A/N: Oooh…pretty! Much thanks to the lovely and multi-talented effection for the wonderful banner. Give me a little inspiration and out pops another update. ; - )
Buffy studied the unending shelves of bedding in the home department of Macy’s. How the hell was she going to decide? She had problems picking out what kind of cereal she was going to have for breakfast and now she was faced with rows upon rows of satin and 300 thread count cotton, in every imaginable color, style, and price.
Glancing around, she saw Angel chatting it up with a pretty saleslady. Spike had gone to the electronics store to look at stereos, leaving Angel to keep her company.
She snorted. More like baby-sit. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand his reservations about leaving her by herself, but she felt like a toddler needing someone to watch her every second.
Sighing, she placed the set of Tommy Hilfiger sheets she was looking at back on the shelf and walked over to Angel and the saleslady.
“Angel, I need help,” she whined.
Angel shot her an annoyed glance before his expression softened and he smiled. “Can you just give me one minute, Buffy?”
“No, I need help now.”
Angel laughed nervously as he looked back to the saleslady. “Heh, kids, they’re so impatient.”
The saleslady giggled. “If you need to help out your daughter-”
“No! Uh, I mean, she’s not my daughter,” Angel said quickly.
“Oh?” The saleslady looked confused. “Then…”
Buffy’s jaw clenched. She didn’t have time for this. They were supposed to meet Spike in twenty minutes and she was nowhere close to picking anything out.
“What do you mean, Daddy? I thought you said I was your little girl.” Buffy batted her eyelashes up at Angel, feigning innocence.
Angel’s eyes went wide. “Buffy!”
Buffy poked her lower lip out. “But Daddy, you promised to help me.”
The saleslady looked angry, her face turning red. Yeah, she probably wasn’t too happy that Angel had ‘lied’ to her.
Angel looked to the pretty saleswoman with utter bewilderment. “I have no idea what’s she talking about. I swear, she’s not my-”
“I have to get back to work. If you need anything, another salesperson would be glad to help you, sir,” the woman practically spat out before turning on her heel and walking away.
“I can’t believe you just did that.” Angel was still shocked, his mouth hanging open slightly.
Okay, so what she’d done was completely wrong and she should be ashamed of her behavior. But when she thought about, she couldn’t contain the bubble of laughter that floated out of her.
“It’s not funny!” Angel cried. “I was this close to getting her phone number.”
“I’m sorry,” she told him, sounding almost sincere until she started giggling again.
Angel scowled. “Fine, whatever. What do you need help with?”
It took her a few minutes to get her laughter under control, but once she did, she noticed Angel was still glaring at her.
“I need you to help me pick some sheets and stuff out.”
“Buffy, we’ve been in this store for almost an hour and you haven’t picked anything out?! Jesus, Spike is going to kill us if we’re not there in fifteen minutes.”
“I know. That’s why you need to-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine, I’ll help,” he said, grabbing her arm and leading her back over to the shelves of merchandise. “What do you like?”
Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Angel rolled his eyes and picked up the closest package. “How about this?”
“Eww.” She scrunched up her nose in distaste. “I hate yellow.”
Placing the package back on the shelf, he grabbed another and held it out for her inspection. “This one’s nice.”
“Yeah, if I was five,” she huffed.
Angel sighed. Hopefully, Spike could sit tight for a few more minutes because he had a feeling this was going to take a while.
Bloody hell, he hated the mall!
Spike sat down in the corner of the food court, hoping that his contact at the Las Vegas Police Department hurried up. Buffy and Angel were due back soon and he’d rather not have to explain why he had snuck away to meet-
“Faith! About bloody time you showed up,” Spike grumbled, standing up to greet her.
Faith shrugged. “Sorry, bleachboy. Something came up.”
“I’m sure. How is Robin these days?”
Smirking, she pulled out a seat and sat down. “Oh, you know him. Still keeping me surprised.”
Spike had met Faith Lehane two years ago after a particularly ugly fight had broken out at The Blue Temple. She was one of the arresting officers and Spike had instantly been attracted to the bad girl in a tan uniform. They’d had quite a go of it for a few months before she found Robin and decided to settle down.
