[Reviews - 47]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 3472 times

- Text Size +




Chapter Six


“Are you staying?” she asked with little inflection in her voice. She struggled to sound as though she wanted him to stay, but the best she could do was to keep the impatience out of her voice.

Riley watched Buffy as she walked around the house, turning off lights, checking doors and clearly preparing to go to bed for the night. When she had run out of things to do before going upstairs, Buffy stopped in front of him and took a deep breath.

“Do you want me to?” he asked. “I want to be here for you, Buffy. Whatever you need.”

Remembering how peacefully she had slept last night with Spike holding her, Buffy ducked her head and said, “I could use some company while I sleep. Somebody to just hold me?”

As soon as she saw his look of happy anticipation, she regretted asking him to stay.

(Great. Now he thinks I want to have sex. How do I handle this without making him feel rejected all over again?)

Taking the bull by the horns, she looked him in the eye and said clearly, “I just need to get some sleep, Riley. That’s all I want tonight. I’m too worried about my mom to-“

Trying to hide his disappointment, he put his arms around her and assured her that he was fine with that. Buffy tried to smother the urge to compare his smothering hug with Spike’s comforting embrace, as she forcefully reminded herself that this man was her boy friend. The blond vampire, she insisted to herself, was just another Scoobie. A good friend, perhaps, but...

When she slipped into bed, Buffy was once again wearing her flannel pjs and she saw Riley shoot her a disappointed look as he stripped to his boxers and slipped into bed beside her. When he put his arms around her and she snuggled up to his warm body, she almost thought it was going to be okay. She knew he loved her, and she could feel his desire to comfort her as he cuddled her small body and kissed her forehead.

It wasn’t long though, before he was running his hands over her back and pulling her up against his body so that she could feel his erection pressing against her leg. She opted first for trying to pretend she was asleep, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work as he became even bolder in an attempt to “wake” her up.

Buffy was torn about what she wanted to do. On the one hand, this man was her boy friend. She did care about him and it had been a while since they had made love. On the other hand, she had specifically asked him to let her sleep and he was disregarding that request pretty vigorously. And somewhere in the back of her mind was a baritone voice saying, “think about how it made you feel and multiply that...”

While she was mulling over her options, Riley took her lack of rejection as acquiescence and began to pull her pajama top off over her head, ignoring the buttons. He ran his hands over her breasts quickly, then went to her pj bottoms and began to slide them down her hips.

“Buffy,” he whispered. “Please, Buffy. It’s been a long time. Just let me...”

“Riley, I asked you to let me sleep. I really don’t want to....”

“I can make you want to,” he said as he pulled her against him again. “You know I can.”

(Actually,) she thought to herself, (you can’t. You’re just pissing me off.)

Struggling not to say aloud what she was thinking, Buffy pushed against his chest, using just enough of her Slayer strength to make her point.

“Riley. I really only wanted an all-night hug. Can’t you do that?”

“No, I can’t do that. What do you think I am? I can’t lie here next to you, touching you, and not want to.... I’m just a man, Buffy.”

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh, “I guess you are at that.”

(I guess it takes a demon to have that kind of self-control. A soulless, impulsive, obsessive demon.)

When he tried to pull her back to him again, thinking that her agreement about his gender meant she was going to let him have his way, she surprised herself by almost snarling at him as she shoved him away and turned her back. She thumped her pillow once or twice, mostly to relieve her frustration at having nothing else to punch, and then resolutely closed her eyes.

“Good night, Riley,” she ground out between gritted teeth. “If this is too hard for you, feel free to go down to the couch.”

Riley was quiet for a minute or two, then jumped to his feet and picked up his clothes from the floor. “You can be a real bitch, Buffy. Did you know that?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve it heard it before,” she said, trying not to smile as she remembered who most often used that term around her.

The big man stomped out of the room and down the stairs. He sat on the couch in the dark for a while, then stood up and determinedly went out the door and got in his car. Across the street, a dark figure stepped out of the shadows and frowned as he watched the soldier drive away.

Spike looked back and forth between the house and the rapidly disappearing car, then made up his mind and whirled to follow the man who had just left Buffy alone in her bed. Delight that the two humans hadn’t made love warred with his anger that the man who claimed to love her would leave rather than comfort her without getting something in return.

(Wonder if he’s gone to get his rocks off somewhere else? He’s not likely to find much down here in the warehouse district except....bloody hell! He just went into the vamp whorehouse!)

Spike strode into the building, confident in his ability to take out any of the wimpy vampires who got their blood by drinking from willing humans. No one challenged him as he walked through the warehouse with long, businesslike strides and he soon found the room where he watched surreptitiously as Riley gave money to a thin, angular female vampire. When she had tucked the money away, she undid the soldier’s pants and pulled up her skirt. The sight of her elongating fangs was all it took to get the man hard, and he was soon pounding into her, groaning as she sank her teeth into his arm and began taking long pulls of his blood.

