Was It Always Like This?

Chapter 19

“Come in” he shouted and continued to concentrate on the drawings in front of him. He waited for the other person to speak and finally looked up impatiently to ask what they wanted. “Willow!” he said and moved round the table. “Is everything OK?”

“Everything’s fine Xan, I just came to let you know that the home is all clear and Kate and Sheila are looking forward to your next visit” she smiled and wandered a little aimlessly round his office. “So this is where you work?” she finally said and picked up a yellow hard hat before investigating it thoroughly.

“Yeah” he nodded, not afraid of the reasons for her visit any more but a little worried. “That’s great about the bad guy, what was it?” he asked.

“Spirit from the sect, he was hanging around to warn everyone tthe the demon was coming for them so Giles and I brought him up to date and he agreed to skeedadle” she put the hat down and turned to face him.

He had flinched when she mentioned Giles. “You OK with the magic and stuff?” he asked and pulled out a chair for her.

“Yeah, better than OK, everything went really well and Giles said I was super control girl so…” she drummed her fingers on the table top and continued to stand.

“What you doing Saturday night?” Xander finally broke the silence that had settled between them.

Willow looked up and tilted her head to the side. “Probably recovering from the shopping trip with Buffy, Dawn and…” she suggested with a slight smile.

“Giles, I get it already” he interrupted her and waved his hand in the air. “So you’ll all be glad of the chance to sit down and watch some videos at my place?”

“All of us?” she asked and folded her arms across her chest.

“There’s already too many women in my life, I can’t afford to lose one of my few male friends” he suggested and looked down at the drawings. “Is he OK?” he asked without looking up.

“Once the bruising has gone down in a couple of weeks he should be fine” she nodded. “Of course he’s lucky that Buffy knew how to reset broken noses and that I happen to like the new shape”

She continuedstarstare at him as he took a deep breath and finally looked up at her. “Do you love him?” he asked.

“I think I might” she nodded. “We’re going to take the next few weeks to work some things out but, yes, I think I probably do” Her eyes held his for a few moments before she finally looked away. “He’s waiting in the car for me, I’d better get going and let you get back to work”

Giles looked anxiously at her as she slid back into the car. “Is everything alright between you?” he asked.

“I think it will be” she nodded and put on her seat belt. “We’re all going to the movie night at his place on Saturday so I guess we’ll know better after that”

“Perhaps it would be better if I gave it a miss, I’m sure you would all enjoy yourselves more if I wasn’t there” he pulled out of the car park and headed towards Buffy’s.

“Giles we can’t avoid being seen out together just to keep other people happy” she rested her hand on his thigh. “Xander did say he wanted you there and I think you’ll both have to sort out some way to deal with this, preferably sooner rather than later”

Dawn looked up guiltily as they arrived home. “Hey guys” she smiled and waved at them. “Did everything go OK?” she asked.

“Everything is fine, problem is solved and Xander’s movie marathon is definitely on for Saturday night” Willow replied. “Hello Martin, would you like to stay for dinner?”

“No thank you, I was just helping Dawn with her Math homework but I have to be home by six thirty” he replied and looked a little surprised as Giles walked past him on his way to the kitchen. “Mr Giles, what happened to your face?”

Giles stopped and shook his head. “It’s a long story” he began but Dawn interrupted him.

“He got hit” she said succinctly and returned to her textbook. “What were you saying about this equation?” she tried to get Martin’s attention. The young boy shook his head and looked back towards the book to answer her question.

Giles and Willow headed for the kitchen. “Why was Dawn looking so guilty when we came in?” Giles whispered.

Willow shook head ead and giggled before nodding her head in the direction of the back door. Giles nodded his agreement and carried two glasses of juice out with him. “She’s not really supposed to have friends over without one of us being here and she knows that I know I helped her with the Math homework earlier this week." She sighed as she settled onto the top step and took her drink from him as he settled next to her.

“She must really like him” Giles suggested as he removed his jacket. “Doing Maths homework twice is above and beyond the call of duty”

Willow nodded. “I used to pretend to do homework I had already done just to spend more time with you in the library” she admitted and raised her face to the sun.

“That would be the occasions when I was reorganising my card index for the fourth time just to remain with you?” he suggested and turned to look at her.

They remained quiet for five minutes, both remembering the times they had spent together in the library. Eventually Willow took another drink and turned to meet his gaze. “So” she said and raised her eyebrows.

“Indeed” he replied and took a drink of his juice, his eyes smiling at her over the rim of the glass.

