One Year Later

“Will!  I am spending a fortune on panties because you can’t stop ripping them,” Buffy exclaimed, holding up the tattered remains of her nude-colored thong.

He was busy putting himself back together after the quickie he had initiated while she was putting on her lipstick in the bathroom.  His clothes were in complete disarray: half a shirttail untucked, line of buttons curved like a snake up his torso, fly open to reveal a hint of delicious skin, belt hanging precariously from only two belt loops.  It should have looked sloppy, but on him it was wickedly dirty. 

William smirked, tongue curled seductively behind his teeth.  “That’s why I keep tellin’ you to not wear any,” he retorted as he zipped up his pants.

“Oh yeah, what will my mother think when I show up at my parents’ house with no underwear on?”  She turned towards the mirror and began the task of reapplying her makeup.

“First of all,” he began, raising his index finger, “I would hope that Joyce isn’t in the habit of lookin’ up people’s skirts.  And secondly, she would probably think that her daughter is a bloody lucky bird for landin’ such a handsome devil.  Your mum knows the score.”

Buffy scrunched up her face.  “Ew, Will, don’t talk about my mom and sex.  It’s just…ugh.”

He moved quickly, his arms wrapping around her tiny waist and pulling her against his solid chest.  His head dipped down and his lips brushed down the slender column of her neck.  “You’re such a prude, luv,” he murmured into her ear.

They were running late.  They should have left the house half an hour ago to make it to the Christmas party, but William was very persuasive when it came to getting his way.  Not that she was complaining.  Hot sex with her equally hot boyfriend was never something she could say no to.  So despite her best efforts to quit dawdling, the languid movement of his tongue flicking against her earlobe made it impossible to follow through with the plan.

“I wasn’t such a prude five minutes ago.”

He groaned and shifted his hips forward, the hard shaft of his cock sliding against the indentation of her ass.  “No, baby, you were a dirty girl five minutes ago.  I’m thinkin’ I wouldn’t mind seein’ her again.  What do you say?  Can dirty girl come back out to play?”

“You are…”  She lost her voice as his large hand slipped underneath her dress and cupped her wet, throbbing pussy.  “Mmm…insatiable.”

His middle finger slid between her folds, teasing her entrance before moving upward to rub her clit.  Her head fell back against his shoulder as he continued turning up her arousal, every flick and flow of his fingers was a click of the dial that increased the flame of her desire.

“If I am it’s only because you make me that way.  Fuck, Buffy, I can’t get enough of you,” he rasped.

The feeling was more than mutual.  In her experience, the passion that was so prevalent in the beginning of a relationship always started to wane after a while, but with William that didn’t happen.  In fact, if anything, their passion for each other only grew the longer they were together.  She couldn’t get enough of him, of his body, of his laughter, of the way he made her feel. 

She couldn’t imagine her life without him in it.  She needed him like she needed air, constantly feeding her with love and devotion until she was positively gluttonous for it.  Plus it didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous and sexy and intelligent and that he loved her kids like they were his own.

He grunted as he suddenly bent her over the vanity and dropped to his knees behind her.  As he lifted her skirt and slid his hot hands up the backs of her thighs he said, “We’re gonna be late.”

“We’re already la-gah!”

William stabbed her sensitive opening with his tongue and moaned.  His hands gripped the cheeks of her ass and spread them, allowing him to bury his face into her sweet, wet flesh.  He feasted on her flesh, licking, sucking, doing things with his mouth that Buffy was sure were illegal in some states.  Her hands clutched the edge of the counter tightly as she attempted to keep her knees from buckling under the intense pleasure being bestowed on her.

Just when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, he slid two fingers into her greedy entrance and gave her a coy wave with the tips.  Her body jackknifed as ecstasy shot through her like lightening hitting rebar.

“Oh, god, Will!” she sobbed as the tremors of her orgasm washed over her again and again.  “Love you!”

Buffy could feel him smile against the back of her thigh as he coaxed her down from the impassioned high, rubbing away the intensity, soothing the overstimulation until she could breathe again.  He slowly stood, his fingertips trailing up her body, zinging her with little shivers.

He rested his chin on her shoulder and gazed at her through the mirror, his expression intense.  “I love you, too, Buffy.  You and the bits are my everything, you know.”  He paused for a moment, took a deep breath and reached into his pants’ pocket.  “Was gonna wait ‘til the mornin’ to do this, but…”

It happened in slow motion.  Buffy looked down as he brought his hand up in front of her, a small velvet box in his hand.  She knew what it was.  In fact, she’d known that this day was coming, but he still stole her breath away with the gesture. 

