Chapter 18
Elizabeth awoke when a tentative knock sounded on their door. It was a testament to how she now thought of Spike’s room as ‘theirs’ that she didn’t even hesitate to answer for him. “Yeah? Who is it?”
“Willow,” Willow announced through the door just as Spike was beginning to stir beside Elizabeth. “Your dad’s on the phone,” she informed her now semi-roommate.
“Be there in a sec!” Elizabeth called out, scrambling out of bed and into her bathrobe.
Now alone on the mattress, Spike let out a slight moan of complaint, his arm reaching out in vain across the section of the bed she’d just vacated.
“Be right back,” she assured him with a quick kiss to the forehead. “I’ve just gotta take this call. This could be it!” She went over to open the door and accepted the cordless phone from Willow with an embarrassed little smile. “Thanks,” she said for the umpteenth time since Willow had agreed to help her keep her little relationship with Spike secret from her father’s inquiries.
Willow shrugged like it was nothing. “Return to phone soon-ish,” she requested before heading back to her room.
Elizabeth shut the door again and crawled back into bed with Spike before hitting the talk button. “Hi, daddy!” she said in the most cheerful voice she could manage.
“How’s my little Buffy doing?” Hank responded just as perkily.
From his position nuzzled against her throat, Spike tried desperately not to laugh. Elizabeth gave his behind a playful little swat in response, reminding him to behave.
“Great!” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve got all my finals over the next week, so I’m studying pretty much nonstop, but other than that…”
“Hard tests this semester, pumpkin?” Hank asked.
“Some more than others,” she agreed, “but I think I’m ready.”
“That’s great, sweetie!” Hank said happily. “I’m glad to hear you’re doing so well. Especially after that nasty break-up you went through…”
“Oh. Yeah,” she tried to sound somewhat subdued.
She and Riley had gotten together for lunch only once after they’d broken up simply in order to get the ‘official’ story of their break-up straight so that they could both fool their overbearing parents. They were both off the hook now, but Elizabeth was still forced to pretend that she was moping over Riley. It was very irritating.
“Well, I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on, so it’s better now,” she informed her father.
At that moment, Spike decided that it was absolutely vital to demonstrate some of that lovely ‘other stuff’, and his hand snaked between her thighs, casually swirling the wiry dark hair there around his fingers. She turned to give him an annoyed look, but he merely flashed her an unrepentant smile in response.
“Yeah, I’m glad everything’s going better for you,” Hank said, oblivious to what was happening at the other end of the phone. “You know…” he began cautiously, “the Mansfields’ son Richard is a freshman there, too, this year. Maybe the two of you could hook up.”
Spike scowled at the phone.
Elizabeth gave the hand between her legs a reassuring little squeeze and guided it to her more intimate regions. “I can handle my own love life, dad!” she informed him in the best whiny teenager voice she could manage.
Hank chuckled slightly. “I’m sure you can, princess,” he quickly amended. “But if you’re ever interested…”
“I’ll let you know,” she assured him wearily. One of Spike’s talented digits slipped into her inner folds just then, and she bit back the little gasp that came to her lips.
“That’s fine,” Hank agreed, absentmindedly shuffling through the papers in his briefcase. “Look, Buffy, the reason I called you is…” He paused when he couldn’t find the file he was looking for.
Elizabeth held her breath and crossed her fingers. “Yes?” she asked nervously.
“It turns out,” Hank admitted wryly, “that I have to be in Berlin over Christmas. Your mom’s flying down to Mexico to stay at the vacation house down there. Now, if you wanted, you could go with your mom but…”
“She has business?” Elizabeth asked, perhaps a little too eagerly.
“We’re working with Delaney on the merger so…yeah, it probably won’t be a lot of fun down there this year,” Hank agreed.
“So, should I just stay here with friends?” she asked hopefully. Spike’s finger had slipped deep inside her by now, but it paused in its ministrations while the two of them both held their breaths, waiting for Hank’s answer.
“That would probably work out best,” he agreed apologetically. “Now, I know you had your heart set on coming home for the holidays, but…you can find somewhere to go, right, pumpkin?”
