Hey, look at that--it's Wednesday!  Time for a new chappie.  Well, I'm not going to prattle on and on.  A big thanks to everyone who are following this story.  Also a big thanks to my betas Sanityfair and Diebirchen!  Love ya ladies. 
_________________________________________________________________




Buffy faced off with her opponent, emulating all the ingenuity and agility of her sister Slayers of long ago.  Each strike and counterstrike was made with lethal precision while patiently waiting for that one moment when an opponent’s misstep, no matter how small, tipped the scales in her favor.

There!

She thrust her weapon toward his left shoulder, exploiting how he now favored his right side.  When he blocked her strike, his balance faltered, and she, using this to her advantage, skillfully swept his legs right out from under him.  Like a tree falling at the hands of an experienced lumberjack, he landed on the floor hard in a graceless heap.
 
Immediately capitalizing on her opponent’s vulnerability, Buffy poised her weapon’s wooden tip right over his heart.
 
Left without any other option, he submitted.  For several intense moments blue and green gazes remained locked as their noisy breathing filled the otherwise silent room.
 
“Ah—yes.  Very good—you’ve bested me—yet again, Buffy.  Now if you may— allow me—to take a moment—” While still breathing heavily, Giles dropped his weapon, then removed his padded sabre mask.  He struggled into a sitting position, and shifted his body in order to lean against the leg of the library table.
 
Buffy’s features retained the stoic indifference of the warrior inside briefly before she dropped her weapon, rushed over, and knelt in front of her Watcher.
 
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Giles!  Was I a little too, you know, grrr again?”
 
Buffy’s face now brimmed with concern while she carefully aided Giles from the floor and guided him into a library chair.
 
Once he was seated, she attentively watched Giles collecting himself.  All the while staying nearby to make sure he was okay.  She knew even with his attempt to keep up this tough-guy routine, if the large red blotches staining each cheek and the tons of sweat beading on his brow and upper lip were any sign, she had really put him through the ringer this time.

“If I might say, despite this being your first time training with a quarterstaff, I believe it is safe to assume you have mastered this weapon.”
 
After he spoke, Giles sighed and rested heavily against the back of the chair.  Due to his bulky padded chest-protector and overall weariness, he looked like an upended turtle trying to right himself while making several clumsy attempts to reach into his pocket.  With some careful maneuvering, he finally slid his hand successfully inside.  Triumphantly, he pulled out a white handkerchief and started mopping the sweat from his brow.
 
“Cool.  Well since I’m all one with the giant toothpick, what’s next?  Did I graduate to Paul Bunyan’s Q-tip or something?”  Buffy casually headed over to the caged off section of the library to check out Giles’ secret stash of weapons.
 
Her attention was immediately drawn to a small double-edged axe. While her hand carefully glided over the polished metal, her mind wandered to last night’s dream. 

 

She was dancing all alone at the Bronze, the steadily pulsating music stirring every fiber of her being.  Then unexpectedly, she felt large, calloused hands on her waist, guiding her movements.  To her own surprise, she freely let these hands remain, even when they started exploring her body with fleeting yet attentive touches.
 
With each blissful caress, her body cried out for more.  Then when these strong hands boldly cupped her breasts, she arched up into them, loving how they kneaded her sensitive flesh while deft fingers plucked at her now hardened nipples.
 
Without warning, her dream-world shifted.  One moment she was standing on the dance floor, the next she was lying nude in the center of a massive bed fitted with black silk sheets.  The room beyond held a warm glow from dozens of candles scattered throughout.  With the slightest movement, the coolness of the inky fabric brushed against her inflamed skin causing her to moan in womanly approval.
 
She was only alone for a moment before the hands from earlier returned, leaving her trembling.  In a mere instant, she was driven to the point of insane rapture.  While writhing under the mind-numbing explorations, her legs splayed, offering up herself completely to this blissful madness.
 
Just as she felt two cool fingers poised at the entrance of her heat, she heard a deep voice purring in her ear, “Buffy”

 

“Buffy?”
 
