CHAPTER TWELVE
 
 
“Woman’s going to drive me mad,” he muttered as he followed her down to the bedroom.
 
“What was that?” Buffy had picked up the candle and was peering into the tunnel.
 
“I said, you’re going to drive me crazy, Slayer,” he said, adjusting himself before joining her. “What are you doing?”
 
“I was just trying to see if we could use some of the stuff they knocked down to build... like a wall or something. So nothing could get in this way without us hearing it.”
 
“Let me show you something, pet.”  He gestured for her to put the candle back and ran up the ladder without really touching the rungs. He was back almost immediately with one of the battery-powered lanterns from upstairs.  Flicking it on, he began to walk into the tunnel, kicking rocks and clods of mud out of his way.  They walked past the crevice they’d hidden in and continued another fifty yards before he stopped and pointed at an old-looking iron gate that was almost invisible back against the wall. He pointed across the tunnel where Buffy could just make out a corresponding much smaller iron construction anchored to the wall.
 
“See that? We can close this and lock it. Won’t hold back a hellgod, but might give us a little time. And the soldiers would have to blow it to get through.”
 
“You picked an interesting crypt,” Buffy said. “An upstairs, downstairs, and a back door.”
 
He laughed. “I looked around a bit before I picked it. But I didn’t find out about this until I was coming back from the Magic Box. Almost walked right past it without seein’ it.”
 
“You can get to the Magic Box from here? Really? Where do these tunnels go?”
 
“Go just about anywhere you want to. As long as you don’t mind walking on the edge of a sewer a lot of the time.  Some of these tunnels have p’robly been here longer than the town has.”
 
Buffy shivered. “They probably lead to the hellmouth, or to that church basement old – what do you call him, Batface? – was trapped.”
 
“I’m sure they do. Was just starting to really learn my way around them when I... had to leave.”
 
Buffy bit her lip at the reference to his forced absence. 
 
“Would you have come back if I hadn’t called you?”
 
“Dunno, love.” When she flinched, he set the lantern down and put his arms around her. “If I’d heard you were in trouble... I probably would have come back just to see what was going on and if you were alright. But, would I have come back this soon...? I don’t know.  Really didn’t have any reason to think you felt like I did. Knew you didn’t want to slay me, and after that kiss, I knew our bodies would be happy if I stayed... but you were so very, very good... and so very, very sure you knew how bad I was....” He pulled her in more tightly. “Wanted to come back. Wanted it every day and night. But was afraid to just show up without an invitation. Something to tell me you wanted me here – even if it was just to be backup muscle.”
 
“I missed you,” she whispered into his chest, unwilling to meet his eyes as she confessed something she’d not even admitted to herself.  “I didn’t want to believe it, and I never told anybody, but I did. Every time I felt a vampire nearby, I had to fight the urge to call your name.”  When she did look up at his face, she smiled at the happiness she could see there. “Almost got myself chomped on once, ‘cause the stupid vamp had bleached hair and I— But he wasn’t you, and I was so mad at him for having hair that color, and so mad at myself for letting it throw me, that I beat him to a pulp before I staked him.”
 
“Ah, love. We’re a pair, aren’t we?” He nuzzled her hair and stroked her back. “I’m here now. Feel free to start showin’ me how much you missed me anytime now.” The way he was holding her ensured she couldn’t miss what he meant.
 
“First, let’s close this gate. I’ve got some idea what kinds of things roam around in the Sunnydale sewers, and stupid soldiers and big rats are the least of what I don’t want walking in on us.”
 
Her words were inspiring enough that it took them only a few minutes of exerting super strength to move the old gate from where it had rested for so many years. When it was across the narrowed tunnel and had been properly latched, Buffy stepped back and looked at it with satisfaction.
 
“There. Now if you just had a bathroom, we could make this place downright cozy.”
 
“Cozy?”
 
“Well, for a grave.” Buffy picked up the lantern and started walking back toward the dim light from Spike’s bedroom.  “A few rugs, some curtains or pictures to hide the muddy walls....”
 
“Do I get any say in all this decorating?” He hurried after her, visions of posters of boybands on his walls running through his imagination.
 
“Oh, stop worrying. I’m just kidding. It’s not like I’m planning to move in here, you know.” She turned and faced him, hands on hips. “But if I was, you’d be hanging curtains and putting down rugs. And building me a real bathroom!”
 
He relaxed and smiled. “Could do that, sweetheart. Wouldn’t be hard, with the sewers running by so close.  Need to bring some pipes in, but might be able to tie into some of those too.”
 
“Would you do that for me?” Buffy stared at him with wide eyes.
 
“Would do whatever it takes to keep you comin’ back here after you don’t need to hide.” He stepped closer to her, running one hand up her arm. “Got a few more hours to kill before I can go out... Where were we when your ex—he is your ex, right?” He waited for Buffy to nod. “—when your ex boyfriend and his friends tried to blow us up?”
 
