"Fucking bitch!" Spike yelled in frustration as he hurled his glass at the wall, making it shatter into a million tiny pieces.



He had just gotten back to Sunnyhell, and already the Slayer was mucking everything up for him. The stupid bint had actually had the nerve to almost laugh in his face when he ran into her at that frat party last week.



"Lose a bet my ass." The vampire growled, as he recalled Buffy's insult in regard to him dating Harmony.



Sad thing was, he had sent the blond vampire packing that night, and told her to hit the road. Didn't matter anyway, the idiot had already told the Slayer about the Gem of Amara. Now, Spike had to be extra careful. He knew Buffy would do everything in her power to stop him from getting his hands on the gem.



Exhaling slowly, he tried to calm himself, and decided to go for a walk. Maybe that way he would stop thinking about the woman that plagued his every thought recently.



***********************************************************************



Buffy was enjoying her patrol tonight. She'd been so busy and stressed with school that she hadn't really had a chance to decompress. She stopped for a moment to stretch and enjoy the cool night breeze, when she suddenly felt a presence behind her. In an instant she was facing the biggest pain in her ass and his trademark smirk.



"Out for a walk, are we, Slayer? Should be more careful ya know, this time of night, wouldn't want any nasties getting a taste of you, now would we?" he asked in a half teasing, half sarcastic tone.



"What's the matter, Spike? Harmony busy painting her nails or something?" she retorted with an inward grin, knowing it wouldn't take much to set the vampire off. That was the one thing she definitely loved about Spike... fighting him in any way, was never boring.



"Wouldn't know, pet. Haven't seen the bird in nearly a week. But enough talk about her. Haven't you missed me, luv? Come now, give us a kiss." Spike taunted as he extended his arms in an over the top fashion.



Buffy saw that he was trying to goad her, and refused to give in.



"Yeah... sorry, but I have about a million things that I have to go do right now like brush my hair and decide what I'll wear tomorrow." She replied in an uninterested tone.



"What could you possibly want to do more than me?" the vampire made his double meaning inescapably clear as he raised a scarred eyebrow and tucked his tongue behind his teeth.



"Spike, there isn't anything that I wouldn't rather do than you."



That seemed to be the thing that finally set the vampire off as Buffy realized she must have hit a nerve.



Withing an instant he was a breath away from her, staring her down.



"Is that right, Slayer?" he gazed at her with a deadly gleam in his eyes. "Well then, let's see what we can't do to change your mind about that."

Buffy could feel his gaze on her and did her best to remain calm. She quickly surveyed her surroundings, and gulped when she realized that she was nearly backed into a crypt wall. She wasn't gonna be able to get away from Spike without some serious effort, so she decided to take what she viewed as the easier road... piss him off, and make him screw up.

"Not to be a bitch or anything, but I highly doubt that you could change my mind about anything, Spike, especially you."

"And why's that exactly? You know, Slayer, I may be many things, but a liar is not one of them." He paused for a moment, his expression turning into one of amusement.

"For example," the longer he spoke, the closer he inched to her body, until finally he was chest to chest with her. "If I were to tell you that you have never truly felt pleasure... that I could show you things that would make you wanna writhe against me..." he emphasized his words with a grind of his hips against hers. As she felt him move against her, Buffy involuntarily let out a small, breathless gasp.

"You should believe me." He finished with a satisfied smirk.

Buffy wanted to punch him, to tell him that he was a pig and that she never wanted to see him again. Yet the way he was speaking to her and the way his body against hers made her close her eyes in pleasure wouldn't allow her to. Suddenly, she felt cold and could no longer sense him close to her.

When she opened her eyes, Spike was nowhere to be seen.

***********************************************************************

God! It had been so hard to walk away from her. So bloody hard. Spike could barely contain himself long enough to reach his crypt, and the minute he got there, he immediately leaned against the wall and undid the fly of his pants. Taking his dick in his hand, he started slowly stroking it. He couldn't stop thinking about her. It was a disgusting thought. He was a vampire and she was the Slayer. The soddin' Slayer! But as his hand started to speed up, all he could see was her. Her smell, her touch, the way she'd felt against him tonight. And most of all, the small sounds that had escaped her luscious little lips as he ground himself against her. He started replaying them in his head and within seconds, he felt himself shudder in climax.

