Thralls

Title: Thralls, chapter 6
Disclaimer: I do not own ATS or BTVS, or the recognizable characters.....just the bunny and the OC's. Tell me if you like them please!


"So," Cordelia said, winding the long string of cheese around her finger. "Why didn't Angel have sex with you?" She asked, before she started to nibble the tiny bit of cheese from around her finger. Her tongue flicked out, just the pink tip, and trapped the bit so she could cut it off with a tiny bite of perfect, white teeth, framed by full lips.

Wesley, Doyle, Gunn and Riley all had to tear their eyes away from the sight, Wesley hurriedly crossed his legs. Graham continued eating placidly, as if the view was nothing special. Fred reached for another piece of the pie, honestly not aware of the byplay.

Riley shook his head. "Huh?" He asked, dazed, his eyes wanting to check out what she was doing with her mouth, those soft, sauce-slippery, slick lips.... "Oh, fuck." He muttered weakly.

"Yeah, Riley." Graham said, calm and steady, with a hint of amusement. "That *is* what the lady was asking."

Wesley choked, trying to concentrate on balancing his plate on his knee, and wielding his knife and fork to some effect. Graham took another bite of his slice, chewing. Gunn was the only one who saw the twinkling in his eyes. Doyle was studiously trying to pretend he was somewhere else, stuffing pizza in his mouth.

"Nobody eats pizza with *utensils*, Wes." Gunn mumbled under his breath to the man sitting next to him on the couch. Wesley glared at him, gripping his knife and fork stubbornly, and didn't bother to answer.

"Uh." Riley started, referring to the subject he really wished Cordelia hadn't raised. His dad had brought him up not to talk about sex with women he wasn't planning on being intimate with, good boys didn't do that. It upset a lady's sensibilities...only Cordelia wasn't cooperating. "Uh....I don't know?" He offered, lamely, hoping against hope she'd be satisfied with the evasion. Be as relieved as he was to have a possible 'out' of this awkward conversation. But of course with his luck....

"Well, you should know, I mean you were there. Did you fight him off? Did you tell him no? Was he not interested? Did he fall asleep before he could do it? There had to be a reason." Cordelia persisted, finishing with the curled string of cheese. Lick. Lick.

"God, Cordelia!" Doyle hissed, mortified. He grabbed of a napkin, mopping up the reddish splotch running down his shirt after he'd squeezed his slice too hard.

"We were kind of busy at the time." Graham supplied, mildly, when Riley just sat there, mouth agape. Cordelia's sharp eyes zeroed in on him like a hawk's.

"Too busy to have sex? Too busy to think about it? I didn't think that was possible. Not with men. Are you gay?" She persisted, with the same tenacious drive that her colleagues usually admired.

Riley was coughing by then, Doyle pounded him helpfully on the back. Graham actually seemed to think about the question before he answered it, his grey eyes serious. "I have found that to be untrue. There have been more times in my life that I was too busy to have sex, than there have been times when I was free to indulge."

"But...are you gay? I know Xander isn't, I would have known. And I don't think he is." She inclined her head regally at the sputtering ex-soldier, Riley. She had noticed the looks he was sending her way. Both puzzled and interested. "But you...I can't tell."

"Never thought about it." Graham said. The silence lengthened. They all leaned forward waiting for more...until they figured out there wasn't going to be anymore.

"What do you mean you never thought about it? That is not an answer." Cordelia snapped, pulling another long strand of cheese from her first slice of pizza. Fred was already on her second helping, the men on thirds and fourths, but not likely to get much further with this subject being discussed. Wesley was frozen in mid-bite, loaded fork lifted partway to his mouth.

"I mean, I never thought about it, never worried one way or the other if I was gay or wasn't." Graham said after he'd chewed and swallowed. Riley shifted, uncomfortable for his friend even if it really seemed Graham wasn't troubled.

"Well, surely you know if you are attracted to men or women...or both?" Cordelia prodded, leaning forward. "I mean usually people just know those kind of things about themselves. From experience." She stressed the last word.

"No." Graham said after a minute's contemplation, shaking his head.

"No?!" This time it was Cordelia giving a near shriek, followed by Cordy and Wesley together. "No, what?!"