“He’d have to.”
“Don’t you know it,” she replied saucily.
He did, but that didn’t matter now. He had Buffy and suddenly, Faith didn’t seem quite as attractive to him as she once had been.
“So, did you look into that matter for me or what?”
Faith raised an eyebrow. “Fuck, Spike, I’ve never known you to get down to business so quickly. You were always so into the whole-”
“Don’t play bloody games with me, Faith. Just tell me what you found out,” he growled.
“Okay, okay,” she told him, her hands up in defense. “Geez, you must really have a problem with peeping toms.”
“Is that all he was?”
Faith regarded him thoughtfully for a minute before pulling a file folder out of her backpack. She slapped it on the table and flipped open the cover, turning it around so that he could see its contents.
“You know, I could get in deep shit for showing you this,” she mentioned casually. Truth of it was Faith didn’t give a rat’s ass about rules and regulations. In fact, she got off on breaking as many of them as possible.
“Good thing you owed me one, then,” Spike replied with a bored expression. He was in no mood for trading sarcasm with her tonight…or any other night for that matter. “What the soddin’ hell am I supposed t’ be lookin’ at here?”
Rolling her eyes, she snatched the file back from him. “He’s not just a peeping tom, okay? He’s a private detective, a local one.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck! This wasn’t good, not bloody good at all. There was still a chance that he wasn’t hired to look for Buffy, but it seemed like an awfully big coincidence for him not to be.
“Anythin’ else?”
“Well, this guy’s no stranger to being read his Miranda rights. He’s been arrested six times in the last year for trespassing and B & E. Not the most upstanding citizen, huh?”
Spike rubbed his jaw in thought. “Do you know who hired him or what he was lookin’ for?”
“That I couldn’t tell ya. But if you’re really nice, maybe I can look up who he called after he was arrested.” She grinned at him and gave him a wink.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he groaned in frustration. He looked back at her, a shudder running down his spine. “How nice are we talkin’ here, Faith?”
She tapped her fingernails against the laminate surface of the table and leaned in towards him. “Well…I was kinda hopin’ that-”
“Wait,” he said quickly. “Look, I’m with someone, Faith. I can’t get involved with you like that. I need t’ know about that guy, but not so much that I’d sleep with you and fuck up what I’ve got going with this girl.”
Faith just gaped at him, her mouth slack as she blinked slowly as if trying to process his rejection. Hasn’t the bloody bint ever been turned down? She was acting as if he had just told her the world was actually round rather than flat.
And then she laughed.
“Whot?” Spike asked indignantly, growing quite uncomfortable as her laughter not only continued, but got louder and harder until she was almost doubled over with it.
“You-You…” She pointed at him. “You? Mr. Bang-Anything-With-Tits? Fuckin’ involved?! Color me freakin’ shocked!”
“Fuck you! You have no fuckin’ room t’ talk, you soddin’ tart!”
At his angry words, Faith stopped laughing. “Hey, calm down, man. I was just freakin’ kidding.”
Spike’s jaw clenched tightly to keep more insults from spewing out. Like it or not, she was the only way he could get any information on that asshole poking his nose around where it didn’t belong. Best not to anger the bitch.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“’S cool,” she told him. “Besides, I don’t want to fuck you.”
Shit, now color him shocked.
He raised his scarred eyebrow. “No? What then?”
A small part of him wanted to ask her why she didn’t want to ride him six ways from Sunday. It didn’t really matter, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she didn’t think he was quite the stud she had once claimed he was.
Her cheeks turned a little pink and she looked down at the floor. “Well, me and Robin’s anniversary is coming up and I thought you could hook me up. You know, with some VIP passes to The Blue Temple, maybe a suite at Caesar’s Palace…?”
Er…okay. He had not expected her to ask him for that. But it was good, very good. What she wanted was only a couple of phone calls away and then they’d be even.
“I think I could manage that. How soon could you find out who he contacted?” Spike asked.
She took a deep breath and held it for a minute as she calculated the time in her head. “Tomorrow. Friday at the latest.”
He nodded. “You’ll let me know, then?”
