She frowned again. There was a lot of energy in the apartment. Her new Slayer radar was humming. If there were demons in Giles' apartment…her blood ran cold.

A half moan from the loft sent her hurtling up the stairs to scramble to a halt in time to see Giles naked on his bed, a damp towel on the floor, in the split second before he rolled himself in his quilt in sheer reactive panic and sat up.

"Dear God, Buffy!" he cried. "You frightened ten years out of me," he squawked.

"I frightened you?" a rattled Buffy yelled back. "You scared the crap out of me. You haven't been around all day. Anya kept saying you'd be back later. I go and patrol wondering where the heck you were all day, then I come here, where you *always* are at this time of night, and you weren't…here, I mean. I thought…and then my radar…it felt like there were demons in the house…and were you doing what I think you were doing?" she said in a rush, sounding distinctly like a rattled Willow.

Giles turned the colour of a ripe tomato and cleared his throat. "That's really none of your business. You're the one invading *my* privacy."

Buffy exhaled, and seemed to shrink several inches. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to. I can't lose you. I told you. I got scared for a moment."

His expression grew softer, though no less reddened. "I'm sorry you were frightened."

She half smiled, remembering vividly the long male body she'd seen stretched out on the bed and his general…condition at the time.

"I don't know why you're embarrassed. You have a great bod', Giles," she teased, ignoring the heat in her own cheeks.

He snorted. "Yes, and I'm sure you'd be absolutely thrilled if I'd walked in on you in a similar position."

Buffy almost choked on her next breath then found the one after that almost non-existent. At first shocked, then beset by a graphic vision of what he'd just described, she'd gone from eiwww, to the most incredible heat in her loins in about thirty seconds.

She hadn't been with anyone for weeks, making it worse. And even when she had been with Riley in the last few months before he left, it had been a pretty one-sided affair. It hadn't worried her too much, but it did contribute to his general sense of failure and rejection. She sighed. Right now she wasn't worried about the past, only the suddenly very tense present.

"Depends," she said finally, in a hoarse voice.

Giles stared. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me," she managed huskily.

"Yes, but I'm not entirely sure how rational you are," he shot back, unnerved. "What I was doing was intensely private and the result of leading a life of virtually enforced celibacy. It's not something I would wish to be embarrassed about, but I am, nevertheless," he finished awkwardly.

To Giles' stunned surprise, Buffy came over and sat on the bed, making his Adam's apple rise and fall several times.

"Don't be," she told him. "Giles, I'm a grown woman now. I have been for a long time. A-And I've been alone now since…and was even longer after Angel…anyway, I know what it feels like to not…to have to…" she closed her eyes. "Never mind. I can't believe we're having this conversation."

"Neither can I," he added grumpily.

Buffy shifted a little. She didn't understand why she was so intensely aroused. She'd only seen him for a few seconds at most, but she remembered the golden-brown chest hair tapering to his navel and that smooth belly, the look of pleasure on his face, the long, long legs and…well…the ample evidence of his manhood. She shivered. If he thought he needed…

"Buffy…?" he asked, concerned.

She looked up, her eyes blurred with desire. "It's nothing," she told him. "Just someone walking on my…oh…let's not go there, either."

He was watching her warily now.

"Giles, do…do you like me?"

Buffy's face turned scarlet. She couldn't believe she'd asked him that. She also couldn't believe how much she didn't want to leave right then, or how much seeing Giles naked had *not* creeped her out.

He cleared his throat again nervously. "Well, of course I like you," he managed, wondering what strange universe he'd suddenly fallen into, and trying not to think about the fantasy he was having when she interrupted him.

Okay, that wasn't a total failure… "Then you like how I look?"

He nodded silently.

"Have you…have you ever…wanted me?"

This time the colour left his face. "Why…what makes you ask such a q-question?"

Buffy's eyes narrowed. He wasn't angry, or disgusted. He was embarrassed, almost guilty.

"You have," she guessed, a little scared and a lot turned on at the same time. "H-How long?"

Giles held her gaze, like a rabbit in car headlights. "S-since the dance. I fell in love with you that night. You'd grown into such a beautiful young woman. I felt like I'd been waiting all my life for you to be…to be a part of it," he said in a hoarse whisper, then turned away. "Now…now I feel as though I betrayed you somehow."

"You love me?" Buffy said wonderingly. "How could I not know? Why didn't you tell me?"

He dragged his eyes back up to hers. "I could never do that. You're young, alive…you need to be with others your own age…and then there was that Parker prat…and Riley…"

Buffy's eyes roved over his face, every line, every curve, the soft green eyes, suddenly understanding her body's ferocious reaction to that vision of him, naked.

"Oh God," she whispered. "I've been such an idiot."

Startled, Giles started to rise, holding his quilt, until she raised a hand.

"All this time I've been looking for someone. I knew who he was…in here," she said, touching her chest, "but I didn't know his name. I made so many mistakes. Parker, Riley…" She refrained from mentioning Dracula aloud, despite the memory of how much he'd called to her, nor did she mention that she'd even considered the good looking orderly at the hospital as a desperate kind of future possibility, until…now.