***********************************************************************

It took Buffy three hours to be able to fall asleep, and when she finally dozed off, her night was filled with Spike. When she awoke in the morning, she found that her sheets were covered in sweat. This was going to be a long day.

***********************************************************************

"Parker?"

"Buffy. Buffy Summers, this is Katie Loomis." The girl waved at Buffy with a big smile. Buffy didn't want to be untrusting, but after last night... after her and Parker had... well, it was just a little unnerving to see him talking so intimately with another woman.

"What's going on?"

Parker looked a bit uncomfortable for a second, but he quickly smiled. "Hey, Katie, you're going to be late for class. I'll catch up later, okay."

"She's a friend of yours." Buffy stated, hoping that was the case.

"Yeah, you'd like her a bunch. So, what's up?"

"Well, um you didn't call. I'd, uh, I understand if you were busy or... sick or something."

"It's only been a few days. You need to talk to me about something." He asked her with a concerned look on his face.

Don't ask him, don't do it, don't-- "Is everything okay?" she blurted before she could stop herself.

"Sure it is." Parker replied with a smile.

"It is?"

"Sure."

Buffy grinned at his words. Maybe she wasn't wrong about Parker. Maybe she'd finally found a nice guy. "Oh, um, so maybe do you wanna do something?"

"Sure, we could do that absolutely."

"So what about tonight? she asked, trying not to sound too eager.

"Oh... Uh... I think I'm supposed to get together with some people later..."

Buffy's smile faded. Oh, god, please no... "Parker did I do something wrong?"

"Something wrong? No, of course not. It was fun didn't you have fun. Watch out how you answer that. My ego is fragile." He joked lamely.

"You had fun? Was that all it was?"

"What else was it supposed to be?"

She couldn't handle this. Memories of Angel flooded her mind. And even though she knew that had been Angelus, it didn't make it any better.

"It seemed like you liked me."

"I do. But I'm starting to feel like you felt what? Some kind of commitment? Are you sure that's what you want right now?"

"I just thought..."

"I'm sorry if you missed something. I thought things were pretty clear."

Buffy couldn't believe this was happening. In a final attempt, she ran after the boy calling out his name.

"Parker wait. I did this all wrong."

"No, it's cool. We'll hook up later."

As he walked away, she could barely contain the tears. God, she'd been so stupid by sleeping with him! How could she have fallen for his act? In that instant, her thoughts were interrupted by the last voice she wanted to hear.

"Wow. That was pathetic."

Buffy barely had time to register her surroundings before she realized she couldn't move.

"What the f--"

"Slayer, nice of you to join us. Was beginning to think you were never gonna wake up." Spike said cheerily.

"Spike..." she spat. "Where am I? What the hell is this? Untie me right now or I swear to god I'll--"

"You'll what? Bore me to death with useless threats?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"Where am I?" she ground out.

"Somewhere you won't be found, now shut your gob."

Buffy took a moment to look around. She was tied to a chair and had a pounding headache. The place was dark and underground, but she couldn't tell whether they were still in Sunnydale or not. The last thing she remembered was Spike's fist connecting with her face at the campus... outside... in the sunlight.

"What... you're not dead." She said slowly.

"No, I'm not. Whatever gave you the impression that I was?" Spike asked confused.

"I saw you. You were in the sunlight. That should have killed you. Why aren't you..." Suddenly, realization dawned upon her. "The Gem."

Spike laughed, brandishing his ring for her to admire.

"Yeah, funny story that. Was hell gettin' my hands on it, but I'm a resourceful bloke."

"Giles and the others will find me, and when they do I will kill you."

"You really think so?"

"You think some fucking ring will save you, Spike? I have had it with you. Every time I try to get on with my life you show back up in town and fuck everything up. I'm done playing your stupid little games." She seethed.

The vampire looked at her with curiosity for a moment before speaking again.