“Sure thing, baby,” she replied as she leaned forward and gave him a dry kiss on the cheek.
He smiled at her and watched as she plopped back into her chair, revealing Buffy and Angel standing behind her.
Ah, fuck.
Buffy and Angel rode the escalator down to the first floor to meet Spike in the food court. She had finally picked out something that she liked, much to Angel’s relief. It was a set of deep orange and vivid red sheets and matching pillowcases with a huge comforter that was bordered with gold threading and rich crimson velvet.
“Do you think Spike will like them?” Buffy asked as they stepped off the moving stairway.
Angel smirked. “With you wrapped up in them, of course he will.”
Buffy blushed and glanced away. Was it that obvious to everyone that she and Spike were together? Did they know what kind of things he had done to her body? Could they tell?
Just when she was going to die of embarrassment, she spotted Spike sitting in the far corner. And he wasn’t alone.
She looked at Angel and was not reassured at all by the grim expression on his face. Who the hell was she and why was she sitting with her boyfriend?
“Angel?”
“I’m sure it’s not what it looks like, Buff. He probably just ran into her while he was waiting for us,” he told her.
“Do you know her?” She asked as they quickly approached the table.
Angel seemed nervous, which made her feel even worse. “Uh, well…”
“Sure thing, baby.”
Buffy’s eyes bugged out of her head as she watched the woman lean over and kiss Spike. She just…and he just…oh, God! Her heart felt like it had been stabbed straight through with a dull knife and she slapped her hand against her chest to stop the pain.
How could he do that? Did she mean so little to him that he could just let another woman kiss him? She wanted to run away, but Angel had his arm around her waist, holding her in the situation as if knowing her intentions.
The woman sat back down in her chair and revealed a smiling Spike, who noticed them standing there almost instantly. His smile faded away and he moved to get up from his seat.
“Buffy,” he said quickly. “There you are, luv. I was wonderin’ what happened t’ you.”
Buffy tried to back away from him as he reached out to touch her, but Angel held fast and steady. The tears were welling up in her eyes and she tried hard to keep them at bay. She wasn’t going to cry, not in front of him.
He looked confused as she continued to back into Angel. “Pet, what’s wrong?”
What’s wrong?! How could he ask her that? She had caught him red-handed kissing another woman and he had the nerve to ask her what was wrong? Goddamn asshole!
The woman had stood up and was now standing next to Spike. “Angel, how’ve ya been?”
“Not bad, Faith. How about you?” Angel said through clenched teeth.
“Five by five,” she replied, snapping her head to the side in a half-shrug.
“Buffy-” Spike began.
Faith stepped between them. “So you boys gonna introduce me or- Hey!” She glanced over her shoulder at Spike and pointed to Buffy. “This her?”
“Yeah,” Spike told her, pushing past Faith as he closed the distance between himself and Buffy. He grabbed Buffy around the waist and yanked her away from Angel. “This is my girl, Buffy.”
Faith nodded. “Alright, alright. What’s up, B? I’m Faith.” She offered Buffy her hand.
Hesitantly, Buffy took Faith’s hand, letting the other woman shake it forcefully.
She was so confused.
“What are you doing here, Faith?” Angel asked.
“I was just-”
“She was lookin’ for an anniversary present for her fiancé,” Spike blurted out.
Faith’s eyebrows went together before she nodded slowly. “Uh, yeah. I was, uh, shopping and I saw Spike sittin’ over here so I thought I’d come say hi.”
Despite Faith’s collaborating story, Buffy knew there was something else going on. She wanted to believe Spike, but the proof had been right in front of her. And worse yet, they were both lying.
“So, I’m sure Faith still has a lot of shoppin’ t’ do. And we should probably get goin‘,” Spike said.
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys later,” Faith replied. “Nice to meet you, B. Hope to see you around soon.”
“Yeah,” Buffy said weakly. “See you soon.”
What the hell just happened?
Dinner hadn’t gone well. Between Angel’s scowls and Buffy’s sad bewilderment, Spike was at a loss. He knew that he could clear everything up with just a simple explanation, but then he would have to tell her about the private investigator who may or may not be working for her father.
