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Something New by dreamweaver
 
Chapter 4
 
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Chapter 4


“Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked when she was leaving.

She put a hand on the wall because her knees were wobbly. He grinned at her and she blushed. But he was about as unsteady as she was. They had worn each other out.

“Just see you,” he murmured. “In the sense of running across each other in a cemetery. Not expecting more.”

She looked down, wishing she would stop blushing. “Willow wanted me to go to a frat party and I said yes. She needs to get out and have fun, stop thinking about Oz so much, and she wouldn’t go if I didn’t...”

He nodded. “Want me to do patrol for you?”

Her eyes widened. “You’d do that?”

“Kinda in that line of work now. Enforcement.” He was smiling. “I like fighting, Slayer. Demons give me a proper workout.”

“Uh, sure. If you want to. Thanks.”

She fled.

So here she was at the party, having a perfectly...dull and boring time. For the first time, she wanted to be out on patrol.

Because Spike would be there.

Damn it, damn it. If she could only stop thinking about him. This would be a great party if she only stopped thinking about Spike.

“Buffy?”

She found herself looking up at Riley. “Oh, hi, Riley. What are you doing here?”

“Willow said you’d be here, so I thought I’d come. Would you like to dance?”

“Um.” Normal didn’t cut it anymore. She’d finally recognized that. “Well, see. I met this guy and...”

She was sorry to see the hurt look on his face and was glad that it hadn’t even gotten to first base yet. They had barely stepped onto the field, hadn’t even shared a kiss yet, which made this easier. As gently as she could, she made it plain that things were definitely not going further and sent him off with a dejected look on his face.

She turned around to see Willow staring at her, mouth open.

“Buffy, did you just dump Riley?”

“Well, it hadn’t gone further than a picnic and a little casual conversation, so I don’t know if you’d call it dumping exactly. I just kinda explained that I wasn’t interested.”

“But you were all so freaked out when he thought you were marrying...”

“Yeah, well, I just had second thoughts. He’s just not my type. And, if you think about it, T.A. There’s something ethically squicky about a teacher’s assistant getting involved with one of his students.”

“You never thought about that before!”

“Well, y’know. All that psychology and ethics we’ve been taking. I started to think. Remember that article we had to read a couple of weeks ago about the problems with a general sleeping with a noncom in his or her army. Same diff.”

“Ethically wrong. I do see.” Willow looked around the room. “Well, there are a lot of cute guys here.”

“So not going there. A normal guy would be a hostage to fate. Angel just recently demonstrated the problems with that.”

“Angel? When did he..? Are you thinking of getting back together with Angel? But I thought you said seeing Angel meant hello to the pain.”

“No pain anymore. Too pissed off for that. A lot of anger, but no pain.” Buffy glanced at Willow and hurriedly changed the subject before she could start asking questions. “You’re not enjoying yourself tonight either, are you?”

“Not really,” Willow sighed. “I guess it’s still too soon. Your Mom said I shouldn’t rush into anything. She’s really great, you know that?”

Buffy smiled at her. “Yeah. How’s that counselor Giles found for you working out?”

“Awesome! I was really nervous about her, but she’s cool and she really knows her stuff and it’s great being able to talk about magic with someone who knows and can show me what I’m doing wrong.”

“No more ‘will be done’?”

Willow glanced at her worriedly, then relaxed when she saw that Buffy was smiling. “Swear. I’m glad you’re not mad about that anymore.”

“It kinda had a few not unpleasant results.” She looked with a distinct lack of interest at a couple of guys heading their way. “Wanna mix or call it a night?”

“Oh, let’s call it a night,” sighed Willow. “I’m really not in the mood.”

Once they were strolling towards their dorm, Buffy said suddenly, “I think I’ll do a quick patrol.”

“Really?” Willow glanced at the skirt and halter top that Buffy was wearing. “I don’t see any stakes on you.”

Buffy reached casually up to a tree branch and broke off a sharp stub that would do. “Stake. Just want to walk a bit. You know how it is. Feeling kinda antsy.”

“Oh. Okay. Don’t be too late coming home. You’ve got an early class tomorrow.”

“Right.”

She had walked right past the Shady Rest cemetery before she admitted to herself that the cemetery she was really heading for was Restfield.

“Slayer! Wait up!”

