Later that afternoon, Buffy lounged on a bright blue float in the crystal clear water of the pool that afforded her a breathtaking view of the coastline just off the edge of the property. Her handler cum new found love interest, the dashing and yet dangerous, Spike, was currently in the gym for a workout that did not involve crumpled sheets and orgasms, which they had already partaken in several times that morning. While Buffy thoroughly enjoyed her time with Spike while being sequestered away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi and the drama that was her previous life with Riley, she did enjoy the handful of hours she managed to snag alone each day while Spike took care of his own business; whether it be his fitness or his actual business.
Unfortunately, her brief moment of solitude was almost over, as the band had rehearsal in a few short hours. Since the incident, they had barely had a chance to rehearse together, much less delve into the possibility of a new album, which desperately needed to happen and soon, or they would be in breach of contract; regardless of what drama had been thrown into their lives. Luckily, Buffy had managed to scribble out a few thoughts from her brain over the past few weeks and possibly piece together a couple of decent songs, but getting the seal of approval from the rest of the band would determine if they would ever make it to an actual album. Since Faith and Oz typically wrote the lyrics and coordinated the music to them, Buffy's work may very well just be a dream.
Head tilted back against the float, she drifted and thought of more pleasant things; like ice cream and pizza, dancing in a dark club to the pulsating beat and flashing lights until breathless, and shopping until her credit card screeched in pain. Ah, the good days, before the darkness rolled in and turned everything bleak. The sound of the patio door sliding open caught her attention and pulled her back to reality, one that was not as depressing as it once had been, simply because of the sweaty, shirtless man that was currently poised to dive into the pool.
With barely a splash, Spike dove into the water and swam the rest of the distance to where she floated without emerging to take a breath. Popping up beside her, he rested his forearms on the edge of the blue plastic, causing the cool water to slide up onto the float with her and pulling a small squeak of surprise to slip past her lips as it touched her heated, tan skin. Accepting a kiss from his warm lips, Buffy sighed contentedly when their lips parted and said, “Mmm, you taste like berries.”
“Post workout shake,” Spike explained as he trailed one finger down the edge of her belly. “Hate to ruin the day, luv, but you've got rehearsal soon. With traffic this late in the day, we should leave soon.”
“Or, we could stay here and pretend that traffic was so bad that we just couldn't make it on time,” Buffy offered, only halfway joking, as she slid from the float and into Spike's arms. Legs wrapped around his waist, she pressed herself against his chiseled body and nipped at the skin below his earlobe. “No one would miss me, right?”
“Pet, you keep that up and we won't make it out of this pool,” Spike managed to mumble out his warning as she kissed a line from the curve of his jaw to the swell of his bottom lip. Giggling like a mischievous schoolgirl, Buffy slid her hands down his chiseled chest and tugged at the tied waistband of his shorts. “I can be quick,” she proclaimed as her hand circled his dick, before adding a saucy challenge, “Can you?”
Circling their locked bodies around in the pool quickly, Spike pressed her back against the edge and kissed Buffy deeply, before pulling back to glance down at her with an evil glint sparkling in his ice blue gaze. “I'll take that challenge, luv,” Spike growled, a half second before his hardened cock nudged its way inside her body and sent a shiver of ecstasy coursing through her body; lightening each and every nerve ending on fire and exploding into a burst of stars as she screamed out in utter pleasure.
Over an hour and a half later and with a screech of tires, Spike sped into the parking lot of the rented rehearsal studio and Buffy hurriedly exited the car in a flurry of panic. While yes, the original plan had been to very quickly release some of the sexual tension that had built up inside the both of them in the few shorts hours between their morning romp before breakfast and the lunchtime frenzy in the pool, things had went decidedly off course when a shower had been recommended and ended with another round in the steamy shower. So now, Buffy was considerably late, but she was going to do her best to blame the afternoon traffic for her tardiness.
