "I can work with that."

He kissed her again and while she was distracted, he wrapped the belt around her wrists. She broke the kiss, but he'd already wrapped the end of the belt around the arm of the couch. She stretched up to see her wrists as he tied the knot.

"This is a little kinky, Booth. Especially for you."

"Not really," he said, getting up. "You know, I had a dozen doughnuts to bring here, but now we don't have them. I forgive you because that's the kind of relationship we have." He got up and moved to her kitchen. "So, what do you want to talk about for…" He stretched to see the clock. "Fifty-seven minutes?"

"Booth."

There was a familiar green and white sack on the kitchen counter. "Krispy Kremes," he said. "Great minds think alike." He brought the sack back into the living room. "You know, Bones, you tortured me for three weeks, better yet make that three years, looking so good I lost my mind every time I saw you. I wanted you so much I was insane from it." He looked down at her, tied to the couch. "Still am, evidently."

"Okay, I'm sorry about that," Brennan said, tugging on the belt. "Three years, really?"

"So, now it's your turn." He sat down across from her. "Now I'm going to torture you."

Brennan stopped tugging. "This could be good. What are you going to do?"

He took a Krispy Kreme out of the bag. "I'm going to eat this in front of you," he said and bit into the doughnut.

Brennan scowled at Booth, but all he did was grin back, looking desirable as all hell while he finished his second doughnut. Slowly.

"And you wonder why I wouldn't sleep with you," she said. "It was because I sensed the sadist in you." She shifted to get more comfortable and watched his jaw tense. Hello, she thought and shifted again. "You know," she started, trying a new strategy. "This is scaring me. There's a strange man in my apartment and I'm tied to my couch. I'm terrified." She tried to put some fear into her voice, but it was hard since it was soaked with lust.

"Funny. I'm not a stranger and you're not terrified. You just look pissed off," Booth said as he picked up the remote. "TV?"

Brennan gritted her teeth. "Men get arrested for this. You should know."

"Only if they get caught. Besides, I work at the FBI. I'm not scared," Booth told her. "I usually check CNN about this time." He looked down at her. "Of course, I usually don't have something better to look at. You have a great body."

"Oh please. I know you want to get laid, but…"

"Guys buy magazines to look at breasts like yours," he continued. "And here I am with a pair tied to a couch." He tossed the remote back on the coffee table. "CNN has lost its appeal."

"If I ever get off this couch," Brennan said through her teeth. "You're never seeing these breasts again. Now untie me."

"You didn't think that through. Try again."

"Booth…"

"Do you have any idea," he said conversationally. "How hard it is for me to keep my hands off you?"

"So untie me and let's go," she said, starting to feel cheerful again.

"Forty minutes," Booth said. "What do you want to talk about?"

Okay, Brennan told herself. You're not thinking. You have the upper hand here, aside from being tied to the couch. He wants you. He can have you. He just needs jump-started. "I've wanted you, too," she said, relaxing back against the pillows.

"Right," Booth said, picking up another doughnut. "That's why it took us this long."

"Remember that picnic in the park? I wanted to knock you down and rip off your shirt and bite into you."

Booth stopped with the doughnut halfway in his mouth.

"I used to close my eyes and imagine you naked against me, all the things you'd do to me." He drew back a little and she continued. "Especially my breasts. I have really sensitive breasts, did I mention that? I could almost come just imagining your mouth on my…"

"You don't play fair."

"I don't?" Brennan said, trying to rise up. "I'm tied to the couch. How is that fair?"

"It's not. One of the many reasons I like it." He watched her exhale in frustration and then he scooped up some chocolate icing off the doughnut with his finger. "Do you know how many fantasies I've had about your body?" He drew his finger around the slope of her breast, smearing the chocolate under the lace and Brennan sucked in her breath. "This wasn't one of them," he said, marking her other breast the same way. "But it should have been."

"Sticky," Brennan said, complete sentences escaping her for the moment.

"Not a problem," Booth replied, bending over her. "It's coming right off."

"Pervert," she said, closing her eyes as she felt his tongue on her.

"Yes," he responded, moving the lace lower. "But you like it."

"Ha."

Booth straightened enough to look into her eyes. "Want me to stop?"