“Open it,” he murmured into her ear.

Her hands were shaking as she lifted them to pry open the little box.  It snapped open with a creak and inside was the most perfect ring she’d ever seen.  It was a small cushion-cut diamond with two sapphires, one for each twin, nestled on either side in a beautiful platinum setting.  She felt her eyes start to leak hot tears as she stared at this declaration of love and fidelity.

Will turned her so that they were face to face and then he dropped to his knees.  “Buffy, you’re the one.  The only one for me.  I want to spend the rest of my life with you and Connor and Dawn.  And if you’ll have me, I intend to make sure you’re happy for the rest of yours.  Will you marry me, luv?”

She bestowed him with a watery smile.  “Yes.  Yes!”

*** *** ***

William knew he grinned like a sodding idiot during the entire drive to Buffy’s parents’ house, but he didn’t care.  He wanted to shout from the rooftops, tag a building or two, and skywrite what a lucky bastard he was.  Buffy was going to be his wife and he wanted the whole world to know it.

He glanced over at her as he parked the car.  The engagement ring he’d given her glistened under the streetlamps and cast sparkles against her cheeks when she reached for the door handle.  Her skin was flushed, which Will knew was attributed solely to him, and he had to admit he held a fair amount of pride about that.  And she looked so…bloody happy.  His heart swelled.

He finally stopped swimming in his own blissful delirium when Buffy started to unbuckle Connor from his safety seat and he quickly got out of the car to help with Dawn.  He unsnapped the restraint and helped the little girl down from the car.  Her hand in his, they joined Buffy and Connor on the sidewalk.

Joyce opened the door and the twins took off in a run.  “Gramma!” Connor shouted as he careened into Joyce’s leg.  She laughed as she hugged the children, clearly having missed them as much as they missed her. 

With school taking up most of their time these days, the twins didn’t get to see their grandparents as much.  A weekend here and there and the occasional dinner had Connor and Dawn in grandpa and grandma withdrawals.  Luckily, the winter break would allow them to see a bit more of each other.

“You’re late.  Did you two get lost on the way here?” Joyce asked them with a knowing smile.  Couldn’t get much past the lady.

Buffy blushed.  “Mom!”

She greeted Buffy and Will with a big hug before they all piled into the house where the party was already in full swing.

They’d barely gotten their coats off when suddenly, Anya screeched so loud that William could swear it started the neighbor’s dog howling.  “Oh my god!  You’re getting married?”

Will watched as Buffy’s gaze quickly went to her parents, most likely to gauge their reaction before responding to her friend’s outburst.

Rupert just arched an eyebrow at him.  “I thought you were going to wait until tomorrow morning.”

“Wait,” Buffy said, turning to her father, “you knew?”

What?  What kind of a man did she think he was?  Of course, he asked her parents’ approval beforehand.  Then again, he knew for a fact that Angel had done no such thing.  Selfish prat. So perhaps she wasn’t accustomed to the practice, but he’d be damned if he didn’t get the all clear from Joyce and Rupert.  His mother had raised him right and she’d turn over in her grave if she knew William had attempted to marry someone without getting their parents’ permission first.

“Oh honey, of course we knew,” Joyce replied.  “We were actually wondering why it took him so long.”

“Oi!  That’s playin’ below the belt now, Joyce,” Will told her in jest, a grin lingering at the corner of his mouth.

What no one knew was that he’d actually purchased the ring six months ago and he’d been holding onto it until just the right time.  In fact, if he hadn’t thought Buffy would’ve told him to shove off, he probably would have proposed a month after they’d gotten together.  There had never been any question in his mind that Buffy Summers was the only girl in the world for him.  It was propriety that had held him back from doing what he had wanted all along.

And now, decorum could take a flying leap.

*** *** ***

Buffy took a sip of her eggnog as she watched Connor and Dawn play with a group of kids near the Christmas tree.  They seemed happy; she just hoped they actually were.  She knew they loved William, but they were also missing their dad and she imagined it had been pretty confusing for them while she and Angel were fighting over custody all the while having William suddenly around all of the time. 

Dawn had taken it better than Connor, who’d cried more than a few times for his daddy, especially when was getting punished for acting out.

She squeezed her eyes shut.  What a mess.  They’d been in and out of court over the span of three months after last Christmas.  It had gotten ugly and while the kids had been spared the insults, Buffy couldn’t feel good about the things she’d said about Angel in court.  He was the father of her children and they’d loved each other once, but that hadn’t seemed to matter when he was calling her a slut and she was calling him an abusive deadbeat.