"Get on with your life, is it? What exactly is your definition of getting on with your life, Slayer? Letting some pathetic excuse for a boy fondle you in a dark corner? Give me a break, Summers. You have no life. You spend all your time fighting and trying to please everyone around you. You're bloody insane if you think a mediocre shag will make it all better." He stared at her now, as if trying to look into her soul.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Spike. You don't know me or anything about my life so why don't you just untie me so I can dust your sorry ass and go home?" Buffy spoke so low that the vampire had to strain to hear her.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, luv. I do know. I know you better than anyone, don't you see? You forget that I've dealt with your kind before." He said knowingly.

"My kind?" she scoffed.

"Slayers. I know what you think, pet. What you fear, what you crave." He whispered, his face inches from hers.

Buffy felt herself shiver at his softly spoken words and his breath on her cheek. She composed herself and looked up at him defiantly.

"What do I crave, Spike?" she asked, holding her breath for his answer.

"That's what we're here to find out."

Spike watched Buffy shiver. He knew she needed release, and most of all, the freedom to be able to achieve that release.

"What do you think about, Slayer, when you're all alone in your bed at night?" he asked in a curious tone.

Buffy was surprised by the question, yet her face remained blank.

"Well, mostly how much easier my life will be once you're dust." She replied snidely.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Think about me at night, do you?" Spike teased.

"Look, what do you want from me? Just let me go!" Buffy yelled.

"Let you go? Slayer, we both know you could have broken out of those bonds centuries ago if you had really wanted to. The question is, why are you here?" he asked as he leaned both hands on her chair, his face inches from hers.

"Because you brought me here, you freak!" Buffy responded, outraged.

"Slayer! Why are you here?" Spike asked once again, making Buffy's lower lip tremble.

"I don't know, okay? Because I'm tired of my friends not understanding what it's like for me, because I'm tired of men always leaving me and not giving a shit about me, and because I'm tired of pretending like I don't want you as much as I do!" Buffy's eyes went wide as she realized what she had just said. She hadn't meant for all of those things to come out, but she had been unable to stop herself from venting. Now, as she looked at the vampire before her, she waited for him to start laughing at her stupidity… yet when he actually did, she reeled, as if she had hoped in the bottom of her heart that he would be kind, and spare her the embarrassment.

"Oh, this is rich! So the Slayer's got her knickers in a twist over me, eh? Pathetic!" Spike mocked her.

Buffy reeled back at his harsh words. Why was he saying this to her? For a moment he had seemed like he actually cared, and now... well, now he was being downright cruel.

"Is that what you brought me here for? To mock me?" Buffy asked in a hurt tone.

"No, Slayer, I brought you here, to give you what you crave… this."

He thought she craved being treated like crap and humiliated? What the hell was wrong with him?

"Look, Spike, I do not crave being mistreated, especially by the likes of you, so untie me now."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, luv. All you've ever craved is this. You need to be treated like this, so you won't feel so horrible about knowing that you're better. Fucked up world, isn't it? You get to have friends, yet they will never be good enough."

"That's not true!" Buffy screamed.

"But it is, pet. They'll never know what it's like. Surely you've realized that, and because they will never know what it's like, they will never suffice. They may help, and even be useful sometimes, but never good enough. That's why you need this. You need to be walked on, and abused so you won't feel the burden of knowing that in the end, they are inconsequential. In the end, Slayer, you'd be better off without them."

Buffy's eyes were watering as she heard the words coming out of Spike's mouth. She started sobbing from shame. It was true… it was all true. She knew these things, and hated herself for thinking them. She felt like a horrible person, because she had always known that she was better… and she despised herself for it. Her friends loved her, and she should have been grateful for their help, yet all she felt was superiority, and so she needed to feel punished, and unimportant, because she deserved it.

"Please… stop." She begged as the tears started flowing freely.

Spike kneeled before her and lifted her chin with his hand.

"Just let me give you what you need, Buffy. I offer you an escape from all the guilt, a place where you don't have to feel like a dreadful person, if only for a few hours. Let me help you find that release you so desperately crave." He whispered to her, as his bright blue eyes locked with hers.

"Spike…" she gasped.

"I know you see the truth… how it could be. Let me give this to you."

"Why?"

"Because I need you as much as you need me."