Buffy heard him leave, slamming the front door and peeling out of the driveway with a squeal. She was relieved she wouldn’t have to deal with him that afternoon, relieved she could just do her work, do her job, and get him off of her mind. Get him out of her system. Move on.
That worked all of twenty minutes, until she was so angry and frustrated she threw one of her completed disks across the room and let out a scream.
What had she done? Everything she’d worked for, everything she was supposed to care about, was hanging in the balance. She’d screwed up, she knew she had. That moment when Gunn and Angel had almost walked in on them was almost even more frightening than when she’d seen Lorne’s murder. God, she was in way over her head.
Clearly, she wasn’t going to get any more work done today with this amount of mental distraction, and besides, he hadn’t even given her that many new tasks anyway, what with the swimming and the kissing and the sinning. She contemplated seeing if she could sneak into Spike’s office to hunt for useful information, since everyone was gone. But as she and Gunn had yet to fully evaluate the security system in the mansion, she negated that risky plan.
Buffy went to shut her computer off and possibly just go take a long nap, but was surprised to hear the sounds of Spike’s car returning, and him bursting through the front door.
“Oh, great,” She muttered, tightly shutting her eyes. “Please don’t come in here, please don’t come in here, please don’t come here…” She opened her eyes to find Spike watching her with a smirk on his face.
“If wishes were horses,” he said, and tossed a small black velvet box onto the desk in front of her.
She stared at for a moment, and Spike held his breath in anticipation.
“You think you can just buy me?” She exploded, jumping up.
Yep, that’s what he had expected.
“I’m not trying to buy you,” he said calmly. “I’m trying to apologize.”
“For being an ass?” She spat.
“Yeah.”
His easy admittance gave her pause, but she barreled on. “You know, you’re unbelievable.”
“You don’t say.”
“I get that you’re stressed, but you do not have to take it out on me!”
“No, I don’t.”
“And really, it’s unprofessional.”
“I agree.”
“And buying me gifts to butter me up isn’t going to work.”
“Didn’t think it would.”
“You know, if you don’t fight back a little, I kind of lose my righteous indignation.”
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Spike pleaded excitedly.
“Did you not listen to a word I said?”
“Oh, I was listening,” He shrugged, then tilted his head to look at her through hooded eyes. “But you’re just so cute when you’re angry with me.”
“You’re impossible,” she growled, and picked up the box with a huff. Spike bounced on his toes like a little boy as he watched her tear off the red ribbon wrapped around it and lifted off the lid. “Oh!” She breathed out.
She pulled a necklace out of the box and held it in front of her face. On a spider web thin silver chain dangled a strand of clear and pink Swarovski crystals, punctuated with a large, black pearl. As she stared at it, she became almost paralyzed by the myriad conflicting emotions within her. It was overwhelming. It was dangerous. So she pushed all those feelings she had deep down inside of her.
“Do you like it?” He asked hopefully, when Buffy was quiet just a bit too long.
“It’s really beautiful, Spike,” Buffy said, then gently placed it back in its box. “But I really can’t accept it.”
He frowned, his mood instantly darkening. “Why?”
“Because, Spike,” she said. “I’m not…I mean, I can’t—“
“You can’t what?” He moved to her and kneeled down to look in her downcast eyes.
“This is wrong,” she insisted firmly.
“What’s wrong?” He reached out to grasp her hands.
“You know what I’m talking about!” She pulled away and inched back in her chair. “Stop trying to confuse me with…the touching.”
“Look, Buffy,” Spike sighed, standing to give her the space she was clearly looking for. “What do you think is so wrong?”
Her honest reason was clearly not something she could share with him, but blurting out, “I have a boyfriend!” was not exactly the best thing to say either, she realized after saying it.
Spike’s eyes darkened to a deeper blue, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. “Break up with him.”
“Excuse me?” She laughed uncomfortably.
“Break. Up. With. Him. You obviously don’t love him—“
“How do you know that?” she cried out. “You have no idea how I feel about him.”
“I know how you feel about me,” He persisted.
“Oh, really!” Buffy scoffed. “One fuck in the back of a limo and you expect me to change my life for you?” Her cruel words burned her tongue as they came out, and clearly had the same painful affect on Spike.
“You bloody well know it was more than that,” he growled.
“Do I?” She said, her rising anger caused more by her discomfort with lying to this man than any belief in her words. “Look, Spike, get past this. It didn’t mean anything, you were just…”
“I was just what?”
“Convenient.”
The single word hit him like a punch to the solar plexus, knocking all the air out of him and leaving him gasping for breath.
“Bollocks,” he finally hissed. “It was a bloody revelation.”
“What are you TALKING about? Are you crazy?” Buffy exclaimed. “You hardly know me, why are you acting this way?”
“Because it’s what I feel,” he said sincerely, grabbing her from the chair and pulling her up to hold against him. “I felt something the second I looked at you, there’s something between us, you know there is. Every since…I can’t stop thinking about you. I’m drowning in you.”
She almost gave in, just for a moment, but regained control of herself and broke away.
“I don’t feel the same,” she lied. “Spike, please…just let this go.”
“I won’t,” he said after a moment of gazing at her impassive face. “I can’t let it go. But I’ll leave you alone for now.”
He spun around and left, shutting the door behind him quietly. Buffy fell back into her chair as she finally allowed all of her emotions to ravage her body, and burst into tears.
[Reviews - 468]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 4572 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Another update for you all! I had this massive burst of creativity on a long car trip yesterday, so I have about 75% of the story totally completed! I'll probably be posting once a day from here on out, maybe every other if I keep revising. Thanks for your reviews, and enjoy!