“Going to find B, bleached man?”
Spike stopped walking his frame rigid as he turned his head over his shoulder to regard his pestering employee Faith. She stood a good ten feet away on the other side of the hall, her hip and head cocked to the side, her usual trademark smirk in place.
Turning around, he placed his hands on his hips matching a deadly glare to her, the jump-start of their normal staring contests.
Faith and Spike’s relationship had always been this way, since he had brought her into the house. He saw her as a sister now, and many times it was forgotten they had once used to sleep with each other. If it was one thing about Faith that he liked was she didn’t put the pink elephant in the room. To her it was done, it had been fun, but no point in creating reminders. It had been just sex, no emotions for either of them. Faith owed Spike a lot, and she was certainly appreciative of it, at first she had slept with him feeling obligated to repay Spike in the only way she knew of how to give, with her body. When Spike had learned this he had almost put an end to it, trying to reassure that wasn’t the whole point.
It wouldn’t be until Faith had overcome the issues she had before coming to the Giles’ household that she could learn the difference. Only Spike knew the details of what she had overcome. Her only time of openness and vulnerability was after they had sex. She would talk about the johns she had been forced to please, the abuse both Ken and Kakistos had pushed on her. It wasn’t the sex that had bonded their friendship it was those quiet times when Faith had disclosed her dark horrors. It was the only time she had cried in her life, not even her mother’s overdose had affected her, but the acknowledgement of the abuse she endured had and Spike had been the one to comfort her. Not as a lover, not as someone who wanted to be with her, and not because he was the one obligated to because she was sleeping with him. Spike had leant his shoulder because they were friends, and he wanted her to come out strong. He had given her back the power, the strength and the tools to get to where she was today. Sex was no longer a payment when she was with someone; it was something she enjoyed; now her sexual desire was brimming over when at one point she had internally dreaded it.
Faith was the complete opposite of Buffy. She was dark where Buffy was light. The demeanors, behavior, values also vastly different. Spike admired Faith, he cared for her like his own but there was never going to be the level that he held Buffy at. It neither made Faith jealous or somber. Spike had been a good bed companion, but like him, she valued him as where the relationship was. They were too oddly opposite as much as they were the same. Spike could be ruthless but he was a romantic love-bear as much as he would deny it vehemently. He wanted family, and not just to have an ‘heir’ to follow his footsteps. Buffy’s innocence complimented Spike’s dark side and vice versa. Faith had seen the perfection for each other that they were the first night when they had been at Chaos.
“What’s it to you?” Spike threw at her quirking his eyebrow up in challenge only sending Faith into a chuckle.
“Did you notice at dinner?” Faith asked, she began to close the distance between him and her. Her expression grew serious.
“Notice what?”
Faith stared at him giving him an unbelievable stare. “How could you not, it was only the most blatant thing at the table!”
Spike beginning to get frustrated growled. “Well get bleedin’ on it with it!”
Faith’s hands flew up in surrender, in turn taking a step back. “That new boy, Abrams. Man was staring at your girl, and not just staring but looking at her like she was something to bait and trap.” She watched as the expression on Spike’s face grew darker, showing he had so obviously not noticed that one of the new boys had been more than just visually admiring Buffy. “Now it’s hard not to stare, because gotta admit boss, Buffy is quite the looker.” Spike beamed with pride but said nothing. “Though, I’d watch out for that one.”
“Don’t trust him, Faithey?” Spike teased.
“I don’t trust either him or the other new one. I don’t like new people, you know that. Abrams has a lot of balls to undress Buffy with his eyes so openly to not trust him. Then this other guy…I trust Xander’s instinct, but this guy at one point used to work for Riley Finn.”
“The thought didn’t leave my head, Faith.”
“Well…I’m just saying we really trusting these two?”
“Yeah, look Faith we’re in a bloody war. I can’t work all my resources to exhaustion, or things will never get done, and we’ll lose. We need more people in this, so what if one of them used to work for the tossers it’s why I have you, if there’s any ever double crossing.”
“And, the one staring at Buffy?”
Spike grimaced at the mention of it. “I’ll keep an eye on it. But you said it yourself, the chit is a head turner, can’t likely kill every man that admires my girl’s beauty.” Spike told her. She nodded seeing his point. “Besides having them blokes look at her is just a reminder of how jealous they are that I have her. As long as they keep their hands to themselves. But thank you for letting me know if he’s staring too much I’ll rip his bloody eyes of his socket and let you make golf balls out of them.”
