Isobel smirked. “No, really, I’m quite fine doing what I’m already doing.”
Buffy had to admit that Isobel had been quite impressive. She’d watched in awe as she’d debated cost with Anya until she’d somehow ended up with a lucrative contract for Buffy as a Magic Box supplier, allowing her both an upfront fee and extra profit once the items she procured were sold.
“You should’ve gotten yourself an agent a long time ago, Buffy,” Anya said as she handed over the check. “Any Slayer with as much going on as you needs some proper management.”
Buffy looked down at the check, barely able to register that she was holding more in her hands right now than she would’ve made in several months at the Doublemeat Palace – and more would be coming soon. “Yeah, uh huh…”
“Who is she, anyway?” Anya asked. “Did we add a Scooby and no one told me?”
Isobel snorted. “So not a Scooby.”
“Isobel’s a work friend,” Buffy said.
Anya arched an eyebrow. “There’s no way she works at that wretched burger place. She doesn’t reek like you do.”
“Hey!” Buffy exclaimed.
“Sorry, but you smell like cheap burgers,” Anya replied, unapologetically despite her use of the word “sorry.” “Everyone else is too polite to tell you.”
“But you’re not,” Buffy said with a frown.
Anya smiled brightly. “Nope.”
Isobel glanced over at Buffy before making her decision. She didn’t know if Buffy wanted to tell who she was or not, but she didn’t much feel like hiding it. It was high time Buffy stopped worrying what everyone else thought anyway. “I’m another Slayer,” Isobel explained.
“Another one?!” Anya exclaimed. “Geez, they’re really just throwing away that whole per generation rule. What, did you get called when Buffy died?”
“No. I was called in 1352.”
“Oh.” Anya frowned for a moment, then shrugged. “Whatever.” She paused, her expression turning skeptical after a beat. “You’re not against ex-demons, are you?”
“I’ve been with a vampire for almost six and a half centuries, so…” Isobel said by way of an answer.
Anya sighed. “Oh, good. I get so tired of all the blind demon bigotry around here.”
“Not going to get that any of that from me.”
“Glad to hear it.” Anya let out a deep breath and then smiled brightly again. “It was a pleasure doing business with you. Please bring me more items I can sell for lots of money.”
“Will do,” Isobel said with a salute. She and Buffy walked out of the Magic Box then, leaving Anya to gleefully begin putting her new acquisitions into inventory.
Buffy glanced at the check again as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. “This should be yours,” she said to Isobel. “You did the work for it.”
“No, it shouldn’t,” Isobel said with a shake of her head. “Buffy, I’ve been around for hundreds of years. My investment portfolio is sweet, believe me. You’ve got mortgage payments and a teenager to feed and clothe. Take the money and don’t think twice about it.”
“I still don’t understand why you’re helping me so much – or why you care enough about my happiness to come all the way to Sunnydale just to try to make my life better.”
“Because we share a bond, Buffy. We’re part of the same whole, you and me.” Isobel smiled. “Besides, we’re friends now, aren’t we? And friends help each other out.”
Buffy’s gaze darted down to the pavement. “Do they?”
“Real ones do.” She gave Buffy a light smack on the arm. “Now why don’t you go join that vampire of yours, huh? If he’s anything like Edmund, I bet he’s real cuddly in the morning.”
Isobel winked, and Buffy giggled in response. “He can be.”
“Then go on, get out of here. Slayers are supposed to sleep in. We’re as nocturnal as our menfolk, you know.”
“Yeah, noticed,” Buffy said. “This breakfast shift crap has been killing me.”
“Well, now it’s all over. You can stay in bed until a decent hour and not be about to pass out on patrol. Speaking of, do you want the four of us to meet up tonight? Could be fun.”
“I’d like that,” Buffy replied, finding herself genuinely excited about getting a chance to see Edmund and Isobel in action. “Meet us by Spike’s crypt after sundown?”
“You got it.” Buffy was surprised when Isobel leaned in and gave her a hug, but she embraced the other Slayer back. “Things are going to get better for you now, Buffy. I promise you.”
For the first time since Buffy had been back, she truly believed they were.
Spike was just like she’d left him when Buffy returned to the crypt. She’d stopped off at home first, desperate to rid herself of that horrid uniform once and for all, and now she stripped off the sweater and jeans she’d changed into and joined her vampire under the sheets.
As soon as she was beside him, Spike pulled her closer, murmuring as he put his nose against her hair. “Buffy…” he said sleepily, his eyes closed. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Not long,” Buffy told him. “I quit the Doublemeat.”
“Oh thank god,” Spike said. “I love you and all, but sometimes it was really hard not to get turned off by that smell.”
“Hey!” Buffy exclaimed, and Spike’s low chuckle rumbled through her as he finally opened his eyes. “Ass,” she admonished him.
He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at her, unable to stop the smile that crept to his face every time he thought about how finally, she was really his. “What made you finally see the light?”
“Isobel again,” Buffy replied. “She showed up at the Doublemeat Palace today, stole my timecard, and made me start working as a supplier for the Magic Box instead. Apparently I can make thousands of dollars selling Anya things like demon claws. Who knew?”
“I did,” Spike replied. “I told you I could get you money, but you wouldn’t ever bloody listen to me, you stubborn bint.” His words were harsh, but his tone was soft, too relieved she was out of that horrible place now to be too hard on her for not doing it sooner.
“That’s what you wanted me to do?” Buffy asked. “I figured it was something diabolical and evil.”
“That’s because you’re always jumping to conclusions about my intentions.”
“Well, in my defense, you have spent the past several years taking every possible opportunity to remind me that you are, in fact, diabolical and evil.”