She spun and saw Spike coming quickly out of Shady Rest’s gates. The sight of him brought a sudden vivid flash of sensory memory—the feel of his mouth on hers and his naked skin against hers and his body on her, in her. She blushed.

“Thought you were off duty tonight,” he said, coming to a stop beside her.

“It was a dull party.”

“Dull night out here too. Nothing much happening. Took out a fledgling digging itself out of its grave a while back, but aside from that, zilch.” He looked her over with appreciation. “Like the outfit.”

“Uh, thanks.”

He walked around her. “No back. Nice. I do like your back when it’s naked, Slayer. Lovely line.”

“Spi-ike.”

He came around to the front again and she resisted the urge to cross her arms over her breasts when she saw where his gaze was lingering.

“No bra. Even better.”

“Spike! Behave.”

“Behave how? Way I’d like to behave with you dressed like that...?” His tongue curled behind his teeth. “Was that the idea? Freeze every vamp solid with lust till you can get close enough to dust them? Would work.”

She couldn’t help grinning. “Come on. It’s not that sexy an outfit.”

“I can see your nipples through that thin material, luv. They just went hard.”

She blushed vividly, then found herself laughing. “I wasn’t going patrolling.”

“Trying to change the subject? Okay. If you’re not patrolling, then why are you here? ‘S a long way from your dorm.”

She tilted her head sideways teasingly. “I was going to Restfield.”

His eyes flared. “Were you now?”

“Yeah.”

“C’mon then,” he said softly.

They fell into step beside each other. She could feel his intent gaze on her face, kept her lashes down because she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep from blushing if she met his eyes. His cool hand took hers and their fingers interlinked. Their shoulders brushed as they walked along.

“One more night, is it?”

“Maybe I just want some conversation,” she murmured.

“Wouldn’t mind that either, pet,” he said quietly.

She glanced at him. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Anything you want. Don’t you know that yet? You call the shots.”

She saw in him suddenly the patience and the gentleness he had given Drusilla for a hundred and twenty years.

“You’re a very strange vampire, Spike.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Well, of course. ‘M unique.”

They both laughed. But there was truth in that. He was. Right from the beginning.

He opened the door of his crypt. It was pitch black inside.

“Wait. Let me light a few candles, so you can see.” He lit one bank, then went to the next, shrugging off his duster. He glanced back over his shoulder to where she stood beside the door. “Want something to drink? I got some soft drinks in and some...”

He stopped short abruptly when she closed the door and carefully barred it. She heard his breath catch. A second later he was in front of her in a burst of vampire speed, his hands braced against the door on either side of her, hemming her in.

“Not just talk then?”

She laughed and put her arms around him. His weight came on her, heavy and vibrant, pressing her back against the door.

“Not just talk,” she agreed.

They kissed deeply, tongues weaving.

“Never ever acted this way before,” she muttered. “Must be something about you. Addictive.”

“Something about us, Slayer. Don’t you feel it?”

Heat. Desire.

“All wrong,” she said, but couldn’t stop kissing him. “Forbidden.”

“Adds to the rush, yeah?”

It did. It was crazy and wrong, yet she wanted it, couldn’t stop.

Their mouths were twisting together; their bodies strained against each other demandingly. The world spun away; she lost all sense of time. There was nothing but his mouth on hers and his urgent weight and their bodies grinding together.

He bent and his mouth took her nipple through the thin, slick material of her top, suckling on it.

“Oh, God!”

She arched to him involuntarily, her hands clenching on him. His hands were sliding all over her now, kneading and caressing.

“A skirt. Should wear skirts more often,” he muttered and she laughed involuntarily. He was pulling it up.

“On patrol?”

“Convenient.”

“Nothing else convenient about all of this,” she growled, then gasped as he snapped the sides of her thong and pulled it away. “Ohh.”

He caught his breath as her hands raked down his stomach, yanked down his zipper.

“Oh, Christ,” he muttered as her hands closed on his length. “Buffy...”

“Yes...”

His hands slid under her, lifted her up. He came into her hard and they both groaned at the feel of it, so perfect, his thickness within her, her tightness around him.

“Oh, God, Spike!”

Then there was nothing but sensation, their bodies lost in the thrusting, pounding rhythm, driving each other relentlessly higher and higher, gasping against each other’s faces. She came hard, biting at the junction between his neck and shoulder. His whole body jolted violently against her; anywhere on the neck was an erogenous zone for a vampire. His eyes went golden and blind. She felt him shudder and pulse within her.