Faith beamed at that and Spike patted her head affectionately. “Now toddle off, I got a girl to see.”
“She’s downstairs.” Faith told him as she turned away. “And in her leotard…” Faith didn’t have to see it to know Spike was now picking up his pace to head downstairs.
After dinner, everyone had pretty much gone his or her separate ways. Spike had some things he had to finish up with Wesley and his father, leaving him and Buffy to put off reconciling their time they had started in his office before dinner. He had been expecting her to probably go upstairs though he wasn’t completely surprised she had ended up in the studio he had built for her. Most nights she’d confine herself there until she worked herself tired and he had to drag her to go to bed.
He turned down the hallway that lead to the studio once he came downstairs, most of the house quiet since it was nearing midnight. The kitchen staff was probably cleaned up and in the house staff quarters. He knew the only ones up were some of his crew but milling about quietly. Most of them were all night owls especially Faith who looked like she wasn’t even close to nearing going to bed.
The door to Buffy’s studio was open and the music filled the room but was turned down softly. A piano classical piece played on the speakers, putting anyone at ease upon entering. Spike spied her sitting in the middle of the floor her back to the door while she faced the scenery beyond the French doors that lead to the garden. Her legs stretched out in front of her, her upper half bent forward stretching the back muscles of her legs. She held her stretch for a good eight counts before she eased herself into wide stride stretch, her toes continually pointed out.
Quietly Spike moved into the room. Being sure not to scruff his shoes across the floor to give her warning of his presence. He watched as her neck and shoulders rolled back, relieving the tension. The soft pink of her leotard clung to her skin, highlighting the tan glow of her body.
Spike licked his lips in appreciation both at the view and the very idea that indeed this girl was his. She had given herself to him the night before; the time-shared was beyond anything he had ever felt. Her body had responded to every one of his touches with need. Her cries had twisted his insides and only spurred him on, keeping him staving off his own finish from ending it too quickly. Her warmth had encased his whole being not just the member that was currently moving into its normal hard-on stage whenever Buffy was around him.
The question his father had asked him earlier today echoed into his mind but he refused to read into it too much. He hadn’t loved someone since Cecily and that had burned him. Tore him up from the inside and had left him darker than he was before he was shredded. He tried to ignore that Buffy was the first woman since Cecily that he had really given a care beyond intimacy. Every other woman he had bedded had been just to bed. To fill the void and keep off from facing the fact that in order to love someone again he’d have to be that open to someone.
Spike was a masochist always wanting someone who didn’t want him. It had been Cecily first and now it was Buffy. The blonde had objected to everything about him, disgusted with his whole being and what he stood for. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that she had at one point cringed from his touches just as much as she withered for more when she had first arrived. But Spike couldn’t deny that she wasn’t Cecily, her behavior had been then and now she wanted him to some degree. Cecily had ulterior motives to her wants from Spike. Then Spike had been so naïve and over the moon that his long time desire had changed her mind to wanting him, thinking she had seen him in new light.
Buffy had came to him the night before, and before that she had sought it him out more than once to sleep in his arms. Things were certainly different from her first arrival and neither knew how it happened. But Spike wasn’t one to question it, the woman who had once objected him, wanted him now, something that greatly differed her from Cecily.
Though Spike certainly wasn’t going to contemplate how deep those feelings ran. Was it just the lust and the physical attraction most obviously between them, or was it because she did feel something beyond the physical for him.
He reached out his hand, his fingers skimming the skin of her bare shoulder. She didn’t jump but she shuddered and pushed more into his hand. Buffy didn’t need to turn around to know it was Spike, almost instinct deep within in her gut had told her that it was.
Spike came to squat down behind her. His arms resting lightly on his knees, though his fingers still skimmed over her shoulder and down her back to the edge of where leotard plunged mid-spine.
“Did I miss your dancing?” His voice was a soft whisper, the breath caressing against her skin. He craned his neck to see her face, smiling as her eyes fluttered closed, her mouth slightly parting.
“I was just stretching out, trying to cool down.”
Spike’s lips perked into a lazy smile, his eyes mesmerized by the smooth expanse of her skin. “So I guess I can’t heat you back up?”
She spun around on her butt to face him, her legs bending to accommodate his closeness, and in turn he settled to sit down fully on the ground next to her. “Maybe…” she answered back leaning close to run her lips softly against his.
