Watchers Council

Chapter 19

“It’s definitely easier when you have a building site right next door” Xander grinned and watched the flow of concrete.

“It does have some rather unexpected advantages” Giles nodded as the body of the demon sank into the foundations.

“I remember it took Oz and I hours to dig the hole for the big guy you made out of Hansel and Gretel” he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “If the vampires hadn’t dusted I would have been a millionaire in the body burying business before I left high school”

Giles smiled and turned to look over his shoulder. “They should be back by now” he checked his watch.

“No need to rush it, we still have four more foundations we can pour before morning” Xander pushed the concrete chute further over and concentrated for a few minutes to calculate the remaining quantity required. “Besides, Buffy is probably conducting a master class for the girls” he cut off the flow and they both stood and watched the concrete gently settle.

“She did seem to take her time over the last one” Giles nodded his head towards a single bubble in the concrete that burst with a pop.

“I think it’s been a while since she had a really good fight and she was trying to show the newbies some of the moves they’d been practising in class” Xander sat on a nearby step and poured coffee from a thermos. “I think Willow packed some sandwiches as well” he mumbled and searched through the large bag.

“Some day we will be able to have picnics when the sun is up” Giles sighed and sat down next to him, accepting the thermos and a sandwich.

*****

“Laurie, don’t drop your shoulder before you throw the punch” Buffy yelled at the young girl and settled back down next to Willow. “I’ve been trying to get her out of that habit for months” she sighed and folded her arms.

“I wouldn’t have thought it would have mattered” Willow leaned back against the crypt wall. “After all these guys don’t have eyes and I don’t think his sense of smell is good enough to tell where her shoulder is”

“It’s the principle of the thing” Buffy huffed and threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “Jane, are you trying to dance with him or kill him?”

The young girl looked round to apologise to Buffy and was distracted when the demon threw out his arm and caught her wrist, throwing her over a tombstone. “Son of a bitch, you broke my nail” she growled and leapt back over the tombstone before driving her sword through his stomach. He howled in pain and thrashed his arms about. “And don’t even get me started on the goop I’ve got in my hair” she hacked at his arms to punctuate the sentence. He was soon lying on the ground, gurgling and twitching while she took a few deep breaths and kicked one of his severed arms back towards his torso.

Laurie looked over her shoulder and realised she was the last one with a live demon. Scowling she drop kicked the one in front of her and ducked under the tree branch he was waving around in front of him. Coming back up from a crouch she used both hands on her sword to separate his head from his neck and jumped back just in time to avoid most of the bodily fluids that inevitably followed. “Eeuuw” she complained and checked her clothes to make sure she hadn’t been splashed. “These are new boots” she looked disgustedly towards Buffy and Willow.

“Wow” Buffy looked impressed. “Alex certainly taught them the importance of personal grooming” she turned towards Willow.

Willow laughed and returned to the map lying on the ground next to her. “She is worse than Cordelia sometimes” she giggled and quickly did the demon locator spell to make sure there weren’t any family members of the bad guys hanging around. “Nope, we’re all clear” she nodded and packed up the ingredients.

“Well done team” Buffy clapped to get their attention. “Just need to get these..” she hesitated for a moment. “Bits and pieces over to Giles and Xander and your final test is complete”

*****

Xander yawned as he walked away from the group of workmen who had arrived to find their foundations completed. “The guys are going to get started on digging the next set” he mumbled to Giles as he walked beside him back to the main building. “I hope the girls have managed to rustle up some breakfast, who knew burying bodies in concrete would make you hungry?”

Giles was still a little upset that he had got demon blood all over his favourite sweater but didn’t want to moan too much in front of the students. When they arrived at the cafeteria they found twenty or thirty girls listening in rapt attention as Laurie and Jane recalled the events of the previous night. “I notice they’re leaving out the icky parts” Giles mumbled to Willow as he slumped down next to her.

