CHAPTER THIRTEEN
 
Buffy entered the house to find that Willow had called there first, and Vi already knew Buffy would be leaving.
 
“I really hate to go before I know everybody’s all right again,” Buffy worried. “But Faith is still babysitting Smith for Willow and—”
 
“We’ll be fine, Buffy. I can already get the fridge a couple of inches off the floor. It might take the other girls who’ve been absorbing the drug longer than I have more time to get their strength back, but it’ll come. And just knowing they took out that nest without any powers boosted their confidence so much that I’m going to have a hard time keeping them in until they’re fit.”
 
“I guess you’re right.  Mystery solved, bad guy meeting the new Council – assuming Faith hasn’t killed him yet. You don’t really need me here anymore, and Spike never was a part—”
 
“Is he leaving too?”
 
“I... he... yes. He’s coming with me. He doesn’t really live here, you know. He was just here because it had a hellmouth and his demon needed.... Yeah, anyway. He’s going on this mission with me, and then— I don’t know what then. I guess we’ll find out.”
 
Vi nodded. “Okay, well Willow said the plane should be here sometime before noon, so I guess you’ll want to pack.”
 
“No rush. No matter when it gets here, we can’t leave until it’s dark enough for Spike to go outside. I can pack tomorrow morning.  Do you think one of the girls could drive us to the airport in the van? We could get there a little earlier if he had someplace to hide from the sun.”
 
“No problem. We can talk about it tomorrow.” She gestured into the main lounge where there was giggling and shouting. “I think I can keep them amused with movies for a while tonight, but you know they aren’t going to sleep a wink if they think you and Spike are....”
 
“Crap! I didn’t think about that... Maybe we should go back to his apartment... no, that won’t work, he’s moving out now. Okay. We can do this. He can stay downstairs, in the basement. And I’ll be in my room, and nobody will have to lose any sleep wondering what we’re doing.”
 
 
 
Buffy’s plan, which Spike had reluctantly agreed to, lasted just long enough for the house to grow quiet. She was moving down the stairs as silently as she could when her slayer senses went crazy. Moving more swiftly, she jumped to the bottom and ran toward the kitchen, only to crash into Spike who was moving just as quietly down the hallway toward the stairs.
 
“Great minds....” he said, the grin on his face almost visible in his voice.  He held her loosely while she got her balance and giggled into his chest.
 
“I guess thinking we could stay apart in the same house when we just got back together probably wasn’t very smart of me, huh?”
 
“Probably wasn’t very realistic, anyway,” he agreed, nuzzling the top of her head.  “Don’t want to do anything to frighten the children—” Buffy snorted and bumped him with her head. “But there is no way I’m spendin’ the night in the same house unless I’m right by your side.”
 
“So, you think we can sleep in my room without scarring anyone for life?”
 
“If we take a little walk outside first,” he purred in her ear as he pulled her against his body. “You know, to wear off some excess energy....”
 
Buffy giggled. “Yeah, I’m feeling that excess energy myself.” She squeezed his already hard cock, then broke loose and ran toward the door. “Last one out is—” She had the door open, but Spike was already there.
 
“Don’t know how you planned to finish that sentence, love, but I’ll be waiting for you outside.” He threw a quick kiss at her surprised face and twisted his way past her and out the door, leaping off the deck and turning to face her.
 
“Cheater!” She jumped off after him and landed in his outstretched arms.  She wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her face for a kiss that soon had Spike’s arms holding her so tightly she could feel the silent growls shaking his body. Her own arms were around his neck, holding her in place while she let her legs loosen enough to slide down where she could rub herself against his hard cock. 
 
“As wonderful as this feels, love, if we don’t take it up a notch pretty soon, I’m going to fall down from frustration.”
 
Buffy giggled and moved herself enough to unzip his pants in a way that made them both freeze for a moment as they recalled the first time she’d done that.  The thong Buffy was wearing under her nightshirt became a thing of the past as Spike ripped it off while she lowered herself onto him. Matching sighs followed, which soon gave way to whimpers and growls as Buffy rode his cock, seeking a release that wasn’t coming. 
 
“Sorry, love,” he panted. “No wall to lean against this time. Can’t get the leverage you need.”
 
“Tree” Buffy gasped, pointing over his shoulder at the big elm across the yard.
 
Without response, he whirled and covered the short distance in a few long strides, placing her back against the tree and resuming his thrusts. In a gratifyingly short amount of time, she was clenching around him and biting his shoulder to muffle her keening.  Keeping his answering growl as quiet as he could, he pumped his release into her until he was spent. They remained where they were, Buffy’s back against the tree, their foreheads pressed together while Buffy got her breath back and Spike indulged in unnecessary gasping.
 
“Love you, Buffy. More than you will ever know.”
 
“Right back at you,” she managed to get out.  Spike stepped back and allowed her to slide down the trunk of the tree until her feet were touching the ground and he’d slid out of her. 
 
“Are you okay? Didn’t hurt your back, did I?”
 
Buffy snorted. “Not like it’s the first time you had me up against a tree, is it?”  She moved her shoulders around and smiled at him. “Couple of scrapes on my back, maybe. The rest of me feels just fine.”
 
He turned her around and pulled up her shirt to look at her back. Brushing off the bits of bark first, he ran his tongue over the minor scrapes there, smiling when she shivered.
 
“That is so... wrong,” she said. 
 
“What? That I’m using my vampire powers to stop the bleeding so you don’t ruin your nightie?”
 
“That you’re using the excuse of a couple of little scratches that’ll be gone by the morning to get yourself a taste of my blood,” she said, poking him for emphasis.
 
