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A/N - Thanks all the fab feedback! Really appreciate it and hope you like the next chapter - nearly done now :)

CHAPTER 16 - The Tables Are Turned

Elizabeth walked over to William, determination clearly written on her features and in the stride of her step. He didn't look up at her as she approached but it was obvious that he must have heard her because he casually said, "This blade is an awkward bugger to get off."

Elizabeth couldn't stand it any longer. "William, what's going on?" she demanded abruptly. "Why does my sister think we're engaged?"

William stopped working on the mower then looked up at her as he slowly stood and wiped his dirty hands down the back of his jeans.

She looked up at him and noticed that he flicked a glance over her shoulder before focussing back on her. Taking a step, he moved closer to her and she immediately went to move backwards only to have his arms snake out around her body and capture her in a firm embrace. Hands running possessively down her back, her urged her so intimately close against his body that she was left in doubt of his evident need.

She tried to ease away from him but, in his desire to maintain contact with her, William wouldn't let her go. Instead, he leaned in and brushed his lips against her ear as he softly told her, "Your sister is watching us."

Instinctively, she tried to turn her head but William's hand came up to cup her cheek then gently turn her face back and hold it still while his mouth moved hotly over her skin, searching almost desperately for her lips.

When he found them, he didn't kiss her gently as he had done before, nor lightly in the way she'd been expecting. Instead, it was with a depth of such thrilling need that she could do nothing but succumb to it immediately. Her arms locked around his neck and her body melted into his as it had been aching to do for the past few days. Her lips parted invitingly, clinging to the firm outline of his, while all the time his hands moved eagerly and caressingly over her body making every part of her aware of how much his touch aroused her.

The kiss seemed to go on forever. Each time she managed to find the strength to break free of him, his mouth would move to caress some other part of her throat or face. Then, having sensitised that area to the point where she thought she couldn't bear it any longer, he'd move back to her lips as if magnetised by them. Each kiss, each caress had her sink deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of pleasure he was spinning around her.

Lips never leaving hers, she felt him lift her off her feet and automatically wrapped her jean-clad legs around his trim waist, pressing herself harder against him with a soft moan. William broke the kiss and she felt him trail down her throat to the curve of her breast that was becoming increasingly exposed to the cool air as he deftly undid the buttons of her pale blue blouse.

She tried to protest, tried to tell him to stop, but another, stronger feeling overrode everything she'd been about to say as his lips inched ever closer to her aching nipple. Head dropping back, she gasped as his tongue darted out to dip under the lace material of her bra and arched eagerly towards him. Her breathing grew heavy as she clasped the back of his head and urged him on so that she could once again feel the sweetly agonising sensation of his mouth caressing her so intimately.

Just when William was within mere millimetres of his goal, she felt him pull away then gently ease her away from him as he lowered her unsteadily to the ground. Elizabeth let out a little whimper of protest and frustration and it took her a few seconds to realise that he was tugging the sides of her blouse together and trying to do her buttons up with hands that were blatantly shaking.

Trying to get her breathing under control, she looked at him in confusion as her brain attempted to comprehend that he'd actually stopped.

"It's okay. She's gone now," said William, silently cursing the unevenness of his voice and the way he couldn't get his hands to work properly. He hadn't expected her to react as quite as eagerly as she did. Sharing a few heated kisses had been his plan and it had taken every ounce of his willpower to stop.

It was several seconds before his meaning sunk in and when it did, Elizabeth was mortified. He was talking about Dawn! Turning bright red, she wrenched herself away from him then looked down at her half open blouse, her own fingers trembling as she desperately tried to finish fastening her buttons as quickly as possible. "What's going on?" she asked angrily, conscious that her voice was shaking almost as much as her hands.

There was an odd silence and when she automatically looked up, she saw that William looked as flushed and breathless as she felt.

"I would've thought that was obvious," he finally replied tersely. "I wanted to make love to you."

For a single moment, Elizabeth stood there and allowed the sweet, wild joy of his admission wash over her but then she dammed it and retorted harshly, "I didn't mean that! I want to know why you told Dawn that we're engaged."

Finally getting his unruly body back under a modicum of control, William managed to adopt a mildly surprised look. "What?" he queried, as if he'd completely forgotten about the whole thing and then added carelessly, "Oh that. Well, it seemed like the best thing to do at the time." He tilted his head slightly as his gaze softened and his voice gentled. "I did it for your sake, you know."

It was Elizabeth's turn to be surprised. "My sake?" she questioned with a puzzled frown.

William nodded. "Well, yeah. As soon as your sister walked in and announced that Connor…your Connor…was her fiancé, I guessed straight away what must have happened," he told her quietly. "I suppose they came here the tell you they'd fallen for each other and to ask you to let Connor out of his engagement to you." He sighed and shook his head. "I have to say, I thought it was a bit off of her to just casually introduce him as her fiancé like that." He shrugged and looked rueful. "Perhaps I shouldn't have jumped in the way I did but…and I know this may be hard for you to hear, Buffy…he just didn't seem all that ashamed about switching his affections like that, you know? And all I could think of was how you were going to feel when you came home and found out that he'd dumped you for your own sister."