Elizabeth tried not to sound excited, which was rather hard given that she’d just gotten her Christmas wish and Spike’s hand was once again pushing her towards her climax. “I-I’ll manage,” she replied somewhat shakily. His fingers had now found that sensitive spot deep within her and were stroking it rhythmically. “I’ve got some friends that are staying in town…”
“See?” Hank said in relief. “It’ll be fun after all. Really sorry about this, kiddo, but you know…”
“ ‘Business comes first’,” she quoted with a little eye-roll.
“I’ll be sure to call you on Christmas,” Hank insisted. “Be sure to give me the number where you’re staying.”
“I-I will, dad…” Spike’s lips were on the soft spot at the curve of her throat now while his fingers coaxed her pleasure higher and higher…
“Well, I’ve got to make a few more calls before I get on the plane, so bye Buffy!” Hank said cheerfully.
“Bye, dad,” Elizabeth managed to get out before clicking the phone off. Only seconds later, blinding white lights exploded before her, and her entire body rocked and trembled as the pleasure washed over her. “Yes, Spike!” she let out in a strangled whimper.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against her ear as she fell back down to earth beside him. Cautiously, he withdrew his fingers from her once more.
She lay there in lazy contentment for a few seconds before dropping the phone off on the nightstand and turning in his arms so that she was facing him once more. “You’re a bad, bad man,” she informed him with a mock-scowl. “What if my father had heard that?”
“The badest,” Spike agreed with a small smile, his hand reaching up to lightly cup her breast. “And I would’ve told him that I was busy ravishin’ his daughter, so he should just butt out.”
“Oh yeah,” she rolled her eyes, but there was a little smile on her face, “I’m sure that would’ve gone over well…”
“You din’t seem to be objectin’ at the time,” Spike retorted with a sly smile.
“Not…complaining,” she agreed with a little grin, her fingers delicately tracing the scar on his eyebrow.
He leaned in to accept a sweet kiss from her lips in response. Even though the actual contact was fleeting, they were both panting slightly afterwards.
“So,” he began with a sheepish little smile, “you’re spendin’ Christmas with the Giles’ then?”
“I don’t know,” she teased. “Sleeping out on the street is very appealing…”
He chuckled. “You want me to tell my mum you can make it?” he offered.
“Don’t bother,” Elizabeth insisted with a little smile. “I have to see her to give my final presentation tomorrow, anyway. I can tell her then.”
Spike gave her a shy smile and placed a soft kiss on her shoulder. “Mum really likes you,” he commented.
“The feeling’s mutual,” she agreed.
Something powerful flashed in the cerulean depths of his eyes. “I really like you, too,” he informed her with another soft kiss to her throat.
“Mmm,” she murmured contentedly, “I’d kinda gathered that.”
He kissed her several more times in response, but in the back of his mind he took note that she hadn’t even reciprocated that statement. Given that every day he was getting closer and closer to uttering those three little words that could change everything, this was mildly worrisome. But not that important at the moment, so he banished his concerns from his mind.
“We’ve got a slight problem,” he finally informed her with a sigh.
“Oh?” She looked up at him worriedly.
He gave her a rueful smile. “I wanna ravish you right now, but if we don’t study for the history final, we’re both screwed.”
“In more ways than one,” she couldn’t help but joke.
He raised an eyebrow in response.
“Right,” she agreed with a little sigh. “Mind-blowing sex or homework?”
“Well, when you put it that way,” Spike agreed, “’s not really much of a contest, now, is it?”
“Mmm-mmm,” she agreed before her expression hardened. “But we absolutely can’t spend the entire weekend in bed,” she insisted.
“Right,” Spike agreed mock-seriously, his lips nibbling at her ear as he spoke.
“Mmm,” she murmured in appreciation, “b-because we’re both mature adults and—oh god!” She clutched his mouth to her breast, her body writhing beneath him in pleasure.
He whimpered slightly at the feel of her hips undulating against his and hardened in response.