Suddenly shaken from her thoughts, she spun around from Giles’ cache of weapons.  Like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, her saucer-wide eyes focused on her Watcher now standing before her in the center of the metal doorway.
 
“Buffy, are you all right?  If I may say, you appear a bit—preoccupied.”
 
Even though he only asked if she was okay, he wasn’t fooling her.  She knew by the way he was steadily polishing his glasses that his mind was going a mile a minute and he had a lot more to say.
 
“Yeah, I’m totally fine!  I was just, um, you know, thinking about getting down and dirty—I mean, I was thinking about patrolling, yeah.”  Buffy cheeks instantly reddened from her clearly foot-in-mouth response that made Giles polish even faster.
 
So needing to get away from this conversation and his bug-under-a-microscope scrutiny, she slid past him easily since he was sans turtle suit.  As she headed over to the table to collect her training gear, she so hoped that he wouldn’t push this any further.  She’d eaten enough shoe for one day.
 
Guess no such luck.

“Are you still being plagued by what we discussed last week?”  Giles followed her to the table, his glasses were now back to where they belonged, but that look remained.

“No, no, there’s no plague.  Not even a left over ‘I’m not feeling well’.  It’s just, well, last night at the Bronze, there was some vamp playing peek-a-boo and when I was heading over there to do my job, Angel got all cryptic saying he needed to talk to me.  And since he’s big with the apocalyptic messages, we went outside to talk.  Then come to find out, what he had to say wasn’t as end-of-the-worldish as I thought—” Buffy inhaled deeply replenishing the much needed air after her long winded, half-truthful explanation.
 
Now she wasn’t completely lying per se.  What happened last night with Angel was still buggin’ her, but that was only a small part of her overall irritation.  The bigger problem was how her mind had gone from annoyingly distracted to totally x-rated, and no matter what she did, it wouldn’t stop.
 
But never in the million years would she be discussing that with Giles.
 
While zippering up her bag, she hoped the reason she gave him sounded more like a teenage drama thing than a Slayer one, and maybe this time he’d let this go.

Yeah today, totally not my day!

“Buffy, did you get the impression Angel was trying to protect this vampire by drawing your attention away?”  Giles’ bug-studying gaze intensified while he stepped closer.

“I don’t think so.  Angel seemed pretty focused on me, so maybe that’s why he didn’t notice the vamp—and now I’m saying this out loud, it sounds totally ridiculous.  There’s no way with Angel being all King Lurker himself that he didn’t know there been some other vamp creeping around.”
 
“That was precisely my thought, Buffy.  I needn’t remind you this wouldn’t be the first time Angel hasn’t been completely honest with you while protecting another vampire, or more specifically, his childe.”
 
She didn’t need Giles to say which childe he was talking about.  But the last time she heard, that crazy vampiress was in South America shacking up with some demon that wasn’t Spike.  Usually with her knowing this little tidbit would’ve been all she needed, but now with Giles planting a big ol’ seed of doubt in her mind, she had to find out the truth for herself.

“Giles, I’ve gotta get to the bottom of this.  I’m heading over to the mansion to see if Angel is hiding something, or more specifically someone.”  Buffy slid on her jacket, strategically placed a few stakes here and there, and leaving her bag behind, left the library.

After a quick sweep of Restfield Cemetery and only coming across one easily dusted fledgling, Buffy headed over to Angel’s.  Cautiously with her stake drawn, she stealthily descended the stone stairs into the garden and entered the mansion.
 
Taking a quick look around, everything seemed the same ol’ same ol’ from the last time she was there, well, minus Angel.  Even though he usually immediately sensed whenever she came around, she decided to wait a bit while warming herself up by the pretty decent smore-making fire.  After five-minutes or so, Buffy accepted she was truly alone.
 
Perfect time for snooping, then!

In all the time Angel had lived there, she’d never been beyond the main room.  So getting her Nancy Drew-on, she started investigating.  Off the main room were two hallways stretching into the darkness.  After a quick eeny-meeny-miney-moe, she chose to go left.

