Disclaimer: Don't own Bones.

A/N: I know I have a million other stories going on, but the muse goes where it wants and this has been running around in my head for a few weeks and it's making it hard to concentrate on anything else. But I have NOT abandoned any other stories and will try to update some of them in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy this!

Proposal

"You are up early," Brennan noted with some surprise, tying the sash around her robe and giving her partner a considering look. Usually, she was up and dressed before he even brushed his teeth, but today he was standing in front of the mirror, already tucking his crisp white shirt inside his black pants.

"Yeah," Booth acknowledged on a disgruntled sigh. "Early-morning meeting with Hacker." Reaching for his tie, he grumbled, "I already hate Mondays, I could seriously hate the guy for this." Seeing her smirk, he added, "And it would have nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to date you."

Wisely holding her tongue, she slipped the tie from his hands. "Here, let me," she offered on a smile, looping the fabric under the collar of his shirt and working it into a knot.

As she went about her task, his body automatically went on alert, he couldn't even help it. Even after so many mornings of waking up to her, this particular activity continued to undo him. Booth couldn't even explain it, but there was nothing that assaulted his senses quite like his partner taking off or putting on his tie.

He still remembered the erratic beating of his heart that first night when she slowly slipped his tie free, letting the colorful fabric hit the floor of his bedroom. He had come apart under her hands as easily as the damn knot on the tie.

"Mmm, you smell good," she murmured, rubbing her lips against his freshly-shaven cheek. His eyes narrowed at her husky words and the slow, measured way she was going about the task of knotting his tie. Booth knew she knew what it did to him because he had once told her how much this particular activity got to him.

"You are buttering me up, Bones," he ventured, taking in the look in her eyes. He knew that look, it was the same one that landed him in her bed after their first date when he had been determined to take it slow.

He had not wanted to jump into bed with her, afraid she would panic the next morning. But just like always, he'd melted when she turned those blue-green eyes on him and he was helpless against everything that was Temperance Brennan. So he'd made love to her all night and decided to worry about a panicking Bones later.

Yet she hadn't panicked. Not that next morning or the one a week after when he whispered I love you, thinking she was still asleep and she opened wide-awake eyes on him. And not that morning six months ago when he asked her to move in with him and she simply said, yes.

"I don't know what that means." Her voice interrupted his train of thought, bringing him back to the present. "But I assure you, I have no butter with me."

"It means," he explained on a wry chuckle, "you are trying to talk me into something."

"Oh, I see." Brennan tilted her head to the side. "Then I guess you are exactly right," she conceded with a smile. "I am … buttering you up."

He laughed at her shameless admission, banding his arms around her and nuzzling the side of her neck. "What do you want, baby?"

"Wait … how did you know?" Brennan inquired, running her fingers through his hair. "You do smell good and I tell you frequently, so you shouldn't have been able to glean any information from that."

"I know you, Bones," he said smugly. "Plus, I'm a man, I know when my woman wants something."

She bit the side of his neck in retaliation, but decided not to comment on his possessive terminology; she had more pressing matters to discuss.

"I want us to try something this week," she said cautiously. "The whole week."

"Something?" Booth raised his head from her neck, a little shiver that was equal parts arousal and dread going through him. He was pretty sure that something had to do with sex and the last time she wanted something, he had ended tied up in a fancy hotel room with his own handcuffs while she tortured him for hours.

"No sex until Sunday," she blurted out bluntly, figuring it was better to just get it out there.

"You want me not to touch you for a week?" he asked in horror, arms tensing around her automatically in unconscious rejection of the mere thought.

"No, of course not," she assured quickly, pressing close to him and rubbing her palms over his back as if to reassure both their bodies that nothing like that was going to happen. "I might start going through withdrawal."

"I'm not following, Bones," he said, his body relaxing a little at her reassurance. Not that he couldn't go a week without sex. Shit, he'd gone a hell of a lot longer than a week back when they were still pretending they were just partners. A week without sex was no big deal, but a week without her was a whole different matter.

"I'm not talking about no sexual contact, I'm talking about no orgasms," she explained. "I'm sorry, I should have been more precise."

"So what?" He frowned, still not sure he understood. "I can touch you, but I can't make you come?"

"Yes," she breathed the answer excitedly against his lips. "It's an exercise in self-restraint, I read about it a few weeks ago in a sexual anthropology journal." Her eyes sparkled the way they did whenever something fascinated her. "Apparently it's a popular practice among engaged couples the week before their wedding, leading to quite an explosive wedding night."

"Bones, if sex between us becomes any more explosive, I might not survive it."

"I know," she laughed, sucking on his earlobe. "But I thought it might be fun to attempt it, plus the article mentioned there's absolutely no touching involved, but I actually hypothesize that touching without achieving sexual release would actually result in greater relief on day seven."

"So basically, you want to experiment on me," he pointed out with a smirk.

"With you," she corrected. "Besides, who else would I experiment on?" She gave him an innocent smile. "Are you willing to let me conduct this experiment with someone else?"

Booth knew she was teasing, but still couldn't control the automatic reaction. "No way in hell," he growled against her neck, sucking hard on the soft skin.

"We don't have to, Booth," she said seriously. "It was just something I read and I figured since we don't have Parker this weekend it wouldn't be a problem to just spend all of Sunday in bed, but it's not …"

"Bones," he interrupted, molding his hands to her ass and pressing her firmly against him. "I let you tie me up with my own handcuffs, why would I say no to this?"

"I don't know," she said, somewhat shy. "Do you like it when I experiment with you?"

"God, Bones, you know I do," he whispered, grinding her recklessly against him; he was now hard as steel and had to go to work in ten damn minutes. "Every single thing you do to me drives me crazy."

"And you are going to let me drive you crazy all week, knowing you won't be able to do anything about it until Sunday?"

"It goes both ways, right?" he asked. "I get to drive you crazy too?"

"Oh yes," Brennan panted, rubbing herself right against his erection. "We can do whatever we want, only rule is no gratification and that includes self-gratification."

"Right," he said, letting go of her suddenly before he was tempted to end her little experiment before it could even start. "Can't make you come, can't make myself come."

"That's correct," she said, wisely putting some space between them. "Same goes for me."

"I think I'm going to lose count of how many cold showers I'll be taking this week, aren't I?" Booth predicted, slipping his jacket on, holstering his gun, and pocketing his badge.

"I'm pretty sure that will go both ways as well, Booth," Brennan answered, knowing she was going to be heading straight for a cold shower herself the minute he walked out the door.

He smiled as she walked with him out into the living room. "Are we having lunch today?" he asked, unlocking the front door. "I'll be in the office late catching up with my backlog so I probably won't be home for dinner."

"Yes," she answered. "I haven't made any headway with the bodies I have in storage, so I'll be staying in the lab late as well. I really want to make some progress before we get a new case. "

"All right, call me and I'll meet you at the diner."

Booth opened the door and then suddenly turned around. Taking two steps, he crushed her against him, tangling his hands in her hair and sweeping his tongue inside her mouth.

"Sunday," he reminded her in a low, rough voice. "All damn day. You and me and that bed."

Are you intrigued? If you are, I will make this story 7 chapters long, each one tracking the progress of Brennan's "exercise" until Sunday. Let me know what you think :)