She reached down to stroke him then, returning the pleasure he gave her. Her small hand wrapped around his girth as she began to pump up and down, and up and…
“Need you now!” Spike gasped out, his eyes rolling back in their sockets. Shakily, one of his hands reached out for the bedside drawer…
And Elizabeth batted it away. “No rubber,” she insisted.
He looked down at her with a lust-fogged gaze. “But, um…we need the, uh…protection…” He was finding it incredibly difficult to think what with the way her hand grasped him.
“We keep up the way we’re going, and you’re going to go broke by the end of the month from buying condoms,” she teased.
His brow furrowed slightly as he tired to concentrate on the conversation. “They give ‘em away for free at student health,” he informed her.
She nodded. “And they also give away these little pills that are just as effective,” she teased lightly. Then her expression softened. “I figured it was probably a good idea since, y’know, I want to feel you…”
He nodded in agreement and returned to her embrace, his lips meeting hers in a passionate kiss. Her tongue joined his eagerly as her legs slid around his waist, bringing the soft head of his cock up against her moist folds.
She gasped at her first feel of a bare male member pressing against her and then slowly into her. She had thought it was good before, but nothing compared to feel of his contour snuggly within her, his soft sensitive skin rubbing against her inner walls.
Spike moaned against her as her flesh molded against his like sword about its scabbard, the feel of her heat directly against his more powerful than he could bear. He began to thrust deeply within her, using all the control he had to keep each stroke long and sure, pounding the sensitive spot by her womb with every push.
Elizabeth cried out and clutched his body tighter against hers, wanting to feel all his flesh now that she’d gotten a sample. Her hands outlined every strong muscle of his back while her toes gently kneaded his ass as she pulled him back inside of her after every out-stroke.
He felt himself about to explode at the way she was holding him and reached down between their bodies to find her sensitive nub.
She cried aloud and came at the twin stimulation to her clit and g-spot, gasping out his name in frenzied cries as she did so.
He let himself go then and flooded her womb with his semen, murmuring her name against her hair as he spent himself.
She gasped at the feel of his warm seed spurting into her body, her fingers clutching his hair, pulling him in for a passionate kiss as their bodies joined in the way nature had intended for them.
The kiss continued long after their climaxes faded, but their bodies persisted in remaining linked, savoring every moment that they were together.
“Wow!” Elizabeth finally gasped as she broke away for air. “That was really…wow!”
Spike finally slipped out of her reluctantly and rolled to land at her side. “Wow,” he repeated simply, staring up at the ceiling, still stunned at what they had just experienced. It had always been amazing with her, better than with anyone he’d ever been with before, but nothing could have prepared him for that.
“If I had known,” she panted slightly between words, “that it would be…that good…I would’ve gotten on the pill a long time ago…”
“Yeah…” he agreed with a gasp, his arm shakily reaching out to hold her body, pulling her to him as they enjoyed the afterglow.
“I’ve never, y’know…without before,” she admitted, somewhat embarrassed. “It’s…different.”
“Different as in ‘better’,” he agreed with a chuckle, nuzzling her hair softly and enjoying the feel of her hot little body sprawled out atop his.
“Thanks for staying with me long enough for me to find out,” she whispered against the hard muscles of his chest. “It…means a lot to me…”
“Could never leave you,” he informed her passionately, giving her as much of a squeeze as his arms could manage. It seemed like his entire body had turned to Jell-O.
“Good,” she sighed softly. “Because I’ve never…cared for anyone as much as you,” she confessed shyly, turning her head so that she could look up into his eyes. “You drive me crazy, both in the annoying way and in the I-want-to-jump-you-right-now way.” She giggled slightly. “But,” she bit her lower lip and crawled up so that her face hovered right over his, “I really, really like you…”
A wide smile lit up his face as several subconscious fears were put to rest. “Feel the same way about you, kitten,” he agreed, pulling her down for a passionate kiss. And maybe more, he added in his head.
She pulled away and let out a disappointed little sigh a minute later, though. “Unfortunately,” she complained, “we’ve both still got finals to study for.”