“Evil, yes. Diabolical, not so much. Takes too much planning.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “You’re such a loser. You do know that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, well, you’re about to have sex with a loser then. What does that say about you?”
“That I’m horny?”
Spike smirked, chuckling again as he dipped his head and nipped at her collar bone. “Tasty, too.” He licked her neck and hummed appreciatively. “Fuck, baby, I love the flavor of your skin.”
Buffy moaned and thrust her hips. “You know, if you’re in the mood to taste something…”
He met her eyes with a cocky grin before diving under the covers, making Buffy squeal as he hitched her legs over his shoulders and immediately pressed his tongue against her pussy. She fisted the sheet beneath her, her breath quickly elevating to pants.
“Oh yeah, Spike…just like that. God, you’re fucking amazing at this…”
He smiled against her before moving his head from side to side, his tongue waggling against her clit, pulling a shout from Buffy. He counted to five in his head, then smirked again as her hand predictably grabbed the back of his head as she bucked against his mouth.
She always tried to keep from pulling his hair, but Spike knew his Slayer well enough to know that her politeness was never going to last long.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Spike slid two fingers into her, scraping the tips of them against the roof of her pussy as he pumped them in and out in time with the movement of his tongue until Buffy went stiff, keened, and came against his mouth.
He’d never tire of that taste…
Her grip on his hair eased, and Spike slid up her body. “Gotta fuck you, baby,” he told her, his eyes flickering yellow for a moment as he looked down at her. “Have to be inside…”
“Yeah…” Buffy agreed, still breathless from her orgasm. She thrust up her hips in invitation.
Spike brought her hips back up to his shoulders, folding her nearly in half as he pressed forward, pushing his cock into her wide-open body. The slide was easy, Buffy as wet and ready for him as she always was, but he had to stop for a moment to get control of himself anyway, her tight, searing heat always threatening to send him shooting off like a school boy.
From beneath him, Buffy smirked at the expression of tortured pleasure on his face, knowing he was fighting against coming too soon. She didn’t want it to end quickly any more than he did, but she couldn’t keep from teasing him, knowing his recovery time was never long anyway.
“You like my pussy, don’t you, baby?” she said in a breathy voice that had him jerking against her. “Mmm…it’s all hot and wet for you.” Her mouth turned up in a wicked grin, and she punctuated her next words with a wrench of her internal muscles that was enough to hurt a human man. “And tight…”
“Oh fuck, baby…” Spike moaned, his control hanging by a nearly-snapped thread. “Fuck…”
“Just let it go, Spike,” Buffy urged him. “Be the demon you are. I can take it.”
He opened his eyes and met hers. “You know what you’re asking?”
Her only response was another clench of her muscles, coupled with a hip shimmy that was what finally made the dam break.
Spike roared, shifted into game face, and then pulled out just long enough to throw her on her stomach before filling her again. He grabbed her hips with bruising force, snarling like an animal as he thrust with superhuman strength.
Buffy clung to the headboard and wondered why in the world this had frightened her so much in the past. Vampire sex was good…
“Oh hell yeah!” she screamed as Spike brought a hand around to roughly tug at her nipple. “God, this is good, baby. Don’t stop.”
Spike snarled, and somehow, his thrusts grew even harder.
She was seeing double, could barely breathe, and yet she was completely certain she’d die if he stopped. He moved so quickly it felt as if he never left her, yet the friction was mind-numbing. Already, her body was shaking with pleasure, but even as she rippled with orgasm, she knew something was still building inside of her.
Spike wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her back flush against his chest. He pressed his cool lips against her ear, and Buffy hissed in pleasure as he whispered against her his heated demand.
“Tell me I can bite you.”
Oh yeah, that’s what she needed…
“Other side,” she panted. “Bite over Angel’s marks.”
“Oh fuck, I love you,” Spike moaned, proving to her that even as close to the edge as he was then, he was still there with her, still hers.
“Uhn, love you, too… Now bite me, please… I need to come, Spike… Need to come from your fangs…”
Spike was completely certain no words more beautiful than those had ever been spoken. He thrust his hips up, fully seating his cock inside of her before sinking his fangs directly over his grandsire’s marks, erasing them from her body forever.
When they both finally collapsed back to the mattress, Buffy could barely breathe, though she wasn’t sure if it was because of the pleasure overload or because Spike was currently sprawled out over her back. Either way, she was too relaxed to even care.
Spike flopped over onto his back, panting heavily as he stared up at the ceiling. “Well, if I hadn’t already been insanely in love with you, that would’ve done it.”
Buffy giggled, feeling deliciously languid with her whole body tingling. “Right back atcha, sexy.”
Spike hadn’t thought his smile could grow, but apparently he’d been wrong. “Every time you say you love me, it makes me so deliriously happy.”
At that, Buffy rolled over against his chest, smiling up at him. “Well, I do. From the tips of your bleached hair all the way down to your damn sexy toes.”
“That so?” Spike asked, still smiling. “And sexy toes, huh?”
“All of you is sexy,” Buffy informed him. “Even your toes.”
“You know, you’ve got bloody sexy little toes, too.”
Buffy giggled and kissed his chest. “I’m riding the biggest endorphin high right now. I feel like such a dork.”
“I think you’re adorable,” Spike told her. “Of course, I’m right there with you on the endorphins.”
This was good, Buffy decided. This was how a lazy morning with your boyfriend was supposed to feel, and it didn’t matter that said boyfriend didn’t have a heartbeat – because apparently, his unbeating heart worked better than the beating one of her last boyfriend.
No more money worries, no more flipping burgers, and no more boyfriend drama. Finally, her life was looking up. Things were right where they should be.
Eyes burning, the demon moved through the darkness, answering the call of the Hellmouth…