In spite of the disgust he felt, Spike did not interrupt the two oblivious creatures coupling inside the small room. He whirled and left the building with no idea where he was going, only knowing that he needed to be moving and he needed to kill something.

“Soddin’ bloody wanker! Leaves the Slayer on the night before her mum is going have a serious operation and goes to a vamp whore.” The vampire kept of a litany of British invective as he roved through Sunnydale’s cemeteries looking for something on which he could take out his anger.

He considered going back to Revello Drive, but he didn’t want to take a chance that Buffy would catch him watching her house when she thought her boy friend was there. He’d fought the urge to follow them for more than an hour after hearing Riley talk about taking her home and going to bed. He tried to get so drunk that he would pass out and forget what he heard, but ran out of JD long before he reached the passing out point, and long after he was sober enough to make good decisions.

The result was he’d found himself standing under the tree in Buffy’s yard, listening to sounds of them getting ready for bed. His vampire hearing allowed him to hear her tell Riley all she wanted was an all-night hug, and his gratitude that he wasn’t going to hear them make love was tempered by the pain of knowing she wanted comfort from her human boy friend rather than him.

When he heard Riley’s heart rate increase, and realized the man was growing aroused, he almost couldn’t restrain himself from leaping onto the roof and into the room. His eyes flashed yellow and he cringed inwardly in anticipation of hearing the sounds of Buffy making love with the man in her bed. He was so wrapped up in the misery he was anticipating, that he almost missed her reaction and subsequent suggestion that Riley sleep on the couch. Years of being able to read her moods meant he could tell from her increased breathing and heart rate exactly how brassed off she was at Riley’s attempts to seduce her. Spike had snarled scornfully when he heard Riley insist he could make her want him.

Relief and joy had flooded his body when he heard the other man tromp down the stairs, cursing to himself. He’d pulled back into the shadows across the street just fast enough to avoid being seen when the angry man exited the house.

Now that he knew where Riley had been going, he was left with the question of what to do with the information. It hadn’t appeared that the man was unfamiliar with the whorehouse. He drove right to it and was already in a room with a vamp when Spike got there. That told Spike that this was not the first time Riley had been there.

His stomach clenched a little at the thought of Dawn or Joyce, or even Buffy, being endangered by the former commando. While most vamps that working in places like that were not willing to give up their meal tickets by killing or turning them, it was always a possibility.

His inner debate was interrupted by the arrival of a group of fledgling vamps looking to make a name for themselves by taking out the vampire who killed his own kind. The joy on Spike’s face as he realized he had something on which to take out his fear and anger should have alarmed the other vampires, Unfortunately for them, it didn’t.

With a swirl of black leather, he took out the two closest to him without even slowing down. The broken necks he gave them didn’t dust them, but they were completely unable to continue the fight. His momentum carried him into the next two in the group, and he was able to get off several good punches and a roundhouse to a jaw before they realized that it was going to take all of them working together to handle the master vampire.

Spike’s strength, speed and joy in the fight allowed him to hold his own against the six vampires left trying to kill him, but numbers were not on his side and he knew he was one sucker punch away from being in real trouble. Just as he was debating the wisdom of running away, the vampire in front of him disappeared in a puff of dust and he saw a blond vision smiling at him through the dust.

“Can I play, Spike? Or are you keeping all the fun for yourself?” she asked with her perkiest smile.

“I can spare a few, Slayer. Which ones do you want?”

The verbal by-play wasn’t lost on the remaining five young vampires and they looked back and forth between the two blonds as realization set in.

“Hey, our mistake. No harm, no foul, right?” the oldest one said, edging away from the stake-twirling Slayer. “We’ll just be on our—“

He was cut off by the swoosh of a stake though the air and looked down at his chest in dismay just before he exploded. Before the others could react, Buffy was on them and she made short work of the two she tackled as Spike went to work on the other two. When he had broken their necks and thrown the bodies down with the first two, he sat on a tombstone and watched in admiration while Buffy played with the last one standing.

As she punched and kicked the unfortunate vamp around the clearing, Spike strolled over to pick up her stake and used it to dust the four he had left on the ground. As he finished, he saw that Buffy’s punching bag of choice was incapable of getting up again and he tossed her the stake with a, “Here, pet. Put him out of his misery.”

Soon there was nothing left but a lot of dust piles and two very satisfied blond predators.

“Well, that felt good,’ Buffy said, letting out a sharp breath. “I had some tension to work off.”

To Spike’s surprise, he was able to keep a grip on his tongue and avoid any innuendos about why she was tense. The last thing he wanted to do was to remind her that she could have shagged away the tension with her boyfriend. Instead he rolled his shoulders to loosen them up and agreed, “Yeah, had some frustrations myself.”