“Always knew school was evil,” he groaned, his own disappointed sigh echoing her own as she slipped from his arms and headed for the bathroom to clean up…
* * *
Elizabeth chewed the end of her pencil and frowned, her lower lip jutting out in a pout that was undoubtedly the most adorable thing he’d ever seen.
“1879,” she finally decided.
“Right you are, pet,” he agreed with a little smile. “Now hit me.”
“If you insist,” she jokingly cocked her fist.
“Oi! Not like that,” he held up his hands in protest. “Plus, you wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?” he teased.
She crawled up onto the couch beside him and placed a quick kiss on the bridge of his nose right where the wire-frames in question rested. “The only reason you wear those things now is because you know I think they’re sexy,” she accused.
A seductive smirk curled at the edges of his lips, and he opened his mouth to reply when a voice cut him off.
“Other people are trying to study,” Anya pointed out bluntly, looking up briefly from the circle of papers that surrounded her, each containing the secrets to making lots and lots of money in Anya’s scrawling handwriting.
“Sorry,” Elizabeth said apologetically, retreating to her half of the couch. “So, uh…what were the causes of the Great Depression?” she asked Spike.
“Well, the really obvious immediate ones were the Stock Market crash an’—”
Elizabeth ticked off the points on the review sheet as he made them, glancing around the room at all the studying students and smiling inwardly. At about noon on Sunday, every single resident of Westing House had almost simultaneously become tired of studying alone, and they’d each trailed into the lounge to work there all within an hour.
Even Jonathan, whom Elizabeth had only seen once since the Great Star Wars Marathon, was sitting in the armchair in the corner, feverishly scribbling away at a problem set.
Next to him, Devon had plugged in his laptop and was busy writing one of his numerous papers. If nothing else, his break-up with Faith had driven him to turn to constant work in order to escape the less-than-pleasant aftereffects of Faith’s final departure. Elizabeth didn’t know what Faith had said to him on the trip back to Boston, but the very Monday he had returned, Devon had gone to his advisor and declared himself a journalism major. Elizabeth had been amazed at just how into the topic he was after she had had her first conversation with him about it. But it did mean that he had tons to write now.
Tara was in a similar predicament. For her honor’s project she was writing a book of short stories, and half of it was due at the end of this semester. Being the dedicated student that she was, she’d already finished. But her perfectionism meant that she was running them all through with a fine-toothed comb now, while writing her other papers at the same time.
Willow sat beside her on the other couch, fumbling over the data from her own honors classes. Elizabeth found the pair of them particularly cute; both brows furrowed as they scribbled intently on their papers, occasionally breaking off to exchange shy smiles and tell each other how close they were to being done.
In front of the couch, Xander was openly panicking. He’d somehow managed to get three finals on Wednesday, and he tended to panic when he had even one test a day. Elizabeth truly didn’t envy him as she watched him juggle three textbooks all of which he’d been neglecting for almost a month.
The center of the room was clearly Anya’s territory. The young econ major apparently studied through creating elaborate shapes and patterns out of her note pages and then rearranging them every five minutes. Elizabeth wasn’t quite sure how the system worked, but given Anya’s impeccable GPA she had no doubt that it did.
Oz was listening to his headphones in the other armchair, pencil tapping against his paper in a drumbeat whenever he wasn’t making notes for his paper. What kind of paper anyone could possibly write just from listening to music, Elizabeth had no clue, but it sounded cool.
“…And a partridge in a pear tree,” Spike finally concluded his recitation. Her foot had somehow ended up in his lap in the meantime, and he was gently massaging her toes. Cor, it was hard to study when all he wanted to was shag her until she couldn’t walk!
“Yup,” she agreed, popping the ‘p’, “looks like you’re ready.”
“Don’t s’pose you wanna go back to my room then?” he asked in a sultry whisper.
“The flaw in that plan is that I’m not ready yet,” she informed him, whapping the hand that was sneaking up her thigh with her notebook. “I still need to go over all those dates a few more times.”
Spike let out a resigned sigh. “OK, luv,” he agreed. “You ready?”
“Oh, yeah, baby,” she said with a grin.
He gave her an odd look and a little gulp before he started down the study sheet. “Boston Tea Party?” he began.