"No, I don't know." Graham said. "From experience."

"What? Are you...are you...normal? Are you a demon or something?" Cordelia half shouted. "How can you not know?"

"'Cause that is just not normal." Gunn finished for her. "Sorry, old son. I have to vote with the princess on this one. That is just strange. I have never met a man who couldn't tell me where his interests lay." He shrugged, "Not saying you are lying or anything like that. Just...it ain't normal."

Graham nodded, and drank from his can of soda. As if the conversation was concluded. It took less than a minute before Cordelia exploded once more, throwing her hands up, abandoning her pizza entirely. She shook her finger, the one she had been licking, at him.

"So, OK, Mr. Soldier Guy, how do you pick who you have sex with if you aren't sure what attracts you?" She inquired.

Graham took another drink, swirled the can. "Don't know."

"You *have* had sex before right? I mean how old are you?" She asked, pointedly. "You aren't like...way younger than you look or anything, right?"

"Twenty-two." Graham said. "And no. I haven't."

"You haven't?" Again Cordelia and Wesley in harmony. Wesley had the grace to blush, but Cordy, plunged on. "You expect me to believe you are a virgin? No sex of any kind? Waiting for marriage kind of thing?"

"Religious conviction?" Wesley asked helpfully. Doyle groaned, hanging his head, hitting his forehead against his palm.

"OK. Stop. Why on earth should this man, who hasn't seen us before today, want to tell us, or you, intimate things about himself? It's private, princess. We are strangers." He emphasized the last word. The half-demon made a winding gesture with his hands. "Ergo, leave the man in peace."

"He's...look at him. He can't be..." Cordelia said. "He's...well, he's gorgeous."

Fred tilted her head to the side and looked Graham over. "Can't be what?" She asked, taking a healthy bite of her neatly folded in half, fourth slice.

"It doesn't matter, Fred." Wesley said, quietly. "None of our business. Not important."

"Oh. OK." She smiled. "Cordy is right. He is pretty."

"But....he shouldn't...not Angel....Not his first time...." Cordelia was sputtering under her breath. "Not when he doesn't even know what it's like."

"Princess...." Doyle began, warningly. Thinking how he was going to strangle on his own tongue if she didn't stop. Or blow a blood vessel from trying not to blush so hard.

"No, he should have a chance to figure it out...." She was shaking her head. "With a woman." Adamantly.

"Yeah, right." Riley said, sarcastically. "I am sure Angel won't mind if he just goes off and does a little experimenting now, will he? In the interest of being fair and all." He looked at Cordelia. Ghod, she was beautiful, sleek and sexy, curves in all the right places, why wasn't he panting after her? He looked harder. Her mouth was wet, lush, her lips lick-able, oh Christ....Graham slapped him upside the head.

"Ow!" Riley complained rubbing at the stinging spot. Shooting his friend a reproachful glare.

"You shouldn't be looking at her like that, Ri. Take my word for it, Angel is not going to like that." Graham said after Cordelia stalked out of the room, shaking her head and muttering.

"Maybe he wouldn't mind?" Riley said after a split second of hesitation. He sounded plaintive, even to his own ears. Raising his soda to his mouth.

Angel's hand fastened around his throat, under his jawbone, pulling him across the back of the couch, over the edge, stretching that long, tall body out. Riley swallowed hard to get the last of the soda down before he choked on it, the kind of swallow that hurt going down, like a fist jammed in his throat.

"Oh, I'd say I do mind." The vampire said, his eyes blazing golden-red. "I mind very much, Mine Own. You are mine, your blood, your body, your heart, your neck...all of it. Is. Mine." He reached down with his free hand and grabbed a handfull of Riley's crotch. "Your cock. Mine."

Riley gathered himself, preparing to flip and free the hold on his neck. Graham was suddenly splayed across his thighs, holding him down.

"Don't, Ri. He's strong enough to keep his grip." Graham spoke rapidly, grabbing his friend's forearm, squeezing tight. "He'll snap your neck."

Gunn nodded from his seat. "He will." He agreed, interested in spite of himself. Waiting to see what would happen next.

"So," Xander said from behind the vampire, as he entered the kitchen. "What did I miss?"

ne'ichan
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