She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Alright, I’ll go first” she agreed and took a moment to gather her thoughts. “I have no idea how we are going to work this out between us and I know that you have to return to England in a couple of weeks. The thi things I do know are that I’m probably in love with you and I’m very confused by that and you are a great kisser” she finished in a bit of a rush and took a gulp of her juice.

He smiled at her and reached out to gather her hand in his. “I also have no idea what we are going to do but I have some good news” he raised her hand to his lips and kisse. “I. “I don’t have to go back for at least four weeks and I know that I am definitely in love with you and am surprisingly unconfused by that” he nodded. “Oh, and you do have some potential yourself in the kissing stakes”

“So it doesn’t bother you any more?” she asked and tried to concentrate her mind away from the sensations aroused by the hand kissing thing he was continuing with. “The gay/straight thing, cause it seemed to bother you yesterday and I haven’t done anything in the meantime to clear it up for me so I don’t think I could have resolved it for you”

He sighed and lifted her other hand, transferring his attentions. “I think I just accepted that I’ll have to be jealous of everyone on the planet and not restrict it to a specific gender” he shrugged. “I’m prepared to fight off competition for you either from other women or other men”

“What about the age thing?” she asked as her breathing quickened, he had started to nibble her fingers.

He shrugged again and smiled at her around her index finger. “I’m sure I’ll be able to keep up with you and I can always start working out again if you think I’m slowing down”

“Wait a minute” she said in an exasperated tone and pulled her hands away from him. “Yesterday you were all about the barriers and the problems and now today you’re all about the kissing and the licking and nibbling” she seemed to lose track of the point she had been trying to make. “This is a life changing decision Giles, you need to take it seriously” she furrowed her brow and dared him to make another joke.

He started to reach for her hand again but she pulled away and he sighed. “Over the past two days I have been propositioned by an extremely attractive young woman with whom I’ve been secretly, madly in love for the past couple of years” he began. “Shortly after this I became a gibbering idiot and nearly spoiled the entire process by saying some idibldibly stupid things to her. Once I had apologised we kissed and this was interrupted by several different people, including one of her ex-boyfriends who proceeded to beat me up when I told him of my love for her” he took a deep breath. “On top of all of this I have helped to rid a residential home of an unwelcome spirit and fought off the unwanted attentions of another woman.” He held up his to to prevent her interruption. “As if none of that was enough I have jet lag hel hell and plans to spend all day Saturday in an American Mall shopping for shoes before undergoing the ultimate torture of a video night with chick flicks and action movies.” He noticed that she was staring at him with her mouth slightly open and reached up to run his fingers over her lips. “In spite of all of this I am, without a doubt, the luckiest man on the planet” he let his hand fall to his side. “I know how important this decision is Willow, but it’s also one of the easiest I’ve ever made in my life. Nothing else matters to me as long as I get to hold you and kiss you and be with you for the rest of my life”

“But you’re going to be six thousand miles away and I can’t leave the Hellmouth” she frowned. “I’m not sure I can have four weeks of ‘us’ and then say goodbye to you till the next holiday visit”

“I know” he nodded and dropped his head to gaze intently at the wooden step he was sitting on. “But I’m hoping that we can sort something out, after all I move around a lot with my job and I’m sure Buffy and Xander could cope if we worked out a schedule whereby you came to England when I couldn’t get here”

“Giles I don’t think I can make that work, after all I couldn’t make it work with Oz and he lived on the same campus” she was pleading with him to come up with another answer. “I know you think of England as your home and you have friendere ere but isn’t there any way you could come back here permanently?”

“Can’t we at least try it my way first?” he suggested, trying to make her see that he wanted this to work. “You know that I would come back here if that was the only way to be with you but the reasons for my leaving haven’t changed in the last year and I don’t want to go down that road again”

Willow thought about what he had said for some minutes before answering. “I think you are wrong, Buffy is coping really well er oer own now and she wouldn’t go back to relying on you for everything if you came back” she drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. “But I guess I could try it your way for a while to see if it would work out” she nodded. “I do need to be with you, and I don’t expect you to give up your home and friends and job again just to prove how much you love me”

They stayed next to each other, watching the sun go down over the houses behind the garden. Buffy found them twenty minutes later. “Hey guys, what’s up?”

Giles was the first to stir and looked round to smile at her. “Everything is fine. The spirit at the home has been despatched and Willow talked to Xander this afternoon” he stood up and lifted his empty glass. “I’m going to get out of this suit and into something a little less tweedy” he smiled and headed indoors.

Buffy took his seat and looked towards Willow. “Hey Will, how was Xander?” she asked, a little concerned at the far away look on her friend’s face.

Willow roused herself and turned to look at Buffy. “He was fine, said the movie night is still on and that it was OK if Giles made an appearance” she smiled a little.

“So what’s with you two sitting out here all contemplatey?” Buffy asked.

“We were just trying to work out how we were going to work things out” Willow replied and sighed. “He seems to think that I’m sweating over the small stuff too much and we should just kiss and get on with it” she shrugged. “I think we also agreed to try and commute for kisses once he goes back home”

Buffy looked a little confused. “He’s OK with the gay thing now?”

“Yeah, that surprised me a little as well” Willow admitted. “But he explained it and I sort of agreed with him then he was kissing my hand and I sort of lost track of why I was so worried about it in the first place” she admitted and looked a little confused herself.

“He isn’t going toe bae back here to stay?” Buffy asked, unsure of her reaction irrespective of Willow’s answer.

“Not at first” Willow nodded and turned to look at Buffy. “I know this must be really weird for you but he can’t really drop everything and come back again so we’re going to try and work out lots of visits.” Buffy looked a little sceptical. “I know” Willow agreed. “But I can’t go and live with him in England, what happens if you need me here and I’m there eating scones and drinking warm beer?”

Buffy shrugged. “Same as happens when we need him, I phone and you come back”

Willow looked at her friend for several minutes. “I’m getting really confused that everyone seems to see no problem with me falling in love with a man and moving six thousand miles away” she shook her head. “All I can see are the problems with that”

Buffy put her hand on Willow’s arm. “Look, if you are in love with him and he won’t move back here then you need to move there” she explained. “You gave up the chance to escape the Hellmouth when you chose to go the UC Sunnydale and it’s not fair to make you give up another chance, particularly when it’s about something this important”

Willow nodded and sniffed a little. “It’s just that I promised myself I would spend the rest of my life protecting everyone around me from the Hellmouth and I kinda need to be here to do that” she wiped her eyes and sniffed again. “I don’t think remote remororksorks the same as being here”

Buffy pulled her into a hug. “Willow, you’ve saved hundreds of lives over the six years we’ve been here and that’s not counting the apocalypses you’ve helped to stop” she rubbed her friend’s back and held onto her as she started sobbing in her arms. “You don’t need to torture yourself or Giles by staying here”

Giles listened from his bedroom window and muttered under his breath. “Bugger, I thought she was over this” he turned from the window and found Dstarstaring at him. “Dawn” he smiled uncertainly and moved towards the door. “I was opening the window for some fresh air” he ad libbed.

Dawn shook her head. “For someone in your job you are a lousy liar” she suggested and headed for her own room.

He started to argue with her then shook his head and went to change instead.

Twenty minutes later he had just put down the phone when Buffy came into the kitchen. “Hey Giles, good work on the golden ghost” she smiled and hd pad past him to the front door. “Need to see some vampires about a kitten, I’ll see you later” she shouted over her shoulder and shut the door behind her.

He went to the back door to find Willow and found her still sitting in the same position. “Hey, don’t you want to get out of those clothes?” he asked and blushed furiously as she turned to look at him with an incredulous look. “I just meant to change into something more comfortable and less smoky” he finally managed, cleaning his glasses with extreme prejudice.

Willow shook her head and laughed at him. “I think you’ve had one too many head knocks, you’re turning into a character from a Carry On movie” she giggled. When she had finally stopped laughing she stood up and looked at him. She made a point of obviously checking him out before stepping closer to him and putting her arms round his waist. “You look good, have you lost some weight since your last visit?”

He shrugged and pulled her hips tight against “Ju “Just toned everything up a bit and bought some new clothes”

She moved her hands to clasp them behind his neck and leaned in for a gentle kiss. “I think I might be biased but tight black jeans really suit you” she smiled at him. “Perhaps I will go and change, give me fifteen minutes then maybe we could go out for some dinner, just the two of us?”

He looked a little surprised then leaned down for another kiss. “If that’s what you want, I’ll wait down here?” he asked hopefully.

“I think that would be for the best” she shook her head and sighed. “Perhaps you could phone and reserve a table somewhere”

Half an hour later they were walking towards the centre of town. He had his arm round her shoulderd shd she was trying to explain the principles behind the spell she had undertaken on her return. “Anya thought I was set on world domination and it was only the rabbits being there that persuaded her to leave Buffy and I alone in the shop” she giggled and turned to face him. “The spell to endow them with the human pheromones took about half an hour and it worked just like we hoped. Then we let them loose in the basement and gave them an hour before we checked to see if it had worked out. Buffy helped me gather them back up and we took another fifteen minutes to de-pheromone them” she gasped for air as she practically bounced with the rememb exc excitement. “Everything went just as planned and the whole thing was over in two hours max but it took Xander four hours to prove to her that there weren’t any bunnies left in the shop”

Giles was caught up in her laughter and hugged her. “At least the spell worked and the storeroom is back in use again” he smiled. He stopped outside a restaurant. “I booked a table here, is that OK for you?” he asked.

“Pizza!” she smiled up at him. “It’s perfect and I’m starving”

*****

“I insist” Willow put on her resolve face, marred slightly by having tomato sauce on her chin.

He sighed and leaned across to wipe it up with his thumb before handing his credit card to the waiter. “Willow if this is our first official date then I absolutely insist on paying for our dinner” he signed the voucher and returned it to the waiter. “I have never had a woman pay for dinner on a first date and I never will” he thanked the waiter for the return of his card and left a generous tip before holding his hand out to her.

“It’s just so old fashioned” she complained. “But, hopefully this is the last first date you’ll ever go on” she took his hand and they turned towards home.

“I suppose so” he answered and reached down to kiss the top of her head. “What do you want to do now?” he asked.

She looked a little surprised “I thought we could go back to the house and see if the sofa is any more comfortable than last night” She reached up and kissed him, one hand reaching behind his head to ruffle his hair. The kiss advanced quickly and Willow pulled back a moment later to lick her lips and gaze up into his eyes.

He was breathing heavily and ran his hand down the side of her face before taking a step away from her. “Persuasive as your argument is Ms Rosenberg I think it might be better to take the long route home and continue the serious talk from earlier”

“But I thought we had agreed that we were together now and the problems were all overcomeable” she pouted and stopped walking. “Are you having second thoughts already?”

He shook his head and pulled her close to him again to hug her. “Willow, this is the one problem that isn’t overcomeable” he pulled back to look into her eyes. “By the way that isn’t really a word”

She nodded and looked miserable. “What have I done now?”

“Despite your protestations yesterday and today, you don’t really believe that you are in love with me nor that I am in love with you” he shook his head and raised his hand to forestall her interruption. “You are stuck in the same mindset as the Guilen spirit, he didn’t believe he deserved to rest and was determined to continue his self imposed exile in order to punish himself”

Willow shook her head vigorously and followed him as he started to walk away from her. “You are wrong, I do believe that I’m in love with you and I’m getting there in believing that you feel the same for me” she pulled his arm to slow him down. “I’ll spend the rest of my life paying for what I did but I’m not hurting anyone else”

“Except me” he suggested and took his glasses off to look at her. “Willow, if you never allow yourself to be truly happy again then I will spend the rest of my life in the fruitless pursuit of trying to bring about an impossibility” She stared at him and slowly shook her head as he continued. “Yon’t n’t trust me when I say that the obstacles in our path are not going to stop me and I’m not about to have second thoughts” he rested his hand on her shoulder.

She stared at him for some minutes before reaching out and touching his face. “I do want to be happy again and I think you are the very person for the job” she took a deep breath. “I talked with Buffy today and she persuaded me that it wasn’t such a biggie for me to move to England. So I think that we should spend the next few weeks sorting out some sort of early warning system for everyone here and then I’ll go back with you when you need to leave”

He stared at her in astonishment. “But you told Buffy that you wouldn’t leave because you couldn’t protect them from a distance” he knew he was admitting to eavesdropping but didn’t want her to make this decision for the wrong reasons. “I don’t want you to come back because you think it’s what I want, it needs to be what you want”

“What I want is to be with you, in every way possible” she glared at him. “If that means I have to become your research assistant and travel the world at your side then I will” Her face fell a little and she sniffed. “I am just so fed up with heavy conversations and crying about this” she suddenly got angry and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “My decision is made and you can either debate it further by yourself or come over here and kiss me” She was a little surprised at the speed with which he was suddenly standing in front of her. “Please Giles” she whispered and wrapped her arms round his neck as he bent down to kiss her. If she had thought the earlier contact was intense she was completely unprepared for the ferocity and gentleness embodied within this kiss. “Wow” she finally mumbled when they surfaced. “Can we go home now please?” she asked and met his eyes as they stared at her.

She was reassured that she wasn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed by her emotions when he raised his arm. “Taxi” he shouted and handed her into the cab when it pulled up. “Ten dollars if you can make it in five minutes” he assured the driver and stared straight ahead, without saying a word, for the entire journey. Six minutes later he handed her out of the car and held onto her hand for the journey up the front path. “I don’t want to test out the sofa again” he whispered in her ear as they stood on the front porch and he leaned down to kiss her. “Where else can you suggest?”

“You’re the one with your own room Mr Giles, you work it out” she ran her hand round his hip to squeeze the back pocket of his jeans.

He pulled her tight against him as he reached behind his back to open the front door. They practically fell into the front hall and realised they were busted when Buffy tapped Willow on the shoulder.

“Am I glad you guys are back?” she smiled sweetly at Giles as he glared at her over Willow’s shoulder. “Martin and Dawn are settling down to watch a video and I have to go out for that ‘appointment’ so chaperonage looms, no tux required this time Giles” She grabbed her jacket and pushed past Willow before either of them had a chance to argue. “See you in a few hours”

By the time the front door had slammed behind her and Giles was working up to using a very ungentlemanly suggestion as to what the slayer could do with her idea, Dawn was standing next to them looking very embarrassed. “I’m sorry but Martin’s mom said he could come over then Buffy said Martin could only stay if someone else was here. I tried Xander’s but he’s gone out with some of his work buddies and Anya isn’t answering her phone” she took in the deep breaths both of them were taking and became even more embarrassed. “I know you would probably rather be doing something else but perhaps you could just stay with us for ten minutes to make sure she’s definitely gone?”

Willow gathered herself first and put her hand out to rest on Giles’ chest. She could feel his heart hammering and didn’t want to risk looking into his eyes. “We can manage to watch one video with them, can’t we?” She felt him take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why don’t I fix some munchies while you keep them company?”

When she returned with a tray she found Dawn and Martin sitting glumly at either end of the sofa with Giles between them. She giggled and stared at him in disbelief. “Could you give me a hand with something in the kitchen Giles?” she asked and walked towards the dining room. “Dawn, you and Martin help yourselves to some popcorn and start the video, we’ll be back in five minutes”

She turned to stare at him as he followed her into the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she whispered. “Just because our plans were ruined it doesn’t mean Martin and Dawn have to be miserable”

He sighed and rolled his shoulders. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop being mean to them but I can’t promise I won’t have a suitable revenge for Buffy”

She pulled the front of his shirt until he was leaning against her. She settled herself more comfortably against the worktop before reaching up to kiss him. It started out as light kisses along his lips and down his jawline to his neck but soon escalated to sloppy french kisses when he placed his hands on either side of her head and returned her lips to his. After five minutes of this they parted and stared at each other for several moments. “I can’t go back in there in this state” he finally mumbled and pushed his hips against hers to demonstrate his concerns. “What do you suggest?”

She ground her hips against his and moaned. “Not really up to thinking at the moment” she admitted and bit her lower lip as his hand ran down her side to rest on her hip. “Why don’t you go upstairs and I’ll join you as soon as I can?” she licked at the sweat that had gathered in the hollow of his throat and felt the movement of his adams apple as he gulped.

“Don’t be long” he growled in her ear and nipped her earlobe before turning abruptly and heading upstairs.

She took a couple of minutes to gather her wits and tried to make it look less like she had been semi-ravished. Plastering a grin on her face she returned to the living room just in time to see Martin jumping back to his end of the sofa. She recognised the ridiculousness of the situation and couldn’t stop the laughter. “Listen, Giles and I have some work to do upstairs so keep the noise down and behave yourselves” she shook her head. “If you need anything just shout, OK”

Dawn was grinning back at her and nodded towards the TV. “Remind me to tell you what happens in the movie so you can pretend to Buffy that you watched it with us”

“Like you’ll be watching the movie?” Willow giggled as she walked slowly upstairs. She took a deep breath when she reached the top hallway and decided a quick stop in the bathroom would be the last interruption to her plans for the rest of the night.

Giles was standing looking out of the bedroom window when she finally opened the door. She was overcome with conflicting emotions and let the moan escape her lips before she could stop it. He turned and tilted his head to the side as he watched her leaning against the doorway. After an obvious shudder she moved into the room and closed the door behind her. He looked a little confused as he met her and gathered her into his arms. “Are you OK?” he mumbled into her hair.

“Fine” she took a shuddering breath and let his scent wipe away the remaining memories.

He decided to take her word and not start another discussion on her anxieties. “What did you tell Dawn and Martin?” he grinned and moved away from her to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Told them we had some work to do and not to make too much noise” she grinned and felt herself return to her earlier aroused state. “And that goes double for you” she put her finger on his chest as she stood in front of him.

He shook his head, took his glasses off and placed them on the bedside table. This was followed by his watch before he turned back to her, put his arms round her waist and pulled her to stand between his legs. “I can’t promise but I’ll try my best” he brought his hands back round to begin unbuttoning her shirt. As each button was opened he placed a soft kiss against her skin. He could hear her breathing quicken and felt the abdominal muscles tighten as he worked his way up from the bottom button. When he reached her bra he quickly opened the rest of the buttons and stood up to remove her shirt.

She had taken a step back when he stood up and almost sank to the ground as he pulled her shirt off and started to kiss her neck and shoulder. She felt his arms go round her to hold her up and leaned into him. After a brief moment she realised that he was doing all of the work and set about redressing the balance by undressing him.

He had to stop kissing her for a moment to remove his shirt and took the opportunity to loosen his belt and kick off his shoes. “God, you are beautiful” he whispered and held her at arms length.

She ran her hands across his bare chest and pushed him back onto the bed. As he landed she crawled next to him and began sucking on one of his nipples while she pinched the other one.

“Bloody Hell” he shouted and clamped his hand over his own mouth. “Sorry” he whispered when she glared up at him. “You just took me by surprise” he shrugged his shoulders and shuffled backwards until his legs were on the bed as well. He pulled her up to lie next to him. “Perhaps we should take things a little more slowly” he suggested as he licked her ear and kissed her neck.

“We can do slow tomorrow morning, right now I want you hard and fast” she reached down to unfasten her jeans and pushed them off. “I’ve waited too long for this and I think I’ll probably explode if I don’t feel you inside me soon” She didn’t wait for his answer as she reached down to remove his jeans and boxers. Her lips fastened onto his as she moved one of her legs between his and rested half on, half off his chest.

“Oh shit” he moaned as he rolled away from her and sat up on the side of the bed. “I don’t believe I’m saying this but we have to stop”

“Oh come on! you have got to be joking” she glared at him and knelt in the centre of the bed, her chest rising and falling as she gulped in air. “What is it now?” she asked incredulously.

He had started to pace at the side of the bed and seemed completely unaware of the effect he was having on her as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I can’t believe how stupid I am” he mumbled almost to himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid” he started a mantra to fit the pacing.

“Giles” she hissed at him. “Five seconds to get back on this bed or I’m really going to lose my temper” she glared at him.

He stopped and looked at her, picking up the power starting to converge within the room and tried to calm himself and her. “Willow, please darling, think about what you are doing”

“I’m thinking about what we were doing, about what we were about to do” she was still breathing heavily and he watched her breasts rise and fall with each gulpreatreath. “What is the problem, exactly?” she reined in her power and shook her head to try and clear her thoughts.

“I don’t have any protection with me” he mumbled, mortified and developed a sudden interest in the carpet.

“Within ten paces we have four crucifixes, three bottles of holy water and a crossbow, how protected do you want to be?” she asked, completely at a loss.

“Not that” he waved his hand and sat on the edge of the bed, his earlier arousal almost completely gone. “I mean prophylactically” he shrugged. “I didn’t pack anything, didn’t expect to need it and today has just flown by and I didn’t get a chance to visit a chemist so..” he ground to a halt as he saw her eyes flash.

“You don’t have any condoms?” she asked and shook her head when he nodded. “Do not move from there!” she ordered and stood up at the side of the bed. Picking up his black oxford shirt she pulled it on over her underwear and ferociously pulled open the bedroom door. “I’m serious, no moving” she wagged her finger at him and stormed down the hallway. She was mumbling under her breath as she strode towards the room she was currently sharing with Buffy. “Why couldn’t he just tell me instead of wasting all that time?” she growled as she opened the closet door and knelt down to pull a small wooden box from behind the bags of weapons on the floor. She grunted as she slammed the doors shut again and dumped the box and it’s contents onto Buffy’s bed. Several small ziplock bags spilled out and she cursed as she gathered them together. With her other hand she was fishing around the bottom of the box and finally smiled as she pulled out several foil wrapped packages. She took the time to carefully replace the ziplock bags into the box but left it on Buffy’s bed. She shook her head, her life was very strange and anyone else would assume the bags contained illegal substances but they were the ingredients for various protection spells, given to her for the Slayer when she left the coven.

“Willow?” she heard him whispering her name.

She stepped out of the room and let the shirt fall open. “What did I tell you about moving?” she kept eye contact and stalked up the hallway towards him. “I’m fairly sure that someone of your intellect must understand the words” she pushed the door closed behind her and shrugged her shoulders to let the shirt drop back onto the floor. She held up the condoms and placed them carefully on the bedside table, keeping one in her hand. “Now, where were we?” she took a couple of steps backwards and sat on the edge of the bed.

He was watching her, the sight of her marching down the hall in his shirt and little else had brought him close to his earlier state of arousal. If he needed any more encouragement she was now sitting staring at his groin with a mischievous look on her face.

Willow took a deep breath and shook her head, smiling up at him as she pulled his hand to bring him next to her on the bed. “Is there anything else stopping us having hot, sweaty, quiet sex in this very bed within the next few minutes?” she quietly asked and handed him the condom. “I was going to offer but I’m a little out of practice and in a hurry so you’d better do it yourself”

He didn’t answer, just slowly pulled her back so that they were lying next to each other across the bed. He dropped the condom behind him and used both hands to quickly remove her bra and panties. “I think that’s the last obstacles out of the way” he mumbled as he pulled her onto her side and kissed her neck. His right hand dropped onto her left breast and began gently teasing her nipple.

She rested her left arm behind his head, arching against him as he hot wired her with the skill of a veteran. As she came back down she rolled onto her back and he took the opportunity that the new position afforded him to slide down and begin sucking on her right breast. Her right hand clamped his head into this position and a high pitched keening sound started.

He took his time, licking and sucking one nipple to a peak before turning to the other and lavishing the same attention on it. All the time he kept glancing to see her face, eyes tightly shut and mouth open to allow her to gasp for breath. After a few minutes he pushed himself up and began kissing her, meeting her tongue as it darted out to moisten her lips. Taking the opportunity, he sucked her tongue into his mouth.

As she moaned against his lips she was vaguely aware of his left hand trailing down her side to rest on her abdomen. Her muscles spasmed uncontrollably as she crunched up to meet his touch. She could hear and taste his chuckle as he continued to kiss her. When his fingers slowly crept downwards her brain gave up any pretence of leadership and threw its hands up in defeat. At this unconditional surrender her nervous system took control and she writhed on the bed in an attempt to place his fingers exactly where she wanted them.

He could feel her squirming underneath him and pulled away from her lips for a moment to gather his wits and get his breath back. Her eyes snapped open as she finally registered his movement and she met his eyes steadily. “Why did you stop?” she asked quietly and closed her eyes again for a second or two as his fingers found a particularly sensitive spot. “Stopping not good” she hissed and grabbed his wrist to persuade him to return his fingers to the correct place. “Please” she sighed as she arched off the bed and moaned.

“I just need to remember this” he whispered as he nibbled her earlobe and neck. “You are gorgeous and I’m going to picture you like this every time I think of this night”

“Night’s only just begun” she growled and pushed his shoulders to get him on his back before rolling on top of him. “I need to feel you inside me, please?” she ran her hands down his chest, stopping to tweak his nipples on the way to his groin. She gently stroked his erection and watched fascinated as it hardened even more in her hands. “Do you want me?” she asked and continued what she was doing as she waited for his answer.

“More than I’ve ever wanted anyone before” he muttered through gritted teeth.

“Good answer” she nodded and leaned across his chest to pick up the condom. Carefully ripping the package open she placed it at the tip and slowly unrolled it. She waited till his eyes opened again before leaning down to kiss him. Crawling towards him a little further she lifted her hips and slowly settled onto hi“Oh “Oh goddessssss” she hissed and rested her hands on his chest. With an effort she sat up straight and took a deep breath before gently lifting up and sliding back down. “Like riding a bike” she giggled and increased the pace a little.

He had closed down the higher brain functions when she had put the conon hon him and the next few seconds were taken up with him furiously thinking about cricket. After she had settled into a steady rhythm he risked opening his eyes and gasped as he watched her head roll back and a lazy grin spread across her face. His hands rested on her hips and helped to keep her steady but he decided that she had taken enough of the initiative. “Willow” he said quietly and ran his left hand down her thigh. “Honey, look at me” he gently rubbed the inside of her thigh and took a deep breath as she managed to take even more of his erection on her next down stroke.

The lazy grin had changed into a more concentrated smile and she eventually pulled herself together enough to look down at him. “OK?” she managed to ask between shallow, fast breaths.

“I love you” he said seriously and used her distraction to run his hand up to her clitoris and gently brush against the sensitive tissue. “I love you” he said again and again as he met her oery ery down stroke.

She had built up a steady rhythm and was fairly sure she could spend the next hour or so impaling herself on his cock before she could even imagine getting tired. When he said her name she took a moment or two to relish the friction before grinning down at him. She saw him looking up at her with a serious look on his face and checked that he was enjoying this as much as she was. Physical sensations had become the most important thing in her world but when he said the magic words she instantly felt as if her body had received a flash upgrade. Suddenly the emotions behind what they were doing flooded through her and every sensation was magnified ten-fold. With the introduction of his fingers into the equation she went into overload and centered all of her concentration on the tingle starting in her lower back.

As she ground down at the bottom of her thrust he pushed up with his fingers. This coupled with his other hand finding her nipple caused the rhythm to break down completely and he wondered how she managed to keep her balance when all of her strength seemed to be concerned with pounding down onto his cock. He felt the muscles deep within her begin to tremor and knew she was close. A final flick of her nipple seemed to be enough to push her over the edge and he threw his head back as she squirmed in his lap, grinding against his pelvis in an attempt to make the orgasm last.

Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was biting her lower lip as every muscle in her body hardened and tensed. Just as quickly the most intense pleasure she had ever experienced burst from her abdomen and rushed to reach every single cell in her body. Lights burst behind her eyelids and she held her breath. When she let the breath out she heard the rush of blood around her system intermingled with a guttural scream. As she collapsed onto his chest she felt him thrust into her and the sensations began again. “Not again” she gasped, her tone pleading as her clitoris sent needle sharp messages along her nerves.

He wrapped his arms round her and held her to his chest as he rolled them both over. With her now on her back he could control the depth and direction of his penetration and it took only a minute before he felt her muscles contract again as she clenched her thighs around him. As she thrashed beneath him he thrust once more and joined her.

He lay on top of her until he felt the condom begin to loosen. Withdrawing he rolled to the side and deposited it on the floor before rolling back next to her and resting his hand on her stomach. His breathing was still quite fast and he was glad to see that she was having the same trouble in bringing herself back under control. “Are you OK?” he asked and began running his fingers in small circles across her stomach.

“Give me a minute” she gasped as her muscles twitched and she squirmed out of his reach. “I don’t think OK comes close to what I am” she finally suggested as she recovered the ability to speak coherently.

He pulled her closer to him and kissed her. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, just welcoming her back from wherever she had gone and letting her know that he would always be waiting for her.

“That was incredible” she smiled and snuggled against his chest. “I had imagined what it would be like but it was so much better”

“It went pretty well as I imagined” he said but couldn’t prevent the giggle from escaping. When she started to tickle him he tried to fight her off before gasping for mercy. “All right” he finally held both of her wrists to prevent a further attack. “It was better than any of my fantasies. You are a sex goddess and rshirship at your shrine”

Willow giggled and rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “You are amazing” she turned her head to stare at him as he rested his head on his left hand. “I always knew you were hiding most of your emotions under the English veneer but I had no idea” she shook her head. “I also guessed that you would have a pretty amazing body under the tweed and I’m glad to say I wasn’t wrong about that”

He stood up and held out his hand for her to do the same. As she stood next to him he pulled the quilt back and they both snuggled underneath it. “You are a beautiful, intelligent, sexy woman and I’m the one who should be thanking you for even noticing me, never mind what you’ve given to me tonight”

She took a deep breath and wriggled against his chest as he pulled her back against him. She yawned and pulled his arm tight around her, starting to feel effeeffects of the last few days on top of her recent exertion. “I love you” she mumbled and kissed his forearm. “I want to do this for the rest of my life and I’ll never get tired of lying in your arms”

“I’m glad to hear it” he kissed the back of her neck. “I plan to do this frequently and I’d hate for you to get tired of it after fifty or sixty years” she snuggled closer to him and her breathing dropped to a deeper rhythm. “I love you Willow Rosenberg” he smiled against her neck and closed his eyes.