That said, they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence as they both tried to pretend that Buffy shouldn’t be home in bed with her boyfriend rather than standing around in a graveyard with another vampire.

While Spike mentally battled conflicting urges to tell her about Riley’s activities or not tell her to avoid adding to the things she was dealing with, Buffy surprised him by saying softly, “He left me.”

The vampire didn’t pretend not to know who she was talking about, just looked at her out of the corner of his eye and said, “That right, pet?”

“Yes. He just called me a bitch because all I wanted was to be held, like...like you did last night. I didn’t think that was too much to ask from somebody who’s supposed to love me.”

She didn’t notice Spike’s wince at her last remark, she just felt his arms go around her gently as he whispered in her ear, “It’s not too much to ask, love. Never should be. Bloody pillock is too stupid to appreciate what he has if you ask me.”

“Didn’t ask you,” she mumbled into his chest as she relaxed into his arms and let the feelings of safety and comfort wash over her.

(I wonder what kind of Slayer feels safe and warm standing in a cemetery at night with a master vampire’s arms around her?)

“True, but you know me, gonna give you my opinion whether you want it or not.” She could hear the smile in his voice and snorted in an unladylike fashion as she looked up at him.

They smiled into each other’s eyes for a minute until Spike could feel himself responding to the warm body he was still holding lightly. He moved back slightly so that Buffy would not feel the evidence of his desire against her stomach.

(Last thing I want to do right now is make her think I can’t control myself around her either. She needs know she can lean on me without my wantin’ something in return.)

In spite of his having pulled his body back from hers, Buffy could tell from the way his eyes darkened that he was reacting to her nearness the way he always did. Anger at Riley fueled the ever-present attraction she felt toward the blond vampire, and Buffy unconsciously licked her lips as she stared at his openly needy face
.
“Ah, Slayer. Don’t do that to me, love. You know I want to kiss you so bad I—“

He was cut off as she suddenly stood on her toes and pressed her mouth to his firmly. His arms instinctively tightened around her, pulling her willing body against his as he deepened the kiss. Once again, Buffy’s world narrowed to the soft, supple lips moving over hers and the cool tongue exploring her mouth. Her arms crept around his neck and she allowed him to support her as she let her body melt into his lean muscular one.

She felt her underwear growing damp and Spike’s smothered growl as he smelled her arousal. Rather than finding the growl intimidating, she was surprised to find herself even more turned on as it vibrated against her body.

(Ooookay. I know that one’s not in the Slayer handbook. Growling vampire should not equal lusty Buffy. Something must be very wrong with me...)

After several minutes of bone melting kisses, Buffy pulled back slightly to get her breath and try to get a grip on her libido. Spike continued to hold her lightly around the waist, but allowed her to decide how close they would get and if the kissing would continue. His demon was screaming to be let out and allowed to take this woman and it took all his self-control to keep his face smooth and his expression hopefully expectant.

“I...I need to get home. I left Dawn there by herself,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Right, then. You should go.” He reluctantly slipped his hands off her waist and shoved them into his pockets. Every muscle in his body was trembling with the effort it took to let go of her strong little body. “D’you want me to walk you home?” he asked softly.

“What I want is...” she stopped herself before she could say anything she couldn’t take back and stood up straighter. “No, thank you. I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Just in case Riley gets over his fit of temper and decides to come back...”

“You wouldn’t let him in if he did, would you, pet?” He surprised both of them with the urgency in his voice.

Buffy looked at him curiously and asked, “Well, probably, if I thought he was going to leave me alone. Why?” She peered at him intently; something about his look reminded her of the conversations about the booby trap in his crypt. “Do you know something I should know?” she demanded sharply.

“I hope not, love,” he answered cryptically, deciding he wasn’t going to tell her about the soldier’s vamp whore until he had talked to her Watcher.

She stared at him for a minute, tapping her foot in irritation, all lust banished by the knowledge that once again he knew something she didn’t and that he wasn’t planning to tell her what it was.

“So help me, Spike. If you’re hiding something from me again....”

“Jus’ go home and try to get some kip, Slayer. You don’t want your mum to think you’ve been up all night worrying, do you?”

The way her lower lip poked out told him she was only postponing, not abandoning, the conversation she wanted to have; but she opted let it go for the time being. Breathing an unnecessary sigh of relief, he leaned forward and kissed her on the top of her head as he said, “Good night, Slayer. I’ll see you tomorrow sometime.” He gave her a little push in the direction of her house and turned to go to his crypt before the sun came up.

Buffy stared after him with her brow furrowed, then whirled and stomped off in the direction of Revello Drive muttering to herself about, “secrets, sneaky, lying vampires...”





You must login (register) to review.