All ABout the Mission Part @ of the IWSHLY series by slaymesoftly
Chapter #15 - Chapter Fifteen
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
 
“It’s pretty simple, really,” he said. “I have to bite you while we’re making love and say ‘mine’. That bite mark won’t fade as easily as the others did.” He stroked her neck where she’d always had very faint scars from the Master, Angel, and Dracula. He frowned and pulled his head back to look at her neck again.
 
“Bloody hell,” he whispered.
 
“What?”
 
“Drac didn’t bite you this time, and I can’t see his marks anymore.”
 
“But I remember it!”
 
“You’ve got the memory, but you don’t have the scar now.”
 
“That’s just… scary. Something we did this time changed my body from what it was when we got here.”  She tried to smother her anxiety, but she couldn’t hide her accelerated heart rate.
 
“Seems like it did. For the better, if you ask me.” He smiled in what he was hoped a reassuring manner, only to contradict himself immediately. “But it’s still a touch too unexpected to make me comfortable. I’m feeling a lot better about Anya’s suggestion now….”
 
“We need to ask Giles about it tomorrow. And maybe Anya? She might know what’s going on.” Buffy frowned, but went back to the original topic. “So, where were we? You bite me and say something possessive, and then what?”
 
“Well to make it a real claim, you have to agree to it. You have to say ‘I’m yours’ or something similar to set up the claim. Without that, it just marks you as mine. Not a bad thing for a slayer to have­—a master vampire’s mark on her­—younger vamps should back off from trying to bite you when they see it. Not that you’re likely to allow any to get that close, but if they did…”
 
“What if I do say ‘I’m yours?’ Which I am, you know. Lock, stock and Buffy barrel.”
 
He squeezed her again and the conversation got sidetracked while they kissed until Buffy was breathing hard and Spike was squirming to keep her warm bottom pressed onto his suddenly hard cock. Buffy finally tore her mouth away to ask, “So that’s it? You bite me, say I’m yours, I agree to it and we’re married?”
 
“No, love. That’s just a claim. If we lost our memories, I’d know you were mine, and you’d know you belonged to me, but we might not know why… or even be happy about it. It’s not like we would be mated, just… connected.”
 
“What makes it a marriage then? And don’t expect me to say ‘mated’. We’re not wolves or something.” She snorted her dislike for his terminology and he grinned at her.
 
“Such a dainty little thing you are for someone who knows where that slayer power really comes from….”
 
“Shut up. And answer my question. What else has to happen?”
 
“You have to bite me back, and we repeat the claiming words in reverse. With vampires, that links their demons forever. They’d be able to feel each other, maybe communicate their thoughts if they tried hard enough, I don’t know what all, for sure. It’s not something that happens a lot. Most vamps don’t fancy long-term relationships.”
 
“You and Dru didn’t….”
 
“Didn’t.” His voice was flat and didn’t invite questions. She ignored him.
 
“But you will with me?”
 
“I would’ve with Dru,” he admitted with a sigh. “Can’t deny I wanted it. But she wouldn’t. Too much in love with her precious ‘daddy’.”
 
He went very still as they both remembered that Buffy had also been very much in love with Angel. She felt him relax when she snuggled into him and said, “You know that doesn’t apply to me, right? You’re my long-haul guy. Angel’s just….” She sighed.  “Okay, he’s not just an ex-boyfriend, and I’ll always feel a connection, just like you do with Dru, but I’m in love with you now.”
 
“I knew that,” he said.
 
“Uh huh. Sure you did.”  Buffy gave him a moment to collect himself, then asked, “But I’m not a vampire, so what does that mean, if we claim each other?”
 
“Got no bloody idea, love. Except that demon you hate to admit you have should respond just as any other demon would. It’ll either work, or it won’t work because you’re human. Either way, we’d be that much more connected and less likely to forget why we’re together.”
 
“Anya doesn’t think we will forget….”
 
“Neither do I, to be truthful.  But even if we did, I’d swear on my unlife that I would still love you, even if all we had to go by was what we remember from being together this past year. I would still love you just as much.”
 
“You don’t know that.”
 
“Do too,” he said stubbornly, burying his face in her neck. “I do know that. The only thing we’re sussing out here is if I might need a little help makin’ sure you know you love me.”
 
Buffy turned so she was straddling him with her legs on either side of his hips.  She grabbed his hair and pulled his face up so she could glare at him.
 
“I’ll never understand how somebody who is so full of himself most of the time can be so insecure about his effect on women.”
 
“Not insecure about that at all,” he said, pushing up into her. “Not unless I love them and know they’re out of my league.”
 