“Y...” Then he suddenly clenched his teeth together, cutting off whatever it was he had started to say.

“What were you going to say?” she asked an hour later, lying flat on her stomach in his bed and stretching luxuriously.

“When?” He was lying on his back, smiling vaguely at the ceiling.

“Before. When I bit you on the neck upstairs.”

“Oh!” He laughed wryly under his breath. “That bite. That was the start of the claiming ritual with vamps. Darn nearly got us permanently linked together, biting me like that.”

“What?” She had a feeling that was something she had better look up in Giles’ books.

“You wouldn’t want that.”

“Would you?”

He turned his head to smile at her for a moment. “Wouldn’t mind. Always wanted to claim and be claimed. Barely stopped myself in time. That would really have been wrong.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. Slayer linked permanently and irrevocably to a vampire.”

She thought about it and saw that he had managed to stop them from making a really big mistake.

“Thank you,” she said ruefully and he looked back up at the ceiling.

“Ever get claimed, I don’t want it to be an accident.”

It meant that much to him. She definitely had to do some research into it.

“Why didn’t you ever claim Dru?”

“She belonged to Angelus. I knew that. Never asked ‘cause I knew what the answer would be.”

“Did you want to?”

He said nothing for a moment. “Wanted to belong to someone.”

Belonging. That mattered to him. Angel rejected belonging. Spike yearned for it.

She rested her chin on her folded arms and stared into space for a while.

“I’m using you,” she said in a small voice at last.

He smiled faintly at the ceiling. “I know.”

She lost her breath. “How...?”

“You were angry at Angel and you wanted to get back at him. I was convenient and we turn each other on. Plus, you couldn’t have picked a better person to get his goat than me. If there’s one person in the universe Angel wouldn’t want you taking up with, it’s me.”

“Spike...”

“It’s all right, pet. That was yesterday. Tonight, it was just me.”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Addictive, wasn’t that what you said?” He turned onto his side to face her, his eyes smiling, put out a hand to stroke her hair. “Gonna be as addictive as I can. Gonna make you crave me like I crave blood.”

“Ego much?” She turned to face him, running a hand lightly over his shoulder, then back and forth over his chest, enjoying the feel of him. “There’s no future to this. It’s all wrong.”

“Think I don’t know?”

She traced his cheekbone delicately and he pushed it against her fingers, smiling. “Don’t want to give it up. Not yet.”

They kissed slowly, lingeringly.

“Just go with the flow, pet. Enjoy it while it lasts. You’ll walk away in the end. I know that. Just gonna try to keep it from happening as long as I can.”

She frowned. “Maybe you’ll walk away.”

“No.”

“You say that, but...”

“Haven’t got the pressures on me that you have on you. Your calling, your Watcher, your friends. I can do what I like, live in a dream world forever if I want to. I’m a fool when it comes to love, pet. Stupid, sodding romantic. Nothing else matters. I fall fast and I fall hard. And when I’ve fallen, I stay.”

He had stayed a hundred and twenty years with Drusilla. For all his changes, his constant flux, the essence of Spike remained. His core values were steadfast, never changed. And love was a core value for him.

“But you?” he said. “Sooner or later, reality will rear its ugly head and you’ll walk.”

“If you think that, how can you...?”

“I’m used to losing things, pet. There’s a lot of ups and downs you go through if you live as long as I have. I’ve had some really bitter nights and some really sweet ones. The trick is not to let anything keep you from enjoying the sweet ones. Not to let worries or fears or even hopes get in the way of enjoying the moment. You’ve got to learn that, luv. To keep the moment unclouded. That way you’ll always have it shining like a gem whenever you look at it. You don’t feel for me what I feel for you. But you want me and I’ll always have that moment, shining bright.”

“What do you feel for me, Spike?” she whispered. But at the same time she was terrified of his answer.

He smiled at her and stroked her face with rueful delicacy. “You don’t really want to know.”

She didn’t. She caught his head and kissed him fiercely hard, wanting to drown out thought in sensation. He kissed her back as intensely, his eyes smiling but very dark when she looked at him.

‘My will be done.’ Angel and Willow’s mantra, their own needs and desires taking priority. With Spike, it was ‘Thy will be done’, his desires subjugated to her needs. She came first, even before himself. It was both humbling and terrifying.

“You scare me,” she muttered and he laughed.

