Chapter 2
He was staring at her again. Not looking, or casually giving her a passing glance. Nope. He was staring her right in the eyes, his own glinting, that infuriating smirk curling the corner of his lips, legs sprawled and hands framing his crotch. Crude much?
She was chewing her pancake so viciously her teeth ached. Yeah, get that, bleach pest. See if she looked away first.
“I need to go to the gallery.”
Buffy’s gaze jerked to her mother, fork half-forgotten on the way to her gaping mouth. “What! But it’s almost Christmas!”
Joyce sighed. “I don’t like it either, but there is a late shipment coming in today that I have to sign for and unpack. It won’t be long. I’ll probably be back in about two hours.”
Hours? Hours!
She couldn’t stay alone in the house with Spike and his maddening provocation for so long.
The front door had just closed and now they were alone, her appetite gone just like her traitor of a mother. She picked up her cup of coffee instead and looked at him over the rim.
She drank… and promptly spit the contents all over the table.
She could barely hear Spike howl in laughter over the blood rushing to her head. It must have been him! The bastard had put salt in her freaking coffee! Heaps of it!
Okay. This was it. He’d better run because he had one pissed off slayer on his hands.
*******
Seeing the expression on the bint’s face when she had a taste of the salty coffee was priceless, almost enough to compensate for the time she’d dropped an organ on him and broken his spine.
His abs were aching he was laughing so much! This was even better than that one time he and Dru had kidnapped those two mimes and made them cry and scream for mercy.
But wait, the Slayer was rising from her chair and stalking towards him, all crimson cheeks and tight-lipped smile. Well, that didn’t bode well for him at all.
Not that he was scared or anything. He was the Slayer of Slayers, he’d been scourging Europe for decades, painting the towns blood re—
“Now, now, Slayer, you wouldn’t want to make your mum mad, would you?” He jumped from his chair and surreptitiously placed it between him and the impending disaster in the form of an enraged Slayer. “Ought to act all nice and gracious to your guests.”
“Oh, she’ll forgive me eventually. As long as I vacuum you up.”
“That’s a bit heartless. Thought you liked me enough to scatter me in the wind at least.”
She scoffed. “Knowing you, you’d probably get in my hair.” The wooden legs of the chair skidded along the tiles as she dragged it to the side.
Spike gulped, eyes darting around in search of escape routes.
Fuck, the sun was up, which meant the back door was out of question.
The Slayer growled.
Maybe he’d make it to the sewer entrance, even without the protection of his coat.
Yeah. Probably not.
“Don’t see what got your knickers in a tw—” The rest of the sentence cut off with a squeak as she gripped his throat and squeezed. The edge of the kitchen island dug into his lower back as she bent him backwards, the glimmer in her unblinking eyes just a tiny bit unsettling.
“Don’t you worry about my knickers, Spike. You should be worrying about yours.”
Well, it wasn’t as if he wore any, a fact he was suddenly regretting when her pelvis rubbed against his goodies in just the wrong way.
Her brows furrowed as she wiggled her hips then froze.
She let go of him as though he’d caught on fire.
“You… you… disgusting…” She started sputtering, jumping away and wiping her palms on her thighs as if he had fleas.
“Well, what did you expect? You grab a bloke by his throat and grind against his cock, this is what you’re going to get!” Bloody stuck up bitch.
Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment and rage, and yeah… all that blood pumping…
She turned on her heel and dashed out of the kitchen, fluttering virtue intact.
No wonder she was so high strung all the time. Now only if she’d find a bloke stupid enough to stick it to her good. Might do all of them a favour.
Adjusting himself, Spike headed towards the fridge and retrieved a pack of blood.
All the flowing hormones had made him hungry.
*******
He was disgusting! A pervert! And what the hell was in his pants? A freaking cucumber?
“Oh God.” She flopped down on her bed face-first, glad her mother wasn’t home to witness the spectacle.
Why had she pressed him into the island? Hadn’t she learned last year that Spike was obviously a kinky bastard who got off on being hit and pushed against hard surfaces, kitchen furniture specifically?
Don’t think about ‘hard’. There wasn’t anything hard at all!
Getting hit was probably like getting to third base for him. Oh no. She’d been to third base with Spike! How much lower could one possibly go?