“And how many of those have you had?” she demanded.
 
“Only one so far.” He grinned at her. “If I’m not feelin’ insecure, they fall at my feet.”
 
“I didn’t fall at your feet,” she said with a snort, wriggling against him.
 
“No. No you didn’t. But you were well worth the extra time and effort.” He stood smoothly, smiling when she put her legs around his waist. “Worth every bloody second of it,” he said as he turned and walked into the bedroom.
 
“Prove it,” she said, nibbling on his throat. “Prove I’m worth it.”
 
“It would be my pleasure, Slayer,” he growled, smiling again when she gasped and pressed against him harder.
 
“Like that, don’t you?”
 
“You know I do.  I’m sure it means something is very wrong… with… ummm… me.”
 
He remained standing, growling steadily, while Buffy pulled herself against him and allowed the vibrations to bring her to a swift release. When she was clinging to his neck, legs hanging bonelessly, he fell onto the bed and rolled them to the side.
 
When her breathing had gone back to normal, and she was unzipping his jeans, he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
 
“Jus’ in case we’re too busy for a conversation later, is it a yes for the claim?”
 
“It’s a yes. Of course, it’s a yes!” When he released her hand and began tugging her shirt off, she said, “What about me? Don’t you want to know what I’m going to do?”
 
“Don’t need my permission for that, love. You can put your teeth on me anytime you like and you know it. Have done, more than once. Just needed to be sure it’s okay for me to bite you, in case I’m a bit distracted at the time and forget to ask.” He finished pulling off her shirt and unfastened her bra, licking one peaked nipple as he did so.
 
“That’s it? We’re going to be… married… and all you care about is if it’s okay to bite me?”
 
Buffy sat up, her pout only half-pretend as she realized what they were about to do and how clinically Spike seemed to be going about it. The pout developed into a full-fledged slayer glare.
 
“You did a better job of proposing than that back when you were evil and hated me!”
 
Spike stared at her for a second, his mouth agape, then his common sense obviously cut in and he went to his knees beside the bed, pulling her over to the edge. Ignoring his unzipped jeans and her bare breasts, he held on to her hand and kissed it.
 
“I’m a git and a wanker, and you have every right to turn me down. But if you’ll forgive me and say you’ll marry me, it will make me the happiest man in the world. And I’ll do my best to make you a happy woman for the rest of our lives.”
 
He waited, unable to hide his anxiety, as she bit her lip and seemed to be thinking it over. He sighed in relief when she smiled, saying, “That’s better. I accept. I’ll marry you, Spike.”
 
“You won’t regret this, love,” he said, climbing back onto the bed, his loosened jeans sliding off his hips. “I promise you. I’ll make it my life’s work to make you happy.”
 
“You could start by taking the rest of our clothes off—me first.”
 
As awkward as it was, with his jeans now around his ankles, but hung up on hishis boottops, he obeyed, unfastening her pants, then going down to her feet to pull off her shoes and socks before tugging her stretchy pants down her legs. He kissed his way back up her legs, mumbling his appreciation for her soft skin and delicious scent.
 
Buffy allowed herself to enjoy his attentions for a few seconds, before touching him on the head. “Now you,” she said, tugging on the collar of his T-shirt.
 
He yanked the shirt off as he was bending down to take off his boots and socks. He kicked the now-free jeans away and turned back to gaze at her. She was lying back on her elbows, smirking at him, legs still slightly apart.
 
“Life’s work, happy Buffy. Start now.”
 
“Bossy bint,” he said, his grin making a mockery of his words. “One happy Buffy comin’ right up… pun intended,” he added as he lowered his mouth to her clit and began to tease it with his tongue. Never giving in to her verba; and physical hints, he continued to hit it with his tongue just hard enough to build sensations, and not hard enough to allow her the release she was eventually begging for.
 
Head tossing back and forth, she alternated whimpers and curses as he pinned her hips down and continued his assault. When her whimpers began to sound more like sobs, he relented and grabbed the little bit of flesh between his front teeth, biting just hard enough to send her arching off the bed with a gasped scream.
 
He didn’t give her time to recover before he was sliding into her and sucking on her neck. Buffy let him suck until she could feel his need for more movement, then canted her hips up. He immediately began moving, remaining buried inside her as they  stimulated each other to more and more vigorous actions.
 