In the end, Angel had lost all custody rights and while she should have been cheering her win, all she could think about was how much it was hurting the twins to lose their dad.  But she couldn’t trust him, not anymore.  She had to make the tough call and cut him out of their lives.

He still paid child support faithfully, slipping in a card on holidays and their birthday.  At first, she refused to pass the correspondence on.  She’d been so angry at him.  But after a couple of months, some cooling down, and William and her parents’ reassurances, she’d finally allowed the kids to receive the notes.

“You look entirely too serious for an event like this, Buff,” Xander said as he came to stand next to her.  “It’s Christmas; not jury duty.  Don’t look so sad.”

She laughed.  “Another glass of Mom’s eggnog and I’ll be right as rain.”

“Yeah,” Xander replied, eyeing his own mug, “Joyce’s eggnog is much more noggy than it is eggy this year.”

They talked for a while, mostly about work.  The construction business appeared to be booming and Xander’s company had signed a couple of really big contracts, which Xander insisted was all Will’s doing.  Apparently, her fiancé could charm the pants off of people even when they weren’t quite able to beat the bids of bigger companies.  Buffy wasn’t surprised.  After all, he had charmed the pants right off of her, too.

Buffy swallowed the last bit of her eggnog and caught William’s gaze from across the room.  He had that look on his face, the one that said, ‘I’m going to devour you when I get you alone’.  She shook her head at him.  No way was she getting it on with him in her parents’ house.

*** *** ***

“I bet you were a bloody hot cheerleader, luv,” Will panted into Buffy’s ear as he thrust into her hot, pliable body.  “Maybe we could take that uniform home with us and I could pretend to be your English tutor.  Stubborn girl, you’d learn those adverbs if you’d jus’ study a little…harder.”

He slammed his hips against hers at the same time he spoke the word and she wailed a little louder than was inconspicuous.

“Shhh, baby.  You don’t want your dad t’ come up here and find us, do you?”

Sodding hell, this was a turn-on.  He hadn’t intended to pounce her when they’d gone up to her room to grab some spare blankets.  Apparently, Joyce’s nogg was extra potent and a few people couldn’t be trusted to make the drive home so Rupert and Joyce had insisted some of their guests stay the night.  But they walked into Buffy’s childhood room and before he knew it, he started having all of these raunchy fantasies of Buffy as a teenager.  What person could blame him for what happened next? 

“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted.  “I’m almost there, Will.  Don’t stop, please don’t stop.”

“Never.” 

He grabbed her leg just behind the knee and pushed it up towards her chest.  He moved faster, harder and then moved his hand to rest just above her pubic bone so his thumb could stroke the little bundle of nerves that would help push her over the edge.

She began to convulse and before she had the chance to shout, William covered her mouth with his own, muffling her cries as they spilled down his throat.  He stayed with her until the aftershocks had completely subsided and then he rolled off of her.

“You are in so much trouble right now,” Buffy finally said after catching her breath.

He jerked his head to the side.  “What?  Why am I in trouble?”

“Seriously?”  She rolled her eyes at him.  “In my parents’ house?  You are so bad.”

William chuckled.  “Yeah, but you enjoyed every bloody minute of it, dirty girl.  Don’t I at least get a gold star for participation?”

She threw a stuffed animal at his head.  “You’re a bad influence on me.  Next we’ll be joining the mile high club.”

“Mmm, there is always the honeymoon for that.”  And he knew he’d be able to cross that off his bucket list when the time came, too.

“Dream on, Will,” she told him, smiling.  “We’d better get downstairs before they send a search party.”

She was right.  They’d disappeared for a good twenty minutes.  His quickies weren’t nearly as quick as was convenient, not that either of them were complaining, but it did tend to make them late a lot.  And he wasn’t kidding when he’d warned her about her dad coming up.  He might be a bookworm, but William suspected Rupert had a checkered past that may or may not have included being in some sort of street gang.  While he considered himself fairly tough, Will didn’t think he stood a chance against Buffy’s father.

“So, I think we should split up.  I’ll take the blankets down to the guest room and you go to the kitchen and help with the trash.  Plan?”

“Brilliant, luv.”

After straightening their clothes and smoothing down errant hair, they set to their tasks. 

Will bounded down the stairs and grabbed two large trash bags and walked them outside to the garbage cans.  He had just set the lids back on the barrels and started back towards the house when he heard something behind him.  With more speed than he had intended, he spun around.

Angel.

His jaw turned to stone and his fists clenched automatically.  “What are you doin’ here, Angel?” he asked in a black tone.