Her skin was tingling with disgust, her stomach flipping with something that could only be nausea and why couldn’t she get it out of her head that Spike was apparently leaning to the left?
“Someone kill me now.”
*******
The house was eerily quiet. The kind of foreboding quiet that probably meant Spike was up to something nefarious. And while she’d been hiding—uhh, regrouping—in her room, God only knew what he could have come up with to mess up her holidays even more. Sometimes she wondered if now that he’d lost his bite, his only purpose in unlife was to make her hair turn prematurely grey.
She ventured out of her room, scanning the corridor for anything out of place.
“You better not be doing anything evil,” she muttered as she made her way down the stairs.
And just as she expected, he was… oh. Sleeping. Well, that was disappointing. Or, a pleasant change, more like. Because she— in no way, shape or form— enjoyed their constant battle of wits. After all, everyone with half a brain knew silent Spike was the best kind of Spike. Probably why Harmony dated him, since she seemed to have cotton candy instead of a brain.
Buffy padded up to him, thinking of all the ways she could rudely awaken him. Roll him off the couch, maybe? Blare the Mexican radio station right next to his ear? Dunk his hand in a jar of hot water to see whether vampires could pee themselves? Hey, it was all in the name of science and she was nothing if not science-keen. It was a valid question too because Spike was a big bleached freak who couldn’t keep his hands off booze and hot chocolate. It had to go somewhere, right? Maybe someone should clue him in to the fact that vampires weren’t supposed to eat human food or drink anything but blood.
“You are so weird.”
Spike’s nose twitched, lips parting to let out a sigh. Gross. He better not drool all over her favourite throw pillow.
It was a bit disconcerting to see him asleep, especially when it seemed as if he was always awake, day and night, bouncing all over the place as though his skin could hardly contain all that energy inside. Murderous urges probably gave you quite a boost.
She poked his shoulder.
Snort.
“Are you ticklish, Spike?” she asked, kneeling down to get on eye-level.
Spike, who had been sprawled on his back curled on his side, knees drawn up to his chest as he cuddled an extra purple pillow to his chest. “Mmhmm.”
“You are? Well, that’s just unfortunate, isn’t it?”
His lips smacked, his eyes flickering beneath his eyelids. Someone should tell him he had girly eyelashes. How embarrassing.
“Smells nice,” he slurred in his sleep, face nuzzling into the pillow and she noticed how curly his hair had gotten. It was a riot of ivory, cupid-like ringlets and she considered getting a few snapshots of the sight just so she could print out about a hundred copies and plaster them all over Willy’s.
Maybe I should put my cat ears from Halloween on him first. Not like I even used them.
She was just about to do go up to her room to get them when a hand shot out and clamped around her wrist.
Uh oh. Busted.
And as his eyes slowly blinked open, it was as if her legs had given up on her entirely. Stupid legs with their stupid un-movingness. Now if her brain decided to kick in with the plausible explanation as to why she’d been staring at him, that would be nice. Swell, even.
“What’re you doing?” Spike asked, rising up on his elbow, his hold loosening. Maybe she should just up and leave and never even say a word, but her mouth was already opening and the words were spilling out.
“Doing? Nothing. I wasn—”
“Were you just watching me sleep?” His eyes slitted as he scanned her face and she knew she looked as guilty as hell. Which, not fair. She was supposed to be good at that whole covert op stuff! Slayer, here, hiding the sacred duty for years.
Well, besides that part where your whole high school knew.
“No!”
“You were!” His voice was oddly shrill as he sat up and drew her favourite pillow to his chest like a damsel in distress. “I feel violated.”
“I wasn—”
“Not that I can blame you, really. I know I’m dashing but—”
“I wasn’t staring at you! I was just…” Did he have to look at her like that? With that sardonic twist of lips and head tilted to the side? “I just wanted… my pillow back! You were drooling all over it.”
She yanked it out of his grasp and staggered to her feet with her chin up even though she felt like digging a hole in the backyard and crawling in it until Christmas was over. Possibly even longer.
“Yeah, right,” he snorted, fingers laced over his stomach as he stretched on his back. “Never knew the Slayer had a voyeurism kink. Guess you do have something in common with Angelus after all.”
“You know, Spike, sometimes I really hate you.”
“Only sometimes? Better not be turning soft on me, Slayer.”
“The only soft thing here is you.”
“Now, now, we both know that’s not true.”