Buffy wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him to her with her ankles crossed behind his back, clinging to him like a monkey while he held himself on his elbows and knees, pounding into her. As she felt her body climbing to an unfamiliar level of ecstasy, she grabbed his shoulder with her teeth, holding on tightly while she shattered around him. His powerful roar of “Mine!” was her first clue that his normal heavy sucking on her throat had turned into something else. She pulled her mouth away from the ragged bite on his shoulder, saying, “I am yours… and you are mine.”
 
There was no mistaking the magic now singing through her body for normal afterglow. One look at Spike’s face, still wearing his fangs, her blood on his lips, the sheer happiness in his amber eyes and his soft expression made it clear she wasn’t alone in her unexpected reaction. “Always will be,” he murmured, dropping his head to lick his bite.  Still clinging to him, she felt him slowly sink down to the bed. When he rolled onto his back, she loosened her legs and stretched them out along his, moving her hands up to rest them on his shoulders.
 
“Wow, wowie, wow,” she murmured into his chest. “Remind why we didn’t do this years ago?”
 
His chest shook under her face as he chuckled. “It was a bit of alright, wasn’t it?” he said, running one hand down her back. “And, because you’d have turned me to dust for it.”
 
“Good point.”
 
“Not stupid, love.”
 
She felt him twitching and growing within her and laughed with delight. “Is this where we test Anya’s statement that our sex life is going to get even better?”
 
“Not sure I believed it could, but I’m more than willin’ to give it the benefit of the doubt.”
 
“You know she’s going to ask for a full report tomorrow.”  Buffy giggled.
 
“With details that’re nobody’s business but ours,” he growled in agreement. “Don’t suppose you can arrange for that to happen when I’m not around?”
 
“Don’t worry… ahhhh…. As long as Xander’s there, he’ll shut her down. I don’t think he wants to… ummmm… hear anything about it.” 
 
Buffy stopped trying to talk and fell into another bout of lovemaking that, while familiar, managed to be more intense and emotionally fulfilling than any they’d had yet. In addition to feeling each other’s pleasure, there was a shared warmth that, more than any words could have, manifested the love they now could feel between them. When they finally broke apart, moving only as far as they needed to for Buffy to get air, they took matching deep breaths.
 
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this being mated business,” Buffy said with a sigh.
 
“Getting more and more fond of it myself,” he agreed, stroking her head. “Got no more worries about our relationship when we get back to the future. This isn’t going to go away, no matter what changes we make.”
 
Buffy murmured her agreement, curing into his side. “Still seems weird that Dracula’s scar went away, though. I wonder when that happened?”
 
“Seems like it would have been once you sent him away without getting a taste of you, but I think I would have noticed it before.”
 
Buffy snorted. “As much as you like sucking on my neck, it’s pretty hard to believe you’d miss that little detail.”
 
“In all fairness, love, I’m left-side oriented and I don’t pay as much attention to that side of your neck. Mine is over here,” he said, nuzzling the already healing marks he’d left on her. “It’s possible I just didn’t notice it had gone missing before.”
 
“Huh. I didn’t even think about that. Old Batface and Angel, they bit me on the right too. I’ve got scars on top of scars there.”
 
His answer was a snarl that made her flinch in spite of herself.
 
“What the hell was that about? They’ve always been there. You weren’t around when I got the first two bites, but you should be used to them by now.”
 
“You weren’t my mate before. The demon’s not happy about other marks on you.”
 
“Well they aren’t claims, they were just bites. Hurty bites, not….” She paused, at a loss for words to describe what the claiming bite had felt like. 
 
“To be honest, love, I’m a little surprised Angelus didn’t try to claim you when he was marking you. Would have been just like him to try to make you a possession without asking your permission.”
 
“He didn’t,” Buffy said, frowning. “I’d have noticed… at least I think I would have noticed….I’m not sure I was conscious when he got me to the hospital.” She chewed her lip.  “What if he did?  That might explain why I thought I was in love with him for so long. Didn’t you say a one-way claim would mean we were connected?”
 
“Did you remember saying anything to him?”
 
“Nope, I was busy hoping he’d stop as soon as he got enough so it would stop hurting. And then…. I guess I passed out. He wasn’t there when I woke up in the ER.”
 
Spike growled under his breath. “Bloody wanker. Bet he told you it was his demon that wouldn’t stop, didn’t he?”
 
“Maybe.” She nuzzled Spike’s chest, licking his nipple to watch it come to a little peak. “But I know better now. I know he could control his demon if he wanted to.  If I’d know you as well then, I wouldn’t­—”
 
“If you’d known me this well then, he never would have put his teeth on you, because we’d already be mated.”
 
“So he didn’t claim me, then. “Cause if he had, Dracult wouldn’t have been able to bite me.”
 
