Chapter
5.06
Wednesday, May 15th, 2002
Buffy had never thought that just eating could
be such an erotic experience, but each mouthful of the dessert
that the vampire fed to her was like drowning in his kisses. First
there was the tingling, mouth-watering, slow burn on her tongue
from the chilli seasoning in the cookie base, like the fire he
could ignite inside her with just a lazy glance. Then, there was
the rich, velvet-soft darkness of the chocolate filling, decadent
as the darkly sensual world to which he had introduced her, its
taste enhanced by that gentle heat in a way she could never have
imagined. Lastly, the cool sweet taste of whipped cream with the
lightest hint of vanilla, soothing and cleansing her mouth so
that the fire died down low until the next mouthful, like the
coolness of his touch offering comfort and solace.
"Oh god, that should be illegal."
Spike smiled. "I guess you like it, then?"
"Mmhmm." Buffy managed as she savoured
the next piquant-sweet mouthful. Her eyes drifted closed, to better
concentrate on the sensations in her mouth. Long seconds passed
before she spoke again. "Think we could get them to do enough
for the reception?"
Spike's smile went up another notch. "I
guess you're not easy scared off then, love. Thought there's still
things we need to sort out."
"Things we need to sort out, sure,"
Buffy agreed, "but there's nothing we can't sort out... Is
there?"
"I don't know, love. I really, honestly
don't know. That depends on how much we're both prepared to bend.
Whether you can accept the parts of me that I can't change."
"We'll just have to see, won't we? But I'm
thinking any guy that would give up half of his share of this
cheesecake is one I want to hold onto."
"And I thought the saying said the way to
a man's heart is through his stomach."
"Yeah, well they got that wrong by about
six inches."
Spike took on a mock-aggrieved expression.
"Fool," Buffy giggled. "You know
that's not what I meant."
"And you know that I would love you even
if we had never so much as kissed each other."
"But the attraction came first."
"You know it did. You know there was a heat
between us even back when I was chained up in Rupert's bathtub.
Even the bloody watcher knew."
"What?" Buffy looked shocked at the
suggestion.
"All that sexual tension. Rupes walked into
the living room and said that if we didn't kill each other he
might just lend a hand. He's not naïve, you know. He probably
recognised it for what it was before you did."
"That so was not about sex. You were
unbearable. A total pig."
"And it provoked a reaction and it scared
you so much you had Bit subbing for you for the rest of the week."
"I was so not afraid of you."
"Didn't say you were. You were afraid of
how I made you feel, and if truth be known, I wasn't exactly over
the moon about the state of play either, but I'd have gone with
it."
"Id boy."
"This from someone who nearly wet her knickers
just eatin' that cheesecake."
"Shhh." Buffy hissed. "You are
still a total pig."
"Never denied it, love. Now, here..."
Spike held out the last mouthful of his dessert just in front
of her mouth and after a second's hesitation her lips closed over
the fork to draw the confection in.
"D'you know that's the exact same look you
get when—"
"Don't!" Buffy cut him off with a low
hiss and a kick to the shin under the table. "Don't even
think of saying whatever it is that you were going to say."
"Me? What could you possibly think that
I was going to say?" His eyes twinkled with mischief as he
teased her mercilessly.
"My mom didn't bring me up to repeat the
sort of thing I suspect you were going to say."
"No," Spike's voice softened. "She
brought you up to be just perfect." For the first time since
they had entered the restaurant Spike relinquished his grip on
Buffy's hand. His fingers brushed against her neck and jaw line
as he drew her close for a chocolate flavoured kiss. They skirted
over and around her claim mark and then back to her jaw, only
to return again tantalising seconds later.
She moaned his name as she finally drew back
for air, her eyes glazed with need.
Spike tossed enough bills on the table to cover
their food and a generous tip. "C'mon, pet I think it's time
we found somewhere a bit more private." With a wave to the
watching waitress, he took Buffy's hand once more and drew her
toward the exit.
They stopped often as they made their way along
the beach, to kiss, or sometimes more, as their hands explored
familiar curves and planes beneath their coats. Yet, for a long
way in either direction the beach, though not crowded, was too
populated to allow more than an occasional furtive caress.
Finally, they rounded a headland and saw the
beach stretching clear before them. Buffy dropped her small backpack
down on the sand and started to shrug her way out of her coat,
but before she could, Spike's hands were there, easing it from
her shoulders. He folded it over his arm before removing his own,
more battered coat and laying it out for them to rest on. He placed
hers so that it acted like a pillow without actually resting on
the sand itself. He looked on, amazed, as Buffy pulled her top
off over her head, not expecting her to be so brazen when they
were still scant yards away from the beach's other occupants,
and then he realised that she wore her bikini top underneath.
Pushing her top into her backpack she moved over
to the vampire, tugging his shirt free from the waist of his jeans.
"It's only fair."
"All I can say to that is, if you're plannin'
on taking those jeans of yours off, you damn well better hope
you don't get me arrested for indecent exposure." All the
same, his hands moved to undo the shirt's buttons at her bidding.
"That would be why those cut-offs of yours
are in my backpack, but for now I just want to know what you're
feeling while we talk all this stuff through."
"I guess we have to?" Spike asked,
his gaze wandering up and down the curves of Buffy's body.
"You're the one who pointed out that we
don't know how long we've got until the next crisis. And if it's
having the sort of effect on you that it did last night, then
we can't just ignore it."
"Sure? They say ignorance is bliss."
Buffy lay down on the outspread coat. "Come
here, you, and hold me."
Spike let his shirt drop onto the pale dry sand,
and then he lay down beside her, one arm propping up his head
so that he could watch her while his other hand began to trace
lazy patterns on the bare flesh of her midriff, side and back.