“Not quite as heroic” she suggested and poured him a coffee. “Telling how the bad guys spurted on you” Giles looked at her in amazement and kept his face completely clear of emotion as he watched her close her eyes and shake her head. “It’s been a long night” she finally looked at him and shrugged.

“It would seem so” he agreed. “Was Buffy happy with their work?” he nodded to the two young girls who were holding centre stage.

“Mmm” Willow mumbled around a muffin. “They both get passing marks in their practical final” she finally managed to get out. “And since they finished all of their other exams a few weeks ago, I guess there isn’t any reason they can’t leave whenever they want” she seemed a little down beat abouts.
s.

“I would have thought that being on the business side of things would mean Alex was home more often than she was before?” Giles suggested and took his glasses off to rub his eyes.

“It will” Willow shrugged but still looked unhappy. “It’s just that she’s going to be spending a lot more time with the slayers and, call me crazy, but I’ve found that that hasn’t always been the best way to avoid trouble in the past you know”

“Unless they are going to be working in Cleveland or another of the hellmouth sites I don’t think you have anything to worry about” he smiled. “And don’t forget they are going to have a watcher with them for the first few years”

“And that always made things safer” she quipped before smiling at him. “I’m kidding, I know that nothing is going to happen to her with them around”

“Well I don’t know about you guys but I need to get some sleep” Xander stood behind Willow’s chair and stretched before yawning again.

“Me too” Willow nodded and accepted his offer of a lift. “Are you coming with us?” she asked Giles as he put his glasses back on and finished his coffee.

“No, I think I’ll do a few hours in the office then sneak off early” he grinned and waved at them as they left. “Buffy”saidsaid quietly as she came to sit down next to him. “Did everything go well?” he asked and listened as she gave him a blow by blow account of the night’s events.

“And then, of course, you know the part about cementing our relationships with the demon community” she grinned.

“You’ve been dying to use that all night, haven’t you?” he shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Please tell me that you haven’t been teaching the delivery of awful puns as part of your course”

“It’s an integral part of the kill” she protested and laughed with him. “So, now that these guys are stoned, what’s next?”

He winced at the terminology and slid down in his chair a little. “Well I think we have sent a fairly clear message to Ganart and I would assume he would retaliate fairly quickly”

“Unless we get to him first” Buffy nodded her agreement. “So we should check up on the team who are trying to trace him and then plan our attack on his headquarters”

“Actually I have some school business to deal with this morning so I’ll join you and the others at lunchtime to go over what you’ve found” he frowned and slowly stood up from the chair. “I think I’m getting too old for this” he scowled as he stretched his back.

“You’re just out of practice” she suggested and headed off towards the boardroom.

*****

“You’re freezing” Alex grumbled from under the duvet as Willow tried to snuggle up without waking her. “Aaaaghh” she jumped as Willow put her feet against her. “What time is it?” she squinted at the clock and winced at the early hour. “Bad guys all gone?” she yawned as she turned to face Willow.

“Yep and Laurie and Jane are both cleared to leave whenever they want” Willow tried to look happy about this but Alex had closed her eyes again and was tucking her head against Willow’s shoulder.

“What on earth is that smell?” she pulled away and wrinkled her nose.

“Sorry” Willow pulled away. “I thought I’d avoided the worst of the slime” she sighed as she headed for the shower. “Go back to sleep” she suggested and slouched towards the bathroom. She was standing under the shower, rinsing her hair for the second time when she heard the stall door open behind her. “Alex?” she turned round and blinked the soap out of her eyes.

“Couldn’t get back to sleep” Alex grouched and pulled her into an embrace. “Brain filled with thoughts of soapy Willow” she yawned and ran her hand tgh hgh her own hair.

“One more wash and rinse then I’m fit for civilised company” Willow giggled and lathered some shampoo into her hair. “Honey, please” she begged as Alex ran her hands up her ribcage, stopping just below her breasts and gently brushing the undersides with her thumbs.