“Caught me, Slayer,” he said, much too cheerfully for someone who was admitting to sampling her blood. “Just as delicious as I remembered it, too,” he added.
 
There was an uncomfortable silence as they both remembered the last time he’d tasted her blood – when under the control of the first. Had he not been already familiar with it from their short-lived affair the year before, neither of them had any idea if it would have snapped him out of it as it did, or if he would have actually killed her.
 
“Sorry, love. Bad memories...”
 
“It’s okay. They aren’t all bad memories....” Choosing to focus on the things Spike had taught her to enjoy when she came to him almost every night, Buffy shrugged off the memory of how close he’d come to killing her. “We’re going to make new ones.”
 
He picked her up in a sincere, if somewhat awkward hug. Trying to keep his already hardening cock away from her bare lower torso, he kissed her chastely and said, “I don’t deserve you.”
 
“Probably not,” she agreed with another kiss before squirming until he put her down. “But you’re stuck with me, so too bad.”  She watched as he tucked himself away and zipped up.  “Where’s my underwear?”
 
Spike waved his hand toward the house. “Over there somewhere. Wasn’t my priority at the time.”
 
“Well let’s hope we find it on the way in.” Buffy began walking toward the house. “You coming?”
 
“Not anytime again soon, it seems,” he grumbled as he finished fastening his jeans.
 
“Don’t be greedy. We’ve got a plane to catch tomorrow.”
 
Spike’s enhanced vision located her ripped underwear right where they’d been standing when they first came out. He picked the scrap of fabric up and waved it at her.  “You sure you don’t want to leave this here for the girls to find after you’ve left?”
 
“Asshole!” she growled, snatching it from him. As they got to the door, she pointed to his feet. “Boots.”
 
He took his boots off, leaving them just inside the door, and padded down the hall after her. With Buffy shushing him until he hissed a reminder that he was the silent predator and that her constant reminders to be quiet were making more noise than he was, they made their way to her room.  Keeping his voice low, he asked, “Do you think we should hang my jacket on the door? Just so nobody pops in without knocking?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “They always knock. It’s taken me weeks to get them to stop calling me ma’am all the time. Nobody’s going to coming into my room without permission.”
 
“Hope you’re right, love,” he said as he shed his clothes. “I’d hate to damage their innocent little eyes.” He flopped onto the bed, arms and legs spread, grinning at her.
 
She snorted in unladylike fashion. “In the first place, you’d love it – exhibitionist that you are. And in the second place... I’m not sure they’re all as innocent as they’d like Vi to think.”
 
“Prob’ly not,” he said, moving over to make room for her. “I suspect an extra dose of passion and hormones is all part of the slayer package.”
 
“Hmmmph,” she said as she cuddled into his side.  “And here I thought I was special.”
 
She felt his chuckle, smiling against the skin of his chest when he murmured, “You are special, Buffy. Always have been, always will be. Those other bints are just wannabes.”
 
She still had the smile on her face when her eyes drifted shut and she fell asleep.
 
 
~~~~~~~~~
 
 
She awoke from a wonderful dream in which Spike was doing his best to make her explode with pleasure, to find that he was between her legs and the dream had become her reality.  He raised his head to smile at her, allowing her to see the red stain on his lips.
 
“Wha—? Did you bite me?”
 
“Didn’t need to, love. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how I got my first taste of your blood?  Took me the whole month to talk you into doing it again.”
 
Her head fell back against the pillow. “Oh. That’s what... I didn’t know I was... Ahhhhh!” She turned her head into the pillow to muffle her cry as he went back to what he’d been doing when she woke up.  When he’d cleaned out all the blood he could reach with his agile tongue, he took pity on her whimpers of frustration and sucked her clit into his mouth. The little nick he made with one fang was all it took to send her shuddering and arching into his mouth.
 
“Whoa,” she finally said, glaring at his self-satisfied expression.  “Think you’re smart, don’t you?”
 
“Think I’ve come up with a way to have my slayer and eat her too,” he said with a smirk.
 
“Ewwww, Spike! I forgot what a pig you can be.”
 
“So, you’re saying I can do it, as long as I don’t talk about it?”
 
“I’m not saying anything, except that you’re a piggy wiggy.  And not in a cute way like Mr. Gordo was...”
 
“Admit it, love, you won’t mind at all if I get my taste of the good stuff that way.  It’s the perfect solution to our little disagreement about my eat—former! my former eating habits.”
 
“I’m admitting nothing,” she said, eying the impressive hard-on lying against his stomach.  “What are you going to do about that thing?” She poked at it, grinning when he gasped and push his hip forward.
 
“I was kinda hoping you might help me out with it,” he purred, lying down and pulling her over on top of him.  “In the interest of keeping me from being inappropriate around the children.”
 
“I’ve already given up trying to keep you from being inappropriate....” she murmured as she squirmed her way down his body until she was nibbling on the tip of his cock. “I’ve decided to settle for pretending I can’t hear or see what you’re doing.”
 
His only reply was a happy groan as she took him in her mouth and began to show him how well she remembered how to bring him off quickly.  It wasn’t long before she was swallowing him down as he arched his hips off the bed and tried to muffle his satisfied roar with the pillow. 
 
When he took the pillow off his face, Buffy was beaming at him, her expression one of great satisfaction.
 
“Guess I took care of that little problem, didn’t I?” She said, leaping off the bed when he snarled “little?” and lunged at her. Sticking her tongue out at him, she put her robe on, picked up her travel toiletries kit, and left to take a shower.  “Be up and dressed when I get back,” she ordered as she went out the door. “Dressed being the really important word there.”