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Chapter 10
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Spike couldn’t stop his hands from moving over Buffy’s sleeping body. The whole evening had a feeling of unreality to it. The woman he loved and had given up
all hope of ever having was asleep in his arms, sated. It had even been her idea. Even more mind blowing was her request for his bite. The Slayer, best damn slayer he’d ever seen, ASKED for him to bite her and not in a ‘I want to die’ kind of way either.

They had made love another couple of times afterward, without the biting, but it had happened. Spike tenderly ran his fingertips over the marks that would surely leave a permanent scar. His marks. Buffy couldn’t know how much her request had meant to him. It was like she was accepting all of him, man and demon, by wanting fangs as well as cock. He’d never loved her more.

He treasured this small, powerful Slayer and would willingly lay down his life for her if need be. An eternity looming before him and a century behind, yet his entire world was encased in one small, fragile, human form. His Buffy.

She had been so sweet and shy about some of the pleasures he had shown to her but so willing to learn, to try out, to experiment. ‘God, how could Angel or that tosser Finn ever have walked away?’ It was inconceivable that any male would ever
willingly leave his dazzling girl.

Buffy stirred in his arms, a smile growing on her beautiful face as she became aware of just who was acting as pillow in her comfy bed. "Mmmmm, Spike," she muttered and kissed his collarbone before opening her eyes and smiling widely at her lover.

She remembered waking alone and confused with Angel that disastrous first time. Parker had gone missing as well, but at least he had waited to pull the rug
from under her until a few days later. Riley was usually there, in the bed at least. Like the stereotype, he would be in a deep sleep, usually with an arm or leg lying heavily on Buffy until she chose to leave the bed.

This was different. This was nice…right. Spike’s arms were not a possessive clench that felt like shackles or worse; his embrace felt like a continuation of the sweet caresses from their lovemaking. He was worshiping her body with his touch and she could feel it.

Everything about Spike was feeling right. All those things Xander had said about Riley beinga "long-haul guy" had never fit the soldier, but she could see the perfect fit on her tender vampire lover. Slayers never made it to Social Security age, but she somehow knew that no matter how long or short her life might be, Spike would be right there at her side--loving her, watching her back and making her feel complete.

This was afterglow. Now Buffy knew why everyone raved about it. She felt like she was glowing. What was that word Spike had called her last night? ‘Oh, yeah,
"effulgent"! I’ll have to look that one up,’ she thought, making a mental note to check out the Webster’s.

"Hi, handsome," she greeted him and placed a soft kiss on his lips. She sat up a bit but stayed snuggled up to him, pressing even closer. He hadn’t stopped his hands’ loving movements, but now that she was awake, he increased the range and pressure of the movements.

Buffy’s body was even more responsive than Spike had thought it would be. His girl was perfect in every way and he was one lucky bloke.

"Good morning, precious angel," Spike replied and kissed her on her forehead and again on the lips.

"Is it really morning or vampire morning?" Buffy had no idea what time of day it was. She didn’t really care overly much either. She was right where she wanted to be with exactly whom she wanted to be with. She also had a full day with no responsibilities except to make this man next to her feel as cherished as he had made her feel all night.

"Spike…mind answering a couple of questions for me?" Buffy knew she’d get straight answers from him. Spike had never really lied to her in the past, not when it mattered.

"Course, sweetling, if I can, that is. Lived a long time but don’t pretend to have all the answers yet." He chuckled at her wide-eyed look of trust. God! Could it get any better? Well, yeah, it could. Buffy could love him. Still, Spike wasn’t holding out for any more miracles than the ones he already had.

"It’s about the bitey. When you bit me on the tower, it didn’t hurt any more than a shot at the doctor’s office. I know you were being gentle with me and not
wanting to hurt me, but it just seems weird that it didn’t hurt more. Um …I also kinda wonder if it’s always like that. You know…the pleasure…the…you know…orgasm. It’s not like I’ve never been bitten before. Why is it different with you?" She had moved to sit up straighter so she could look into his eyes as she asked.

Spike was a little nervous about answering her question for a lot of reasons. One reason was that it was bound to remind Buffy of his sordid past as a killer. Not exactly the mood he was wanting to set. "Can’t claim it’s just ‘cause it’s me, love. There’s lots of reasons for a vamp to bite someone. The most common’s food, of course. That’s just a rip and tear and feed kind of thing, not too pleasant udging’ by the screams. Then there’s the kind of bite that leads to a siring. It’s not as brutal. In fact it’s pretty seductive and sometimes a vamp’ll use a thrall along with it if they know how. Before you ask, no, I don’t have a thrall. Dru did and so does Drac."

"So that’s why the near orgasm on the tower and the extra octane boost to the climax when we were making love?" She didn’t want to think too much about the feeding part of bites but was grateful Spike was living up to her trust in his honesty by acknowledging it as a fact.

"Not really. I wasn’t trying to turn you, love. I wanted it to feel as good as possible, so I was bein’ careful. Mostly it has a lot to do with how I feel
about you, how the vampire feels about the one they’re biting. I love you and that made it almost a good experience for you. When it’s not about feeding, it does tie into sex. Yeah, so even if there’s no love, there can be orgasms. There’s another kind of bite that’s all about love and sex. Called a claim. Doesn’t happen too often; vamps aren’t too particular about their partners most of the time. It’s sort of like marriage in a way. The bite marks the one bitten as belongin’ to the vamp. Usually both are vamps. Don’t know too many who claimed a human but then, like I said, doesn’t happen often." Spike looked a bit sad while relating that last part.

"Is that why you were so crazy when Dru left? Were you married to her like that?" Buffy thought she understood and was surprised by the negative shake of his head.

"No, Dru never claimed me. Sired me, yeah. Claimed me? No. Loved her daddy too much to ever even think of any other vamp for that. Course, Angelus never
wanted to claim anyone, especially not a damaged girl like Dru. Like I said, it’s rare anyway." Spike had a ‘hurt little boy’ look on his face and Buffy was beginning to feel guilty for her part in putting it there.

"Anything else, Buffy?" Spike asked.

Actually, there was a lot more she was curious about where this claiming stuff was concerned, but she didn’t want to bring up painful memories for Spike. Giles
had plenty of books Buffy could look into for more answers. Time for a change of subject.

"Yeah, I was wondering about something. What do they call it? An anachronism, I think." Spike started to grin widely at his girl using the six-dollar words.
"Your … I mean you … well, I could see that you’re circumcised and since you were born around the time of George Washington …" She stopped at Spike’s affronted
cry of "Hey, not that bleedin’ old! Those buggers were all history when I was a lad, Slayer."

She giggled at the look of hurt pride on his face. "Relax, you don’t look a day over eighty," she teased. And they both laughed at Buffy’s obvious attempt to soothe
Spike’s bruised ego. "That’s not the point though. Point is you were born before they did that kind of stuff to boy babies. Well, at least that’s what I heard
anyway, don’t remember where."

"Angelus." Spike didn’t look like he wanted to talk about it, but Buffy was really curious now.

Buffy pressed the issue. "I can see you don’t really want to talk about it, but
I really want to know what Angel has to do with you being circumcised."

"No, you really don’t. ‘Sides, it was Angelus, not Angel, remember." At her look of lingering interest, he continued, "Buggering bastard was always full of
interesting ways to torture. Something that doesn’t feel so bad at eight days old hurts like the devil when you’re twenty-eight. Let’s just leave it at that,
shall we?" Buffy’s eyes were even wider than usual as she wrapped her mind around what Spike was saying.

"Oh," she said in a small voice. "Maybe that’s enough questions for one day. Want something to eat?" Buffy started to slide off the bed, reaching for her robe.

"You could say that." Spike reached for Buffy, pulling her back on the bed with him, where he proceeded to show her just what he was hungry for.