“Don’t want to wait” Alex pouted before leaning in and rolling her tongue around her nipple. “Soapy” she tasted her tongue before shrugging and returning to her task.

Willow rinsed the shampoo from her hair as quickly as she could before finally opening her eyes and looking down. She saw the blonde head resting contentedly on her chest, her left hand gently rubbing her right nipple while the left nipple was being flicked by her tongue. Willow finally managed to push her away and lifted her head up to kiss her. “Mmmm you taste warm and sleepy” she licked her lips and absently ran her hand through Alex’s hair.

“Suddenly sleep doesn’t seem so important” Alex grinned at her and pushed her against the tiles. Willow yelped as her bare skin hit the cold tiles. “That’s for the cold feet” Alex held Willow’s arms at her side and leaned against her, slipping her right thigh between Willow’s legs. “And this is for coming back to me in one piece” she said seriously before kissing her. Alex slowly pulled out of the kiss and watched as Willow tried to keep contact. “Are you finished here?” she was breathing quite heavily now and Willow was sliding against her thigh.

Willow didn’t trust herself to speak and simply nodded before turning the water off. She closed her eyes as she kissed Alex again, her hands slipping across her butt and pulling her closer. “Let’s get to bed” she finally suggested and pushed gently away from the wall before grabbing a fluffy towel and bundling Alex inside it.

*****

Giles quickly changed into his sweats and stuffed his ruined sweater into the locker. Stopping to load up on coffee and jaffa cakes, he finally made it to his office and had done an hour of paperwork before Dawn arrived. “I’ve left you some breakfast” he smiled as she stuck her head round his door.

“Did everything go OK last night?” she asked as she brought some tea and a jaffa cake into his office and sat down in the chair opposite his desk. She listened as he explained how they had managed to get rid of the demons. “That’s gross” she wrinkled her nose. “Imagine living in those dorms above that” she shivered and returned to her own office to answer the phone. He smiled and returned to the pile of papers in front of him.

*****

Buffy was standing staring out of the floor-to-ceiling window when Giles finally arrived at the boardroom. He looked around the room at the five or six watchers who were poring over the huge pile of manuscripts at one end of the table. Two of Willow’s team were sitting at the other end of the table with their laptops but each group appeared to be working separately. Shaking his head he clapped his hands and waited for everyone to look up. “Ten minute coffee break for everyone then an update from each of you” he left the door open and nodded as everyone filed out of the room except Buffy. “How arey gey getting on?” he asked quietly and moved to look out of the window beside her.

“Slowly” she shrugged and folded her arms. “Book guys are stumped but still reading and the computer guys aren’t doing any better” she sighed. “How can Ganart be co-ordinating all of this demon activity and staying hidden?” she frowned. “I miss Willy’s place” she smiled and turned to look around the room. “At least I could hit him and get rid of my frustration”

“After the update we’ll try to get everyone back on track” he assured her. “Perhaps you could give Willow a call and ask her to lend a hand?”

“Coward” Buffy smiled up at him and shook her head. “I’ll tell Alex it was your idea” she threw over her shoulder as she left the room.

*****

“She’s in the shower” Alex cradled the phone on her shoulder as she continued making lunch. “I’ll tell her to call you when she’s finished”

“Was that for me?” Willow asked as she wandered into the sitting room wearing a towel and drying her hair.

“Buffy said Rupert needs you” Alex nodded towards the dining table. “I told her you’d call them back but you should eat something first” she suggested as she set a plate full of pancakes in front of her and dropped a kiss onto her bare shoulder. “I want to see a clean plate before I give you the phone” she warned and returned to collect her own plate.

“Yes Mom” Willow mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes. Once she had swallowed she put her hand out to hold Alex’s “What are you going to get up to today?” she asked.

“I guess I should talk to the office and let them know that the girls can be booked in for their first job” she suggested and struggled to eat her pancakes with one hand.

“How soon will you be going?” Willow asked and pushed her empty plate away.

