Chapter 16
A knocking sounded on the door and Hank went to answer it, shocked to see the platinum blond man that was standing out there.
“Can I help you?”
Spike ran his fingers through his hair, nervous under the older man’s stare. “I’m William, a friend of Buffy’s from school. I was hoping to talk to her.”
Hank nodded after a moment. “Right, you’re the Giles kid, Buffy mentioned you. I know of your father. You can come in, but I can’t promise that she’s up to talking right now.”
Spike entered the house and looked around.
Hank shut the door. “I’ll let her know that you’re here.”
Spike nodded as well and waited for his return, thinking about what he would say to Buffy.
“Your father is Rupert Giles?”
He turned at the new voice to see an older woman that Spike presumed was Addie. “Yes, he is.”
She smiled. “I just love his work. That man isn’t afraid of anyone; he’s very highly talked about in this town. Why would someone of your wealth want anything to do with Buffy?”
Spike tried to control his temper, even though he wanted to tell this woman exactly what he thought of her. “You obviously don’t know her very well. I think you should be asking why someone as amazing as Buffy would want anything to do with me, I’m honored just to be in her presence.”
Addie was taken by surprise, but chose to ignore his comment. “Well, I’ve heard a lot about you, but I had no idea you were so handsome. If I was twenty years younger, you’d be in trouble,” she said with a wink.
Spike cringed at her statement, knowing that she would have to be about forty years younger and have a personality transplant before he would ever look twice at her.
* * * * *
“What’s going on with you two?”
Buffy shrugged. “Nothing, I just don’t feel like talking to him. I thought I was grounded, anyway? I shouldn’t be allowed visitors.”
Hank let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of her bed. “You’re only not allowed to go anywhere that’s not school, I wouldn’t keep you from your friends. I have to admit that it’s nice to see you finally making some here, you’ve kept to yourself for far too long.”
Buffy was about to respond, but didn’t get the chance when someone cleared a throat in her doorway.
Hank turned around to notice Spike and stood up.
“Sorry to intrude, I just wanted to see if everything was okay.”
Hank nodded. “I’ll just leave you two alone now,” he said, then made his way out of the room.
Buffy kept her head down to avoid looking at him.
“I really just came up here to get away from your step-mother. That woman is bloody scary, you weren’t wrong about her.”
A small smile formed on her face, even though she tried not to.
“Knew I could get a grin,” he claimed.
Buffy quickly wiped it off of her face and finally met his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
He stepped further into the room and sat down in front of her. “I came to talk to you, Buffy. I know why you’ve been avoiding me and I need to set things straight.”
She shook her head. “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
Spike raised his eyebrows and got right to the point. “I know what Megan said to you, but it was all lies. She’s a conniving bitch. You can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth.”
Buffy told herself that she wouldn’t cry in front of him, but was finding it hard to keep that promise. “I didn’t really believe it at first, but then I saw the two of you together. You looked really close.”
Spike had a feeling about what she was referring to. “That was nothing; I was only trying to get information out of her about what she said to you. I basically threatened her to leave you alone. Megan has a demented crush on me. She’s been after me since the beginning of school, but there was never anything between us. I would never want anything to do with her. You mean far too much to me.”
Buffy gazed into his eyes to see how sincere he was, but still needed more reassurance. “She told me you were a player and that you’re only after sex. That you’re only interested in me because I’m a virgin and after we sleep together, you won’t want anything to do with me anymore. She said you took her virginity and then dumped her afterwards.”
Spike would have laughed at all of that, if the look on her face wasn’t so worried. “First of all, Megan lost her virginity to some stupid jock when she was fourteen. That’s what I heard, anyway. Second of all, I do like that you’re a virgin. It means that I would be your first and that’s everything to me, but when it happens with us, it will be nothing but amazing. And I definitely don’t intend to let you go afterwards. Lastly, I’m not even close to being a player since I haven’t actually had sex yet.”
Buffy’s eyes widened. “You’re a virgin?”
He nodded and took in a deep breath. “It’s not something I broadcast all that often, but it’s true. I’m not the womanizer that everyone thinks I am. I believe in being in love before sex is even considered.”
Buffy knew that she shouldn’t have doubted him. He had been nothing but honest with her since the beginning. It was stupid of her to ever believe anything the cheerleader said. “I’m sorry, Spike. I do believe you; it’s just that I’ve been cheated on before. My first boyfriend back in my old school was seeing my best friend at the time behind my back. I swore I would never let anyone get close enough to hurt me like that again.”
Spike was beyond relieved that she believed him and moved closer to her, placing a soft kiss on her lips. “You never have to worry about that with me, Buffy. I would die before I ever hurt you.”
Buffy felt her eyes tear up again and wrapped her arms around him. “I know,” she whispered.
Hank watched them from the doorway, with a small smile on his face. His little girl was growing up and it was about time he realized that. Hank had a lot to make up for, but he was willing to do whatever he could to gain back Buffy’s trust.