Author's Chapter Notes:
Apologies, guys, posted wrong version last night. This one is better! I always wondered how she got that rope round him.
Never Ever Tell by Lilachigh

Meeting 20

Always Laughing

“Ow!” Buffy’s fist smacked hard into Spike’s nose and he roared in pain and sank to his knees in the torn up grass and earth.

“Mind the nose, Slayer! That bloody well hurt!”

“It was meant to. You hit me first.”

“And now I’ve got a broken nose to go with my splitting headache!”

Buffy pulled a length of rope out of her pocket. “Are you going to let me tie you up, or have I got to hit you again?” she asked in exasperation. “You know I’m taking you back to Giles, so you might as well give in.”

Spike stared gloomily at where he’d tried to find the entrance to the Initiative caverns. “I wasn’t trying to escape,” he muttered, dabbing at the blood seeping down his upper lip and licking at it with a tongue that, to Buffy’s mind was far too long and pink and....

“I just wanted them to fix my head. Get the chip out. Make me myself again.”

Buffy hesitated. He looked sort of pathetic, kneeling at her feet. “Look, Spike, I know it must be difficult for you, but it’s happened and we need to know everything you can tell us about those commando guys. And do stop licking your nose blood! It’s gross! Mega gross!”

Spike sat back on his heels and glared up at her. It was deeply shaming to be hit so hard by something that small and slender. The crinkled blonde hair, the smudged make up round her eyes; she looked like a child who’d just gotten out of bed.

He raised an eyebrow at the rope in her hands. “Keen for a bit of bondage, are we, luv? Didn’t know you and Peaches went in for that sort of thing. Well, I knew Liam did, of course. He taught me. Used to tie us all up, me Darla and Dru and leave us for days to see which one of us could get free first. Mind you, he taught us other tricks to play when you’re tied up. Like me to demonstrate?”

Buffy glared down at him. “Spike, if you don’t shut up, I really will break your nose! Stand up!”

In one lithe, graceful movement he was on his feet in front of her, black leather coat swaying round him. She had a silly thought - she’d never seen Spike make an ungraceful movement in all the time she’d known him. Fighting, stalking, sitting or standing, he had a sort of natural elegance. She blinked hard. Natural elegance. Which stupid romance novel had that phrase come from? This was Spike, evil, living dead evil guy. “Hold your arms up!” she commanded briefly.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Tempt me.”

“What?”

“Well, I can fight and we’ll both get hurt and it’ll waste a lot of time when you could be home tucked up in bed asleep. Or - you could tempt me and I’ll let you tie me up.”

Buffy stared at him and shivered. This was ridiculous, but there was a smidgeon of sense in what he was saying. “What do you want?”

“Kiss me!”

“Uggh. In your dreams!”

“One little kiss and no fuss and bother. Sounds like a good trade to me, Slayer.”

Buffy took a deep breath and stepped closer. She needed to pass the rope round him and tie it, but it wasn’t very long and she had to move even closer to pull it close and knot it. If he started fighting, even with the pain the chip gave him, they could be here ages and she wanted to get back to Willow.

She didn’t believe she was doing this, but “Shut your eyes!” she snapped and obediently the long dark lashes flicked down. She stared at his mouth, the shape of it made her feel odd. Knowing that if anyone else ever knew about this she’d never live it down, she reached up - just a little way, how odd, unlike her and Angel, they fitted together so well - and let her mouth touch his.

She’d meant to just drop the lightest kiss on him, but somehow it was hard to break away and his mouth was opening under hers and his cold tongue was sliding across her bottom lip to tangle with hers and the world was spinning and her legs didn’t want to hold her up any more and -

“Enough!” She broke the contact and could feel the breath he didn’t need - and why did he bother breathing? - tickling her ear as she slid the rope round him. She was so close, his chest was touching her breasts where her jacket had fallen open. She knew if she looked up, those dark blue eyes would be staring straight down at her and they’d be laughing. Even when he was hitting her, swearing eternal vengeance, threatening to kill her, she always had the impression that behind his eyes, he was laughing at her. No, not at her, with her.

“That’s bloody tight,” he objected at last as she pulled the knot firmly into place. “You might have broken a rib.”

“Don’t tempt me, Spike!”

“Are we going to walk down the street like this? As if I’m your dog on a lead? Tut, tut, Buffy. What will the neighbours think?!”

Buffy glared again. The last thing she wanted was people telling her mother that she’d been dragging a strange man around on the end of a rope. Biting her lip, she held the tether with one hand and linked the other through Spike’s arm.

“We’ll walk back to Giles’ house like this,” she hissed.

“Um, cosy, love,” Spike purred. “We’ll look as if we’ve just got married and are walking down the aisle.”

And to her horror, he insisted on humming the Wedding March all the way to the front door and refused to stop. God, Spike as her husband! The very thought made her sick to her stomach and was obviously the reason why she had funny tremors running down the backs of her legs, making her thighs tingle and giving her funny little aches and itches somewhere she refused to think about.

Oh gross! There was no spell on earth that would ever make her see him in that way!


Another meeting follows. And yes, we’re finally at “that” part of Something Blue. Please review.





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