Whether it was right or not, he decided that he would just keep quiet about it for now. There was no sense in making the girl worry until there was actually something to worry about. She was stressed enough as it was.
Yeah, because she saw you with another woman, you wanker. Now she probably thinks you’re screwin’ around.
The ride back to the apartment was silent, almost deafening. After Angel dropped them off, the silence hadn’t gone away. They walked to the apartment and Spike unlocked the door.
“Buffy?”
She didn’t acknowledge him at all. Not a look, not a sound.
“Luv?”
She brushed past him and dropped her bags on the floor before hightailing it to her room, her door slamming shut with such a force that Spike could feel its vibrations.
Fuck. He had really bollixed things up this time.
Walking over to her door, he raised his fist to knock on it. “Buffy, baby, can I come in?”
There was no answer.
“Buffy?”
After the fourth attempt to get her to open the door, Spike lost his patience and stormed into her room. He found her lying on the bare mattress, crying, her body shaking.
“Buffy,” he said, sitting down on the bed next to her. He reached out to touch her shoulder.
Suddenly, she slapped him away and shot up so that she was kneeling on the mattress. “Get away from me!”
“Luv, c’mon, don’t be like that.”
“Just leave me alone!”
“Buf-”
“Go away!” She slammed her fists into his chest, trying to make he move, but he was too quick and he grabbed her wrists to stop her.
“You’re being bloody ridiculous!” He shouted at her.
She stopped struggling against his hold. “You’re always saying that. I’m not ridiculous. I know what I saw, Spike.”
“Oh? And what is it that you think you saw?”
“She was kissing you!”
Spike shook his head. “No, she kissed my cheek and that’s it.”
Her fierce expression faltered for a moment, but then came back with a vengeance. “It was still a kiss.”
“I beg t’ differ, little girl. If you don’t think there’s a difference then I must have been doin’ somethin’ wrong.”
“What are you-”
He yanked her against his chest and crushed his lips to hers. Letting go of one wrist, his arm wrapped around her waist and held her tightly. His tongue slipped between her lips and he tasted her sweetness.
Fuck, she was hot and all of her struggling was making his body respond, her body rubbing against his in all the right places. He picked her up and laid her down, his hips sliding between her thighs, feeling her heat seeping through their jeans.
It wasn’t long before she stopped fighting him and her free hand moved up to rake through his hair. She moaned, her hips bucking slightly as he ground against her.
He left her mouth, choosing a path across her jaw and down to the slender column of her neck.
“Fuck, luv. Why would I want a trollop like her when I’ve got you? My hot, sweet girl. Taste like raspberries,” he rasped in her ear as he licked a small patch of skin just below.
Her back arched as his palm found her breast, rubbing against her hardened nipple.
“Wanna taste you. Will you let me, sweet girl?”
Buffy’s brain was muddled with lust. She knew she should tell him no. He still hadn’t explained himself from earlier and she kept trying to convince herself that she was still really upset with him.
But then he did that little flutter thing with his tongue against her ear and she forgot all about…what was her name?
“Spike,” she moaned, her hand grasping his hair and holding him against her neck.
He must have taken that as a yes because soon he was pulling her shirt up and over her head. She watched him kiss his way down her neck and over her collarbone towards the lacey edge of her bra. He licked around the soft lines, his hot breath soaking through the thin material and making her nipples stand at a painful attention.
He released her other wrist to reach around and undo the clasp of her bra, peeling the undergarment away from her moist skin.
“Beautiful,” he whispered as he took one hard nub into his mouth. Her eyes squeezed shut as he continued to work his magic over her breasts, switching from one to the other seamlessly.
She could feel his hard length grinding into her and images of him naked flashed behind her closed eyelids. It wasn’t the first time she had thought of him since that night in the shower, but this was the first time she wanted to do something other than daydream about it.
He was unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them off her legs before she could even grasp what he was doing, leaving her in only her tiny cotton panties. She could feel the rough denim of his jeans scraping against her inner thighs and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his hips.
“God, Buffy! So hot, baby.”
She knew that she had promised herself that she would wait for him lead the way, but she really wanted to touch him. All of him. Her hands slid down his back and slithered underneath his t-shirt, feeling his smooth skin under her fingertips.
He groaned and she felt her courage grow. Lifting the edge of his shirt, she pulled up, amazed when he helped her yank it off. They were skin to skin now, his hard chest rubbing against her.
He moved back up her body, his lips brushing hers, his tongue sliding out to wet her soft skin. Her hands made the slow path towards his waist, her fingertips playing with the waistband of his jeans.
The movement seemed to go unnoticed as he continued to kiss her, his hands caressing her breasts, kneading and massaging until her skin was tingling. Her hands moved forward to his button fly and started pushing the hard metal tabs through their holes.
A low growl rumbled in his chest once he realized what she was doing and he grabbed her wrist.
“Buffy, what’re you doin’?”
She looked up into his stormy blue eyes. “I want to touch you,” she whispered, her voice shaky.
“We shoul- Oh, fuckin’ hell!”
She had wiggled her other hand between them and grabbed his hard length, her fingers squeezing him. His eyes rolled back into his head and he thrust his hips towards her, his cock sliding more firmly in her closed fist.
His body straightened as he sat back on his knees. Her hand started to move experimentally up and down and she glanced at his face to see his reaction. His eyes were shut and he was panting, a look of tortured bliss spread across his face.
He grunted, his hips jerking. “Gonna kill me, luv.”
She gasped and yanked her hand away. Had she been hurting him?
His eyes opened and he stared down at her. For a moment, his expression was blank and she worried that she had truly done something wrong.
Then suddenly, he dropped down, his hips sliding up until his cock was lying against her cotton-covered slit. She could feel the hard piece of flesh throbbing, sending sparks from her sensitive pearl of nerves outward through her whole body.
“You feel it, pet? What you do t’ me? Fuck, wanna feel you so bad,” he said roughly as his hips began to move.
A rush of white hot pleasure washed over her as his cock slid back and forth against her. He began slowly, picking up the pace in steps. The friction was making her crazy and she needed him to go faster, harder.
“Spike, please,” she moaned, her hands grabbing his strong arms and holding on as he started to move quicker.
“This what you want? Feelin’ my cock against your hot lil’ quim? Hmm? This what you want?” His voice had become strained as he pushed himself a little harder.
She was too far gone to be embarrassed by his dirty talk. In fact, hearing him made her even more aroused, if that was possible. With every word and sound, she was closer to finding release.
“C’mon, baby. Tell me. You like this? You want more?”
When she didn’t answer, he reached up and pinched her nipple. She cried out, her back curving up.
“Say it, luv. I need you t’ say it.”
He pinched her again and she screamed. “Yes! I like it! Yes, God, please don’t stop!”
He slipped his hands under her ass and lifted her up, then he ground into her with all that he had. His hips quickened their pace as he slid over her. Buffy could feel the once slow build-up skyrocket and she dug her nails into his arms as she came, wave after wave crashing over her.
Spike roared in completion as his seed came out in short spurts, plopping onto her lower belly and panties. He sat up a little, grabbing the base of his cock and coaxing his climax to continue, jerking as aftershocks jolted him.
Collapsing beside her, Spike just lay still for a moment, trying to catch his breath. He rolled towards her, propping his head on his hand.
“You okay, luv?” He asked breathlessly, his hand coming up to stroke her cheek.
Buffy nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”
He grinned. “You’re bloody incredible, you know that?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah,” he told her, his hand drifting downward to brush across her stomach. “Only one for me, luv. The only one.”
She smiled at him, but it was partly superficial. He was lying to her and he had promised he wouldn’t ever lie. She didn’t know if the secret he was keeping had anything to do with Faith, but either way, she felt betrayed.
God, she loved him so much. She didn’t know if she could handle the truth if it meant that they couldn’t be together. But she couldn’t allow him to keep her in the dark. She needed to know. One way or another.
A/N: I know this one has been moving a bit slooooow. I know and I’m sorry, but those couple of boring chapters were needed. Thoughts…questions…comments? Hello? Hehe! Thanks to all of my wonderful reviewers for stickin’ with me through the rough patches. ~Much luv, Jae