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Love Continued by slaymesoftly
 
Six
 
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Because I am a doofus (big surprise, I know), I apparently posted Ch. 5 twice instead of posting Ch. 6. My apologies to everyone who read it twice and wondered what the hell I was doing...Here is the last completed chapter, with thanks to Always__jbj for the quick and helpful beta.Any mistakes are probably mine because I cannot stop tinkering...

Chapter Six

Fortunately for Buffy, the next day was a Saturday and she did not have to get up to go to school. The light filtering in from the end of the dark hallway awoke her gradually, giving her plenty of time to notice that Spike was not where she expected to find him. She sat up abruptly, looking around the room and listening for sounds of his presence.

(He’s gone!)

Buffy allowed a moan of fear to escape her lips as she slid out of the bed and wrapped the sheet around her trembling body. Fear, grief and the righteous anger of an abandoned woman fought for dominance as she stalked towards the hallway, vowing to stake him the minute he set foot back in Sunnydale if it turned out he’d left again without telling her “good-bye”. A loud yell, followed by a lengthy string of curses, most of which made no sense to her at all (what is a bloody buggering bastard?) had her laughing with relief as she reached the end of the hall and saw Spike carefully picking his way around the edges of the room.

His ability to dodge the sun’s early morning rays was impeded by the two large grocery bags he was carrying, as well as the cooler he was pushing ahead of him with one foot, and Buffy quickly ran to help him, forgetting she was only wearing a sheet. The sheet caught on a broken chair, pulling away and falling to the floor, leaving Buffy standing naked in a ray of early morning sunlight.

The vampire froze, his eyes riveted on the golden vision before him. With her blond hair gleaming, her eyes sparkling and her lightly tanned skin glowing, Buffy appeared almost ethereal. She stood there for a minute, basking in the look on his face before grabbing the sheet and wrapping it around her torso more securely.

“Stop ogling and give me some of that stuff,” she demanded. “Where have you been anyway?”

“Went out to get you some nourishment, you ungrateful bint,” he growled at her back as she picked up the cooler and went back towards the bedroom. “I just underestimated how long it was going to take to load it all up and barely beat the sun back.”

“So what’d you get me?” she asked brightly, changing the subject just enough to avoid being caught laughing at his disgruntled expression.

“Juice, milk, water, trail mix, bananas, cereal – sorry, pet, but they just don’t make t-bones to go or I would have brought you more protein. Think there’s some cheese in there that should hold you till we can go out for dinner tonight.”

“You’re taking me out to dinner? Like on a date?” The pleased surprise in her voice hit one of his Victorian nerves and he glared at her again.

“I know how to treat a woman, Slayer. Wasn’t brought up by trolls, you know. What kind of a useless git would I be if I just stayed in and shagged you the whole time I was here?”

“I’m not sure what a ‘useless git’ is, but if you did, you’d be one tired vampire, I can tell you that!” She stuck her tongue out at him and began rooting through the bags for something to eat and drink.

“If you’re so sure I’d be tired, Slayer, what would that make you?” He curled his tongue behind his teeth and gave her one of his best leers.

“Um…really, really happy?” she offered with a sly grin, squealing and dodging around the bed as he reached for her. “Hey! Hungry slayer, here, let me go,” she gasped, giggling when he pulled her onto the bed and growled fiercely into her neck. A few minutes of laughter and wrestling for a dominant position and Spike stopped his assault on her neck, allowing her to pin him to the bed and sit on his chest triumphantly.

“Hah! Never get between a hungry slayer and her food,” she said happily, bouncing lightly on his chest to emphasize her superior position.

“Okay, love. You win. For the moment. Get yourself something to start building those red blood cells back up. Got a whole year’s worth of lovin’ to make up for today and I don’t want to waste a minute of it.”

Blushing at the leer he was giving her naked body, Buffy quickly got off his chest and grabbed a tee shirt to pull over her exposed torso. The short shirt, ending just below her butt cheeks did nothing to cool the ardor shining in the vampire’s eyes, but he settled against the back of the bed, content to watch her eat and drink her fill.

“You know,” she mumbled around a mouthful of banana, “I’m going to have to check in with Mom sometime today. I mean, I’m sure she knows I’m with you, but she’ll be worried anyway—“

“I know she will, love. We’ll drop into the Gallery later and she can scold me for corrupting her daughter.”