“Um... let me think... Maybe right about... here!” She shoved him backwards so hard he hit the edge of the bed with his legs and fell onto his back. He lay there, grinning at her, arms spread wide.
 
“Not going to leave me here all by myself, are you, Slayer?”
 
“Not for long,” she said, kicking off her shoes before jumping onto the bed, landing in his welcoming embrace. He gave a soft grunt as she landed on him, but wrapped his arms around her instantly, holding her in place.
 
“You know I’m not letting you up, right? Dreamed about havin’ you in this position most of the last year.”  Powerful arms banded around her body and held her in place while she wriggled in a half-hearted escape attempt that had no effect except to make him groan and slide one hand down to her ass. There was no pretending she couldn’t feel the still-growing bulge pressing against her hip, but rather than flinching away, she opened her legs and squirmed until she could feel it pressing against her rapidly dampening crotch.
 
“God, Buffy. You’re going to kill me. Got to touch you, love, got to feel you...”
 
His hands slid under her shirt, sliding it up and over her head without letting her hips lift off his. He had her bra unhooked and one hand between them on her breast so quickly she gasped.
 
“You’ve done this before,” she accused, even as she rolled them over so that he was on top and had better access to her body.
 
“Not like this,” he murmured, running his lips down to nip at her nipple. “Never like this...” He sucked the nipple into his mouth, smiling around it when she squealed and pushed her chest at him.  He continued to pull on one breast while his hand caressed and squeezed the other one. Buffy’s legs went around his hips, pulling their lower bodies even closer together. When she was actually grinding against him and beginning to whimper with frustration, he tore himself away from her breasts and pushed himself up to stare down at her.
 
“We’ve got too many clothes on.”
 
“Not my fault,” Buffy muttered, still trying to get more pressure where she wanted it.  “You stopped when you got my top off.”
 
He laughed and pushed harder until she dropped her legs so he could roll off.
 
“Be right back, love,” he said, kissing her deeply while he kicked off his boots and worked down the zipper on her jeans.  Buffy’s hands were busy pulling on his tee shirt, trying to get it off without breaking the kiss. With a sigh, she let him pull his mouth away and tear the shirt over his head.
 
She started to push her jeans off, but he stopped her with a hand on her stomach. “No, love, let me undress you. Please?” His voice was husky with desire, his eyes almost swallowed by the dilated pupils.  Buffy nodded, but he was already at the foot of her bed, tugging her jeans and underwear down her legs and dropping them on the floor. He paused to gaze at the sight in front of him, Buffy, lips kiss-swollen, nipples sitting up and still pink from his attentions, and neatly-trimmed and glistening curls only a short distance from his mouth.
 
“Beautiful....” he murmured as he eased forward, unzipping his own jeans with one hand, while the other arm supported his weight. He left them unzipped, but still on, as he began to kiss and nibble his way up one of the tanned thighs in front of him. Buffy’s breath was coming in appreciative gasps and her hips were moving in involuntary jerks as he mouth got closer to his goal. When he began to lick up the moisture he found there, her gasps turned to whimpers and yelps of pleasure.
 
Without pulling away from the mouth now doing magical things to her, Buffy managed to hook one foot in the waistband of Spike’s pants and begin shoving them down his legs.  When they were almost to his ankles, he was able to shake them off one leg at a time without interrupting his attentions to Buffy, now breathing in short, whimpering, gasps that turned to higher pitched sounds just as she clamped her thighs around his head and arched off the bed. 
 
When she’d quit trembling and had gone limp, he raised his head and grinned at her. “I’m taking your attempt to decapitate me as a sign that you liked that – not that you were tryin’ to kill me.”
 
“Sorry,” she murmured, not sounding remotely serious. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
 
“’S alright, pet. I like your enthusiasm.  Almost as much as I like this...” He sucked her flesh into his mouth, his chuckle as she whimpered adding more vibration to the sensations already overwhelming her pleasure centers.  Using one hand to hold her still and curling the fingers of the other hand inside her as best he could from that position, he soon had her quivering again and crying his name.
 
While she was recovering this time, barely conscious of what he was doing, he crawled up her body until he was lying on her, his cooler flesh pressing against hers everywhere.  As Buffy came back to her senses, she stretched her arms over her head and wrapped her legs around his. Spike began leaving light kisses all over her neck and shoulders, licking in between kisses.
 
“Remember what I said about calling this off if it turned out there was a prophecy?”
 
He stopped licking her neck long enough to say with just a trace of apprehension, “yeah...”
 
“I think I changed my mind. Don’t care if it is a prophecy. Gonna keep you.”
 
He gave a happy laugh and rolled them over, leaving Buffy staring down at him in delighted surprise. She pushed herself up until she was straddling him, wriggling against his cock, now pinned beneath her. His hands on her hips, he lifted her up just enough to position her over it and allow her to put a hand down to hold it steady. Their eyes met and held as she slowly sank down on him, biting her lip as she did so.
 
“Am I hurting you, love?” He started to lift her off, but she stopped him with a shake of her head.
 
