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Author's Chapter Notes:
I want to wish a (slightly belated) Happy Birthday to one of my most loyal readers and reviewers, Amelia-Jane. This chapter is dedicated to you, cariño. Hope you enjoy it!


And a huge thank you to Kimber, Amelia-Jane, DaniD and Devin, for reviewing. I love reading what you think of the story; you wouldn’t believe how much it helps me when I’m struggling with any part. And of course, thank you to my awesome beta, MarzBar.
Chapter 27

Spike nodded, swallowing hard at the menacing glare María threw him, before she left the room trying to contain her laughter at his expression. Yeah, she definitely was not a woman he wanted to piss off.

“I think she actually likes me more than she is willing to admit,” Spike joked once María closed the door, turning his head back to look into Buffy’s upturned face, which he was still holding in his hands, only to find her with looking at him with a sullen expression in her face. “What’s the matter, love?”

“I don’t want you to go,” Buffy said with a small voice, pouting a little.

“I don’t want to leave either, sweetheart, but I have to. I told you before, my crew is counting on me. And this will be my last trip, I promise, there’ll be no more trips for William the Bloody after this. When I come back, I’ll take a job I’ve been offered on terra firma, we’ll get married and we’ll be together forever. Now, show me that gorgeous smile of yours again,” he said, smiling at how adorable she looked as she tried to comply with his request.

“I know you have to go, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Buffy said as she tried to force a smile. It wasn’t easy for her, especially since she didn’t feel she had any reason at all to smile. So much could happen in three months, he could meet someone else, he could forget about her and never come back. It had all been like a wonderful dream, but it had happened so fast, how could she be sure that it was real?

“It is real, love,” Spike said, answering the question that she hadn’t realized she had asked aloud. “I felt it was from the first time I saw you. I couldn’t think of anyone else but you—”

“Not even my sister?” she interrupted him, jealousy seeping in her tone.

‘So the time to come clean about Aimée has come,’ William thought, deciding he’d be as honest as he possibly could with Buffy and hoping against hope that she would understand. “Not even your sister,” he said. He saw her disbelieving gaze and took a deep breath before continuing. “I-I had an affair with her and I even thought of asking her to be my wife. Wait, let me finish, please?” he pleaded, when she tried to escape from his arms, taking her by the wrists to prevent her from escaping.

“Let me go.” Buffy gritted her teeth as she tried to free her wrists so she could get away from him. It hurt too much to listen to him confirming her suspicions. Even if on some level she had known that something had happened between Aimée and him, she’d hoped that it hadn’t been anything serious, but he’d thought of marrying her? Oh, God, why, why, why did these things happen to her?

“Listen to me, love, please? You have to believe me when I tell you that I didn’t care for your sister, not like I care for you. I have never cared for anyone like I do for you. From the moment I first saw you, I haven’t been able to take you out of my thoughts or my heart. Even when I had no hope that you would ever return my feelings, I just knew that I would never feel like this for anybody else,” he said, praying to a God he didn’t believe in to put the words in his mouth that would convince her of the truth of his feelings. He released her since, at least for the time being, she seemed to have calmed somewhat and while she wasn’t looking at him, she appeared to be listening to what he was saying. Maybe he had a chance to make her see that he wasn’t playing with her, that he loved her more than he ever thought he would love someone?

“You see, I’d never loved anyone before and I was willing to settle for a woman I thought would be a good wife.” Buffy almost laughed out loud at that. Aimée, good wife-material? Hee, that was almost hilarious. Men could be so gullible, thinking that a pretty face equaled a good wife, without caring for other qualities that were much more valuable than beauty. “But then I met you and you brandished that candelabrum at me and you bewitched me. I couldn’t stop thinking of you, of how beautiful, vibrant and passionate you were in your anger. I’ve only talked with your sister once after that first encounter with you in her room and the only thing I remember from that conversation was what she said about you. Please, Buffy, I love you, I want to marry you, not her; believe me, please?”

“I want to, oh God, you wouldn’t believe how much I want to, but…” she began saying, finally looking back at him. Why couldn’t she believe him if she’d gone through something similar? Hadn’t she forgotten all about her so-called love for Angel after their first kiss? Sure he’d had—she shuddered at the mere thought—something to do with her sister, but hadn’t María told her over and over and over ‘lo que no fue en tu año, no te hace daño?’ And really, how could she punish him (and her, for that matter) for being with anyone else before they’d met? And why was she wasting precious time talking with herself when she could be kissing him? It had been well over five minutes and María might interrupt them any minute now.

“But?” he asked, lowering his gaze to the floor as he braced himself for her rejection, only to stumble backwards when Buffy threw herself in his arms and began peppering his face with kisses.

No more words were needed after that. Spike moved his hands to her waist and pulled her flush to his chest, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. He still couldn’t believe that she was in his arms again, he’d been sure he’d lost her after telling her about Aimée. But now…now Buffy, his Buffy, was kissing him without reservation, pouring so much feeling into each kiss that he almost felt like crying.

“I love you, William…and I believe you, I promise I do…and I’ll be praying that time passes by quickly because this three months without you will be like hell on earth for me,” she said breathlessly, after he stopped kissing her, resting his forehead against hers as they gazed into each other’s eyes lovingly.

They stayed like that, sharing kisses that robbed them of their breath, looks that showed the depth of their feelings and tender words that stole a piece of the other’s heart, until a knock was heard on the door.

“Promise me you will wait for me?”

“I will, you know I will. Promise me you won’t forget about me?”

“Like I could ever do that,” He said, looking deeply into her eyes. “You’re in my heart, you’re in my mind, you’re in my blood; of course I won’t forget about you.” They heard a second knock on the door. “I guess I better leave before María comes in with an axe to chase me away.” He gave her a last kiss and walked to the French doors, turning to look at her once more before he left. “I love you, Buffy, never forget that.” And he left, he didn’t want to wait for an answer, knowing that if he saw her crying he wouldn’t leave and he had to.

“I love you, too,” Buffy said quietly, before crumbling down to the floor crying.

She was so lost in her misery that she never heard the door open and didn’t realize she wasn’t alone anymore until her nanny gathered her in her arms and began consoling her.

“Don’t cry, mi niña linda, you’ll see that this three months will fly and when you least expect him, he will be back to marry you and annoy me.” That comment made Buffy smile a little, and María smiled back at her tenderly as she cleaned Buffy’s tears with her handkerchief.

“Oh, María, what would I do without you?”

“With any luck, you won’t have to find out anytime soon, bebe. Now, come, help this vieja get up from the floor and we’ll begin to plan your wedding, how does that sound?”

“It sounds great to me.” Buffy smiled to her nanny as she helped her up. “Nana?”

“Yes, Cariño?”

“Thank you for accepting William.”

“Hee, he isn’t as bad as I thought he might be. Just don’t tell him I said that, all right? Because I will deny it if you do.” María winked at Buffy.

tbc

The next chapter will be the last one before we go back to Campo Real for Aimée and Angel’s wedding and Spike comes back from his trip. So, according to my calculations, we might be finally getting to the middle of this story.

If anyone reading will be having their birthday, in say, the next two months, and would like me to post a chapter of Corazón Salvaje as a gift, just send me an e-mail with your name and birthday date to anamaribelcardenas (at) yahoo (dot) com.

And another thing, my beta is going away on vacation for a while, so if anyone reading wants to cover for her while she’s away, can you contact me to the same address from above? Thank you in advance.





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