Spike frowned. “Hard to tell about Drac. If if was some kind of half-arsed mark the poof left there without getting you to agree to it… I dunno. Drac’s got all that gypsy magic stuff going for him. He might not worry too much about an incomplete claim from a younger vamp… even if it was the mighty Angelus.” The sneer in his voice made Spike’s opinion perfectly clear.
 
“You didn’t have any trouble biting me. And you nibble on me all the time. You nibbled even back in our time when we—”
 
“Never tried to nibble over your scars….” Spike said. “Now that I think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever put my mouth on that side of your neck. Let me see….”  He rolled them over so he could see the right side of her neck, running his tongue over the scars there.
 
“Bloody hell,” he whispered, staring at her neck with wide eyes. He leaned in and licked again, shaking his head in wonder.
 
“What? As good as that feels, I don’t think it rates a ‘bloody hell’, does it?”
 
“How do you feel about having only one, barely visible, scar on that side of your neck?” he whispered, making no attempt to hide his shock.
 
“What?”
 
“An hour ago, you still had two scars­—one from old Batface, and one from the poof. There’s only one now, and it’s hardly noticeable.”
 
“Oookaaaay. I can kind of see losing Dracula’s bite mark, ‘cause he never bit me in this time line.  But Angel did. And the scar was there.”
 
“Indeed it was. I may not have touched it with my lips, but I was always aware of it somehow….” He sat up and began swearing in several languages.
 
“Spike?”
 
“I was always aware of it. Not Drac’s, not old Batface’s, but I could never ignore Angel’s scar. The bloody bastard did mark you and set up a claim. Somehow, he put just enough of a pull on you that you couldn’t get away.”  He gazed down at her. “Do you still feel that ‘connection’ to him? Or is he now just an old boyfriend?”
 
Buffy frowned, thinking, then her eyes grew wide. “He’s going to be a dusty old boyfriend! He did try to claim me! No wonder I could never love anybody else!”
 
“I take it that means it’s gone?”
 
Buffy shuddered. “How could he do that to me? Bind me to him like that without asking me?”  She looked at Spike, her eyes damp with tears she refused to shed. “I would have said yes.”  She frowned again, remembering scenes from years past. “That son of a bitch!”
 
“Buffy?”
 
“He used to… to… when we’d see each other or talk on the phone, he’d always end it by asking me if I was still his girl. And dumb me, I said ‘yes’.”  Her hurt expression had changed to a slayer’s angry glare.  “I’m going to kill him.”
 
“Not that I’d stop you, love, but in all fairness to him, he probably thought he was putting a mark on you that would keep you safe. Or at least give you another second or two to save yourself. Wasn’t strong enough to work on an old vamp like Dracula, and it didn’t stop me from… but it did keep me away from that side of your neck.”
 
“Are you defending him?” She stared at him incredulously. “Seriously? You don’t want to kill him ?”
 
“It’s gone, love. Wiped out by the real thing. If we’d figured this out before we were mated, I’d be on my way to L.A. to turn him into a puddle of bloody dust. But I’m here. He isn’t. And we’re mated. I’m feeling magnanimous.”
 
“Well, I’m not feeling magna… whatever that is. I’m feeling homicidal.”
 
“I can feel that. Trust me.” He growled to prove his point. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry right now.”
 
“Fine,” she agreed reluctantly. “First kill Glory, then Angel.”  She glanced at him as a thought occurred to her. “Will he know it’s gone?”
 
Spike shrugged. “Don’t really know, do I? Could ask the Watcher, or Anyanka, but I’m guessing only another really old vampire would be able to answer that.” He grinned. “Or we’ll know if the poof comes roaring back in to town to find out what happened to it.  I think I’d pay to see his face when he finds out.”
 
“You know you’re an ass, right?” she snorted. “We don’t need that kind of distraction right now. Isn’t that what you just said?”
 
“Meant you didn’t need to running off to dust him. Didn’t say I’d stop you if he came to us.” He nudged her. “But not till after I get to see his face when he realizes who has claimed you for real.”
 
“And I repeat, ass. It’s a good thing for you I can feel your emotions, ‘cause if I thought for one second this was all about you getting one up on Angel…. He wouldn’t be the only one floating away on the breeze.”
 
He laughed and pulled her back down, drawing the blankets over them as, in spite of her words, she snuggled into his side.
 
“But you can read me, love. And you can feel how much I love you and what this means to me.”
 
“Mmmph,” was her only reply as she closed her eyes for some much-needed sleep before having to worry about Glory again.
 
