The party was in full force an hour later. Her parents were dancing to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree and Anya was standing underneath the mistletoe taking volunteers. The room was full of happy, holiday-lovin’ people and Buffy couldn’t be more pleased at how this little shindig was going off.
She’d had her reservations about the party being a success. Compared to Anya and Xander’s party last year, she was sure that hers would bomb. They had decked out their house in thousands of lights and decorations, a twelve-foot tree sat in the middle of their living room, and they had even hired a band.
But with not much more than a boom box, some decorations the kids had made, and a lot of alcohol she was holding her own. Ha! Take that!
Turning her head, she saw William disappear into the kitchen and she felt compelled to follow him.
He was a big part why the party was going so well. To her, he seemed shy and quiet, but to everyone else he was the life of the party. He had no trouble striking up conversations with random people and soon had them laughing uncontrollably.
If she had a type, he wouldn’t be it. She generally was attracted to men who looked like Angel, tall and muscley who acted with all of their masculinity. William couldn’t be accused of any of those things and she found herself completely enamored with him.
When she found him, he had his back to her, fixing a plate on the counter. She had never really gotten a good look at him from the back before and she felt her eyes slide down his strong back towards his butt. It was nice-looking…no, more like drool-worthy, encased in heavy dark-blue denim.
Quietly, she stalked towards him. He didn’t even know what hit him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed herself against his back.
He jumped a little and turned to look over his shoulder at her. “You scared the hell outta me, luv.”
Grinning, she rubbed her hands along the lean muscles of his stomach. “Sorry. I just saw you standing here and couldn’t resist.”
“’M not complainin’ at all,” he replied as one of his hands covered hers.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was low and sensuous, totally unintentional, but unavoidable since she was standing so close to him.
“Your mum wanted t’ try the fudge, but there wasn’t anymore out there,” he told her.
“Aw, that’s so sweet.”
His cheeks turned red. “I like your mum. Thought I’d do her a favor is all.”
“Maybe I should do you a favor then,” she said, her hand slowly dipping south.
He took in a sharp breath, making a gasping noise as she cupped him. Holy Christmas! He was big and hard and completely ready for her. Just from touching his stomach? Maybe Anya was right, he was wound really tight.
She stroked him through the thick material of his jeans, wishing she didn’t have guests out in the living room so she could really touch him. It had been far too long. The last man she was with was almost two years ago and it wasn’t that memorable.
Somehow, she knew William would leave a lasting impression on her. He was already on her mind twenty-four/seven and now she had him in the flesh, which was so much better that the imaginary version.
“B-Buffy,” he whispered, his hips jerking in response to her touch.
This wasn’t her. God, she didn’t just go around picking up strangers and bringing them to her house to take advantage of them. She couldn’t with her children around, not that she would even if she didn’t have kids. But there was something about him that made her want to tear off his clothes and do him on the linoleum.
“Do you like this?” She asked, reaching down farther to cup his balls.
He let out a shuddering sigh. “Oh, God, yes.”
“I wish I could touch you, really touch you. But I can’t,” she rasped, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Not yet, anyway.”
A whimper escaped his lips and he grabbed a hold of the edge of the counter to steady himself. He was completely undone and Buffy couldn’t stop the surge of womanly pride that shot through her.
“William?”
They froze for a moment before Buffy got her brain to work and realized her dad was coming into the kitchen. She untangled her hands from his body and pushed away from him.
“William?” Her dad called again before rounding the corner and appearing in the doorway. “Oh, there you are. My lovely wife is wondering where her chocolate is and I thought I would come and see if you needed any help.”
Great timing, Dad, she thought sarcastically.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find the…uh, um, plates,” William stumbled out. He hadn’t turned around from the counter, needing to hide his very large-ahem-dilemma.
Poor guy! She felt rotten for putting him in this predicament and doubly worse for her dad showing up. This was so embarrassing!
“Here, Dad, I’ll bring out the fudge. William’s doing a little project for me,” she interjected.
Her dad frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re making your guest work on Christmas Eve, Buffy. Let the man enjoy himself.”
Oh, he’s gonna, trust me.
“No! No, it’s all right, Rupert. I volunteered,” William said, his voiced strained.
“Okay, just wanted to make sure she wasn’t riding you too hard.”
Both her and William’s eyes went wide at that. William turned his head to gape at Rupert. No, it was fine, her dad hadn’t seen anything. He was just making a comment, a very non-sexual-there’s-nothing-going-on-here comment.