“Don’t know, a week maybe two” Alex shrugged and smiled as the towel slipped from Willow. “Unless you want me to find another use for this syrup you’d better go phone Buffy” she grinned.

“Promises, promises” Willow sighed and stood up, leaving the towel on the chair. “I’ll call her from the bedroom” she looked back over her shoulder as she sashayed to the bedroom door. She waited to see what Alex would do then pouted as the blonde concentrated on finishing her pancakes instead of following her. “I think you need some time away to make you appreciate what you’ve got” she sighed and closed the bedroom door on her grinning girlfriend.

*****

“Willow” Giles nodded to her as she closed the boardroom door behind her. “Did you manage to get some sleep?” he asked and returned to scanning the map in front of him, missing the grin that appeared on her face and the look between her and Buffy.

“I went to bed” she admitted and waved at the two people sitting at the laptops. “What do you need?” she sat down across the table from him.

Giles explained how far they had got and the different search criteria they had used to try to find Ganart’s hideaway. “Unfortunately we seem to have hit a bit of a dead end and I thought a fresh pair of eyes might see something we’ve missed” he yawned and blinked a couple of times as he got to the end of his explanation.

“I think you and Buffy should both go and get some sleep while I sort out something with the others” Willow stood up to open the door. “I’m not kidding, when we find this guy we need our top team to be ready to attack and neither of you will be any use to anyone if you’re exhausted” she put her hands on her hips and waited for them to gather their jackets. “I’ll stay and keep them on the right track” she said quietly as Giles drew level with her.

“Phone me if you find anything” he said and pulled his jacket on.

“I was just going to keep it a secret” Willow suggested sarcastically. “I have done this before you know” she sighed dramatically and closed the door in their faces.

“I think I liked her better when she was shy and quiet” Buffy suggested and headed down the corridor with Giles.

Willow looked around the room at the exhausted faces and shook her head. “We need some new blood” she said under her breath and started making phone calls. Twenty minutes later the books and laptops had all been moved to one of the largest lecture rooms and fifty slayers, watchers, researchers and teachers were filing into the seats. Willow stood in the centre of the room and organised the small team from her department. “Pull the screen down then we just need to lose the lights and we’re ready” she said to a young boy who ran off up the middle aisle stairs to shut off the lights. “All right everyone, listen up, this is what we’ve found so far and we’re stuck so any ideas, no matter how stupid they seem, just shout them out” she clicked her mouse and quickly ran through the information they had gathered to date. The audience listened quietly for the first few minutes and she was starting to think this might not have been such a good idea when one of the students in the middle of the room cleared their throat. “Yes?” Willow peered into the semi darkness and waited for the question.

“If the demons we killed last night used smell to find their way around it must mean that they would be able to find their way to Ganart using a scent of some kind” the young girl had started confidently enough but trailed off at the end. “So I was just wondering if we could narrow down what kind of smell he was using and then find some way of tracking it ourselves” she blushed and looked down at her hands.

“Ross” Willow turned to one of the Watchers sitting in the front row. “Find out if the demons from last night had a pattern of tracking particular scents” she waited till he had left the room before smiling at the girl. “Well done, none of us had thought of that” she looked around the rest of the room. “That’s what this is all about” she indicated the room. “Giles, Buffy, the other Watchers and I, we aren’t infallible, we miss things and make mistakes” she paused before returning to the laptop.

*****

Buffy stood looking around the empty boardroom later that evening. “Laurie” she caught the attention of the young girl in the corridor. “Where did everyone go?”

“They’re in the big lecture theatre” Laurie shrugged and smiled. “Ms Rosenberg’s taking class” she grinned and continued towards the gym.