He groaned, the affects of her perfume sending him into a high and the feeling of her lips against his. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” His words set her on fire and she scooted closer, her body curling into his. “Everything about you sends me around the bleedin’ bend.” She looked up at him, soft smile gracing her lips and something unknown to Spike swelled within him. He swallowed, annoyed that the usual overly cocky persona was deciding to take the back seat at one simple smile from her. He pressed his forehead to hers, his hand coming to caress the back of her neck and bring her closer. “I don’t deserve you, you deserve better, I only got you because I played the devil, and now you’re stuck here, tolerating me. I know this, I know deep down a good part of you hates me, even though you’ve adapted. I’m sorry pet.” Spike’s eyes closed as his words spilled out, the shame that he had trapped her in his dark world. He could play up that Buffy had come to him willing all that he wanted, but at the end of the day she had been pushed to it. Seeing her here in this room, in the house of darkness, where crimes and wrong took play, this room was just like her. She filled it with her innocence and seeing her in it reminded him of the darkness he was surrounding her with.
Buffy pulled away from him, staring at him with confused eyes.
“Tolerate you? Whose to say I tolerate you?” She asked taken aback.
“Okay so maybe it’s barely tolerate me-“
Buffy held up her hand to stop him. “I think we need to have one of those talks on where we stand. Spike…I don’t just tolerate you.” His head cocked to the side, his gaze amused and curious. “Yeah I was so mad to where I just didn’t see anything good about you in the beginning. And I was horrified at what you did, but then I realized some things. Good gracious I’ve been explaining my feelings a lot for you today.”
“Wait who else asked you?”
But Buffy didn’t hear his question, she was going into full babbling nervous Buffy and she could not be stopped until everything was cleared up.
“You remember that day I first came here and we got into that argument.” Buffy watched as horror crossed Spike’s face, he looked away ashamed his body growing tense, which only confused her.
“You don’t need to remind me of that, I know that I was a monster then pet, but I am trying…”
The memory of her slapping him and the anger she had driven him to almost hitting her back flashed in her mind. She gasped, and then shook her head. She had completely forgotten about that moment, mostly because she had completely forgiven him for it, and another because since her stay she had seen a better man other than that moment.
“Spike, I don’t hate you for that.”
Spike looked at her in wild disbelief. “Are you off your rocker?!? I almost hit you, what man does that. No real man that’s for bleedin’ sure!” Spike moved to get up but Buffy stopped him.
“Please stop! You want me to try and explain this and you keep getting it all wrong. I’m not trying to remind you of that moment. We were in a completely different place. You got rightfully angry with me because I hit you.” Spike looked like he was about to interrupt again so she spoke quicker. “This is the whole point I’m trying to make. I got mad at you, for no reason! You had said that day after I had told you that I didn’t like that I was only trying to deny it so I didn’t have to face it…and honestly you were right. You were right all along.”
Spike’s gaze snapped up to sending Buffy aback, his stare so sharp as his shocked eyes looked upon her.
“I’ve always felt something for you, and I was trying to deny it so much. I fought against you in my father’s office when you first kissed me but god was it amazing.” She blushed as she realized the words she was letting come out. “That kiss made me feel something, and I didn’t know what it was at the time so I just completely rejected it and you altogether but I’ve never felt passion like that before. You were always right, there was something from the beginning but my resentment for my father and his work just got in the way and I admit I hated how you went about getting me, which only fueled the fire, but there was always a pull to you. . Spike I was so sheltered. I went to school and then I went to the company where I was even more sheltered. For living in the city I didn’t see much, I worked hard at getting my dance career I didn’t focus on anything else. Even in high school I worked hard to get into a company I barely had any experience with boys.” She blushed furiously as she admitted it. “Then you come along, and you make me all feel these passionate things, offer me this opportunity to live out these desires and I got scared.”
Her lips trembled, and tears formed at the brim of her eyes. Something pulled at Spike, the same something that would always tear at him when he saw Buffy cry. It killed him to see her shed any tears.