“One human I can still scare. And it’s the Slayer. That’s something, innit?”

“How can you laugh?”

“Gotta learn to laugh at the pricks, Slayer. Nothing’s so bad if you can laugh at it. You’re always too serious.”

“Duties, responsibilities,” she muttered.

“Not so bad if you take ‘em with a grain of salt. They can be fun if you stop obsessing about them. That’s the trouble with your friends. Giles and Angel and your Scoobies. They all keep hammering away at how dire and dreadful and awful it all is. Another apocalypse. The end of the world as we know it.” He shuddered dramatically. “‘Course you end up feeling burdened, carrying that load.”

“But it is serious...”

“Hell, pet, it’s fun! Tell me kicking demon ass isn’t fun!”

Buffy grinned involuntarily. “Well, yeah, that is.”

“You’re faster, stronger, more powerful than anybody anywhere. ‘S gotta be a rush, Slayer. And you enjoy fighting just as much as I do. If you ever lost your powers and became ‘normal’, you’d hate it.”

Truth to tell, she would. She had, during that Cruciamentum test.

She looked at Spike thoughtfully. “You’d never want to go back to being human again, would you?”

He really did shudder this time, at the very thought. “Bloody hell, no! Give up all this power and strength? For what? To be a useless git again? Never!”

“Well, that’s honest,” she muttered.

“Advantages and disadvantages to everything, pet, no matter what. Might as well enjoy what’s good about the situation. Being a Slayer can be fun.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’ll show you.”

He did over the next couple of weeks. Patrolling suddenly was fun with someone to share the job with her. Angel had always told her about problems in the Hellmouth, but he had never actually fought the fight with her. Sometimes the Scoobies would come out on patrol with her, but, being human, they were more a liability than an asset. Not only would she have to do the slaying, but she would have to look after them too, constantly keeping an eye out to make sure that they were safe.

She didn’t have to look after Spike. With his vampire strength and abilities, he was a ferocious fighter, more than a match for any demon that came along, and he adored fighting. Battles with vamps and demons turned into competitions—who would succeed in taking out a demon first, who would use the cleverest moves, or the dirtiest, or cheat the most outrageously. It was a real shame that he couldn’t fight her. She would have loved sparring with him, testing herself against him. That would have made things perfect. But the chip prevented him from making any move against her, even in play.

And all the time he would be talking, taunting, teasing her. She had never laughed so hard in her life. Having a partner, someone to share things with and who truly understood both the problems and the triumphs made such a difference.

“I’m getting too used to having you with me on patrol,” she said wryly. “Enjoying it too much. I’m going to hate it when you’re not there.”

“Always be here, pet. Don’t dust that easily.”

They were back in his crypt again after patrol. He never touched her while they were on patrol, not wanting to distract her even in the slightest. But after patrol was over, they always ended up in his crypt, making love. Fighting got them both horny.

“I didn’t mean that. I meant when you leave.”

“Not gonna leave. You’d have to dust me.”

“They always leave.”

“They?” He turned his head on the pillow to look at her. “Who they?”

“People I care about.”

“That’s why you don’t allow yourself to care anymore, innit? But Angel’s a one-off.”

“Angel’s not a one-off,” she muttered. “Guy I knew back in Hemery High did the same thing. Oliver Pike. Left me for my own good. My Dad. But that was for his own good. And even that jerk, Parker. But he was just an asshole.”

He frowned. “I’m not one of those wankers.”

“Didn’t mean that.”

“I don’t leave.”

“You will. Something will happen. Something always happens. Life, I guess.”

He ran a strand of her hair through his fingers, then laid it carefully over her collarbone, tilted his head to study the arrangement thoughtfully. When he looked up at her again, his eyes were vividly blue and penetrating.

“You’re liking this too much, aren’t you? What we have right now. It’s cutting too close to the bone. Makes you nervous.”

She bit her lip and looked down. “I...”

“Wanna be sure, don’t you? Won’t give in to it, won’t take the chance unless you’re sure.”

“Look...”

“‘Something will happen.’ Start thinking like that, next step you’re distancing yourself. Then you’re gonna talk yourself into walking, just so it won’t happen to you again.”

“Spike, stop it!”

“Running scared, Slayer.”

“Have reason,” she muttered rebelliously.

“There is a way of being sure.”

She pushed herself up on one elbow to look down at him, frowning. “How can there be?”

