CHAPTER 17: Rescue me

Buffy stood in front of Spike, looking like she'd just walked into a room filed with Fyarl demons having shrimp cocktails and discussing literature. She just stared at Spike with her lips slightly parted, blinking in incomprehension.

"What's the matter with you? You look all bad moody. I'm the one who should be bad moody. Went down a cliff, killed big bad demon doggy, burned disgusting entrails, walked almost a mile to find a source of water where I could dispose of said entrails, had to find my way back up..."

Spike just narrowed his eyes at her without a word.

"Again I ask, why am I not the one pissed off here?"

"You weren't down there anymore."

"Uh?" She questioned in typical and very ineloquent Buffy fashion.

Spike suddenly got more animated. “You were off having fun, while I was stuck here like a soddin' poofter, bored out of my bleedin' mind. Couldn't have done anything to help if you were in trouble either. All I could bloody well do was watch and give you pointers. Then you were gone and I couldn't even do that anymore."

“Oh my God, Spike. You're such a big baby. Are you pouting?” She asked, incredulous.

“I bloody well hate feeling useless.” Spike sulked.

She walked closer and crouched next to him, a softer smile on her lips. “You are NOT useless and you know it. But I'm sorry you were bored though.”

“’s’all right. I’ll get over it.”

Buffy smiled and kissed his cheek affectionately. “I hope so. And if it makes you feel any better, it was really gross and boring. There was no fun to be had down there. The demon didn't even put up a fight. You wouldn't have liked it.”

Spike finally took in her apparence. He gave her a funny look. “You’re all wet.”

She sat next to him, grabbed his arm and placed it around her shoulders, making herself comfortable. She looked down at herself. “Is it that noticeable?” She mocked lightly.

He tightened his hold on her and rested his chin on top of her head. “What happened? Got into a fight with the ashes while you were dispersing them in the water?”

“Funny man. No, I was starting to smell funky and my clothes were all dirty. I thought that I might as well get myself squeaky clean while there was water available. It was so pretty too. I wished you would have been there with me. And before you ask, I washed myself before throwing the ashes in. I didn’t fancy a swim through smelly burned demon guts.”

Spike chuckled. “Good to know, pet.” He caressed her wet hair lovingly. “Get some rest, all right? And when you wake up, we’ll go back to the hotel and you can have a long, hot, shower. I’ll even lend a helping hand... wash your back... soap you up.” He whispered suggestively in her ear.

Buffy closed her eyes. “I don’t usually like your plans, but this one sounds good.”

The sun was rising overhead, but they were safe where they were, protected by the trees. Spike stretched out his jacket on the ground so they could lie on it.

“Not as comfortable as our bed at the resort, but I’m afraid it will have to do.” Spike smiled apologetically at Buffy.

“It’s not that bad. It’s like Survivor, but with better looking people. I think I can deal.”

They wrapped themselves in each other’s arms and remained quiet for a few minutes. Buffy thought Spike might already be asleep when he suddenly spoke.

“So... Are we gonna do it?”

Buffy burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“First of all, you just sounded like a horny teenage boy. Second, no way in Hell. I am NOT taking my underwear off here. Have you seen the size of the bugs crawling around? I swear I saw an ant earlier that was big enough to be a house pet.”

“Fine.”

“Besides, maybe withholding sex from you will be a good incentive to help you regain your sense of direction and get us out of here fast... Like the donkey and the carrot.”

“’m not a bloody donkey.”

“Whatever you say... horny boy.”

“Hey!”

After a little while, they fell into an exhausted, yet peaceful slumber. But a few hours later, Buffy was roused by something wet against the sensitive skin of her neck. Still half asleep, she slapped weakly at whatever was interrupting her dreams.

"Mmmm, leave me alone."

A low chuckle helped her regain full consciousness.

"Sorry, pet, couldn't help myself. You just looked so tasty, I had to take a little nibble."

"‘thought you were tired?" She mumbled lazily.

"Was. I'm not anymore. But you can go back to sleep. I'll be quiet." He smirked, then went back to kissing her neck.

Buffy giggled and squirmed in his arms when he hit a particularly ticklish spot. "Go back to sleep? So you can take advantage of my body while I sleep? I don't think so, buster."