“Mmmph you too, Buffy,” he said as he closed his eyes.
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
 
“It’s pretty simple, really,” he said. “I have to bite you while we’re making love and say ‘mine’. That bite mark won’t fade as easily as the others did.” He stroked her neck where she’d always had very faint scars from the Master, Angel, and Dracula. He frowned and pulled his head back to look at her neck again.
 
“Bloody hell,” he whispered.
 
“What?”
 
“Drac didn’t bite you this time, and I can’t see his marks anymore.”
 
“But I remember it!”
 
“You’ve got the memory, but you don’t have the scar now.”
 
“That’s just… scary. Something we did this time changed my body from what it was when we got here.”  She tried to smother her anxiety, but she couldn’t hide her accelerated heart rate.
 
“Seems like it did. For the better, if you ask me.” He smiled in what he was hoped a reassuring manner, only to contradict himself immediately. “But it’s still a touch too unexpected to make me comfortable. I’m feeling a lot better about Anya’s suggestion now….”
 
“We need to ask Giles about it tomorrow. And maybe Anya? She might know what’s going on.” Buffy frowned, but went back to the original topic. “So, where were we? You bite me and say something possessive, and then what?”
 
“Well to make it a real claim, you have to agree to it. You have to say ‘I’m yours’ or something similar to set up the claim. Without that, it just marks you as mine. Not a bad thing for a slayer to have­—a master vampire’s mark on her­—younger vamps should back off from trying to bite you when they see it. Not that you’re likely to allow any to get that close, but if they did…”
 
“What if I do say ‘I’m yours?’ Which I am, you know. Lock, stock and Buffy barrel.”
 
He squeezed her again and the conversation got sidetracked while they kissed until Buffy was breathing hard and Spike was squirming to keep her warm bottom pressed onto his suddenly hard cock. Buffy finally tore her mouth away to ask, “So that’s it? You bite me, say I’m yours, I agree to it and we’re married?”
 
“No, love. That’s just a claim. If we lost our memories, I’d know you were mine, and you’d know you belonged to me, but we might not know why… or even be happy about it. It’s not like we would be mated, just… connected.”
 
“What makes it a marriage then? And don’t expect me to say ‘mated’. We’re not wolves or something.” She snorted her dislike for his terminology and he grinned at her.
 
“Such a dainty little thing you are for someone who knows where that slayer power really comes from….”
 
“Shut up. And answer my question. What else has to happen?”
 
“You have to bite me back, and we repeat the claiming words in reverse. With vampires, that links their demons forever. They’d be able to feel each other, maybe communicate their thoughts if they tried hard enough, I don’t know what all, for sure. It’s not something that happens a lot. Most vamps don’t fancy long-term relationships.”
 
“You and Dru didn’t….”
 
“Didn’t.” His voice was flat and didn’t invite questions. She ignored him.
 
“But you will with me?”
 
“I would’ve with Dru,” he admitted with a sigh. “Can’t deny I wanted it. But she wouldn’t. Too much in love with her precious ‘daddy’.”
 
He went very still as they both remembered that Buffy had also been very much in love with Angel. She felt him relax when she snuggled into him and said, “You know that doesn’t apply to me, right? You’re my long-haul guy. Angel’s just….” She sighed.  “Okay, he’s not just an ex-boyfriend, and I’ll always feel a connection, just like you do with Dru, but I’m in love with you now.”
 
“I knew that,” he said.
 
“Uh huh. Sure you did.”  Buffy gave him a moment to collect himself, then asked, “But I’m not a vampire, so what does that mean, if we claim each other?”
 
“Got no bloody idea, love. Except that demon you hate to admit you have should respond just as any other demon would. It’ll either work, or it won’t work because you’re human. Either way, we’d be that much more connected and less likely to forget why we’re together.”
 
“Anya doesn’t think we will forget….”
 
“Neither do I, to be truthful.  But even if we did, I’d swear on my unlife that I would still love you, even if all we had to go by was what we remember from being together this past year. I would still love you just as much.”
 
“You don’t know that.”
 
“Do too,” he said stubbornly, burying his face in her neck. “I do know that. The only thing we’re sussing out here is if I might need a little help makin’ sure you know you love me.”
 
Buffy turned so she was straddling him with her legs on either side of his hips.  She grabbed his hair and pulled his face up so she could glare at him.
 
“I’ll never understand how somebody who is so full of himself most of the time can be so insecure about his effect on women.”
 
“Not insecure about that at all,” he said, pushing up into her. “Not unless I love them and know they’re out of my league.”
 