She felt his hand under her breast, felt his thumb move across the heat there to the edge of the lace. "I want everything you've got," she told him and watched his eyes darken as his hand tightened on her. "Untie me."

"Nope."

Brennan arched against him and he pushed her back, his breath coming faster, and bent down to her again. This time, he pulled down the lace and when she felt his mouth on her, she arched as every nerve she had flared in relief. He pulled back as she jerked and looked down at her, breathing hard. Just as she realized he was staring at her naked breast, he stripped the rest of the nightgown down so she was naked to the waist. She moved instinctively to cover herself, but remembered she was tied.

"God, you're beautiful," he said, still staring at her breasts.

She tugged at the belt, torn between embarrassment and lust, and then he slid his hands up to cup her breasts. Lust won. She closed her eyes and felt the heat of his mouth on her again, felt herself tighten and shudder and, pressed against him, praying he wouldn't stop.

BBB

Fifteen minutes later, Booth picked up the rest of the third doughnut and Brennan tried to remember her name.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Pacing myself," Booth answered, sounding ragged. He bit into the doughnut. "I figure," he continued after he'd swallowed. "That as long as I have this in my mouth, I won't put you there." He looked at the clock. "We've got twenty-five minutes. I don't think you bought enough doughnuts."

"Could you at least pull my nightgown up?"

"Nope." Booth finished the doughnut. "I'm thinking you should always go topless."

"Because that'll help us solve more crimes?"

"Not in public. Just at home."

"I will if you untie me. All I want is to make love so we can put this dumb bet behind us and start a real relationship, although maybe not after this." She yanked on the belt again. "This could set us back some."

"Nope," Booth said, insufferably calm. "We agreed that nothing could hurt this relationship now. It's a little bent, but I like that about us."

"You're a little bent. I am completely normal. Now untie me and make love to me. The kind you spoke of in the diner that one time."

Booth caught his breath for a minute and Brennan thought, take me, but he bit into the doughnut again and she exhaled through her teeth in frustration.

"Maybe I'm filling the wrong mouth," he said and tore off a piece of the doughnut. "Open up." Booth slipped the pastry into her mouth. The sugar flooded everywhere and she let the chocolate melt into her senses. "My goal in life is to put that look on your face without chocolate."

Brennan swallowed. "You do. You're just never looking at me when it's on there."

"Really."

Booth cupped her breast and began to stroke her with his thumb. Brennan felt herself tighten under him again, but this time, when she opened her eyes, he was staring at her, watching her and she blushed. From embarrassment, from heat and from wanting him.

"Damn, you're right," he said and bent to kiss her.

She forgot to be embarrassed and rose to taste him as he caressed her, sighing against his mouth. "Untie me," she whispered and he looked over her head.

"Nope, we still have twenty minutes to kill." He slid his hand down her calf. "I think I'll start with the toes this time. It's never been toes for me before, so this will be new."

"You're going to suck my toes for half an hour?" Brennan asked in disbelief.

"I'm going to start at your toes and work up."

"Up?"

"And in about fifteen minutes, you're going to lose the rest of this nightgown."

BBB

At a quarter to eight, having been touched everywhere she could imagine and a couple of places she hadn't thought of, Brennan felt Booth untie her. She sat up and slugged him on the arm.

"Don't ever do that again."

"Ouch."

She pushed him back and climbed onto his lap and kissed him hard, wrapping herself around him as tightly as she could. When she came up for air, she slapped him on the shoulder again. "I mean it, never again." Then, she went for his mouth again, hungry for it. A minute later she broke the kiss, breathing heavily and slugged him again. "Never ever again."

"Really?" he asked as breathless as she was.

She looked back at the arm of the couch, the belt still tangled around it, and shivered. "Well, not in the living room. And not for so long…"

He dumped her back on the couch, pressing her against the pillows. "When we do it again," he told her, his hands hot on her. "It'll be where I want, when I want, with spotlights if I want."

"I don't think so," she replied and he kissed her again. Oh hell, whatever you want. She kissed him back.

"Whatever I want," he whispered in her ear.

"Okay," she whispered back. "But can I have you now?"