"Oh come on! You know you want to. I'll respect the 'underwear on' rule."

"And how are you gonna do that? I'm really curious."

"I'm all for showing you, baby."

Holding her close to his body, Spike slipped his hand under her tank top to caress the smooth warm skin of her back in slow, lazy circles. He wedged a leg between hers, applying pressure to her sex with his thigh. She moaned and wiggled her hips a little to get some friction. Spike chuckled. He kissed her forehead lovingly, then the tip of her nose, and ended his little exploration by kissing her mouth and sucking on her bottom lip. "Thought you were sleepy?"

"Someone woke me up."

The circles he was massaging on her back started getting lower and lower, closer to the waist band of her shorts. The motion of his hand was soothing and arousing all at once and Buffy closed her eyes to enjoy the feelings it stirred in her.

She could not resist this man if her life depended on it. She'd done it for too long and now that she'd given in, she had unleashed something too powerful to be locked up again. Hell, she'd probably give in to him if he wanted to be naughty in a church.

Spike licked her throat, then made Buffy gasp and moan by nibbling playfully on the warm, sensitive skin with his blunt human teeth. He chuckled when she tilted her head to the side to give him better access.

"Like that, kitten?"

"Mmm hmm." She purred happily.

After the night in jungle hell, this was a nice interlude.

"How about this?" He asked while slipping his hand inside her shorts to tenderly caress her firm behind.

Buffy gasped and giggled, all the while trying to evade his questing hand. "Hey! What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Spike clicked his tongue, pretending to be annoyed. He immobilized her against him with his free arm. "Would you stop wiggling already, Slayer?"

"Leave my butt alone, and I'll stop wiggling."

He squeezed her delectable behind with his hand, before moving lower. "Fine. 's not your bum I was after anyway. But just for the record, pet, don't knock it ’til you tried it."

Spike waggled his eyebrow suggestively, his tongue curled up behind his teeth in that sexy way that turned Buffy on so much although she'd never admit it. She gave him a dark look. He rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Slayer, could you just trust me for once in your bloody life? My intentions might not be pure," he added with a cheeky grin "but they aim to please."

She didn't answer, but her cheeks took on a pretty shade of pink.

"Good." He said in a husky voice. "I'll take that as a: yes Spike, I trust you with my life. Please pleasure me now."

She hit him on the shoulder, but it lacked conviction. His hand was still exploring the curves of her behind and it was slowly turning her brain to a lustful, yet useless mush.

His ministrations were turning her into a rag doll in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slack, her body boneless. He slipped his wandering fingers between her ass cheeks, rubbing back and forth. With each downward motion, the tip of his fingers brushed against her wetness, making her shiver with desire.

"Spike..."

"What do you want, luv? Tell me..."

"Touch me."

"I am touching you."

She looked up at him, frustration and passion mixed together in her darkened eyes. "More."

"Bossy chit." He mumbled, his eyes dancing with amusement, before lowering his head to lightly kiss the tip of her nose.

"You like when I boss you around."

He smiled. "You know I do."

Their lips met in a loving kiss and for a moment, it was only the two of them. The jungle, the island, evil Italian witches, and the rest of the world... nothing mattered.

Spike rolled to his back so she was lying completely on top of him. Buffy rested her head on his shoulder and let her legs fall on either side of him to give him more room to move his hand.

His fingers were caressing her sensitive flesh achingly slowly, in a rhythmic back and forth motion that was making her pant in need. A part of her wanted to beg him to have mercy on her and end the torture, but she forced herself to be patient and enjoy it instead. Everything they had done together until then had been so desperately hungry and intense, it was nice to just enjoy the moment and let her pleasure slowly wash over her.

She moaned against the skin of his neck, then kissed and nibbled on his throat the way he had done to her earlier.

Spike increased the pressure with his fingers, separating her folds to brush more firmly against her clit. Buffy tensed.

"Oh God. Don't stop. Do it again..."

But he chose to disobey her, moving his fingers back to her butt hole, circling it to lubricate it, then pushing the tip of his finger inside. Buffy whimpered and gasped at the surprisingly pleasurable feeling. But he didn't linger there. His fingers went back to her aching sex and he penetrated her slowly.