Buffy shook her head and when she arrived at the lecture theatre she quietly opened the door and stood at the back of the darkened room. After listening for a couple of minutes she smiled and sat in the back row. She concentrated on the explanation Willow was giving of the prophecy that related to the events they found themselves in the middle of. A teacher from a couple of rows in front of her suddenly shouted out a question and Willow answered without interrupting the flow of her narrative. A door in the front of the hall opened and one of the watchers walked straight towards her, having a quiet conversation with her before nodding and heading back out again. “Ross needs some volunteers to test the scent theory” Willow grinned at the audience. “Seems that we missed the possibility of tracking them that way and he wants to analyse some of the demon gloop from last night to identify any markers”. She smiled as a sea of hands were raised and she mentioned half a dozen names and waited for them to file out of the room before glancing at the screen behind her. “Where was I?” she mumbled before closing her eyes for a moment and then taking up her explanation from where she had been interrupted.

Buffy quietly left the room by the same door she had entered and walked towards the gym. Willow obviously had the research thing sorted out and she felt the need to loosen up a little.

*****

When Giles walked into his office a couple of hours later he was surprised to find three of the younger slayers sitting on the floor of his office, surrounded by a pile of books from his bookcase. “I’m assuming there is a good explanation for this?” he asked quietly as he stood in the doorway looking down on them.

“Ms Rosenberg asked us to look up a reference and said it was in one of these books” one of the young girls admitted in a quiet voice. “She said it would be OK to use your office” the three girls stood up nervously.

“Of course, if it’s something Ms Rosenberg asked you to do” he motioned them to stay where they were. “Just make sure you put all of them back before you leave” he admonished and headed off to find out what Willow was up to. “Ms Rosenberg” he stood behind her as she gave tasks to a group of watchers. “I understand you are making use of my office again?” he said dryly and saw the look of astonishment pass quickly over her face before understanding kicked in.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you’d mind them looking through your private library” she smiled and turned back to the other people waiting to speak to her. “Give me ten minutes and then we’ll start collecting updates from the various teams” she waited for them all to disperse before signalling Giles to take a seat next to her. “….So when you said about me having fresh eyes to spot anything you’d missed, I suddenly realised that we had an entire campus full of fresh eyes and it was about time we got a few of them involved.” She finished explaining and waited to see if he was angry at her presumption. “I know you don’t want the youngest students getting involved in the fighting but they’re only helping with the research”

“It’s such an obvious idea I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before” he admitted and put his hands behind his head.

“You’re not mad?” she leaned in closer to him to make sure.

“Of course not” he shook his head. “You’ve just convened the first reactive, multi discipline, research group and added another class to the syllabus” he suggested and waited for the implications to sink in with her. “I’ll let you explain to Dawn that she has to reorganise the timetable again”

“This is a one off” she assured him and saw his grin. “And now you’re back you can take charge again” she moved towards a small group of people gathered around some laptops. “The teams will all be reporting in and we agreed to meet up again in two hours so everyone knows what progress we’ve made”

*****

Buffy signalled to the four slayers on her right to continue around the building. Turning she signalled one of the others to come nearer. “When I get in through that window up there you lead your team round to the other side and give me two minutes to get in position before clearing the ground floor” Twenty minutes later she was trying to wipe the green mucous from her leather jacket. “It’s always green” she complained to no one in particular and looked up to see several slayers finishing off their opponents. She watched with professional interest before nodding as the final vampire was dusted. “Let’s get those books into the bus and then we can all get cleaned up” she sighed again.

Giles, Willow and half a dozen librarians were waiting for them to return. They ignored the happy slayers as they poured off the bus, already celebrating their victory, and instead fell on the pile of books that had been liberated from the demon headquarters. “Everything cleared out?” Giles checked with Buffy.

“Bad guys all dusted or diced and deep fried” she nodded and smiled at two young girls who patted her shoulder as they passed. “We had to torch the warehouse, no way we could have got all of the demon bits back here and Xander would have been pouring foundations for weeks”

“No danger to other property?” he checked and looked over her shoulder as Willow excitedly showed a particular text to the others.

“Nope and I’m fine, thanks for your concern” Buffy sighed and walked away to let him get to the books.