“That night I ran from you at Chaos I was scared, you put me in this situation no one had ever put me through. You made me feel things, want things I was never concerned about. Made me see I want passion, I want to be desired for, and continually. I used to think I finish my career I get married and that’s that. But I want more than that. My parents aren’t in love. If you lived in my home you’d see that. They care for each other, I know but it’s only because they’ve been together for so long. But it’s not real love, and I know the only reason they’re staying together is because of Dawnie and me. There’s no affection between them, they just go through the motions. My mother…she always disliked what my father did, she made the rules to never bring it around us, and my father threw himself into his work so much I think it just died between them. It’s all I knew, and I know my mother wished she had the man that she was in love with again. Which only angered me more about my father and then he goes and gives me away. I took it out on you, Spike. I made you the monster to be what I saw my father as. But you’re not a monster.” Tears shed down her cheeks and she clutched to the front of his shirt. “It took me realizing my father not being a monster. I don’t agree with his work, or even yours. But I get it now, why he so willingly gave me to you. It was to protect me, I even knew it then but I just didn’t want to see it. It was to protect my mother, Dawn, and me. Although I might not agree it needed to be done.”
Buffy came closer, her legs coming to wrap around him and he pulled her into his lap. Her hands came to cup either side of his face. “You’re a man, and I see that. I see you, and not just because you were wonderful about helping me adjust to being put into this situation, and not because you waited until I was ready, you’ve always been a man. You’re caring, you’re different from Angelus and Riley, and you’re not a monster.” Her lips pressed to his in a needy kiss and he pulled her closer. Her words touched him within his heart. She saw him, looked at him beyond what he wanted her to see and saw that he wasn’t just some heartless business man.
They both pulled away needed some breath and could only stare into the others eyes. “I don’t know when the undeserved hate went away Spike, but I’m glad it did. I don’t know if what I feel for you is love…” She said in a panic and her eyes held shame.
“Pet, the fact that you don’t even see me as a monster is more than I could ask for.”
“But I do care for you Spike, I like being with you. You make me feel things I’ve never felt before, I’ve just never been in love.”
“I understand. We can take this love possibility slow. You’re an amazing woman Buffy Summers. The passion, that fire, it fuels me to be a better man…well a better man while still being me.” She giggled knowing that he couldn’t become a monk, being a mafia leader was his life.
“Like I said Spike, I don’t tolerate you. I tolerate what you do, but even then I don’t think I would change it. Seeing your parents, how your mother accepts it, gives me hope that I could really reach that point one day.”
He wasn’t sure what stage she meant she’d be at when she accepted. If that meant she would love him and by loving him accepted it or accepted them by being together and her being in the life. The idea that Buffy would ever truly accept his work and that she even handled it now made Spike pull her into another needy kiss. His fingers came down her side and she giggled against his lips, pulling away.
“Take me to bed…”
Spike didn’t have to be told twice before he was off the floor and sweeping her up with him and into his arms. She clung to him as he led her out of the studio he built for her and up to the bedroom for another night of blissful passion.
Her legs felt gooey. Her whole body felt warm, relaxed, and completely in the boneless state. She felt the early morning breeze flow into the bedroom and remembered they had left the window open because it had been an especially warm night, and after the amount of sexcapades they had undergone it was enough to heat up any room. A smile perked on her lips as her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the light. The sun shone into the room and the sheer white curtains billowed in the breeze coming from the open window. Birds could be heard chirping outside the window.
Trying to see if her body was in fact broken, as she had claimed before they had passed out, she wiggled her toes. She smiled, feeling warm arms wrap around her.
“Morning pet.”
“Mmmm morning.” Buffy turned and pulled Spike in for a morning kiss. Minutes flew by as they just lay there side by side, sharing warm sweet kisses.
Heaven She thought.
“Beautiful,” he whispered into her ear, pulling her closer into his embrace. She sighed, her eyes fluttering shut.
Images of their night before played out behind her closed eyes. Moments where he made her gasp, plead, and whimper at the lovely ministrations he played out on her body. It had all seemed endless, for hours they had gone on. Buffy had never thought such thing could occur when it came to sex. But it seemed Spike’s stamina hadn’t planned on slowing down until they both were satisfied many times over. The things he had shown her, the way he molded their bodies, it seemed Spike had been looking to test her flexibility last night.
“Thinking about last night, pet?” Spike asked. She opened her eyes to see him smirking at her and she realized she must have been blushing.
“Maybe.” She pushed him onto his back before climbing his body to a straddle. She looked down upon him, as he lay with his hands behind his head looking up at her with that same lust filled gaze. It made her gasp, and she wondered if any of his penetrating stares would ever stop being so mesmerizing to her at any point.
Below her, he looked absolutely delicious. His hair was completely unruly, her own hands having loosened the gel completely last night. Her hands had also apparently made the defined scratch marks from his shoulders down to the front of his chest. She traced the marks with a hairs touch, shocked that she could have done that.