Unfortunately, the ever observant Faith was perched on a railing just outside the front door while having a smoke and saw through Buffy's half-assed excuse fairly quickly. With a knowing grin, the brunette slid off the railing and flicked the butt of her cigarette onto the sidewalk at their feet and ground it out with one heavily scuffed Doc Marten. Chuckling, Faith said, “Sidetracked and traffic, huh? That the best you got, blondie?” She paused long enough to cut a glance towards Spike as he walked towards them, “I guess it's pretty easy to get sidetracked with that hanging around though. Can't blame you in that department though, B. If I had that man in my bed, I would be MIA for weeks and walking funny for longer than that, if you get my point?”
Buffy groaned, red with embarrassment at Faith’s comment. While Spike, on the other hand, as someone completely aware of his own sexuality and proud of it, cocked one scarred eyebrow towards Faith and all but purred, “Well, pet, wouldn’t mind being in bed next to a sexy lil’ bint like you, myself. That is, if I wasn't already enamored with the lovely Buffy, that is. Thank you for the compliment though, but hate I'm gonna have to decline the invitation.”
“Guess I could've called that one,” Faith replied with a grimace, “All the good one's are either taken or gay.” With a sour expression firmly in place, she gestured towards the door and said, “Hell, might as well get this over with. I'm in need of a night out, a stiff drink and another bad decision. Move it along, B.”
“Well it is about damn time you graced us with your presence,” Lorne exclaimed in a flurry of flamboyant annoyance. Decked out in a teal three piece suit, salmon colored shirt and purple tie, her manager stormed over to her with an expression on his face that screamed he was on the edge of spontaneous combustion. “I have been calling you forever, Snickerdoodle!”
Buffy was half a second away from either telling the truth or trying out the traffic excuse once more, when Lorne gathered her into a bear hug and continued, “Honey, I have fantastic news. Do you hear me? Absolutely fantastic and I have been about to die keeping it to myself!” Pausing long enough to usher Buffy and Faith over to where Oz and Xander where sitting, Lorne excitedly told the band the news, “I got a call this morning from one of the MTV execs and they want you guys to perform at the music awards! Can you believe it?” Of course, they had not a moment to answer his question, because Lorne was on a roll and continued on without pausing for their excitement, “That's not even all of it! They want Faith and Buffy to present one of the awards, too! Seriously, can you believe it? I am just so proud, I could just burst!”
When Lorne finally took a breath, the band erupted into a chorus of excited chatter, ending with Faith exclaiming, “Holy shit, that is fucking awesome!”
“Yes, Sugar Pie, it is awesome,” Lorne agreed, but the glittered excitement in his demeanor had faded a few levels. Perching on a nearby stool, he continued, “But, the show is in three weeks and you guys haven’t practiced in ages. What's the plan? Does anyone have any new material or are flying with old material? Please tell me we aren't going onto national television with old material,” he pleaded when met with blank stares.
Buffy chewed on her lip nervously, knowing full well that she had a several songs sketched out, but also knowing full well that the vast majority of them were absolutely not performance ready. Hell, there was only maybe two that were ready to be put to music and that was a strong maybe on those. Taking a deep breath, she slowly raised her hand as though she was still a student in school asking for permission to speak and said, “Um, I have a couple songs. Maybe, possibly.” Leaning down to dig into her bag and rummage around before producing a handful of desired pieces of paper that were crammed into the bottom; organization had never been her strong suit in life. “Here they are,” she announced, holding them into the air before handing them over for Faith to look over. “They're just something I worked on when I got out of the hospital. I'm not even sure they'll work, but maybe we can piece something together?”
Faith bobbed her head while she read through the songs, as though she could hear the music that had yet to be put into place. When she finished, she turned to Buffy with an impressed expression on her face. “Buff, these are both great! But man, this one, this one could be epic, ya know? With the right beat to it? I can almost feel it already,” Faith said, as she handed the crumpled sheet of paper over to Oz. “Man, check this out. We could lay down some tracks to it pretty quick, I think.”
“Which one is it that you like?” Buffy inquired, still shaking with nervousness. As though he could sense how anxious she was, knowing how nervous she was about sharing her lyrics, Buffy felt Spike's hand gently caress her back and relaxed ever so slightly at the feel of his touch.