As Buffy wrapped her arms around him drawing him in closer against
her, Spike would have been the last person to admit out loud that
his feelings weren't about sex or desire, but all about home and
belonging. But then, it wasn't as if he needed to say them aloud
for her to know.
She looked up, meeting his gaze. "We went
into this claim thing blind. We didn't know how it would work
or even if it would work, but I believe that last vision we saw
together, the one of our wedding day, was a true one, or at least
a possible outcome. So, I don't think there's anything in your
thoughts that can affect me enough that I would ever want to give
you up."
"Buffy, you shouldn't be touched by thoughts
like that."
"Try me. I'm tougher than you think."
"I know that, love, but you still have feelings
for the big bland wanker. It's there in your eyes every time you
try to defend him or make up excuses for him. It was there in
the way you needed comfort when you found out he had a new life,
if I'd but realised it at the time."
"Spike, just let it out. All of it. Riley,
the Initiative, the chip, whoever's watching us now, everything.
Let it go. We need this out in the open."
Buffy gasped for breath as if she were drowning
when he finally was unable to deny her demands any longer and
the wave of cold, intense, black hatred swamped her. Her grip on
him loosened at the shock of the almost physical impact, but then
she consciously pulled him close once more, determined to ride
out this roller coaster to the end. Bloodlust, jealousy, pain
and a thirst for vengeance roiled through her as she held him
tight.
Through it all, she struggled with her shock
and her horror, to offer him her love. He had never offered her
anything less, even when she had acted out her darkest impulses,
so how could she condemn him for mere thoughts, however corrupt
they might be? She called to mind Wesley's words as she had drifted
off to sleep earlier that same day, all the joy, love and caring
Spike had brought, in just a few precious weeks. She knew that
the time when she might have been able to let him go was long
past.
"Spike, it's okay. We'll be okay, me and
you, all of us. Just try to hold back on doing anything rash.
There's no hurry. We've got plenty of time to sort all this out.
We'll find a way to deal with it that doesn't involve anyone getting
hurt. For our sakes as well as theirs. Think about Rosa if she
lost Clem or Lily. or her Uncle Will, or if we start something
and they took Rosa.
If this turns into a war, you're going to end
up being their number one target, and I need you here with me.
I'm never going to not need you. Just give us time to find a way
through this where no one gets hurt, please."
"Buffy, this is bigger than you think. Word's
been filtering through from Central America, Africa, all over
the world, ever since Finn upped and ran. Remember what I said
about the Indians that Thanksgiving? Well, that's what's been
happening all over the globe, except this time 'round we've got
demons instead of Indians, and Finn and his band of brothers aren't
setting up reservations or sending missionaries. It's genocide.
Communities that have existed in isolation for centuries are being
sought out and exterminated like vermin all because men can't
be happy until they have the whole world to themselves, and if
the demons defend themselves or their territory then that's just
proof that they needed killing. And when they run out of things
to kill in the jungle or the mountains, where do you think they'll
come next?"
"Don't tell me you're going all politically
correct on me?"
"No. If I'm honest, I don't give a toss
about a bunch of lizard men in darkest Borneo or wherever, but
I needed to put it in terms that you would understand. Sooner
or later, they'll be coming for me and Clem and Lily and Rosa.
Maybe even the spell-casters, too. Didn't I hear they locked up
that fella that turned Rupes into a Fyarl demon, just put him
in a box and threw away the key? No civil rights. No trial. So,
where does that leave Red and Glinda, maybe even Wes? Then there's
Bit and Anya. They're human as far as anyone knows, but I'm sure
Finn and his goons'd like to check up on that. And what exactly
is it that makes a slayer a slayer? Is it something they can replicate?
How do you fancy being the donor for some cloning experiment or
something? Do you get my drift, now? Buffy, I was around for the
rise of the Third Reich. I watched people deny what was happening
until it was too late. I don't want that to happen to the people
I care about."
"It won't. When and if they come, we'll
be ready. Willow is more powerful than they could ever dream.
With time, we can get contingency plans in place. We took on a
god and won. We can take whatever they throw at us."
Spike's voice was deadly serious. "Not without
losses... Not without losses."
"That's why you're so keen to bring
in all these other demons, isn't it?"
"Why did you think? You think I want to
use m— your nearest and dearest as cannon fodder?"
"I think, it doesn't matter. I think, together,
we'll get through this, whatever happens. And as for some of the
rest of the stuff in your dream, I also think that while mum might
have had her worries when she found out you had feelings for me,
that she would approve if she could see us now. If she could see
how supportive you are, and how much better both mine and Dawn's
lives are with you around. I know that she liked you, and she
never really got beyond the whole best behaviour thing with Riley.
He was never just himself around her. And... I think that up to
a few months ago I'd have said that that cheesecake was better
than sex."
"You're just trying to divert my attention,"
the vampire accused.
"Is it working?"
"Can't you tell?" Spike's eyes travelled
down between their bodies.
"Let's go home, Will." Buffy suggested.
"We've talked enough."
"You still need to eat something, love,"
Spike protested as they made their way back along the beach.
"I'll be fine. I skip meals all the time."
"And it shows. We're out here now. Might
as well have something to eat before we go back."
"Thanks. I don't hear you complaining about
my figure when we... you know."
"Buffy, I'm not complaining about anything,
I'm just saying you need to take better care of yourself... or let
me do it. Besides, maybe I think you need to build up your energy."
His tongue ran over his teeth in that way that always made her
knees go weak.
"Sounds like someone's got big plans."
"Or maybe I just want some quiet time alone
with my girl."
"Some quiet time alone with a picante fajita,
more like."
"That too."
With a noise that was half a laugh and half a
snort Buffy resigned herself to her fate. "Okay, we eat and
then we go home." |