“I’m not here to cause trouble, if that’s what you’re thinking, William.  Just wanted a word with you,” Angel replied.  His tone was passive and he held his hands out, a peace offering.

William narrowed his eyes.  “Me?  What the bloody hell could we possibly have to talk about?”

Angel threw his hands up.  “I knew this was a stupid idea.  He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Had the bloke gone completely sack of hammers?  Will tilted his head.  Who was he talking to? 

It wasn’t until Angel turned a little that he saw her.  She was tall and buxom and not at all Angel’s type based on his history.  Her arms were crossed over her ample chest and she didn’t look amused by Angel’s outburst.

“Stop being such a baby, Angel.  You’re gonna do this even if I have to string you up like a puppet and move your mouth for you,” she told him.

Angel flailed his hands a little.  “Cordy-“

“Uh-uh.”  She waved her pointer finger at him.  “Don’t Cordy me.  Just do it.”

If this were any other time or place, William might have laughed, but quite frankly, having Angel within a hundred yards of his family- yeah, that’s right his family- made him a little weary.  Tough-looking, string-pulling girlfriend aside, whenever Angel was around he tended to bring on the heartbreak and he’d be damned if he let the ponce hurt Buffy or the kids again.

“Look, William, I just-“ Angel flailed again.  He was really having an issue here. “I wanted to say that…  You…  I, uh, thanks.”

Will quirked an eyebrow at him.  “Thanks?  For what?”

“I’m a shitty dad,” he blurted.

“And you’re sayin’ I’m the reason you’re a shitty father?”

Angel threw his hands up and made an exasperated sound.  “No!  It’s just- You’ve been there for Connor and Dawn when I wasn’t.”

It was on the tip of William’s tongue to drill in that fact, rub it in, drive it home.  He almost said it, and then he saw the pitiful look on the other man’s face and it dawned on him that Angel was being sincere.  It was killing him, but Angel had come there tonight for the sole purpose of admitting his faults and thanking another man for taking care of his responsibilities. 

Jesus.  That took a lot of pride swallowing and with an ego the size of Angel’s that was a mouthful.

“What’s your angle?” William asked.  People rarely changed, but they could always be coerced if the prize was big enough.  He wanted to believe that Angel’s motives were pure, if for no other reason than the twins.  He hoped they were.

“Just trying to earn back what I took from them.  If it takes five, ten years or twenty, I want them to trust me again.  I want Buffy to trust me.  And you.  You’re a good man, Will.  Couldn’t ask for a better guy to be a father for my kids, but I’m their dad and I want them to know me too.”

William nodded.  What could he say?

Angel shoved his hands into his pockets.  “I, uh, brought the kids some Christmas gifts.  I guess Buffy can decide if she wants to give them to Connor and Dawn.  If you want, you can just say they’re from Santa.  I’m not expecting to fix this overnight, you know.  I just want to try.”

“I’ll talk to her.  Can’t make any promises though.”

“Yeah, yeah, no problem,” Angel said, despite looking slightly crestfallen.  “Will you let her know that I’d like to talk to her?  She can call whenever or, you know, never.”

After handing over the bag of gifts and his business card, Angel awkwardly reached for William’s hand to shake it.  “Thanks,” he said once more before letting go of Will’s hand and then walking to where Cordy was waiting for him.  He watched as Cordy slung an arm across Angel’s shoulders and they made their way towards their car before driving off.

*** *** ***

Buffy placed the last of the gifts under the Christmas tree and sat back to take in the view.  She’d chosen to keep the gift’s Angel had given to Will separate from the rest of presents.  She was going to tell Connor and Dawn they were from their dad, but she also wanted to have a discussion with them about it so they would open those later in the day.

She could only hope that Angel didn’t end up disappointing them again, but Will seemed to think her ex-husband had turned over a new leaf.  Only time would tell, she supposed.

“You know, I am gettin’ the weirdest case of déjà vu here,” William said as he handed her a cup of hot chocolate and sat down next to her.

“I don’t remember there being hot chocolate last time,” Buffy remarked, “but maybe we can make it a new tradition.”

“Sounds like a plan.” 

She took a sip of her drink, then set the mug on the table.  “So…  Are the kids asleep?”

“Yep, and it only took two readings of The Night Before Christmas to get them off to dreamland.  Gotta say, I’m becomin’ a master at this bedtime story deal.”

“Maybe you should read me a bedtime story,” she suggested coyly.

“I’ve got a better idea and it doesn’t involve sleepin’ or Dancer and Prancer, luv.  It may, however, include you in that sexy cheerleading outfit.  What do you say we get to workin’ on those splits?”