Buffy was breathing heavily. Her inner muscles were clenching around his invading fingers while the warmth built up in her womb and spread to her limbs.

Feeling how close she was, Spiked pulled his fingers out of her and eagerly attacked her clit, rubbing the distended bundle of nerves with rapid, yet feather like touches.

"Spike!"

Buffy tensed when her orgasm hit her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and she clutched at his shoulders almost painfully. He kept rubbing her clit until she finished riding the waves of her orgasm and fell back against him, still shivering.

"You all right?" He asked while kissing the top of her head.

She nodded, her nose rubbing against his neck with the motion. "You're amazing." She said, still trying to catch her breath.

"You make me amazing, pet." He smiled down at her. "You're my inspiration."

Buffy started kissing a path down to his chest, wishing he was naked so she could taste his skin. "Bet you say that to all the girls..." She mumbled against the cotton of his t-shirt.

"No. You're the only girl. Bloody scout's honor. And where are you going like that?" He grabbed her under her arms and pulled her back up. "Come back here."

Buffy pouted. "But... What about you?"

"Let's save that for later at the hotel. It'll give me something to look forward to."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

She made herself comfortable against him and sighed, a smile on her lips.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm about to sound like a total ponce here, but indulge me."

Still lying on his chest, Buffy propped her chin on her crossed arms to look at him, the seriousness of his voice making her curious. "All right. I'll bite. What's going on, Spike?"

"What is this?"

"What's what?"

"You, me. This. What is going on between us? It's making me nervous not to know for sure. It think it'd be nice if we were on the same page, you know?"

Buffy knew what she wanted the relationship to be. But there's a difference between wishing in your heart, and saying it out loud. She tried lightening the mood. She smiled and ran a finger across his chest, looking at him through her eyelashes. "Do you really need a definition?"

He caught her hand and looked intently into her eyes. "I'm serious, Buffy. I thought about this a lot over the past couple of days, wondering when the right time to talk about this would be. I think there's no right time so might as well get it out of the way now. What I'm asking is, is this some kind of vacation fling? What happens when we get back home? I need to know."

Buffy frowned and shook her head. "It's not a fling. Why would you think that?"

"I don't know what to think, luv. I just want to be sure. I don't want to be expecting something and then get my heart broken when it doesn't happen. I'd rather know."

"Spike, I don't want things to go back to the way they were when we get home. I don't know what to call this, I don't even know if there's a word for it..."

"Didn't want to put you on the spot, luv. All I'm asking is for you to be honest with me. If you think there's a chance things might not work out for us back home, I just want to know so I can prepare myself, is all. Just promise me you won't hurt me."

Buffy looked horrified at the idea. "What? No! I wouldn't. Spike, I don't think I could ever go back to not having you in my life after what happened between us. I don't know how things will be at home, but I know we'll try. I want to try. It won't be as easy as it is here, that I know for sure. I doubt Giles and Xander will jump for joy and they'll probably try to get between us. But I think together, we can deal with them."

Spike smiled a little at that. "That’s if one of them doesn't stake me."

Buffy took his face between her hands and kissed him. "They'll have to go through me first."

He chuckled. "Well I guess I'm safe then. As long as I'm with you at all times, that is."

"I don't have a problem with that. Do you?"

"Absolutely not… I'm sorry if I'm being insecure and a right bleedin' pathetic wanker. I guess it's easy to tell that I'm not the one wearing the pants in this relationship."

"Don't worry, you'd look totally cute in a skirt. You could start wearing a kilt or something."

"And look like a bloody Scot? Are you mad?!" Spike exclaimed, looking horrified at the mere idea.

"Gee, sorry if I offended your British sensitivity. My bad." Buffy laughed.

Spike grumbled. "Yeah. You better be sorry... Yank."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike was walking through the jungle like a man on a mission. The sun had set a few hours ago and the night was beautiful. It would just be a hell of a lot more beautiful if he was sitting on a beach with a cold drink in his hand and the woman of his dreams in his lap instead of having her follow behind him, bitching non stop. That’s when he realized that said woman wasn’t following anymore.

He stopped walking and turned on his heels. Buffy was sitting on a big rock at a distance, her arms crossed and looking none too pleased.

“Pet, what are you doing?”

“Making the very wise decision of not following you anymore. We’re lost.”