Oh boy, did she. “Keep it in your pants, you pervert!”
Turning on her heel and immediately regretting that non-witty response, she ran out of the living room.
Well, at least she’d saved the pillow.
“I suck.”
*******
Dealing with Spike again came a lot sooner than she would have liked, when hunger drove her out of her room. Of course he couldn’t just keep his pasty ass glued to the living room couch. Not when there was a slayer in the kitchen trying to make a sandwich. She was like a neon sign of ‘let’s nag Buffy until she snaps’.
“You going patrolling tonight?” He hopped up on the counter near where she was buttering bread, and snatched a slice of cheese before she could whack his hand away.
“I patrol every night, in case you haven’t noticed.” Ignore him. Just, finish the stupid sandwich and leave.
“Someone’s touchy. Was just making polite conversation.” And maybe one could believe him, if he wasn’t smirking around a piece of cheese he’d stolen from her.
Don’t say a word. Don’t indulge him. He’s not even here. La la la!
“Silent treatment, is it? Have to say, I like this improvement, Slayer. Maybe you should try it on for size more often.”
She sliced the tomato in half with one violent motion, knuckles turning white from her tight grip on the knife’s handle.
“And how very nice of you to make me a sandwich, too. No crust, yeah?” He reached over her to steal another slice of cheese.
Okay, that was it. “Take that cheese and I’ll chop up your fingers like they’re carrots.”
His hand hovered in the air. “Whoa there. Looks like someone needs to take anger management classes.” He shrugged and snatched the cheese before she could blink. “At least I know what to get you for Christmas. If I could be bothered that is, which I’m not.”
It was her favourite kind of cheese and now he was chewing it obnoxiously loudly with his mouth open, smacking his lips, eyes locked on hers with a challenge she couldn’t refuse.
“You’ve got two seconds to run.”
He quirked one eyebrow and slid off the counter like some big jungle cat, landing so close to her that his breath tickled the shell of her ear when he whispered, “Come and get it, Slayer.”
A blood red haze spilled over her vision like ink and all she could see were those mocking eyes, so blue it made her want to look away. Every time he was near she’d feel her bones itch, that dark part of her she didn’t like to acknowledge stretching and pressing against her ribs. She wanted to hunt him down and pin him against the ground, feel his flesh give under her hands.
The moment she drove her elbow into his gut her mind narrowed down to the basic instinct of killkillkill, her heartbeat beating out the rhythm of get closer and feel and hurt. She twisted around, her knee colliding with his groin and knocking him into the kitchen island. She was deep in now, drowning in that part of her that nobody but Spike could unleash so completely.
His mouth moved, voice raspy and deep, catching on something deep inside her and squeezing like a vice. She punched him twice in rapid succession before he ducked, knocked her fist off to the side and growled low in his throat, flinching as he shoved her off. She scented that weakness, that hesitation, like a shark scented blood and the predator in her wanted to tackle him and devour.
He managed to tuck into a roll and slip behind her when she aimed a high kick at his head, bones shifting to let the demon out to play and yes, the chase was on now. His fangs flashed in the low light, his tongue flicking out to catch the drop of blood trickling from his split bottom lip. He matched her blow for blow now, light on his feet like a dancer, never hitting back, but not letting her connect, making her work for it with every sharp inhale and shuddering exhale.
She met his gaze dead on, saw his eyes crinkle at the edges right before he threw a chair right beneath her feet just as she was about to round on him. She jumped over it and landed softly on the balls of her feet. Propelled by the momentum, she jumped forward and tackled him. They skidded across the polished wooden floor into the corridor, her thighs clamped hard over his arching hips. His fingers dug into her thighs and maybe it would have hurt if she was just a girl, but she wasn’t. She was more than that and her nails sank into the flesh of his chest. So close, just skin and bone and flesh away from breaking through his sternum with her bare hands and pulling out his heart, feeling it turn into dust in her palm.
“Slayer.” It was more a sound than a word. A shiver ran down her spine, her eyes locking on his for a beat too long.
Then the front door opened and closed with a slam, a gust of cold wind licking her cheeks.
“I’m home!”
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A massive thank you to everyone who reviewed! It means A LOT. As always, replied to all of you. :)
All4Spike beta'd, just because she's incredible.
All4Spike beta'd, just because she's incredible.
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