“And how many of those have you had?” she demanded.
 
“Only one so far.” He grinned at her. “If I’m not feelin’ insecure, they fall at my feet.”
 
“I didn’t fall at your feet,” she said with a snort, wriggling against him.
 
“No. No you didn’t. But you were well worth the extra time and effort.” He stood smoothly, smiling when she put her legs around his waist. “Worth every bloody second of it,” he said as he turned and walked into the bedroom.
 
“Prove it,” she said, nibbling on his throat. “Prove I’m worth it.”
 
“It would be my pleasure, Slayer,” he growled, smiling again when she gasped and pressed against him harder.
 
“Like that, don’t you?”
 
“You know I do.  I’m sure it means something is very wrong… with… ummm… me.”
 
He remained standing, growling steadily, while Buffy pulled herself against him and allowed the vibrations to bring her to a swift release. When she was clinging to his neck, legs hanging bonelessly, he fell onto the bed and rolled them to the side.
 
When her breathing had gone back to normal, and she was unzipping his jeans, he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
 
“Jus’ in case we’re too busy for a conversation later, is it a yes for the claim?”
 
“It’s a yes. Of course, it’s a yes!” When he released her hand and began tugging her shirt off, she said, “What about me? Don’t you want to know what I’m going to do?”
 
“Don’t need my permission for that, love. You can put your teeth on me anytime you like and you know it. Have done, more than once. Just needed to be sure it’s okay for me to bite you, in case I’m a bit distracted at the time and forget to ask.” He finished pulling off her shirt and unfastened her bra, licking one peaked nipple as he did so.
 
“That’s it? We’re going to be… married… and all you care about is if it’s okay to bite me?”
 
Buffy sat up, her pout only half-pretend as she realized what they were about to do and how clinically Spike seemed to be going about it. The pout developed into a full-fledged slayer glare.
 
“You did a better job of proposing than that back when you were evil and hated me!”
 
Spike stared at her for a second, his mouth agape, then his common sense obviously cut in and he went to his knees beside the bed, pulling her over to the edge. Ignoring his unzipped jeans and her bare breasts, he held on to her hand and kissed it.
 
“I’m a git and a wanker, and you have every right to turn me down. But if you’ll forgive me and say you’ll marry me, it will make me the happiest man in the world. And I’ll do my best to make you a happy woman for the rest of our lives.”
 
He waited, unable to hide his anxiety, as she bit her lip and seemed to be thinking it over. He sighed in relief when she smiled, saying, “That’s better. I accept. I’ll marry you, Spike.”
 
“You won’t regret this, love,” he said, climbing back onto the bed, his loosened jeans sliding off his hips. “I promise you. I’ll make it my life’s work to make you happy.”
 
“You could start by taking the rest of our clothes off—me first.”
 
As awkward as it was, with his jeans now around his ankles, but unable to drop any farther than his boottops, he obeyed, unfastening her pants, then going down to her feet to pull off her shoes and socks before tugging her stretchy pants down her legs. He kissed his way back up her legs, mumbling his appreciation for her soft skin and delicious scent.
 
Buffy allowed herself to enjoy his attentions for a few seconds, before touching him on the head. “Now you,” she said, tugging on the collar of his T-shirt.
 
He yanked the shirt off as he was bending down to take off his boots and socks. He kicked the now-free jeans away and turned back to gaze at her. She was lying back on her elbows, smirking at him, legs still slightly apart.
 
“Life’s work, happy Buffy. Start now.”
 
“Bossy bint,” he said, his grin making a mockery of his words. “One happy Buffy comin’ right up… pun intended,” he added as he lowered his mouth to her clit and began to tease it with his tongue. Never giving in to her verba; and physical hints, he continued to hit it with his tongue just hard enough to build sensations, and not hard enough to allow her the release she was eventually begging for.
 
Head tossing back and forth, she alternated whimpers and curses as he pinned her hips down and continued his assault. When her whimpers began to sound more like sobs, he relented and grabbed the little bit of flesh between his front teeth, biting just hard enough to send her arching off the bed with a gasped scream.
 
He didn’t give her time to recover before he was sliding into her and sucking on her neck. Buffy let him suck until she could feel his need for more movement, then canted her hips up. He immediately began moving, remaining buried inside her as they  stimulated each other to more and more vigorous actions.
 
Buffy wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him to her with her ankles crossed behind his back, clinging to him like a monkey while he held himself on his elbows and knees, pounding into her. As she felt her body climbing to an unfamiliar level of ecstasy, she grabbed his shoulder with her teeth, holding on tightly while she shattered around him. His powerful roar of “Mine!” was her first clue that his normal heavy sucking on her throat had turned into something else. She pulled her mouth away from the ragged bite on his shoulder, saying, “I am yours… and you are mine.”
 