Elizabeth’s nose scrunched up as she ticked through the list of mnemonic devices she and Spike had come up with to help her; memorization was definitely her weak point. “17…” she began. “Well, it’s before the revolution, so it’s probably one of those 1770s dates…”
“Yeah,” Spike kept his tone neutral.
“1773?” she guessed.
“Right again, pet,” he nodded. “You know these better’n you think.”
She frowned slightly. “I really have to get good grades this semester,” she insisted. “Give me some more…”
* * *
However, despite studying all afternoon and evening as well as forbidding sex the previous night so that she could sleep, Elizabeth still began to panic when Professor Hall announced that they only had five minutes left. She quickly scribbled in all the guesses she had for the dates but was unsure of and just didn’t bother to write in the names she couldn’t remember for her essays.
She finally got her paper turned in with less than a minute to go. Fortunately, almost half the class was still in there as well, so she could at least hope that there would be a curve that would help her.
Spike, of course, had finished almost fifteen minutes before her and gone out. Elizabeth actually suspected that he’d finished before that but stuck around a little while longer in order to keep her from freaking out that she was flunking. She found him now outside the lecture hall door, staring wistfully at the unlit cigarette between he fingers.
“You know, you don’t have to try to quit smoking again right during finals week,” she assured him.
He eyed her and then the cigarette warily. “I think ‘s callin’ to me, luv,” he sighed, “whisperin’ how good it will be if I just give in…”
She gave him a fond smile and took his arm. “C’mon,” she said, plucking the temptation from his grasp, “I need some cheesecake and a latte after that horrible exam.”
“That bad?” he asked sympathetically.
She groaned and let her head fall to his shoulder. “I’m gonna flunk out,” she insisted.
“You’re not gonna flunk out,” Spike assured her. “Did you answer all the essay questions?”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “but my answer for number four was really crappy.”
“That the one on patterns of immigrant migration?” he asked.
She nodded. “Ugh! We never even discussed that in class! And it was, like, ten pages in the book…”
He shrugged. “My answer was half-assed, too,” he assured her. “But at least you got a answer. That guy who turned his test in right before me?” he reminded her.
Her brow furrowed. “Is he even in our class?” she asked.
Spike chuckled at that. “Not for long. He left the entire front page blank.” Out of habit, he dug around in his duster pocket, found a cigarette, and lit it before he’d even realized it. “Damn,” he sighed, watching the smoke curl up from it ruefully before he shrugged and took a deep drag.
Elizabeth didn’t comment. Nagging was quite possibly the least effective way of getting him to quit; the silent support thing seemed to work much better. “So, you’re done then,” she remembered, a hint of jealousy in her voice. “That means you actually get to sleep tonight.”
“Had too much ‘f that last night,” he teased, his arm slipping around her waist to hold her to him.
“I still have my English paper due on Friday,” she reminded him.
“I know,” he agreed with a sigh. A wicked smile lit up his lips. “Don’t s’pose you’d be willin’ to plagiarize one of my old papers to give yourself some extra free time?” he teased.
“Mmm…tempting,” she gave him a little smile, “but I’ll pass.”
He gave her a little wink and a smile. “Well, there goes my evenin’,” he mock-lamented.
“You can proofread it for me when I’m done,” she offered, taking a seat at one of the cozy two-person tables that lined the campus coffee shop.
He let his bag collapse in the chair across from hers. “Latte and cheesecake,” he repeated her order. “You want that plain?”
“See if they’ve got chocolate cheesecake,” she requested. “If not, I just want strawberries on top.” She flipped open a notebook from her own bag and studiously began taking notes.
“Be right back, luv.” He brushed a gentle kiss across her forehead before taking his place at the end of the rather long line.
Elizabeth allowed herself a little smile as she outlined her paper. For all of Spike’s badass exterior, he really was a hopeless gentleman inside. He had all sorts of cute habits like holding open doors and wrapping his coat around her shoulders at even her slightest shiver. And he could do it all while throwing not-so-subtle innuendoes her way and arguing with her at the same time. It was one of the things she loved most about him.