While he spoke, William had taken hold of her hand and begun caressing it gently, and yet, so arousingly that she could hardly concentrate on what he was saying. Her senses were screaming out to her that they needed far more than the deliberately provocative stimulation they were receiving. That they wanted his hands on her body…his mouth…

With enormous effort on her part, she tore herself from her erotic yearnings and tried to listen to what he was telling her as he continued to speak.

"Anyway, I guess I just went on instinct really. I was angry on your behalf and before I knew it, I was telling them that you and I were engaged as well. You know, show him that your engagement meant as little to you as it obviously did to him. Although, naturally, I didn't let on that I knew about Connor and you…and to be honest, he never mentioned it either…didn't say much of anything actually."

William paused and Elizabeth stared at him speechlessly. This was the last thing she'd ever imagined. After everything that had happened between them…all the things she'd said; William had wanted to protect her…to help her.

God, how the tables could turn. One minute he was her nasty little secret and the next he was her champion…even if she didn’t actually need one.

The urge to just tell him the truth came out of nowhere and she opened her mouth to do exactly that, but stopped at the last moment as she remembered how she distressed she'd felt when she initially thought he'd already learned of her deceit. She was certain that once he knew, he'd hate her and that was something she just couldn't bear to live with. Besides, what was the point of admitting anything when he was going to be leaving soon anyway? Why make her life any harder than it already was?

"I have to say, you've taken it very well," he suddenly commented lightly. "I half expected that you'd come home and throw yourself into his arms before I had a chance to say anything. You must feel like hell."

That was true, she acknowledged ruefully, although not for the reason's he thought.

William sighed again and, tongue firmly in cheek, added mock sympathetically, "And after you've struggled so hard to be faithful to your engagement as well."

Elizabeth swallowed hard at that, her eyes widening as she opened her mouth to say something…anything. "I…"

"Of course, you won't think so now, but in the long run, this is probably for the best," William cut across her in a comforting tone. "Just imagine if he'd left you for her after the wedding."

The wedding.

Suddenly, anger pulled Elizabeth out of her internal ramblings as she remembered something far more important than her fake engagement and supposed broken heart over Connor. "What on earth possessed you to tell Dawnie that we're getting married in June for God's sake?" she demanded bitterly.

William released her hand and held up his arms in a gesture of defeat as he produced a look on his face that was somewhere between shame and embarrassment. "I'm sorry, okay? Don't ask me how, but she managed to drag out of me that we'd been lovers and, well, to be quite honest, after that I didn't have much option. Being your sister, I'm sure she knows of your high morals and I know Connor would've told her that you and he had never slept together so…"

Elizabeth was so annoyed that she almost missed the significance of what he was saying but when she did, she felt as though she'd turned to stone. "Connor and I…" she began then trailed off weakly.

"Well, you didn't, did you?" William clarified reasonably. "I did think at first it must be because you were frightened he might find you inexperienced and that was why…"

Elizabeth's eyes widened at the word 'inexperienced' and felt the blood drain from her face. Oh God. She did not, must not, ask how William knew she'd been a virgin…she didn't think she could bear to hear his answer. Especially if he told her she'd been terrible.

"…and then when I saw him with Dawn and they said that you'd all been together around the time we first met, it all made sense. Connor had obviously been having second thoughts about your engagement and I'm guessing that you, not getting the attention you deserved, felt undesirable and that's where I came in." William smiled slowly at her, his eyes roaming down her body before flicking up to her face again as he added flippantly, "You know, being convenient and all."

Elizabeth's mouth dropped open at his last remark as she vainly tried to protest his use of her own words against her. "I…you…" she stammered out then suddenly stopped and shut her eyes, taking a deep breath as she attempted to absorb the several shocks that she'd received in such a short space of time.

This was awful. Absolutely awful.

She needed time to think and she couldn't do that when he was standing so close. Hearing William's take on the situation was…surprising, to say the least, and her guilt factor over her deceit steadily rose another few notches.

Putting a hand to her head, she exhaled on a long sigh and rubbed her temple gingerly before opening her eyes to calmly say, "This is a lot to deal with, I…I think I'll go back inside." Desperately hoping that this were - please God - a nightmare, she turned to go.

"Yeah, it's not every day you lose one fiancé and gain another," William observed with a slight chuckle, apparently oblivious to her feelings. The look of misery she shot him over her shoulder had him falter for a moment and he felt himself relent slightly as the smile dropped from his face. "I thought you'd be pleased," he told her in a hurt tone that stopped her in her tracks and had her turning back to him in disbelief. "I mean, I know how you feel about your self-respect and I know what it's like to discover that the person you love has broken their engagement to you." He paused then added quietly, "Same thing happened to me once."

He had her attention now. Her shocked gaze locked with his and he drew in a long breath as he began to speak.