There was no mistaking the magic now singing through her body for normal afterglow. One look at Spike’s face, still wearing his fangs, her blood on his lips, the sheer happiness in his amber eyes and his soft expression made it clear she wasn’t alone in her unexpected reaction. “Always will be,” he murmured, dropping his head to lick his bite.  Still clinging to him, she felt him slowly sink down to the bed. When he rolled onto his back, she loosened her legs and stretched them out along his, moving her hands up to rest them on his shoulders.
 
“Wow, wowie, wow,” she murmured into his chest. “Remind why we didn’t do this years ago?”
 
His chest shook under her face as he chuckled. “It was a bit of alright, wasn’t it?” he said, running one hand down her back. “And, because you’d have turned me to dust for it.”
 
“Good point.”
 
“Not stupid, love.”
 
She felt him twitching and growing within her and laughed with delight. “Is this where we test Anya’s statement that our sex life is going to get even better?”
 
“Not sure I believed it could, but I’m more than willin’ to give it the benefit of the doubt.”
 
“You know she’s going to ask for a full report tomorrow.”  Buffy giggled.
 
“With details that’re nobody’s business but ours,” he growled in agreement. “Don’t suppose you can arrange for that to happen when I’m not around?”
 
“Don’t worry… ahhhh…. As long as Xander’s there, he’ll shut her down. I don’t think he wants to… ummmm… hear anything about it.” 
 
Buffy stopped trying to talk and fell into another bout of lovemaking that, while familiar, managed to be more intense and emotionally fulfilling than any they’d had yet. In addition to feeling each other’s pleasure, there was a shared warmth that, more than any words could have, manifested the love they now could feel between them. When they finally broke apart, moving only as far as they needed to for Buffy to get air, they took matching deep breaths.
 
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this being mated business,” Buffy said with a sigh.
 
“Getting more and more fond of it myself,” he agreed, stroking her head. “Got no more worries about our relationship when we get back to the future. This isn’t going to go away, no matter what changes we make.”
 
Buffy murmured her agreement, curing into his side. “Still seems weird that Dracula’s scar went away, though. I wonder when that happened?”
 
“Seems like it would have been once you sent him away without getting a taste of you, but I think I would have noticed it before.”
 
Buffy snorted. “As much as you like sucking on my neck, it’s pretty hard to believe you’d miss that little detail.”
 
“In all fairness, love, I’m left-side oriented and I don’t pay as much attention to that side of your neck. Mine is over here,” he said, nuzzling the already healing marks he’d left on her. “It’s possible I just didn’t notice it had gone missing before.”
 
“Huh. I didn’t even think about that. Old Batface and Angel, they bit me on the right too. I’ve got scars on top of scars there.”
 
His answer was a snarl that made her flinch in spite of herself.
 
“What the hell was that about? They’ve always been there. You weren’t around when I got the first two bites, but you should be used to them by now.”
 
“You weren’t my mate before. The demon’s not happy about other marks on you.”
 
“Well they aren’t claims, they were just bites. Hurty bites, not….” She paused, at a loss for words to describe what the claiming bite had felt like. 
 
“To be honest, love, I’m a little surprised Angelus didn’t try to claim you when he was marking you. Would have been just like him to try to make you a possession without asking your permission.”
 
“He didn’t,” Buffy said, frowning. “I’d have noticed… at least I think I would have noticed….I’m not sure I was conscious when he got me to the hospital.” She chewed her lip.  “What if he did?  That might explain why I thought I was in love with him for so long. Didn’t you say a one-way claim would mean we were connected?”
 
“Did you remember saying anything to him?”
 
“Nope, I was busy hoping he’d stop as soon as he got enough so it would stop hurting. And then…. I guess I passed out. He wasn’t there when I woke up in the ER.”
 
Spike growled under his breath. “Bloody wanker. Bet he told you it was his demon that wouldn’t stop, didn’t he?”
 
“Maybe.” She nuzzled Spike’s chest, licking his nipple to watch it come to a little peak. “But I know better now. I know he could control his demon if he wanted to.  If I’d know you as well then, I wouldn’t­—”
 
“If you’d known me this well then, he never would have put his teeth on you, because we’d already be mated.”
 
“So he didn’t claim me, then. “Cause if he had, Dracult wouldn’t have been able to bite me.”
 