“Excellent” he mumbled and joined in the scrum to find out what they had acquired.

*****

Willow quietly shut the front door behind her and tiptoed into the sitting room. “Alex?” she whispered and dropped her bag and jacket on the sofa. Satisfied that Alex was asleep she headed for bed.

“Will” Alex mumbled as she became aware of movement in the room. “OK?” she asked around a huge yawn.

“Everything’s fine sweety, go back to sleep” Willow whispered and quickly dropped her clothes before getting under the duvet. She kissed the top of Alex’s head and smiled as her breathing quickly returned to a steady rhythm.

*****

The department head’s meeting was breaking up and Xander waved to Willow and Giles before heading back to the site office. “I can’t believe you railroaded me into agreeing to the job” Willow complained to Giles as she walked next to him.

“Well you are in charge of Research and Development” he suggested mildly and held the door for her. “Who else should be responsible for co-ordinating the kind of multi discipline research team that you pulled together last week?”

“Oh I don’t know, why not the active Watcher?” she looked up at him. “You were never officially signed off you know, I checked” she nodded to Dawn as she passed her before dumping her files on Giles’ desk.

“I’m in charge of everything else” he spread his hands to indicate the campus. “And you know that I’ll be available to help out in whatever role you think is suitable”

“I’ve got a good mind to make you Xander’s pizza delivery deputy just to get you back” she mock scowled at him and slumped down into the chair across from his desk.

“That’s pretty much what I was in the battle against the First Evil” he sighed and took his glasses off to clean them. When he put them back on he saw her looking concerned.

“Buffy had her reasons and the rest of us never felt you were useless” she said quietly. “I seem to remember being on your team during the mutiny”

“Not much of a boast since our team was wrong” he shrugged and sniffed. “Anyway, that’s all in the past, a lot has changed since then”

“Yeah” she nodded but still seemed worried. “Have you spoken to Buffy about what happened?” she asked.

“We talked last year and agreed to move on” he shrugged. “And in the spirit of moving on, would you like to come to dinner with Kate and I tonight?” he tried to change the subject.

“We’ll talk about this again” she said seriously before smiling at him. “Are you taking pity on me, because I really don’t mind being on my own” she blushed slightly. “Actually I’ve managed to catch up on quite a lot of work that just doesn’t seem to get done when Alex is home”

“It’s not a sympathy invite” he smiled. “Kate said she hadn’t spoken to you for ages and she wants some gossip about my librarian days” he shrugged. “I’ll tell her you’re busy and we can do it another time”

“Oh no you don’t” Willow grinned and stood up. “I didn’t realise she hadn’t heard all of the stories, I’ll bring dessert” she nodded and collected her files.

*****

“So then he picked up the sword and stabbed the Mayor straight through the chest” Willow explained slightly breathlessly to an amazed Kate. “Didn’t make the slightest difference to the Mayor of course, he was invulnerable at that point, but it was very gggrrrrr” she giggled and drank some more wine.

Giles shook his head and carried the plates to the kitchen. “It was a completely pointless gesture, I should have had more control” he sighed.

“And Buffy had that time when she could read people’s minds and she said she saw some pretty shocking things when Giles was nearby” Willow teased and leaned back in her chair to stare at him.

Kate turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. “Well?” she asked and rested her chin on her hand.

“Willow is just fishing, Buffy would never have told anyone what she read” he suggested smoothly and poured coffee for both women. “And you couldn’t get me drunk enough to tell you that secret”

“Oooohh a challenge” Willow grinned and topped up his wine glass. “I remember the only time I saw you really drunk, looking back it was actually quite funny, although I don’t think I was amused at the time” she gazed off as she remembered the argument at his apartment.

“You can’t stop there” Kate complained and carried her coffee and wine to the sitting room. “I need details” she explained and settled onto the sofa beside Giles.