Spike’s gazed followed hers and watched her hands. “Always knew you had claws kitten.”
“I didn’t hurt you did I?” Buffy asked apprehensively.
He snorted rolling his eyes. “Only spurred me on more need I remind you.” Buffy nodded as she remembered the more she had lost herself in the passion, clawing and even biting at him had only fueled his thrusts into her more. “Besides chits dig scars.” She raised her eyebrow at him, which in turn only made him give her a cheeky grin.
“Well if that’s how it will be.” She said with mock hurt as she began to remover herself. His hands grasped at her waist preventing her from moving away and instead guided her to meet his obvious morning erection. “Goodness does that ever calm?”
“Around you, princess? Never.” And without another word he slipped into her earning him a gasp. He was completely buried within her as she adjusted to it. Already her insides were melting, her body on the outside also heating up, and the movement of his hips beneath her were sending her nerves into shock.
Without much thought she began to rock into a slow rhythm. It was almost natural to her now after last night and now she embraced the feminine power it gave her and having him at her mercy like this. His eyes admired her with hunger and desire. Moisture pooled even more at their joining and her head fell back as she rode him, the tension in her body building slowly. Her hands grasped at him and before she knew it his own locked with hers. She looked down at their joined hands, his other still on her hip as he guided her using his srength to pull her and then push her harder onto him. With each thrust she came down on him she cried out. Neither could tell how much time had passed the pleasure seemed endless and at the same time they couldn’t get enough. Spike sat up meeting her lips in a fevered kiss as she rode him at a complete gallop.
“Spike…gonna…” Her fingers latched onto his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin causing him to hiss in pleasure. Her insides tightened around him and he had no doubt she was just about to go over the edge. He brought his hand in between them down to their joining and pressed his fingers against her clit, bringing her to her peak. She slowed, her muscles tensing, eyes closing and fell over, Spike not far behind her.
Spike fell back bringing her down with him. She clung to him still, shaking from the aftermath of her orgasm. Panting, he ran his hands up and down her back before moving her hair out of her face.
“Morning sex, good.” She observed earning a chuckle from Spike.
“A great perk if you stayed in this room indefinitely.”
She sat up, looking at him cautiously. “You want me to move into this room?”
“Don’t sound so surprised, kitten. What did you think I was going to have us bloody hop bedrooms as if we lived separately? Hardly! A complete waste if you’re right across the hall. I told you that when you first arrived, that once you got more comfortable, you’d be coming into this room.”
“I guess I kind of forgot.”
Spike sat up, looking down at her through lusty eyes behind hooded eyelids. She gulped as his hand slowly crept up her arm, goose bumps rising from his light touch.
“Stay with me.”
It was a soft voice of pleading words, and his stormy eyes that were enough to simply have her agree to anything. Her agreement came out needy and when she broke from her entranced stupor she glared at him, causing him to chuckle and kiss the tip of her nose.
“Face it baby, your knees go weak at the sight of me.”
Buffy vocalized her disagreement with a ‘psh-yeah’. He laughed, got up and headed for the bathroom running the water as he began his morning routine, at the second of his departure, the black lab that was slowly growing from a puppy stood on it’s hind legs on Buffy’s side of the bed, giving her it’s adorable pleading expression to be let up on the bed to join her.
She scooped up puppy Spike and began to scratch behind his ears, all the while avoiding his pouncing to try and lick her face.
“I’m taking you out tomorrow night, pet.” Spike said as he spit and rinsed from brushing his teeth.
“What for?”
“Wining and dining. Just you and me. All romantic like.”
Buffy smiled, they had never gone out for dinner alone, it made her nervous. It would be their ‘first date’ practically and a side of Buffy laughed in her head. Upon her arrival she never would have acknowledged that as what it was, but now she was antsy at the possibility, not wanting to wait until tomorrow evening.
She grabbed the robe on the foot of the bed, the same red one she had come to his room in the night before, slipping into it as she padded over to the bathroom. “So…like a date?” She stood in the doorway facing the mirror behind him as he groomed himself before it.
Spike smirked at her choice of words. “Get all dolled up, kitten. Going to show you the night of your life.”
Leaning against the door jamb Buffy smirked back, letting the robe fall open for him to view in the mirror. “I thought that’s what we did last night…” Spike’s eyes went wide, his mouth practically dropping open. She let the robe completely fall from her body, pooling at her feet as she echoed his words earlier: “Face it baby, your knees go weak at the sight of me.”