He was smiling faintly as he watched her, his eyes soft and his body relaxed as a cat’s.

“Simple.” He turned his head a little to expose his neck. “You could claim me, Slayer.”

Her brows shot up. She had looked into this claiming business in Giles’ books. A claim was permanent and irrevocable, a link between the two of them that was like but way more than a marriage.

“But didn’t you say that would be a mistake?”

“A double claim would be. That would bind you and you wouldn’t want to be bound. A single claim however...”

“Single claim?” She hadn’t read anything about that.

“One way. It’s like a minion link. The one making the claim has the power, You’d own me. I wouldn’t be able to leave unless you said I could go.”

“Good grief!”

His eyes were very blue and intense, amused. “Like a chain around my neck. You’d have all the power. Could tell me what to do. Tell me come or go.”

“I couldn’t do that to you, Spike!”

“You want to make sure. That would make sure. I literally and physically would not be able to leave.”

That struck her as wrong in the deepest and most fundamental way. For a Slayer to be bound to a vampire was definitely wrong. Giles would have a heart attack at the very thought. But for Spike to be bound like that, subject to her every whim, was even worse. A double claim, wrong as it was, at least kept the playing field level; they would meet on it as equals. A single claim was unjust, reprehensible.

“That’s not right!”

“I’d let you.”

“Spike, why?”

“Makes no difference to me. I don’t leave. But you don’t believe that, Slayer. Well, here’s your guarantee.”

She pushed him onto his back, her arms around his sides, cradling him against her. She pressed the side of her face against his, then slid her lips along his jaw to his neck just under his ear. His lashes brushed her skin as his eyes closed. He was surrendering himself to her. She slid her mouth down his neck, sucked lightly at the junction between his neck and his shoulder. He just turned his head a little to allow her access.

“There, yes?” she murmured against his skin.

“Yeah.”

“You really would let me.”

“Sure.”

She kissed his neck very gently.

“No,” she said. “No. I won’t use you like that.”

She felt him smile suddenly against her temple. His arms came around her.

“Growing up, are you?”

“A little late, but yeah.” She wanted to give him something in return for everything that he was giving her, wanted to find some way to demonstrate how much she trusted him now. “Bite me.”

His whole body jolted against hers in shock. “What?”

“Not a claim. Just...You said Slayer blood’s an aphrodisiac.”

He rolled her over and stared down at her. “You want me to drink from you.”

“Mm. Kinda curious. Heard about these vamp girls in bite-shops. Humans pay them to drink their blood. Can’t really understand that. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“No. It’s a rush for both. Real turn-on.”

She shook her head a little. “Hurt me both times I was bitten.”

He looked down at her, surprised. “You were bitten?”

“By the Master and then by Angel. Hurt each time.”

He was frowning. “The Master I can understand. He would have been trying to kill you. But Angel? Didn’t think the wanker would be that clumsy.”

“He was out of his head at the time. Poisoned and Slayer blood was the antidote. He took too much and I ended up in hospital.”

“Hamhanded sod.”

“Do you want it?”

His face softened and he bent and kissed her slowly, lingeringly. “You know I do. Of course I do. But...”

She ran her hands up and down his back, smiling. “Go ahead.”

“You sure?”

“Mm.”

He bent slowly to her neck, giving her every opportunity to change her mind. She flattened her hands on his shoulderblades, mutely urging him on. His lips brushed her skin over the vein and she heard the tiny, grating noise when he went into gameface. Then his fangs slid with exquisite delicacy into the vein and she felt the draw as he drank.

OhmiGod!

The sensation was incredible, a voluptuous sensuality, a breathtaking, languorous rapture singing through her veins, setting every nerve on fire. Her whole body arched to his.

He only took a couple of sips, then retracted his fangs and licked the wound to close it.

“God, Spike! I never knew!”

He raised his head and looked down at her, smiling, his eyelids sensuously half-closed over eyes dark with heat, their pupils dilated within a thin rim of blazing, intense blue.

“Something else, isn’t it?”

“No wonder they keep coming back for more,” she muttered.

“That’s the whole idea. Seduction.”

She could feel him vibrating with passion, heavy upon her, his breath shuddering in his open mouth.

“It affects you too.”

“That’s the Slayer blood. Aphrodisiac.” His mouth took hers, demanding, tongue sliding along hers sensually.