“No riding at all, sir.” William moved closer to the counter, if that was even possible.
“Good. Now where’s that candy, your mother is going crazy.”
After Buffy and Rupert left the kitchen, William tried to will away his erection. He felt like such a git not being able to control himself.
In all fairness though, he never thought she would touch him like that. He was pretty horrible at reading women, but he was sure that she wanted him. Well, fairly sure, anyway.
His nerves were frazzled. He hadn’t been with a girl in a couple years not since his girlfriend, Cecily, dumped him for the captain of the university’s rugby team. And she had made it quite clear that she thought his bedroom skills were lacking. Not that he understood that either since she seemed to enjoy it enough when they were doing it.
But what if she was right? What if he was a lousy lover? How could he even hope to please a woman like Buffy? He was going to make a fool out of himself, he just knew it.
“Hey spike-boy, where’s the egg nog?”
At the sound of Angel’s voice, he went soft. Well, that was one problem out of the way.
He turned around to see Angel smirking at him. The smug bastard.
“I don’t know,” he replied, folding his arms over his chest.
Angel laughed. “Well, seeing as you are banging my ex-wife you should probably know something like that. You know, get a feel for the layout of the place so you can have those midnight munchie raids on the refrigerator without stubbing your toes in the dark.”
“You shouldn’t talk about her that way and not that it’s any of your business, but we aren’t together like that.” Yet.
“Aw, that’s sweet. The great white knight come to defend the lady’s honor from the likes of me.” Angel leaned in to speak into his ear. “Let me tell you a little secret about your precious Buffy. She isn’t the perfect angel you think she is.”
William pushed Angel away, knocking him into the island. “You’re a right bastard, you know that?”
Angel didn’t say anything. His dark eyes were glazed over and William was positive that he was halfway to drunk, if not more. He stumbled a little as he righted himself.
“You think you’re better ‘an me? You ain’t nothin’, just a kid,” Angel said loudly, slurring his words slightly.
“What a bleedin’ revelation, you sod! But I’d rather be just a kid than a sorry sack of shit like you. You’re a joke. Have the life everyone dreams about. Perfect wife, perfect kids, perfect house with a bloody white picket fence and what did you do? Threw it away.”
“You don’t know anything about me or my life.”
“I know you had her and now you don’t. That’s enough,” William told him.
“You little-!” Angel lunged for him, succeeding only in throwing himself into the counter.
William danced around, dodging Angel’s meaty fists as they swung at him. It was an act mostly. William didn’t know how to fight, but it wasn’t that difficult to evade Angel’s punches with the guy three sheets to the wind. Actually, he was having a little fun.
Angel swung again, William ducking out of the way, and slipped on the floor. He fell with a loud thud and groaned.
“Uh, what did I miss?” Xander Harris asked as he walked into the kitchen, smiling as he saw Angel lying helpless on the floor.
“Not much,” William replied.
“We should probably get him up. Don’t want to ruin Buffy’s party ‘cause the guy can’t hold his liquor or his tongue.”
William liked Xander. They had talked earlier, briefly though, and found that they had quite a bit in common. William was, unfortunately, running short on friends these days so it was nice to finally have another man to talk to.
Xander set his beer bottle on the counter and kneeled down to grab Angel’s arm. “Please tell me you decked the idiot.”
“Sadly, no. He fell.”
“Darn.” Xander hefted Angel up. “Come on, sleeping ugly. Get your ass up.”
Angel mumbled something unintelligible and slowly got to his feet. “What happened?”
Xander smirked at William. “Oh, it was horrible. You slipped on a fruit cake and went out cold.”
“Really?” Angel asked, his eyebrows coming together.
“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. Right, Will?”
William was having a hard time keeping his laughter in check. “Uh-huh, nasty fall.”
Angel stared at William in a confused stupor. “Did I ruin the cake?”
Xander chuckled. “Oh, yeah. You maimed the thing. We’re going to have to bury it in the backyard, it’s so dead.”
It was completely wrong to be making fun of the guy when he was so obviously dazed, but damn it if it wasn’t the funniest thing William had ever seen. Angel started stumbling out of the kitchen muttering an apology to the fruit cake.
“I wish I could have gotten that on tape,” Xander said between laughs.
“Would have made a great Christmas gift.”
Xander laughed even harder until he started gasping for air.
A few minutes later, after both of them had calmed their laughter; Xander leaned against the counter and took a swig of his beer.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do now that the Christmas tree lot is closed?”
William shook his head. “Haven’t the slightest.”
“You ever work construction?”
“I did some general labor last summer, but nothing too involved.”
Xander nodded. “Well, if you’d like, I could give you a try. I own a construction company and I’m always looking for guys.”
“Really? That would be great,” William replied.
“Yeah. Hold on, I got a business card.” He started digging around in his pockets and finally fished out a green card. “Just call after the first of the year and I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks.”
Around ten-thirty the party started to wind down and people started leaving. Angel and the kids were the first to go. Thankfully, Angel’s father would be driving them home and not Angel, who was sobering up but not in any shape to drive.
Buffy’s parents were the next to leave.
“It was really nice meeting you, William. I hope we’ll be seeing more of you,” Joyce said, pulling him in for a warm hug.
“I hope so, too,” William replied.
He helped her with her coat, receiving a ‘thanks’ once she was settled. Buffy’s father shook his hand, although not with as much bone-crushing strength as he had used before, and patted him on the back.
“Stop by the store one of these days. I just got a new shipment of poetry in that I think you might enjoy,” Rupert told him.
Their passion for poetry was probably the reason why they’d hit it off so well. Rupert owned a bookstore in Santa Monica and right away, William had found that they had a lot to talk about. He hadn’t found anyone who shared his love of the written word since he’d come to America, so it was a pleasant surprise to find a fellow book lover at the party.
“I will. Get home safe, yeah?”
With a final farewell, he watched them leave.
The last to go were Xander and his odd wife. He hadn’t really talked to her, but she stared at him all night, making him feel uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted was for Xander’s wife to come on to him or something. Thankfully, she had kept her distance.
Until now.
“If you hurt her, I’ll chop them off, boil them, and make you eat them,” she said nonchalantly.
William’s eyes widened. “I’ll try not to do anything that would make you do that.”
Anya smiled. “Good. Now, I’ve got a present for you.”
Oh, God! What kind of present? He was thinking that he really didn’t want what ever ‘present’ she was willing to give. Not after that whole chop ‘em off thing. Noo!
Her hand disappeared into her purse and he shut his eyes when she pulled it out.
“That’s very nice that you closed your eyes. I didn’t have a chance to wrap it, so it would have ruined the surprise. Now open up,” she ordered.
He shook his head. No, he really didn’t want to know.
“Come on, I don’t have all night. I have a husband to please and you’re not getting me there any sooner.”
Willing himself to pry open one eye, he looked down at her open palm. It was a ribbon of condoms with a little red bow on them.
“Merry Christmas!” She shouted excitedly.
“Uh, thanks?”
She slapped them into his hand. “Now you better use them. Diseases aren’t fun.”
“You ready, sweetie?” Xander asked, walking up behind them.
“Very,” Anya replied, giving William a wink before following her husband out the door.
Glancing down at the condoms, he couldn’t stop himself from studying them. Hmm…ribbed for her pleasure.
Was she really going to do this? Have sex with a man she’d just met? Well, technically, she’d met him in October, so that was a few months but she’d really only just started to get to know him.
Staring at herself in the mirror, she brushed her hair back, trying to make it look sexily tousled. Men loved that…right? She’d been out of the game for too long and now she wasn’t sure she knew how to play.
But he wanted her. He responded to her really well and Anya had been right about the sexy looks. A shiver ran through her at the memory of him giving her an intense stare, his eyes sparking like blue flames.
She was ready. She wanted him and he wanted her. Everything was great and wonderful and- Oh, shit!
She didn’t have any protection. Never needed it so why would she have it in-stock? This was just great. She finally got a hot man that she was really into back to her house for a wonderful night of sex and now she was being denied.
And the worst part about it was that all the stores were closed because of the holiday. What was she going to do? Maybe the neighbor had-
Now that was a lame plan. Yeah, she was going to go over to Mrs. Crankston’s house and ask the old broad if she had any condoms on hand. That lady probably hadn’t had sex in three decades and the only birth control she would have would be a chastity belt from the Dark Ages.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
They could do other things though. Unless he wasn’t into that sort of thing and if he wasn’t, then she really wasn’t sure how much of a sexual relationship they could have. She was a foreplay kind of girl and she needed more than just a quick screw to get her off.
Sighing, she left the bathroom to find William and tell him that they had a problem. She found him standing in the foyer, staring at the door.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
He quickly spun around, his eyes wide. “I-uh-Xander’s wife-”
“Huh?”
“Uh…” He looked down at his hands and Buffy’s gaze followed. Were those…?
Yes! This was going to be the best Christmas ever!