“Were lost. I know where we are now. We’re walking in the direction of the ocean.”

“Suuuure. If you say so.”

“Trust me, I can smell it. We’re close now.”

“Just like you could smell it four hours ago, right? Sorry honey, but I stopped believing you about two hours ago after seeing the exact same rock for the fourth time. This very rock I’m sitting on right now. I feel like we’re in a bad remake of The Blair Witch Project. It’s kinda spooky actually.” She shuddered visibly to emphasize her point.

Needing something to do with his hands, Spike got his cigarettes out of his duster pocket and lit one. “If you think you can do better, be my guest. I have no problem following you.”

“That’s only because you wanna ‘do it’.” She commented, the humor returning in her eyes.

Spike blew out a cloud of smoke and smirked. “Well... yeah.”

“I’m hungry.” Buffy pouted.

“I saw a centipede a little while back that looked right fat and juicy. I could go get it for you if you want.”

“Eww, Spike! Not funny.”

“I read somewhere they’re full of protein.”

“Thanks, I’m not hungry anymore.”

He chuckled. “My pleasure.”

Buffy sighed in discouragement. “So, what do we do now? Ideas... Suggestions..?”

“Looks like my ideas didn’t get us where we want to go, so maybe you should be the one coming up with something.” He suggested while crushing the remains of his cigarette under his heavy boot.

“OK. Uh... Well.”

“Well?”

“Fine. I don’t know. I would say we keep walking in the same direction until we find something--the island isn’t all that big after all. But I thought that’s what we’ve been doing and obviously, we’ve been walking in circles.”

Spike raised a mocking eyebrow. “And you were criticizing my sense of direction?”

Buffy rolled her eyes and stood up. “Forget it. Let’s just keep walking. For God’s sake, the two of us can fight an army of vampires without breaking a sweat, and we can’t find our way out of the stupid jungle. How lame is that?”

They walked for another hour, Buffy kicking viciously at everything that was unfortunate enough to get in her way, when Spike stopped and motioned for her to stay quiet.

“I hear something coming our way.”

“Demon?”

“Human. Five of them.”

“Do you think it’s the stupid Italian bitch come to finish the job with some reinforcement?”

“If it is, then they’re not being very discrete. I can hear them talking from here.”

As he was saying that, Buffy could hear voices. She couldn’t make up what they were saying, but Spike could.”

“Bloody hell, Slayer...”

“What?.. What is it?”

“I think it’s a soddin’ rescue team!”

“You’re kidding?”

He shook his head.

Buffy looked like a fish out of water, her mouth opened and her eyes wide in disbelief. She whimpered. “Please tell me you’re joking?”

“I’m afraid not.” He was biting his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing.

“This is by far the most embarrassing moment of my life.” She thought about it for a second, then amended her statement. “OK, maybe not the most embarrassing because being turned into a rat, then turned back butt naked in front of Oz, will always be number one. But it’s way up there.”

“Wolf boy saw you naked?”

Buffy was saved from answering by the arrival of the rescue team.

“Hey! You guys all right? We’ve been looking for you for hours. Some tourist found your Jeep this afternoon.”

Buffy turned bright red. The Slayer, savior of the world and all that crap, and her master vampire lover, incapable of finding their way out of the jungle. How shameful.

“We’re fine. Just out of a walk, is all.” Spike mumbled defensively.

“Sure.” One of the guys answered with a chuckle, clearly not believing him. “Let’s get you back to your hotel.”

Walking side by side, they started following the rangers to the Jeep that was not even a mile away.

“No one can ever find out about this.” Buffy mumbled through clenched teeth.

“Agreed. If you think I’d ever brag about this to anybody, you’re off your rocker. The Whelp would have a field trip if he knew.”

“Good. As long as we agree.”

“Oh yeah. We definitely do. I’ll take this little adventure with me to the grave. If this ever comes out, it might just destroy my reputation as a master vampire.”

“Poor Spikey. Wouldn’t want the other vampires to make fun of you, now would we?”

“Laugh all you want, Slayer. What do you think would happen if the demon population finds out that the Slayer was saved from walking in aimless circles in the jungle by a bunch of weak humans--the same human she‘s supposed to protect?”

“Point taken.”