“Well what did you expect” he complained several minutes later and looked between the two women. “I was a little under the weather and she had spent weeks moping about after Oz left, then suddenly she’s announcing she’s gay” he protested and pointed at Willow. “I think I was actually quite supportive of your relationship with Tara” he smiled as he remembered her.

“I was not moping” Willow protested as she settled into the armchair. “I was dealing with my emotional pain in a very grown up manner” she insisted and pulled her legs underneath her. “Anyway, the being gay thing was as big a surprise to me you know”

“Surprise?” Kate asked as she laughed at the interplay between the two friends. “Who was Oz?” Giles and Willow managed to fill her in on the mystery of Oz between them and then Willow explained the circumstances around his leaving, surprise return and leaving again. “Let me get this straight” she took a deep breath. “Your boyfriend was a werewolf but he can control it now except when he’s around you?” she waited for Willow’s nod before continuing. “And you think my boyfriend’s ggrrr?” she asked with a grin.

“I think I’m a little old for the boyfriend label” Giles protested as Willow and Kate both dissolved into giggles.

“Oz wasn’t really into the big macho expressions and stuff” Willow explained.

“Neither am I” Giles complained and put his wine glass down to protest further. “I don’t think anyone could ever accuse me of being macho” he insisted and looked towards Kate for her support.

“No darling, I don’t think they could” she agreed solemnly and tried desperately to keep the smile from her face.

“Well, except for that time you used the chainsaw to get into the haunted house at college” Willow suggested.

Kate turned to see Giles grinning at the memory and slipped her hand into his before leaning back against him. “Somehow I’ve never thought of Rupert and power tools in the same sentence”

“Exactly” Willow nodded in agreement. “Imagine being attacked by your worst fears and then him bursting through the door with a big chainsaw in his hands to rescue you” she waited till Kate had the mental picture in place.

“Very ggrrr?” Kate asked with a straight face and laughed as Willow nodded solemnly.

*****

“How much did you pay her?” Kate asked as she finished washing the plates and turned to dry her hands on the edge of the dishtowel he was using. “Because I think she earned a bonus tonight, she didn’t tell too many embarrassing secrets but managed to get in lots of heroic acts of daring” she leaned against the countertop.

“I’m shocked that you would think Willow could be bought” he tried to look shocked. “Although I think the suggestion that I know as many of her embarrassing stories from high school and that Alex will be back next week may have coloured her choice of tales to tell” he grinned and continued to dry the dishes.

“Somehow I can’t quite picture you being ggrrr when you’re drying dishes” she folded her arms and squinted at him.

He raised his eyebrow and threw the towel onto the counter top before stepping quickly in front of her. Unfolding her arms he pulled her against his chest and kissed her. “Better?” he asked and lost himself in her eyes.

“Ggggggrrrrrrrrrr” she murmured and dropped her hands to his butt.

“Better” he sighed and rolled his head to the side as she nipped and kissed his neck.

Kate slowly worked her hand between them to begin unbuttoning his shirt. “Move back a bit” she mumbled and tried to create some space to undress him.

“But if I move back I can’t do this” he said reasonably enough as he pressed his hips against hers and heard her groan. He grinned before returning to kissing her.

“Rupert” she sighed and ran her nails down his back, feeling him tense as she circled his lower back. “Let’s take this somewhere more comfortable” she whispered and rested her hands on the waistband of his jeans. “Now, Rupert” she said with a little more urgency as he continued to nibble at her earlobe.

“Just give me a second” he begged and took several deep breaths. “I love you” he finally looked back up to see her smirking at him. “I love the way you breathe when you say my name and I love the way you touch me and I love the way you laugh at my feeble attempts at humour and I love the way you smell” he leaned forward to inhale just above her collar bone, causing shivers to run down her back when he exhaled.

“Rupert?” she waited till he had raised his eyes to meet hers. “I love you too but I’d rather show you than tell you” she waited for him to nod almost imperceptibly before pushing away from the countertop and leading him upstairs.