Spike frowned. “Hard to tell about Drac. If if was some kind of half-arsed mark the poof left there without getting you to agree to it… I dunno. Drac’s got all that gypsy magic stuff going for him. He might not worry too much about an incomplete claim from a younger vamp… even if it was the mighty Angelus.” The sneer in his voice made Spike’s opinion perfectly clear.
 
“You didn’t have any trouble biting me. And you nibble on me all the time. You nibbled even back in our time when we—”
 
“Never tried to nibble over your scars….” Spike said. “Now that I think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever put my mouth on that side of your neck. Let me see….”  He rolled them over so he could see the right side of her neck, running his tongue over the scars there.
 
“Bloody hell,” he whispered, staring at her neck with wide eyes. He leaned in and licked again, shaking his head in wonder.
 
“What? As good as that feels, I don’t think it rates a ‘bloody hell’, does it?”
 
“How do you feel about having only one, barely visible, scar on that side of your neck?” he whispered, making no attempt to hide his shock.
 
“What?”
 
“An hour ago, you still had two scars­—one from old Batface, and one from the poof. There’s only one now, and it’s hardly noticeable.”
 
“Oookaaaay. I can kind of see losing Dracula’s bite mark, ‘cause he never bit me in this time line.  But Angel did. And the scar was there.”
 
“Indeed it was. I may not have touched it with my lips, but I was always aware of it somehow….” He sat up and began swearing in several languages.
 
“Spike?”
 
“I was always aware of it. Not Drac’s, not old Batface’s, but I could never ignore Angel’s scar. The bloody bastard did mark you and set up a claim. Somehow, he put just enough of a pull on you that you couldn’t get away.”  He gazed down at her. “Do you still feel that ‘connection’ to him? Or is he now just an old boyfriend?”
 
Buffy frowned, thinking, then her eyes grew wide. “He’s going to be a dusty old boyfriend! He did try to claim me! No wonder I could never love anybody else!”
 
“I take it that means it’s gone?”
 
Buffy shuddered. “How could he do that to me? Bind me to him like that without asking me?”  She looked at Spike, her eyes damp with tears she refused to shed. “I would have said yes.”  She frowned again, remembering scenes from years past. “That son of a bitch!”
 
“Buffy?”
 
“He used to… to… when we’d see each other or talk on the phone, he’d always end it by asking me if I was still his girl. And dumb me, I said ‘yes’.”  Her hurt expression had changed to a slayer’s angry glare.  “I’m going to kill him.”
 
“Not that I’d stop you, love, but in all fairness to him, he probably thought he was putting a mark on you that would keep you safe. Or at least give you another second or two to save yourself. Wasn’t strong enough to work on an old vamp like Dracula, and it didn’t stop me from… but it did keep me away from that side of your neck.”
 
“Are you defending him?” She stared at him incredulously. “Seriously? You don’t want to kill him ?”
 
“It’s gone, love. Wiped out by the real thing. If we’d figured this out before we were mated, I’d be on my way to L.A. to turn him into a puddle of bloody dust. But I’m here. He isn’t. And we’re mated. I’m feeling magnanimous.”
 
“Well, I’m not feeling magna… whatever that is. I’m feeling homicidal.”
 
“I can feel that. Trust me.” He growled to prove his point. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry right now.”
 
“Fine,” she agreed reluctantly. “First kill Glory, then Angel.”  She glanced at him as a thought occurred to her. “Will he know it’s gone?”
 
Spike shrugged. “Don’t really know, do I? Could ask the Watcher, or Anyanka, but I’m guessing only another really old vampire would be able to answer that.” He grinned. “Or we’ll know if the poof comes roaring back in to town to find out what happened to it.  I think I’d pay to see his face when he finds out.”
 
“You know you’re an ass, right?” she snorted. “We don’t need that kind of distraction right now. Isn’t that what you just said?”
 
“Meant you didn’t need to running off to dust him. Didn’t say I’d stop you if he came to us.” He nudged her. “But not till after I get to see his face when he realizes who has claimed you for real.”
 
“And I repeat, ass. It’s a good thing for you I can feel your emotions, ‘cause if I thought for one second this was all about you getting one up on Angel…. He wouldn’t be the only one floating away on the breeze.”
 
He laughed and pulled her back down, drawing the blankets over them as, in spite of her words, she snuggled into his side.
 
“But you can read me, love. And you can feel how much I love you and what this means to me.”
 
“Mmmph,” was her only reply as she closed her eyes for some much-needed sleep before having to worry about Glory again.
 
“Mmmph you too, Buffy,” he said as he closed his eyes.