“Mmm...” She strained against him, arms clenching across his back. “Oh, yes. More.”

“Think this is a rush? Should bite you when you start to come, pet. Would blow both our minds.”

“Do it.”

He laughed against her mouth. “Don’t have to be told twice.”

They were both way past the point of foreplay, so aroused that it was painful, every nerve on fire and flaring with desire. He took her hard and they both gasped with satisfaction, straining against each other.

“Oh, yes...!”

He thrust into her hard, the deep drives of his cock rubbing every sweet spot in her body. She bit his shoulder helplessly, clenched on him hard, and he groaned against her face, his forehead falling against hers.

“Oh, Christ, pet. Don’t stop doing that. So tight...”

She was almost at the edge. She saw his eyes go suddenly golden and blind behind his shuddering eyelids, then his head came down and his fangs slid into her neck.

Oh, God!

It was like being hit by lightning. A blaze of white fire shot through her entire body. Pure rapture. She came and then came again helplessly as his fangs kept up that slow draw that turned the whole experience into delirious ecstasy. She felt him shudder and pulse within her and then her whole brain blanked right out, unable to support that intensity of pleasure a moment longer.

“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” she muttered, coming back to herself an eon later. “That was ... unbelievable. Oh, God, don’t move. I want your weight. I want all your weight.”

He was limp and heavy upon her and it felt wonderful.

“Don’t think I can,” he breathed. “Feel like every string in my body’s been cut.”

She laughed breathlessly, holding him tightly to her. His lips moved on the bitemark on her neck, dazedly sucking on it. They both shivered with pleasure.

“How much did you take?” she asked curiously and he smiled against her skin.

“Couple of sips.”

“That’s all? Oh, we’ve got to do that again,” she purred. “That was amazing.”

He grinned. “Anytime, Slayer. No objections here.”

She laughed. “Slayer blood. Guess you won’t mind that as an addition to the pig’s.”

He closed his blunt, human teeth on her shoulder lightly and teasingly. “Powerful stuff, Slayer blood. Won’t need to feed for two days.”

Her brows rose in amusement. “So we make love and you bite me and that’s all you need?”

“Well, if we keep on making love as often as we do...” He was laughing at her. “Sure won’t miss human blood if I’ve got Slayer on tap.”

“And it was my idea,” she muttered.

They were both laughing.

She kissed him suddenly, fiercely hard.

“What was that for?” he asked, amused.

“I’m happy,” she said with wonder. “You make me happy.”

She couldn’t remember a time with Angel when she had been really happy. Not once. It had all been angst and agony. Now here she was with Spike, laughing, talking, fighting, loving, and it was fun. All of it.

She was happy. Of course, it couldn’t last.

She remembered that thought two weeks later. They were in Shady Rest cemetery and it was raining and she had just taken out a fledgling vamp. It was a very clumsy vamp, tripping over its feet and falling face first into a mud puddle before it dusted. Unfortunately it managed to pull her down with it. She rose, dripping with mud and furious, to find Spike sagging across a tombstone, weak with laughter.

“It’s not funny!”

“Slayer, if you could see yourself...”

Buffy looked down at herself. The raincoat she was wearing had protected her from the light rain, but hadn’t been any good whatsoever in the mud puddle. It was covered in mud, and so were her jeans and thin top. There was even mud in her hair. She started to grin.

“Guess it is funny. Would be even funnier if...”

He backed away as she advanced on him. “Oh, no, you don’t, Slayer.”

“Would have thought you’d like mud wrestling.”

“Don’t like getting my duster messed up. Hey!” He jumped sideways as she swatted at him with one filthy hand. “Quit that!”

“You covered in mud. Now that really would be funny.”

He spun on his heel and raced away towards the street where there wouldn’t be any wet grass or muck that she could use against him. She chased after him. They were both laughing helplessly.

She closed on him just as he reached the gates. He was stripping out of his duster as he ran and that slowed him up just enough for her to get to him. He flung his duster on top of a gate just as she tackled him. They both hit the pavement and rolled, wrestling and laughing, ended up with her on top, rubbing herself all over him so that the mud on her clothes transferred itself to his jeans and T-shirt until he was as dirty as she was.

He caught her head and pulled her mouth down to his. They kissed fiercely, laughing and ardent.

A odd, choked sound made them look up. Then they both froze.

Xander and Anya were staring at them.


TBC
 
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