Buffy grabbed some more food from the bag and opened the carton of orange juice as she mused aloud, “I wonder why she hasn’t wigged more about this…this thing we have? I mean I couldn’t get much closer to the cliché of a fatherless girl and an older man than falling in love with a 150-year-old vampire.” She was so lost in her own thoughts that she completely missed the awed gratitude in the vampire’s eyes at her casual mention of being in love with him.

He remained speechless as she finished swallowing the juice and cocked her head at him. “Spike? Are you listening to me?”

“Oh, yeah, love. I’m listening. Say it again, sweetheart.”

Her brow wrinkled with confusion. “Say what? That my mom should think you’re too old for me?”

“No,” he said gruffly. “The other part – the part where you said you…” He was unable to finish the sentence, allowing his voice to trail off as her puzzled face cleared and she smiled at him shyly.

“Where I said I’m in love with you?” she asked softly.

She moved closer to him as he nodded without speaking, his eyes begging her to repeat her words. She straddled his legs, resting her arms atop his shoulders and pressing her forehead to his so as to look him directly in the eye. Slowly and distinctly, she repeated, “I am in love with you, William the Bloody. I don’t know how you can doubt it.”

“I doubt it ‘cause I know I’m beneath you, Buffy. You deserve the sunshine, the company of a man who can take you on picnics and give you children, someone who can share your whole life. Not a monster that has to lurk in the shadows, waiting for darkness so that he can come to you.”

With a sigh, she settled back on his legs and stared into his earnest and resigned face.

“Spike, who am I?”

“Buffy Summers,” he responded briskly.

“What am I?”

“You are beautiful, sexy, kind, smart—“ His litany of her attributes was interrupted by something that sounded suspiciously like a growl.

“Are you being deliberately dense?” She glared fiercely, daring him to pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about.

He shook his head and responded with a sigh, “No, pet. I know what you’re sayin’. You’re the Slayer. Heaven’s Chosen One. She who spends her evenings in graveyards making dead things even deader. I get that, love. You know I do. I just would prefer not to think about what it means. I’d rather believe that you will have a long, semi-normal life; that you will get to enjoy all the things that go along with being a human woman.”

“I think that ship pretty much sailed when I was a freshman in high school,” she murmured sadly, leaning into him and resting her head on his chest. “I just want to be happy for as long as I have to live.” She raised her face to meet his eyes again. “And you make me happy, Spike. You make me want to live a long time.”

The vampire had no reply, except to pull her closer and fasten his mouth on hers. The kiss ran the gamut from sweet and tender to deeper and more passionate and back again, neither one of them willing to break the physical connection that expressed their roiling emotions. Finally, reluctantly breaking the contact with Buffy’s lips, he held her against his chest and whispered into the hair tickling his face, “ I want you to live a long time too, love. That’s why I’m going to do what I can to be available when – if – you ever need me for help with somethin’. Not that I think you can’t handle just about anything that comes along,” he hastened to add as he felt her body stiffen in indignation,” but it never hurts to have someone strong watchin’ your back, does it?”

“I suppose not,” she grumbled. “Just so we’re clear that I am the Slayer and not some little girl for you to run around protecting and…and making decisions for,” she added, remembering his original plan to swoop in, kill Kralik and swoop out without ever telling her he was in Sunnydale.

Spike understood her instantly and shook his head in apology.

“We’re clear, pet. You are absolutely right – it was bloody arrogant of me to think I was ridin’ to the rescue of a little girl rather than to offer assistance to a strong, independent woman – er, slayer. Never again. I promise. If –when I come back to Sunnydale, it will be with your complete knowledge and at your request.”

“You know what my request is,” she answered quietly. “It hasn’t changed since the last time you were here.”

“It’s not time for me, love,” he responded, knowing instinctively what she meant. “Someday, maybe,” he added enigmatically. “I’m working on it.”

When she looked at him questioningly he just shook his head, refusing to explain his cryptic remark and distracting her by running a hand under the tee shirt to stroke her soft flanks.

“I think we’ve got some time to kill before your mum will be at work, don’t you?” he murmured, sliding the shirt up her body until he could lift it over her head. “What do you think we should do with it, hmmmm?”

There was no response as the Slayer pulled on his own shirt, until he released her in order to pull it off. While his hands were busy, she quickly undid his jeans and slid down his legs to pull them off, dropping them on the floor as she crawled back up his body until they were face to face again. His erection was just brushing her stomach as she poised over him on all fours and licked her lips.

“I’m sure we’ll think of something…”
 
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