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Author's Chapter Notes:
Wow! I’m in awe at the response over the last chapter and I guess my muse is happy, too, since she refuses to follow my outline completely and keeps turning this story into something completely different that I envisioned at first. The only problem with that is that now I’m not sure where the story is going, so I might take a few days to figure what’ll be happening next, unless my muse keeps murmuring in my ear and doesn’t let me stop.

Thank you, MarzBar and Jen, for the very quick and thorough beta; and to Debbie, teasha, spikestheman, jt, Amelia-Jane, DK, SarahandJamesFanatic, Rachael, Vette, Devin, DaniD, Klai and Jamilly, thank you for commenting, I was so unsure with the new direction of the story, you all made me feel better about it. *hugs*
Chapter 20

Buffy couldn’t believe that she had acted like that. A thousand different thoughts swirled in her head at an almost dizzying speed. She’d not only responded to his kisses, but also had clung tightly to him while he did with her as he pleased, with no word of protest coming from her. What in all that was holy had she been thinking? Or rather, how could she have stopped thinking and just reacted? What would he think of her now? He’d probably think that she was just like her sister and who could blame him really? Aimée. He’d been kissing Aimée that morning and now he’d kissed her. Her heart clenched at the thought that he might have kissed her sister as he kissed her. What was this that she was feeling? Was this the love that those novels her mother read talked about? No, it couldn’t be. Love was supposed to be romance, poetry, not this, not this hurricane of emotions that she could barely control.

Could someone love a person they didn’t know? Could she love a person that, judging by what other people said about him, was a delinquent, a ruthless pirate? Or maybe she was more like her sister than she imagined and liked to flirt with men? She tried hard to think of herself kissing someone else, even Angel, and she couldn’t, she could only see his face, she could only feel his lips. Oh God, what was happening to her?

Meanwhile, Spike regarded her, watching the myriad of expressions that her pixie face showed, biding his time and waiting for her reaction to what had happened between them. Patience was not his forte but for her he’d be willing to wait until the end of time. He could hardly believe that he could feel like this for someone he barely knew. It wasn’t lust, although he certainly burned for her. It wasn’t a mere attraction, although for him she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. It was so much more than that. That kiss had shaken him to his very soul. Never before had he felt this much from anyone. What was this that he was feeling?

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter, at least not to him, not anymore. He’d decided that she was going to be his wife and God help anyone that tried to interfere with his plans.

“What color is your hair?”

“Huh?”

“Your hair, what color is it?”

“Hmm, it’s blonde. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing, everything.” He shrugged and then he smiled shyly. “Can I see it?”

“See it? No. No! You can’t!” She shook her head, while passing her hands over her coif, making sure that it was still there, thoroughly confused by the turn this conversation had taken.

“Please?” He turned his charm on fully as he looked at her almost pitifully and pouted a little bit for good measure.

She couldn’t stop the smile that blossomed on her lips when she saw him. He looked like some of the little boys that she took care of at the Convent, the ones she couldn’t bear to say no to. So, she nodded and moved her hands up to remove her veil and coif.

“No, please, allow me,” he said, moving forward to take the offending garments off so he could see and touch her hair for the first time.

Buffy held her breath as he removed her veil and coif with tenderness that strangely didn’t seem foreign to him.

He held his breath as he finally removed the veil and saw the golden blonde braided hair that lay beneath. He decided to push his luck and undid the braid, running his hands lovingly through her hair as it framed her face. He’d thought she was beautiful before, but now he thought her truly breathtaking. And she was there, with him, looking at him with confusion in her eyes, but there was also something else there. It was something that he didn’t dare name, not yet, at least.

“What’s happening?” she asked breathlessly, his tenderness undoing her completely until she didn’t want to run from him, from this, anymore.

“Between us, you mean?” She nodded. “I don’t rightly now, Santa Elizabeth,” he answered sincerely, his gaze locked with hers, so he prepared himself for her to bolt once more when he noticed the anger burning in her eyes. He rolled his eyes inwardly, wishing he could take back the name he’d called her.

“Don’t call me that,” she said gritting her teeth, surprising even herself when she didn’t move away from him.

“So, hmm, what should I call you then?” he asked after he realized that she wasn’t bolting. “Love, Sweetheart?” His voice lowered to a husky whisper as he fondled her hair with one hand, while putting the other on her waist as he leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “My little Goldilocks?”

She shivered at the possessive tone he’d used, her knees turning to jelly when he began pressing little kisses to the shell of her ear, then her cheek, her jaw and finally her lips again, definitely erasing any inclination she’d had to flee.

* ~ * ~ *

Back to Campo Real

“Angel, you’re finally back, son. I missed you,” Darla said as soon as Angel joined her in the living room. “How was your trip?”

Angel kissed his mother’s cheek and sat by her side. “My trip was wonderful, mother. Aimée and I will get married in three months.”

“Three months? B-but that’s hardly a prudent time, people will talk—”

“So let them talk, mother. I refuse to wait any longer,” he replied decisively, his tone letting little if any choice to his mother but to nod.

“All right, so I imagine we will have to make a visit to the Summers’ to ask for Aimée’s hand in marriage, then.”

“I knew you’d see things my way, mother,” Angel said smugly. “I met Elizabeth during my visit.”

“And?” Darla pressed, hoping that there was still a chance that her son changed his mind.

“And she’s a beautiful girl, like you said. She also told me that she was very happy that she will take her vows very soon. She sounded so sure of her vocation that I think it must have been a relief for her that I decided not to marry her.”

“Yes, of course, it must have been,” Darla replied, knowing very well that relief had been the last thing Elizabeth must had felt.

“Oh, and another thing, mother.”

“Yes?” Darla said, dreading what her son might tell her now.

“I found the ideal person to become the new Administrator.”

“New?” ‘Oh, God, this wasn’t good. Who knows what Snyder will do when he finds out,’ Darla thought as she paled.

“Yes, I’m not pleased with the way things have run in Campo Real while I’ve been away. So I’ve decided to hire a new Administrator, someone I can trust completely. He’ll start in the post in three months.”

“Who?” Darla said, her voice almost a whisper, as a bad feeling ran through her.

“William. You remember him, don’t you?” Angel said, not waiting for his mother’s reply before he got up from his seat and moved to the stairs. “I’m a bit tired from the trip, I’ll see you at dinner, mother.”

He was at the middle of the stairs when he turned to his shell-shocked mother. “Oh, and since you were the one that hired Snyder, you can inform him that if he still wishes to stay in Campo Real, he’s welcome to, not as Administrator, but as First Foreman. Things are going to return to the way they were when my father was alive.”

tbc





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