“No, not hurting me. Just....” She gasped as he rolled his hips.  “Not hurting!”
 
Maintaining the intense eye contact, in spite of knowing she was probably turning as red as Spike’s bedding, she began to move on him. Her embarrassment turned to a satisfied smile as she squeezed him and watched his eyes roll back in his head.  She rode him until it became obvious that they were engaged in a contest to see who could last the longest. She stopped her enthusiastic bouncing up and down and sat still, using only her interior muscles to keep his attention.
 
“Oh, bloody hell, Buffy. Like that. Just... don’t stop... want to .... argh!”
 
He flipped them over so quickly her head spun. In spite of years of fighting vampires, they could still surprise her occasionally with their speed. And Spike was clearly capable of moving faster than any vamp she’d ever fought.  ‘
 
“Wha— how— Ooooooooo....  I thought you were enjoying that,” she said with trace of a pout as he pinned her arms over her head and began to move against her. In spite of her words, she clasped her legs around his hips and began to move with him.
 
“Was. Next time you want to drive, I promise to lie there and take it.  Jus’ wanted the first time I come in you to be mutual and that wasn’t gonna happen in that position without some creativity on my part.” He smiled down at her. “And you were pretty much driving all the creativity right out of my brain. All I could think about was how good you feel and how I was probably goin’ to spontaneously combust any second.”
 
“Combusting... not good...” Buffy managed to get out as their motions got faster and stronger.  When she was making the small whimpering sounds that he already recognized as signs she was close to coming, he released her wrists and allowed himself to collapse upon her, his hips churning.  Buffy immediately had his upper body in a full embrace, holding him to her with her powerful arms and legs as their lower torsos ground together.
 
As she cried out again, shuddering under him and sinking her teeth into his shoulder, he shouted her name and found his own release, his hips continuing to move long after he’d spent. 
 
Their deep, restoring breaths were in complete sync as they recovered from what they would later assure each other was the best sex ever. 
 
“I know why I can’t stop breathing hard,” Buffy finally mumbled into his neck, “but why are you? You don’t need the air.”
 
“Habit, love. Never really gave it up.” He sighed and admitted, “The great poof used to tell me it was because I never stopped talking and always needed more air.” When she stiffened under him, he froze as well, waiting to see if he’d just ruined one of the best moments of his life. He relaxed when he felt her sigh and give a small giggle.
 
“Okay, lost points for bad timing, but that was pretty funny. And probably true.”
 
“Sorry, love. Haven’t been around you in so long, I’d kind of forgotten that mentioning my grandsire might be a real mood spoiler.” He raised his head to look at her. “I guess I was hoping you’d moved on by now.”
 
“It’s complicated,” was her response. Seeing how his face shut down, quickly followed by, “I have moved on. It’s just that... he was my first love. I... I don’t know if you ever get completely over that.” She nuzzled his chest, before raising her eyes back to his. “It doesn’t mean I can’t fall in love with somebody else, or that I would go running back to him if he got that soul anchored, it just means... I don’t know what it means.”
 
“Means I should learn to keep my mouth shut and not mention him unless you bring it up.”
 
“Maybe it does.” She sighed. “Guess it was a mood spoiler, huh?”
 
“Takes more than that to ruin my mood,” he said as she felt him swelling within her. “Least it does when my dick thinks it’s died and gone to Heaven.”
 
“Mmmmm – is this some of that famous vampire stamina that Anya talks about when Xander isn’t around?”
 
“This is Spike, being where he’s wanted to be for longer than he cares to remember, and wantin’ to make the most of it.”
 
“Hmmm,” she said, matching his slow movements with her own and marveling at how quickly they seemed to be learning each other’s ways. “So, does that mean when you get all used to me and bored, you won’t be able to do it more than once?”  She giggled at his indignant growl.
 
“Means nothing of the sort!” he said, speeding up his movements as if to emphasize it.  “Not that I can imagine myself ever being bored with you. If I was still the poetry-spouting ponce I was as a man, I’d probably be saying something about not being able to imagine anything better than having had enough time with you to get bored. Not that I would,” he added hastily. “Wouldn’t. Couldn’t.”
 
“Poetry-spouting?”
 
“Jus’ pretend you never heard that, alright?” he said, hiding his embarrassed face in her neck. “You know I’m nothing but an evil, bloodsucking, vampire.” He pulled the skin on her throat into his mouth and began to pull on it, having the same effect on her that it had before.
 
“Oh! I’m sure that shouldn’t feel as good as it does.” 
 
“Someday....”
 
“Someday, what?” she asked, not really paying attention to anything except the sensations filling her body.
 
“Nothing, love. Nothing you need to hear just now.” He put his mouth back on her throat, bringing her to orgasm while he continued to suck, and following her into release almost immediately.
 
This time, he rolled off, pulling her and the quilt with him, wrapping them up in a fluffy cocoon of warmth.  They dozed in sated comfort until real life intruded again.