This is the last completed chapter, so don't expect any updates for a while. The muse has taken a powder and I'm reluctant to screw up the story by forcing the words. If/when I catch him, I will chain him up and try to keep him a bit closer.



Chapter Five

The drive to the mansion took only a few minutes, the old DeSoto roaring through the dark and deserted streets. When Spike ventured to suggest that the mansion might be too neglected for comfort, or inhabited by a vamp nest, Buffy assured him that she visited it regularly and kept it not only cleaned out but cleaned up.

He cocked his head at her, asking with forced casualness, “So, made it your own little hideaway, have you? Place to take your friends to party? Someplace to find some privacy if you and one of those many boyfriends need it?”

Buffy snorted in amusement. “If that’s your less-than-subtle way of asking if I’ve had any guys here, the answer is ‘No’. I wouldn’t do that. Do you think I would do that?” Her voice changed as she worried that he would think she had been bringing other men to what she thought of as his house. “Do you?”

“Would be your right,” he said gruffly, trying to hide how happy he was at her denial. “ ‘S what I told you to do, innit? Go on and find yourself a nice bloke—“

“I’m not very good at doing what I’m told,” she said softly.

He peered at her out of the corner of his eye. “No, guess you aren’t. Prob’ly why those Council wankers wanted to kill you. Replace you with a slayer who’ll follow orders.”

“Well, good luck to them with that,” she muttered.

“So,” he asked, still striving for casual, as he opened the door for her in front of the old mansion, “Nobody, then?”

“Not the way you mean it. No.” She waited for the relieved sigh he couldn’t hide and then asked quietly, “You?”

He shook his head, taking her hand and leading her into the dark building. He shifted into vamp face to help him see, the moonless night not providing enough light for Buffy to navigate the big room by herself. As he unerringly led her towards his old bedroom, he spoke softly.

“I’m a one woman man – er, vamp – Buffy. Always have been. Always will be. I thought about it once or twice, won’t deny it. When I was feelin’ sorry for myself and picturing you going to dances and havin’ fun with your friends; but then I’d remember what it was like with you and I knew that any other woman would pale in comparison. Rather spend my time thinkin’ about you and wankin’ off than pretendin’ with some other bint.”

“Ewwww! Spike! TMI!”

His rich chuckle sounded in her ear as he opened the door to the sheltered bedroom. Leaving her momentarily, he lit a candle and looked around appreciatively. The room was spotless, the bed made neatly and the candles trimmed and ready.

“Is it okay?” she asked anxiously. “I took the good sheets home with me so I could…but I put new ones on it so the bed would be ready if you wanted to come back…”

“It looks wonderful, pet. You didn’t have to do this, you know. It’s not like it’s my house or anything. “

“It was our place,” she said softly, moving towards him. “I wanted it to be here when I needed to remember…”

“Time for new memories, love,” he said hoarsely, pulling her close and sliding his hands under her shirt. Working quickly and smoothly, he removed her clothing, one item at a time, murmuring his appreciation and running his mouth over her exposed skin as he did so. When she was standing before him, naked and trembling, but proudly upright, he paused to run his eyes over her from head to toe.

“You’re as beautiful as I remember you, love. Pure perfection in one small package.”

“Feeling kind of underdressed here, Spike,” she said with a quaver in her voice. The adoration on the vampire’s face was so intense it almost frightened her. While he shed his signature duster, Buffy began tugging at his tight tee shirt, pulling it up to his shoulders, letting go when she felt him grab the hem to pull it off. While she fumbled with his belt buckle and zipper, she rained little kisses all over his bare chest, pausing to lick at an upright nipple from time to time and dropping her head to follow the soft curls that were exposed by the open zipper.

With a growl of frustration, he broke away from her warm mouth long enough to fall backwards onto the bed and pull off his boots and pants. He reached for her, his hands wrapping around her bare hips and pulling them towards his face as he sat on the low bed. He buried his nose in the brown curls in front of him, inhaling the scent of her arousal and dipping his tongue into the moisture already coating them. Buffy’s whimper as she grabbed his head for support was music to his ears and he pulled her onto the bed with him, lying back and holding her suspended above his face until she had her balance, then reverently lowering her hips until his tongue was touching her outer lips.

“I missed this so much,” he murmured between licks. “Dreamed of you, of the way you taste, the way you feel, the sounds you make….wanted you so bad, love.”

“I was right here,” she gasped, falling forward to support herself with her hands as the vampire’s attentions began to build to the inevitable conclusion. “Right here…missing you…wishing you were…”

Her voice trailed off as his tongue and lips quickly brought her to her first orgasm and she collapsed onto him with a muffled shriek, her body breaking out in goosebumps as she shivered uncontrollably. Giving her only a few seconds to regain her senses, he rolled her onto her back, covering her with his own body and nudging her thighs further apart.