“Ohmygod, Bitsy!” a high-pitched screech interrupted her studying…well, OK, her Spike daydreaming while pretending to study…
She cringed inwardly. There really was only one person who had ever called her that, and she had actually found it more annoying than ‘Buffy’, given how sensitive she was about her height…or complete lack thereof. “Kathy!” she managed to smile as she looked up and discovered the girl she’d managed not to see in almost two months.
“Ohmygod!” That seemed to be Kathy’s new catch phrase. “I haven’t seen you in, like…a long time!”
“What a coincidence,” Elizabeth said dryly, “I haven’t seen you, either.”
“Imagine that!” Kathy obviously didn’t get the joke. “So, like, what are you doing?” she asked, snapping at her gum as she did so.
“Studying. Finals.” Elizabeth managed a little smile and an eye-roll to indicate how much she’d rather be doing something else…or someone else, as the case may be.
“Yuck!” Kathy announced. “I had those, too. They sucked.”
“Big time,” Elizabeth agreed. “So, how’ve you been?”
“Ohmygod! So, so cool! You?”
“The same.” Elizabeth wondered what ever could’ve possessed her to want to hang out with Kathy’s crowd over Westing House. She was sure the girl didn’t try to piss her off, but she still managed to do so all the time.
“You ever manage to get out of that hellhole?” Kathy’s demonstrated Elizabeth’s point even as she was thinking it.
“No, I still live in Westing House,” she admitted.
“Isn’t that, like, the loser house?”
It was the first time the blond that had accompanied Kathy spoke up. Elizabeth hadn’t even noticed her until then.
Elizabeth managed a tightlipped smile. “It’s nice,” she insisted. “I like it there.”
The blond gave her a disbelieving look. “I heard that, like, everyone there is a geek.”
“Bitsy’s not a geek,” Kathy insisted. “It’s not her fault where she got stuck. I mean, hey, I was trapped there for a couple of weeks, too.”
Elizabeth managed a patient smile. After all, Kathy was standing up for her in her own way.
The blond girl shrugged. “I guess,” she agreed with a toss of her hair.
“Ohmygod!” Kathy abruptly exclaimed. “You two don’t know each other, do you?” She practically bounced in excited when Elizabeth shook her head. “This is Harmony,” Kathy presented her friend, “and this is Bitsy!”
“Elizabeth,” Elizabeth clarified, offering Harmony her hand.
Harmony eyed it skeptically before determining that the quality of Elizabeth’s manicure probably indicated that the hand would be clean enough to touch. She accepted the quick shake.
“Ohmygod!” Kathy’s cry was beginning to become something of a chorus. “There’s that guy!” she exclaimed, turning to Elizabeth. “Y’know, the asshole?”
Spike stepped up to their table at that moment. One eyebrow skeptically raised in Kathy’s direction, he set down Elizabeth’s latte and cheesecake in front of her. “They only had strawberry, luv,” he said apologetically before moving to take his seat.
With a sudden quirk of humor, Elizabeth caught him before he could go and gave his lips a quick kiss right in front of Kathy and Harmony. When he finally sat down, Kathy’s jaw was hanging on its hinges.
“Oh. My. God!” She caught Harmony’s hand and practically had to yank her from the table; the blond woman seemed to be practically drooling over the table at the sight of Spike.
Elizabeth watched them go with mild amusement. “ ‘Ohmygod’ count totaled at six,” she informed Spike with a wry smile.
“You had that beat in less than a minute the last time we had sex,” he teased.
She blushed and swatted at his arm playfully. “Pig,” she sulked, digging into her dessert.
“Oi! I bring you cheesecake, an’ all I get’s ‘pig’?” he complained.
She gave his hand a little pat. “Sorry, I guess I do owe you,” she agreed before giggling. “Did you see the expression on Kathy’s face when I kissed you?”
Spike chuckled at that as well. “You know they’re gossipin’ about us right now, luv.” He took a sip of his own hot chocolate.
“Let them,” Elizabeth decided. “I mean, what’s more important? The gossip of people I don’t really care about or the English paper from hell…?”