"It was a long time ago and I was a young fool," he explained, his tone devoid of any emotion. "I believed that Dru…that was her name…truly loved me. Truth was, what she really loved was my parent's money that she knew would eventually be mine."

He let out a harsh, self-depreciating laugh and looked away, not wanting to see the pity in Elizabeth's eyes when he added bitterly, "It wasn't until I found her in bed with someone else that I realised how little our engagement…how little I actually meant to her." He shook his head then lifted his gaze to Elizabeth's once more as he added grimly, "I know only too well what the humiliation of losing someone you love is like, Buffy. I'm sorry if I handled this situation with Connor badly. I only wanted to help."

With his revelation, Elizabeth suddenly clearly understood the reasoning and purpose behind his actions. He was simply trying to help her save face and walk away from her 'engagement' with some pride in tact.

She sighed heavily and tried to decide which pained her the most; the jealous knowledge that William had loved and probably still did love, someone else or the awareness of just how amazing a man he was to have thought of her and acted so quickly to save her from being hurt.

Unfortunately, what William didn't realise was that he had far more power to hurt her than Connor would ever have and in 'helping' her, he'd actually caused even more appalling problems for her to deal with.

Shaking her head at how life could be so ironic at times she then determinedly focussed on the pressing issue at hand…how on earth was she going to explain away to Dawn the ending of their engagement?

Especially since her sister knew they'd been lovers and also knew, by her own damning admission, that she loved William.

Her head began to pound in earnest and she resisted the urge to rub her temples once more only to have William step forward and take hold of her hand again.

Head tilting slightly, he gave her a warm smile as his thumb rubbed soothing circles over her wrist. "Look, it's not the end of the world," he told her cajolingly. "The fact of life is that, unfortunately, engagements are always being broken."

Elizabeth frowned, his attempt at comfort rankling her. "Not within a few weeks of the wedding and not when the two people are supposed to be so madly in love with each other they can barely keep their hands of one another," she snapped, her nerves feeling dangerously close to breaking point. "And certainly not when one of those two people is me! Dawn knows that I…" She broke off and groaned loudly. "Oh God! She's probably on the phone to Mum and Dad right now!" Her eyes widened in panic. "What if she's telling them to book the church up for us?"

William's eyebrows raised and he stilled the movement of his thumb as he stared back at her quizzically. "Buffy…I was talking about your engagement to Connor," he clarified softly.

Elizabeth stared back at him, her face suddenly flushing intensely. She'd been so caught up in somehow convincing Dawn that she didn't love William after all that she'd completely forgotten about her fake betrothal to Connor.

Suddenly, it was all too much for her and, despite the fact that she was twenty-four years of age as well as being a mature woman who never gave way her emotions but kept them firmly locked up…she let out a cry of frustration and unceremoniously stamped her foot!

"Forget my engagement to Connor!" she exclaimed pettishly. "How the heck am I going to explain to Dawn that you and I aren't getting married?"

If he hadn't seen the sheen of tears in her eyes, William might almost have burst out laughing. His self-controlled, stubborn, beautiful Buffy was suddenly showing him very clearly just what he had to look forward to when she and he produced a daughter. He couldn't wait!

"Oh, don't worry about that," he dismissed casually. "We'll think of something." Releasing her hand, he turned back to the mower and crouched down seemingly once more absorbed in trying to work the blade loose. "Oh and while I remember, Rupert's staying at a friend's tonight so he won’t be home."

As he finished speaking, the blade finally came off and he let out a small cry of triumph as he held it aloft for her to see. "About bloody time," he said with a grin before standing up again. "Best get this fixed so I can crack on and cut the rest of the lawn."

Without another word, he turned and walked away to the shed, leaving her to stand and stare after him in barely restrained anger. Letting out a loud huff, she stormed back into the house muttering to herself about how her well-ordered life had become a shambolic mess in mere weeks.

In the shed, William dropped the blade in a bin before looking out of the window in time to see Elizabeth march angrily into the house. Letting out a chuckle, he shook his head and searched for a new blade.

So far, he was keeping her just enough off kilter that she wasn't getting the chance to think about things, merely react to them, which is what he wanted. No longer concerned about using her own emotions against her to gain an advantage and, being that all was fair in love and war, he was happily planning a full-on assault.
xxxxx
Going out to the car, Elizabeth bought in the rest of the shopping and busied herself with the task of unpacking the food and putting it away.

Glancing out the window, she saw that William had returned to the mower and was fixing the new blade with a bright smile on his face. The fact that he seemed so completely at ease while she was so on edge made her want to grab the nearest large object and throw it at him. Hard.

It was all very well for him, she groused internally…it wasn't his sister who believed they were passionately in love and on the verge of getting married.

Moving around the kitchen, she put the food away shutting the cupboard doors with more force than necessary, gaining a grim satisfaction from the loud bangs they produced. One thing was for certain, she reasoned unhappily as she finished her chore, there was no way the day could get any worse.

TBC IN CHAPTER 17 - The Time For Truth





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