Breathless

Days passed quickly, weeks turned into months and the air grew cooler. Buffy had never felt so overwhelmed in her life. Between working as a counselor during the day, burning the midnight oil with the band trying to record their album, and spending time with Riley; Buffy barely had any time to herself. She did, however, manage to sneak off to Caritas every Thursday. No one other than Lorne, of course, knew where Buffy disappeared to, but not even he knew her real reasons for always being there. She tried to tell herself that singing at the bar helped her professionally; in her mind she knew it was a lie. She scanned the crowd relentlessly, hoping to catch a glimpse of white hair. Her wishes were never granted.

She finally gave up all hopes of ever finding her passionate stranger and threw herself completely into a serious relationship with Riley. They had been seeing each other exclusively now for almost five months and she had decided to take him with her for Christmas vacation to meet her family. As the days grew closer to their departure date, Buffy was getting seriously nervous about her first trip to England as well as introducing Riley to her family. The only other person that she was romantically involved that had ever been introduced to her mother was Angel; which had gone very bad since Joyce was not aware that he was several years older than her daughter. Based on the outcome of that meeting, Buffy was rather anxious about taking Riley with her.

She was, however, very excited about getting to see her mother, stepfather and especially her younger sister, Dawn. The three had moved to England a couple months after Dawn had graduated high school and announced that she had applied to Oxford on a whim and had been accepted. Their stepfather, Rupert Giles, was originally from England and had made a remark about how he would eventually like to return there to live. Buffy’s mother, Joyce, was very concerned about sending her youngest to live there and decided that they would move there as well. Buffy declined the offer to go with them, opting to finish college at UC Sunnydale and accepting the job offer at Hemery; where she had attended high school her freshmen year before her parent’s divorce.

Dawn had previously arranged to spend her summer break in Los Angeles with Buffy, but her trip this year had been cut short due to school obligations. Other than her short two week visit in June, Buffy hadn’t seen her nineteen year old sister since Christmas; which was also the last time she had seen her mother and Giles. Buffy hoped that this visit would go well; she really wanted her family to accept Riley since she hoped to be with him for a long time.

Somewhere along the last few months, Buffy had grown very close with the handsome actor; she had possibly even fallen in love with him. In secret, Buffy had been scribbling their names together with dozens of hearts etched around it. If her suspicions were correct, she believed Riley returned her feelings. There were moments when he didn’t think she was paying attention to him that she would catch him staring googly-eyed at her. Knowing her feelings were returned had lifted a weight off Buffy’s shoulders that she didn’t even know was there. Now, her only concern was why she couldn’t fall asleep at night without dreaming about a certain sexy bleached stranger.

Across the country, in New York, Spike lounged on the sofa smoking a cigarette contemplating his next move. His contract only had him committed to one job for a period of six months, at the end of that term he could either stay on or leave. That was the great thing about doing contracted private security. He was his own boss and never got tied down to one place too long. Spike was only called for delicate matters; if a situation required a certain amount of finesse, then you called him. As a bonus, he was trained in various forms of martial arts and firearms. Therefore, if a client needed to be educated in self defense, he took them under his wing, never giving up until they were well skilled. The personal attention that was required between Spike and his client allowed for a rather hefty paycheck at the end of his term. Even with the large sum of his paycheck, he was repeatedly requested with many clients as well as received numerous referrals all over the world.

He was faced with a tough decision this time; this job offer would require at least a year long contract over seas with little to no contact with outside relations. Part of him wanted to accept the offer, but the other side eagerly anticipated returning home to find her. Thoughts of her supple skin and golden locks had devoured his mind. He was consumed with her passionate kisses and throaty moans of arousal. Many nights had been spent lying in bed, unable to sleep, his erection throbbing under the sheets, aching for her touch. Mentally, he cursed himself repeatedly for not finding out her name. Now he had no idea how he was going to find her when and if he returned back home. He figured that someone at Caritas would remember her, maybe aid in at least finding out her name. The thought spread hope through him. Finishing off the last of his scotch, he walked across the room and refilled his glass, his decision was finally made.

Early the next morning, Buffy rolled out of bed cursing Lorne for scheduling a session at the studio at this hour on a Saturday. They had decided to put two more tracks on their album and it needed to be done as soon as possible. Buffy had decided to be brave Thursday night at the bar and gave her doting manager copies of the song she had written early in the summer. He had called her yesterday after school and asked her to stop by the office to see what the others thought about using her material. She was eager to hear their opinions, but also seriously nervous because they might not like her work. Buffy quickly showered and got dressed, not bothering with fussing with her makeup and hair since it was so early in the morning. Quickly grabbing a pop tart and bottle of water, she was out the door and on her way to the studio.

She sat cross legged on the floor, eagerly waiting for a response from her friends. They each had a copy of the lyrics and were spaced out around the office studying her work intently. After several agonizing minutes, Buffy got the validation that she needed. Faith was shocked at the passion in the song, it was very obvious that Buffy had written it with someone in mind and she wondered who it was. When she asked Buffy about it, she didn’t get the response that she had hoped for. The petite blonde had only reddened and mumbled that “it wasn’t about anyone in particular; it was just something she had floating around in her head.” Eyeing her friend closely, Faith quickly deduced that she was lying. She let it go for now; deciding that she would grill her later for details, wondering if it had anything to do with the hickey her usually cautious friend had sported over the summer.

Buffy was elated at the response from the band. They had loved the lyrics and had set forth putting it to music. It had taken all day and most of the night, but the musical genius, Oz, had finally worked it all out. They wrapped up the session, deciding to come back in the morning to start practicing. If all went well, they hoped to have it recorded by the next weekend.

It was late when Buffy got home, Riley’s car was in the drive, and she wondered how long he had been there. Entering the front door, she noticed rose petals scattered across the foyer and dozens of candles placed around the living room. Puzzled, she stepped lightly on the petals and made her way into the living room. That’s when she noticed Riley standing near the fireplace; he went to one knee as she walked towards him.

“Buffy Anne Summers, I know that we haven’t known each other for very long, but I know enough about you to realize that I want to spend the rest of my life with you in my arms. Will you marry me?” he asked, his eyes sparkling and full of love for the woman before him.