"Almost," Booth said into her neck. "Ten…"

"You know what my favorite fantasy is?" she whispered in his ear and he groaned. "It's you, sliding hard inside me." His hand tightened on her. "I love that part of sex, the first part, the way it feels. And it's going to be the best with you, because everything else with you has been the best I've ever had. The way I feel when you touch me, the way you kiss me, that's why I know the way you…"

He kissed her hard, pushing her back on the pillows, taking her voice and her breath away. "Shut up, we've got ten minutes yet," he said when he stopped and began to lick his way down her body.

"Uh," she said as he set every nerve she had alight again. "What are you going to do for ten minutes?" He bit into her thigh as he moved her legs apart with his hand and licked inside her. I'm going to lose ten dollars.

BBB

When Brennan was wound so tight, she was shaking, Booth laced his fingers in her hair and turned her head to show her the clock. "It's one minute past eight o'clock," he said, his voice husky. "I lost the bet to Hodgins. It's over."

"We wasted a whole minute?" Brennan said wildly.

"You weren't complaining," he grinned, resting his head on her stomach.

"Take me to bed or do me on this couch," she said, breathing hard. "I want you now."

Booth pulled her up off the couch and toward the bedroom. She tripped behind him and then gasped as he toppled her onto her satin comforter, her body sizzling against the cool fabric as he stripped and found a condom. Then, he was beside her, pressed hotly against her and she closed her eyes to savor him, bone and muscle hard against her.

"Don't wait," she said and felt his hands on her again, sliding over her, making every nerve she had scream. When his fingers slipped inside her again, she opened to him, shaking under him and when she felt his body between her thighs, she arched to meet him, desperate to feel him hard inside her.

His eyes were hot on her and she stared back, caught, crazy for him. He kissed her and slipped his tongue in her mouth as he slid into her, slick and hot, and she gasped and clutched at him as the shock of him went everywhere. He pulled back and then slid deeper. She bit her lip, weak with pleasure as heat thickened in her. She began to move with him, catching his rhythm, dizzy with the rightness of him, of them together. He whispered in her ear as he moved against her, telling her that he loved her, that she was beautiful, that she was his, over and over and over, until she could feel him everywhere, his voice and his breath and his hands and his body, all loving her, making her drunk with love and lust.

She licked her tongue across his lips and she told him she loved him, forever, and she felt him everywhere. In her fingertips, behind her eyes and deep and low where they were locked together, where the heat and the pressure and the tension twisted and tightened. They were one, they had broken the laws of physics and she now understood exactly what he had meant that time at the diner. He rocked higher, sharper and she dug her fingernails into him and cried his name as he rocked again and again. Then she broke, arching under his hands as he held her down, spasming helplessly as his body surged against hers. And then, while she was still clutching him, still gasping from shattering ecstasy, he shuddered, too, and collapsed into her arms.

"Oh," Brennan breathed, barely able to speak.

"Good?"

She nodded her head. "Very good. World class. Phenomenal." She took a deep breath to stop the gasping and he slid his hand up to her breast where it belonged. She put her hand over his and pressed it tighter to her. She drew in another breath. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he said, looking exhausted. He rolled his head and caught sight of her clock. "Oh Christ. Just for the record, I usually last more than seven minutes." He felt his head fall back onto her pillow. "Of course, foreplay usually doesn't last three weeks." He took a deep breath. "Go ahead. Tell me the statistics on how long foreplay should last anthropologically speaking."

"Not long, but I'm glad you're the exception," Brennan told him with a smile. "Maybe I'll tie you to this headboard someday and I'll do the chocolate icing."

Booth closed his eyes. "Thank you. I'd like that. Make a list. We'll do it all. Probably not tonight, but eventually."

Brennan curled into him as her pulse began to slow. He rolled closer to her and kissed her. She settled into him, safe and warm and satisfied.

"What happens next?" she asked him, meeting his eyes.

"You want me to be philosophic about the future now? I'm not even sure where I left my pants," he laughed, then turned serious. "We're going to take it one day at a time. I don't know anything about this, either. I didn't plan for this, but I think we just stick together. Take care of each other." He grinned. "Bet you ten bucks we make it."

What are the odds? She realized with sudden, blinding clarity that she wouldn't take the other side of that bet. That only a loser would bet against them. This is really it, she thought, amazed. This is really forever. I believe in this.

"Bones?"

She kissed him, putting all her heart into it. "No bet," she said against his mouth. "Our odds are too good."

So, that was it. The End. Finito!

Let me know what you think of it!