As she walked away from the warmth of the main room into the ever-increasing gloominess, she started to shiver from the chill now clinging to the air.  By the time she reached the first door, she had already zipped up her light-weight jacket and her teeth were chattering.

Would it kill him, well make him deader, to crank up the heat in this place?

Still staying on high alert with her stake at the ready, she turned the antique brass knob and pushed open the door.  The brass hinges protested loudly, making any attempt at a sneaky entrance a big no-go.
 
Standing in the doorway, she quickly scanned the room.  Clearly nobody had been in there for quite some time, with the layer of dust on the floor and the heavy-looking, once-white sheets covering all the furniture.  Deciding there wasn’t much more to see, besides a spider web or two; she stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her.
 
The next two rooms behind similarly noisy doors were exactly the same as the first.  When approaching the next door and the belief she was getting nowhere fast stronger than ever, Buffy vowed this was the last room she’d Goldilocks.
 
She knew immediately she was on to something when this time she entered the room, the door quietly passed over the gleaming hardwood floor.
 
After stepping inside, she noticed this room was arranged like all the others, minus the ghostly decor.  It had an overall masculine feel, decorated in hunter green and burgundy with deep cherry-wood furnishings throughout.
 
On the furthest wall there was a cozy-looking brick fireplace with two matching high-back burgundy leather chairs fireside. Then lining the walls were several ornate bureaus with a matching massive four poster-bed, flanked by end tables littered with an assortment of leather-bound books with gilded scripts engraved on their worn spines.

Even without her picking up the distinct scent of Angel’s cologne, she could tell this was his bedroom.  Without wasting any more time checking out the décor, she quickly searched the room for any tell-tale signs of Drusilla.
 
Buffy knew Angel felt responsible for Drusilla, and would go to great lengths to protect her, but at the same time he would more importantly protect people from her.
 
After searching for any signs of the crazy vampiress, like Gothicized-Victorian styled clothing or creepy porcelain dolls and coming up with zilch, it didn’t take long to get her answer.
 
Well, I guess it wasn’t Drusilla.

Satisfied that Angel wasn’t hiding anything from her, well, anything more than usual, she decided she’d seen enough and hurried back to the main room.

Thankfully, it was as eerily empty as it was when she’d left.  In which she was totally glad for.  Especially with she and Angel’s last two conversations and how well they did not go, she was so not in the mood for a repeat performance.
 
After giving the room a once over making sure she didn’t miss anything, Buffy left the way she came.
  
On her way out, she decided it was best to do another quick patrol, just in case this ‘peek-a-boo’ vamp was still lurking about.  Almost as soon as she started down Crawford Street, the tinglies from last night returned in full force and instantly threw her completely off balance.

Like flames hungrily engulfing dried kindling, she felt each fiery tendril lapping at her insides and quickly settling in her erogenous zones—the undersides of her breasts, the small of her back, the junctures between her shoulders and neck, and that little sweet spot just behind each ear.
 
There was no way she could fight anything in this condition.  Not even Xander for the last jelly donut!  She needed to get home for a long, cold shower and some much needed alone time—NOW.
 
Buffy inhaled deeply while trying to focus and will her feet to move.  When they finally cooperated, she started speed walking back to Revello Drive.  With each step, her panties brushed against her now rapidly dampening sex and in the process, was making her slowly loose her mind to lust.  Within a few feet, she was unable to wait a moment longer to sate this burning need, and started in a dead-run, not stopping until she reached home.       

    

 

Author’s Notes:

Please leave a review and tell me whatcha think!  *begging--I ain't too proud not to!*

Sabre masks are commonly used in fencing. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=saber+mask&view=detail&id=EA3161C9268DB024B9E520DF58311AE6FA47EB90&first=0&qpvt=saber+mask&FORM=IDFRIR

Paul Bunyan is a North American folk tale about a lumberjack.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan

Nancy Drew: a literary character that first showed up in the 1930’s, she was a sixteen/eighteen year old (stories differ) who solved crimes.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Drew

Gothicize: to make Gothic.  Yes, it is actually a word! http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gothicize

And if you’re not sure what Gothic/Goth is look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic