A Trunk Full of Trouble

Let me thank Megan for beta-ing this chapter. I had really screwed a couple of part, and she straightened me out. Everyone needs a kick in the butt sometimes. Thanks, Megan for mine.

Dana

Chapter 3 – The Key

Spike didn’t want to look too conspicuous by running, so he tried to break the speed walking record getting to his car and pulling back onto the road. He found Buffy about a mile from the gas station. Making a u-turn on the two lane highway, he tried to get her attention. His problem was that he did get her attention as he turned around, but she was livid. He could almost see her slam, a refusal to have anything to do with him now.

“Buffy, Buffy, come here. I need your help.” ‘Things just can’t go easy when it came to this hellion,’ Spike thought as he watched her turn around and walk the other way. As a result he had to back up down the shoulder of the road. “Buffy, you don’t understand…”

“And I don’t want to, John Doe.” She briefly glared at him.

Again she turned her direction, and Spike had to play catch up. Frustrated, he put the car in park and hopped out, running after her. “Buffy…” She just wouldn’t stop. He grabbed hebow bow ?which she jerked out of his grasped ? but she did stop. “Look, remember the warehouse where all my cars were located?”

Buffy stood with her back to the road and her hands on her hips. “Yeh, but just not how to get there. Happy?”

“Well, that’s the rub.” Spike faced her, trying to get her to understand. “It doesn’t matter where the bloody warehouse was located because it burned down. It was all over the television at the gas station.”

“So?”

“Your damn car was in there, and now they are going to assume that I was the wanker that kidnapped you.”

The ramifications of this new turn of events started sinking in for Buffy. “Double damn, Giles is going to kill me for getting his car destroyed.”

“Hey, hello, you dippy bint. Your harebrained scheme to act like you were kidnapped has now set people after me. But an even worse problem is that the buyer that gave me the two hundred thousand dollars for the cars that I have in my trunk is going to be very angry to say the least, pet.”

As they are arguing on the side of the road, a semi truck came around the curve in the highway, and its headlights fell directly on Buffy. It never registered on Buffy, but it did with Spike. He reached out sharply, grabbed both of her arms jerked her into the ditch beside the road. She landed hard and even harder when Spike landed on top of her. Both were a bit disoriented for a moment, not worried about what they were just arguing about or how they were situated. Out of male instinct, Spike was thinking how soft she was, and female instinct, she was thinking about the hard muscles she felt. Spike was also thinking about similar lines of “hard” when he could feel himself beginning to harden. Needless to say, Spike was back up on his feet and off of the crazy bint in record time.

To cover up her confusing reaction to him, Buffy resorted to a “pissed off” offensive attitude. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“Saving your arse.” Spike fired back. “I should be hearing a thank you from you. Now get in the sodding car already.”

Buffy wiped the dirt off her clothes. “So why should I go with you?”

“To help me with the police.”

“Naaahhh.”

“So I won’t be a fugitive.”

Oh, this was fun watching him beg. “No, I don’t think so.”

Spike was still some what distracted from his pleasant contact with her body, so he was having a hard time bargaining with the shrew. The next thing he said popped into his mind and what a stupid mind it was. “I’ve got ding dongs?” He waved his arm at the car. He watched, fascinated as she pushed her lower lip out while considering his offer, a lip begging to be nibbled.

“Ok.” ‘Well, at least I don’t have to walk,’ Buffy told herself.

Spike just blinked at her four or five times before following her. Now granted Spike considered ding dongs a gift from the gods, but he couldn’t believe they convinced the tart, who he was having extremely unwelcome lewd thoughts about.

Once on the road, Buffy looked over at the platinum blonde. “Pervert.”

Maybe he should smash that ding dong she was eating in her face. “Pervert? I pull you out of the way of the truck, and I’m the pervert?”

“Let me think about it. You on me.” Buffy took an infinitesimal pause. “Yep, pervert.”

Spike oh so wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. By the time they were pulling into the gas station, Spike was seriously considering flashing her some fangs.


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Opening the diner’s door, Angel, a two hundred plus year old vampire with a soul, stepped through a fifty-year time warp. The coffee shop was all beige, beige walls, beige floors, beige countertops. If it wasn’t beige, it was brown. The highlights were the chrome stools around a U shaped counter and a few booths in the back. In the very back, through a slit of a window, Angel could see a short order cook busily flipping hamburger patties. Definitely low rent, but cleaner than some high dollar restaurants he had patronized.

Twenty-four hours ago, he had been in Turkey. Now he was in a little used part of the waterfront district of Los Angeles in a coffee shop all because Giles had called him to find a missing slayer-in-training. Nothing demon or vampire related. No, she had been kidnapped, and the ransom was five hundred thousand. And the slayer-in-training in question? Why wasn’t he surprised? Just say that it was a good thing that for some strange reason, he had a soft spot for Buffy. Nothing sexual, but a fatherly or older brotherly type feeling, and this baby sis could be a pain in his ass.

The trail so far had been strange to say the very least. To begin with, Giles’ car and Buffy had gone missing. At first, everyone assumed that Buffy had just been going for a joy ride, but then the first call came in letting them know it was a kidnapping, which still left Giles and Angel with some suspicions. The caller asked for $500,000 and said he would call back with instructions. Last night, they were told to put the money on a specific bridge, which had been done. And what they didn’t know was that they were right about the kidnapping being a sham by Buffy. The last phone call told them that they could find Buffy in the trunk of Giles’ car in the parking garage at the Old Californian office building. Surprisingly, neither Buffy nor the car were where they were suppose to be. Strange. Then Buffy’s phone call later made them believers that she had really been kidnapped by some car thief. Now Angel was hunting them down.

As he walked through the door a curvaceous red-headed woman, whose name tag read “Glenda,” called out a warm welcome.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Angel sat down at the counter close to her. “Can I get a cup of coffee, please?”

“Sure thing, cutie.” With the ease of a long repeated action, she put a cup in front of him and started pouring. “You don’t look familiar, and I think I would have remembered you. Do you live or work around here?”

Listening to the pitches and tones of her voice, Angel wondered how this southern belle had made it out of the South all the way up to this part of Los Angeles. “No, but I am looking for someone that told me he worked in this area, but I can’t seem to find him. I was hoping you knew him.”

With another flashy smile, she set the coffee back on the warmer. “Well, since most everyone in this area passes through here at one time or the other, and since I am so friendly by nature, I know most everyone in this area.”

‘Pay dirt,’ Angel thought. “I was watching the news, and I’m afraid that his building was the building that burned.”

“Oh, I do know him. Is Spike who you’re looking for? I’m not one hundred percent sure which warehouse was his, but I haven’t seen Spike since before the fire so that could very well have been his place.”

“Spike…Right, that’s him.” Watching her as he nodded, he knew for sure he had hit pay dirt. “Where else do you think I could find him?”

“I don’t know…wait…He sent me a postcard once from where he said he goes to get away. A little out -of -town hide away, he said.” She went back and pulled the item from its place behind the cash register and handed it to him.

Angel took another sip of coffee, which was strong but surprisingly good. As he turned over the postcard, bingo, the return address was written in the top left corner. He made idle chit chat with Glenda for a few more moments while he memorized the address of his next destination.

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Buffy got out of the car and approached the pay phone while working on one of the bargained for ding dongs. “I don’t have any change.” She poked another piece of the tasty, chocolate snack into her mouth.

Spike was mumbling under his breath before asking. “Worthless…What’s your number?” He quickly dialed the number he was given. “Yeah, hi, I need to make a collect call from Buffy Summers to a Rupert Giles.” He handed her the phone, and whispered close to her ear, “Remember. Tell them I did NOT kidnap you.” Under his breath, he added, “and who would want to?”

Buffy almost choked on her next bite. Despite what he said, his whisper so close in her ear that was…she, well…his breath on her neck caused a tingle down her spine. But then hearing Giles’ voice in her other ear was like a cold bucket of water poured over her head. Back to business. “Giles? This guy who kidnapped me is a vampire…no, he hasn’t bitten me. Yet. But he’s molesting me. He made me put my hand on his…on his penis.” She was definitely not sure why she had said that. All she knew was that she just wasn’t done playing with the blonde Brit. There was so much more teasing she could do as opposed to going back to the academy and training. Back to being ignored.

Spike reached around her and slammed the lever down to disconnect the call. “You. Crazy. Bitch.” He walked off a few feet and then came back. “How exactly did you know I was a vampire?”

Along with a small shrug of her left shoulder, she rolled her eyes. “Because you were laying on me in that ditch back there, too-low-temperature boy, and because I’m a SIT.” What she didn’t want to admit was that she should have sensed that he was a vampire but her slayer powers were still so under developed that she had needed to touch him to tell. And after figuring out what he was, she just didn’t feel that he was a threat. Call it woman’s intuition instead of slayer’s.

At first, all he could do was sputter around two words. “A SIT?”

“Slayer-in-Training.”

“Bloody fucking wonderful. A slayer-in-training? A hey-I’d-like-to-stake-you slayer? Could this get any more buggered up?” While pacing around the car, Spike ran his hands through his hair. “Ok, yeah. I’m a vampire, but I didn’t kidnap you, and I certainly didn’t molest or bite you. Bloody hel hav haven’t even made so much as a pass at you.” He walked off again and then back to the front of his car. “I didn’t kidnap or molest you. I want to hear you say it.”

Buffy just shifted her balance from one foot to the other and gave him a small smile. And…she said nothing.

Which wasn’t good enough for Spike. He went nose to nose with her. “Say it…SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT.”

“Alright already, you big blonde baby. You didn’t kidnap me, molest me or try to bite you.”

“Huh…What a right, fucking cock up. Now, stay away from my car, she-devil straight from bleeding hell.” Flipping her off with a two fingered salute, Spike headed for the driver’s door, keeping up a continuous tirade. “Bugger it all to hell, they know that I’m a vamp and will be sharpening stakes with my name on them. Birch, oak, pine. Drift wood. Whatever is handy.”

‘Wait. He’s leaving. Okay, Buffy, think fast.’ As quickly as she could, Buffy darted into the passengere ofe of the car, handcuffed herself to a handle on the door and popped the key in her mouth.

He froze. One bad bad vampire. One petite girl, albeit a slayer in training, but from what he could tell, she didn’t have any special powers. M jus just a tad stronger than the average human. So again, one vamp and one girl, and he froze when she wiggled the hand cuffed to the door and stuck out her tongue upon which rested the key. “Aaeerrgh.”

She looked down at the hand he had extended and shook her head.

Spike raised his hand to beneath her mouth. “Spit it out. Now.”

When she just raised her eyebrows, expressing her defiance, Spike circled and then shook his hands on each side of her neck as if he was enjoying the pleasure of wringing her neck. However, it was when she smiled at him triumphantly, he snapped. “You, little girl, are going to give that sodding key to me.” With his fingers, he started digging in her mouth, searching for the key. “Where is it?” He even went as far as prying her jaws apart and tried to see in.

She pulled back coughing and gagging. “You made me swallow it.”

“No way. My luck can’t be that bloody bad.” He grabbed her head again, preparing for another look when he saw one of the employees come out and head towards the trash dumpster parked behind his corvette, which would have him passing right in front of the windshield. Nice little peep show. Thinking fast, or if truth be told, not really thinking well at all, he pressed his lips to hers. Fortunately, he was holding her head so instead of looking like she was struggling, which she was, she looked like she was enjoying a kiss with her presumed boyfriend, which she wasn’t.

That just wasn’t what she expected from John Doe. Pissed – yes. Yelling – yes. Kissing – no. When he had been forcibly searching her mouth, she had been batting at his hands with her free hand until her brain registered that his cool lips were without warning on her warm ones. That temperature difference was hard to miss. Ew…ugh…uh…hm?...mmm.

Spike released her when the boy, who had enjoyed spying on them, finally traipsed back inside the store. However, the little voyeur was back out again with more trash bags in a matter of seconds. Luckily Spike hadn’t releaher her head so it was easy pulling her back into another kiss.

The second time, Spike didn’t initially notice that he was using his tongue, and judging from her first surprised but then agreeable moans, she wasn’t objecting. Yet when their tongues entwined, she had his full attention. Of course, he justified the intimate intrusion into her mout sti still trying to find the key, and that it was just an unexpected byproduct that the kiss was…not unpleasant. Uh…no, no way. No more than that. Just pleasant. But the clerk was now gone, and he pulled back sharply. Still not admitting defeat, Spike put his index finder in her mouth and felt around, trying to convince both of them that this had all been about the key. No key. As it happened, Spike didn’t pull his finger out fast enough, and Buffy’s mouth closed around him.

With malevolent intent, Buffy shut her mouth fully intending to bite his obtrusive finger, but her teeth just ended up resting on his skin. The moisture from her lips wet his finger as he slowly withdrew it.

She hadn’t done it on purpose. Just happened. Completely innocent. Yeh, completely. Of that, both were sure and both wanted to be unmoved by the accident. Hah…neither were. Buffy wondered if he could see how flaming red she was blushing from a mixture of embarrassment and instant desire.

While Buffy worried about her complexion, Spike was worrying about the part of him that would be a much more tell tale sign. With every millimeter he had withdrawn his finger, his shaft had grown. Now he just plain hurt with a craving for the brat. He looked into her eyes, trying to see if she understood what just happened better than he did, but instead, he saw his own mirrored confusion. Without a word, Spike pulled away from her, started the engine, and after a brief pause, pulled out onto the narrow highway.

Buffy was glad he hadn’t spoken because she wasn’t sure what she could say. Driving in a bit of silence was definitely of the good, giving her time to try to think about what exactly had happened in the last few minutes. She had eaten his ding-dongs. That had been tasty. She called Giles for him, and then lied, causing John Doe to go ballistic. That had been wicked fun. She had cuffed herself to John Doe’s precious car and stuck the key in her mouth. That had been massively cool. What she hadn’t counted on was the guy getting so physical with her. Sure, he had touched her before, shoving her in the car, pulling her out of the car, but those didn’t count; they really weren’t touching her.

But concerning the key in her mouth, he went over the edge. Only her dentist should stick his hands in her mouth like that, and she didn’t even like dee dentist doing it. But his fingers in her mouth were in a league of their own. Why was something that should be so high on the eeeww scale, so erotic when it was his finger? Then he was kissing her on the lips, holding her head tight so she couldn’t pull away. From the corner of her eye, she had seen the gas station clerk watching them and tundeunderstood why John Doe had her in a lip lock. Instead of tasting, she felt his every move on her sensitive tongue.

Ok, she could deal, but then came kiss number two. Since when did searching for a key consist of a French kiss? And sucking his finger? The goose bumps on her arms were telling her thoughts to not even go there. But who was she kidding? She might not know the guys name, but he was a first class, blue ribbon kisser, she admitted to herself as she picked up the key she had surreptitiously spit out onto the floor board at the beginning of the struggle. Checking that he had his eyes peeled to the road, she tucked it into her boot for safekeeping.

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TBC


Ok, what’s the deal with this story? Next to nobody gives me in feedback on it, and I would like now now what’s up like is the story missing the mark.

Thanks
Dana