“Bring something another,” Faith answered quickly as she leaned over to glance at the title scribbled across the top of the page in Oz's hand. “Yeah, Bring Me to Life. That's it. Really some bomb ass lyrics.”
“She's right,” Oz agreed, as always a man of few words. He handed off the paper to Xander next, as he added, “What do you think, man? We could lay this down in a day or two.” Nodding along in agreement as he read the lyrics, Xander agreed, “Yeah, Buffster, this is great work. Glad to see one of us did something other than lay around in bed during the break.”
Faith snickered and cut her eye's towards Buffy, who instantly picked up on the perverted comment that was about to spill from Faith's mouth. Blushing furiously before her friend even blurted out the comment, Buffy wanted to crawl under the table when Faith mischievously said, “Pretty sure B got plenty done in bed during the break, too.”
“Well sure, that's what she was supposed to do, right? Be in bed and rest and all, right?” Xander replied innocently, having not the slightest clue as to what Faith was referencing until he read the rest of the room. Blushing equally as deep as Buffy, he stammered, “Oh, that. Right. I knew that.”
“Okay, moving on,” Buffy clapped her hands together and gathered up the remaining pages in her lap, before shoving them back into her bag. “I think the chorus really needs a male voice to it. That part right there,” she leaned over and pointed out the particular lines she was talking about before eyeballing her male cohorts, “So, which one of you wants to do it?”
After much argument, mostly between Xander and Oz since neither really wanted to sing, they finally decided that Xander’s voice was more suitable for the tone of the song. Since that decision was made, the other members of the band started working on putting the lyrics to music. Buffy, being slightly on the tone deaf side when it came to actually writing the music part of a song, leaned back against the couch and felt useless, until Lorne called out to her from the office he had taken over for the rehearsal.
“Close the door behind you,” Lorne said, when Buffy came into the room. Doing so, she eased into the overstuffed brown leather chair and nervously asked, “What's with the closed door? Something wrong?”
“What? Wrong? No, of course not, Snickerdoodle,” Lorne closed the day planner he had been scribbling in and pushed it to the side, before explaining, “There is something else I needed to go over with you and it’s a more sensitive topic, so I figured that you would feel better being behind closed doors is all.” He paused for a moment and continued with Buffy urged him to do so. “With the trial date rapidly approaching, there have been some, well...interest in your side of the story. I have had calls from numerous sources about doing an interview with you. Is that something you would be interested in doing?”
“Oh,” Buffy replied with wide eyes. “I shouldn't be surprised, but I guess I kinda am. I mean, I never really thought about having to tell it to anyone but a jury, you know? What do you think I should do?”
“Honey, I can't make that decision for you,” Lorne replied honestly, as he eased out from his seat and walked around the desk to perch on the edge near Buffy's legs. Reaching out, he took one of her hands in his and patted the top of it, as though he was comforting her like a grandmother might do. Sincerity shone from eyes as he spoke, “I think what you went through was horrible and I can't imagine how it's made you feel or how you're dealing with the trauma from it, but from my perspective, I can say that sometimes it is best to get your side of the story out there for the world to hear. It they're contacting you, they are most certainly calling Riley, too, and I bet my patookis that he will sign on to tell his side without hesitation. But, that being said, the decision is solely up to you and something that only you can decide.”
Nodding in agreement, Buffy's words choked in her throat as tears threatened to spill yet again. Oh, how she was tired of crying over Riley! How she wished that she could travel back in time and never even become involved with him, but sadly, that was a feat that could never happen. Instead, she had to muster up the courage to live her life with what he put her through. Sighing, Buffy wiped a shaky hand across the tears that stung in her eyes and vehemently said, “Damn him to Hell! I mean it, I wish I could send him straight there to have his skin roasted off by the Devil himself for what he's put me through.” Decision made, Buffy stared her manager dead in the eye and accepted the deal, “I'll do it. Like you said, I might as well get my story out there before he ruins it and me. I won't like it, but I'll do it.”
And, she decided to herself, she would be stronger for it.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to everyone who has left a review! As you know, I love hearing from you guys! Also, thank you to whomever nominated my lil fic at LSA! That means the world to me that you guys like my story so much!