“Can’t wait any longer, love,” he growled. “Got to be inside you now, got to feel you around me…”

Her response was to bring her legs up and wrap them around his waist, using her feet to pull him against her tightly. Had there been anyone else in the room, they would have heard matching moans of relief as he slid into her waiting warmth and buried himself as far as he could go. For a time, they remained still, the Slayer struggling not to cry joyful tears as she felt him filling her, connecting them physically and emotionally, the vampire wondering if it was possible to spontaneously combust from sheer happiness.

Their hips began moving together in a smooth rhythm, as though they had been making love together every night for years. Murmured endearments and gasped responses erupted whenever their mouths were not locked together in deep, frantic kisses.

“Missed you, Buffy. You feel so good to me, love. My beautiful slayer, my golden girl. Want to stay here forever. Never leave you, sweetheart. You make me feel alive again, come for me, my love. Let yourself go. Let me love you…love you…I love you!”

The Slayer’s less eloquent, but equally heartfelt murmurs provided a soft counterpoint to the vampire’s steady stream of affectionate names and unintentional declarations of love. As she clenched around him, shaking again with the force of her release, she repeated his shouted “I love you” with her own softer “I love you, too, Spike.”

When their tremors finally trailed off to occasional shudders of remembered sensation, he rolled to the side, pulling her against his body and tugging the bedspread up to cover them both. For long minutes there was close to silence while Buffy recovered the ability to breathe normally and Spike mentally repeated her last words to him until they were etched in his brain, to be summoned up whenever he felt the need.

When she was once again inhaling and exhaling without gasping or sighing, Buffy lifted one hand and began making lazy circles on his smooth chest. A slight tightening of his arms was the only sign that he was aware of her fingers tracing their random patterns on his skin. When she got tired of writing her name around his nipples, she dropped her hand to rest it against his unmoving rib cage while she nuzzled into his shoulder. She smiled when she felt the vibration in her hand as the vampire set up a gentle purring.

“Spike?” she ventured, not really wanting to disturb him, but anxious to have her question answered.

“Yes, love?” he responded immediately, pulling back to look down at her face.

“What that creep said – about my belonging to you? Was that the claim? Is that why he didn’t bite me?”

“Yeah,” he answered, trying to keep the pride out of his voice. “The ugly bugger knew you’d been marked and even as crazy as he was, his demon knew to back off. Wasn’t going to stop him trying to kill you, I’d wager, but it did what I hoped it would. It slowed him down long enough…”

“So,” she said quietly, resuming her random drawing on his chest, “does that mean I’m still yours?”

“I bloody well hope so,” he mumbled, burying his face in her neck.

“But you’re not mine,” she teased, with a hint of a pout in her voice. “You own me, but I don’t own you.”

Instead of responding to her teasing, he sat up and gazed down at her, saying as solemnly as he could, “In the first place, Slayer, I don’t own you. Told you that when I did it. It just marks you as something I care about. Won’t mean a thing to anyone but another vampire. And in the second place,” his voice softened and he smiled at her sadly, “I am more yours than you will ever know. Don’t need a bloody mark on me to remind me. I live with it every day.”

“Will you always be mine?” she asked softly. “After you leave again? Will you still be mine when you haven’t seen me for a long time? When I’m old and ugly?”

He groaned and flopped back down beside her, pulling her over onto his body and growling into her neck.

“You’ll know when I’m not yours anymore, Buffy.”

“I will?” Doubt and disappointment colored her voice at his angry-sounding statement. “How will I know?”

“Someone will tell you they saw me dust,” he said flatly.

“Well, that’s just---“ Her indignant reply choked off as his words sank in and she realized what he meant. “Oh,” she whispered. “Oh.”

“Yeah, Slayer, oh. I’m hooked good and proper, pet. Not saying if you’ve…you’ve…” He couldn’t bring himself to say what they both knew was her probably fate.

“Died?” she offered softly.

“Yeah. That. If that happens, I’m not saying I wouldn’t move on eventually. I don’t think I know how to be alone,” he admitted sheepishly. “But I would still be yours, love. Be assured of that. I expect to carry that to hell with me.”

The morbid talk about their eventual deaths had them clinging together tightly, leading quickly to the inevitable lovemaking. This time, their coupling was fierce and frantic as each tried to push the thoughts of a world without the other as far away as possible. Buffy arched her body and flipped them over, riding the vampire hard until she could tell he was fighting to control his demon. With a triumphant shout, she fell onto his neck and grabbed the skin there with her teeth, uttering a guttural “Mine!” as she bit through the soft skin and drew the borrowed blood into her mouth.

Immediately, Spike’s fangs were in her throat and he was drawing deep draughts of her blood into his mouth and swallowing hard, only releasing her when he felt her begin to weaken. “Mine!” he roared, the rich blood flooding his system and sending his demon into a frenzy.

“Yours,” she responded weakly, as she rolled off his body and began to shiver.

As quickly as it had emerged, the demon was gone as Spike remembered with horror his attempt to drain her only a scant year before. With a groan, he quickly licked the small wounds, muttering to himself as much as to her.

“Told you I was yours, you daft bint. What’d you go and do something like that for? Now look what you’ve made me do. Almost killed you, I did. You see why I have to leave? I’m no good for you, sweetheart.” His eyes filled with tears and his voice broke as he beseeched, “Buffy? Talk me to, love. Tell me you’re alright.”

In spite of his frantic words, he could hear her firm, steady heartbeat and knew she was in no real danger of dying. He was already calming down when she opened her eyes and said with a sigh, “I’m fine, you big baby. Stop blubbering. Slayer here, you know. You couldn’t kill me before and you’re not going to do it now. I’ll be fine.” He quickly relaxed and tried to hide how frightened he’d been.

“That was a bloody stupid thing to do,” he grumbled, embarrassed by his tears and still angry at how close he had come to seriously hurting her.

“You didn’t want to be claimed?” she asked with a small frown. “I thought you’d like it. I marked you, too. Now any vamp hos that try to hit on you will know you belong to a Slayer. That oughtta cool their jets.”

She spoke firmly and Spike laughed at the prim satisfaction in her voice.

“Don’t doubt but it will, pet. Not that I plan to let any other bints get that close to me, but…”

Changing the subject abruptly, Buffy asked, “How long are you going to stay?”

“Probably leave tomorrow night, love.” When he felt her stiffen beside him, he sighed and sat up, letting the bedding drop to his hips as he frowned down at her. “It’s for the best, pet. The longer I stay, the harder it will be and the greater the chance the council will find out about us.”

“When will I see you again?” Her eyes demanded he tell her the truth and he turned his head away as he mumbled, “I kind of have a plan.”

“Which is?”

“I’ll come back as often as I think is safe – no more than once a year, probably. Unless you need me for something, he added quickly. “If that’s the case, I’ll be back as soon as I can get here.”

“How will you know if I need you?” Her curiosity overcame her pain at the thought of losing him again so soon and she sat up to show him it was a serious question.

“I’ll be keepin’ my ear to the ground, love. Don’t think that just because ‘m not here, ‘m not keeping up with your life. But if I miss something, if you really need me in a hurry for somethin’, jus’ tell Willy. “

“Willy? Willy the sleazy bartender?”

“He remembers who the master of Sunnydale was. You just tell him you need to see Spike and he’ll tell the right demon.”

“Great – every girl’s romantic fantasy – Willy the bartender as a go-between.” She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, earning a growl and a playful snap from the vampire.

“Jus’ do what you’re told, missy.”

“In your dreams, fangface,” she sniffed, lifting her chin defiantly. “If I did what I was told all the time, the Council wouldn’t be trying to kill me. And you would have burned to a crisp along with…” she waved her hand in the direction of the open part of the house.

“You can be right annoying, Slayer. You know that, right?” His attempt to appear genuinely angry rather than amused at her, failed completely when she caught the twinkle in his eye and she stuck her tongue out at him in response.

“Is that an invitation, love?” he purred, his eyes quickly darkening with desire.

“It would be if somebody hadn’t been sucking on my neck longer than he should have,” she grumbled, half seriously. “I’m going to be missing valuable Spike-loving time here because I’m so tired.”

The lust in his eyes was gone as quickly as it had arisen; replaced by regret and concern.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am about that, love. Never should have touched you again. My demon just got out of my control when you bit me. I didn’t mean to do that to you, pet. You have to believe me.” The panic in his voice would have been funny if he hadn’t been so serious and she hastened to reassure him.

“I know it was my fault, Spike. I wasn’t yelling at you – not really. I just wanted to explain why I’m not all about the slayer stamina just now.”

“Don’t need stamina, pet,” he purred. “You just lie there and get your strength back and let Spike take care of you.”

Buffy obediently shut her eyes and relaxed into the soft pillows, letting the sound of Spike’s voice wash over her as he began to kiss his way around her body, commenting on the taste, scent and feel of her skin as he did so. Every time his lips wandered back to the marks on her neck, he ran his tongue over them, smiling when she gave an involuntary shiver with each swipe of his tongue.

“That’s my beautiful girl. No other vampire can touch that spot. Only me; only the one who loves you with everything he is.”

“Mmmmmm” was the sleepy reply as she squirmed on the bed, becoming aroused again in spite of her lassitude. Spike was instantly aware of her changing body, but waited until she was whimpering softly with need before he slipped carefully onto her relaxed body and nudged his way into her. Buffy’s happy sigh and the gentle flexing of her walls told him he had guessed right and he stretched himself out over her, basking in the warm skin beneath his.

Unlike the previous coupling, this time was slow, sweet and all about enjoying the connection between them. Vampire and slayer moved slowly in tandem, their hips gently rocking until the sensations building up wouldn’t be denied any longer. When Buffy began pushing back against him harder than before, seeking the pressure that her body was demanding, he gradually increased his own thrusts until his hips were meeting hers in equal measure and they brought each other to shuddering conclusion.

Their last words before Buffy drifted off to sleep under the blankets he’d pulled up around their still-connected bodies were murmured “I love you”s” and they both rested with small smiles on their relaxed faces.