Giles was staring again, mesmerised this time.

However, instead of persisting with the explanation, Buffy stopped and half turned away from him. She was wearing the black top with the lacings at the back.

"Do you think you could undo these?" she whispered.

It was a long time before she finally felt warm fingertips brush the skin beneath the lacings as they slowly undid them all. She closed her eyes, trying not to tremble too much at the intensity of the electricity coursing through her with each grazing touch, each brush of an equally tremulous finger tip. Soon all the lacings were undone and the hands were no longer there.

She slid slowly off the bed and turned to him, letting the top fall to the floor.

Giles gasped silently, feeling his hardening erection suddenly stand bolt upright, and was torn between guilt and the knowledge that she actually wanted him.

Buffy was looking up at him, unashamed, her shoulders back, accentuating the breathtaking curves of her beautiful breasts, their salmon pink peaks as rigid as his own appreciative member.

"Do you like me?" she asked again, her tone this time sensual and provocative.

Giles *knew* he had to be dreaming. "God yes," he whispered.

She smiled. "Good," she replied. "Then you'll let me play too?"

Giles stretched his legs suddenly and held himself quite rigid under the quilt. After a few ragged breaths, he relaxed again. God, he hadn't been that close to making a fool of himself since he was sixteen…

She was still watching him, only now her fingers were on the hem of her skirt. Short skirts had made a re-appearance in current fashions and Giles hadn't been quite sure he was going to survive Buffy's thankfully infrequent visits in them. Now he watched her slowly lift the one she was wearing to reveal the tiny white lace g-string beneath, and found himself barely able to breathe.

Buffy thought she was going to explode. This was not how she expected to be spending the evening…especially not the 'so close I need to cross my legs' feeling she was having at that moment, watching his face as her fingers crept up her thigh to the lace.

Now it was his turn to quiver as they stroked the pretty fabric, her thighs parting just that little bit more.

"Can I play?" she asked again, eliciting a full-throated groan from him. "If you let me, you can play too."

In spite of himself, Giles felt his hand sliding down to his erection. Within moments they were in unison, Buffy finally closing her eyes as her fingertips slid under the lace, and groaning very softly, so that his back arched with desire and his hand moved even faster.

She continued, holding one breast and pleasuring herself with her other hand, until Giles, riding the edge of something incredible, himself, was certain she was going to orgasm.

Instead she was suddenly on the bed, naked, and the quilt was on the floor. A moment later she was straddling his hips, her wet centre pressed against the length of his shaft.

He bit his lip and focused on the worst things he could think of, until the rush subsided and he was certain he wasn't going to come right there and then.

Their eyes locked as she began to slip back and forth against him, provocatively.

"Do you want me…?"

He nodded silently and finally reached out, closing his hands around her waist. "My God, you're beautiful. More beautiful than I ever dreamed." His hands slid up to the full breasts. "This can't be happening."

Buffy moaned and arched as he caressed and massaged them with an expert's touch, despite the trembling of his hands.

"Why not?" she groaned. "You love me. I love you…I'm a woman, you're a man."

Giles stopped, his eyes widening. "Buffy, do you know what you're…? Did you mean…?"

Buffy paused and focused on his face, despite her desire. "Don't you already know the answer to that?" she whispered, and moved against him again. "Why do you think I couldn't love any of the others? Why do you think none of them were good enough…? You know why…?" She leaned down, her breath teasing his face. "I do…It was because they weren't you."

When their lips met, both of them forgot time, the universe, even life itself, existed. The kiss merged them into one, the warmth of their two fleshes, their two hearts, flooding over them, embracing them in their world of two as it grew and blossomed into the most intimate of love-making.

Finally Buffy groaned again.

Giles felt her lift, and immediately felt a surge of desire in his loins such that his whole body trembled. This moment was almost more than he could bear. He had to bite his lip again as her soft hand curled around his shaft and held it fast as she lowered her burning core until his tip slid into her.

She smiled when heard him swear amid the ragged, gasping moan that escaped his lips.

And then she groaned herself as she pushed down, feeling herself stretch to accommodate the very bulk of him, then shuddered as his full length slid into her, as though he'd always belonged there. They both groaned and began to move, almost simultaneously.

Driven, Buffy began to ride him, and barely able to control a need to just let go and fill her with his seed before he exploded, Giles held her waist and loved her back with equal passion. Soon, however, he knew she needed more, knew he needed to have her, take her.

In seconds their positions were reversed and her legs were curling around him, her hips lifting and demanding, as he took her, or perhaps they took each other.

Their soft moans and cries grew more and more urgent as their pace increased until Buffy made a strangled noise.

"Oh, God, Giles, oh my…!" She started to buck and twist and shudder with the force of her orgasm, the frantic clamping of her hot channel sending a suddenly liberated Giles into his own explosion of ecstasy within just a few strokes.

"Jesus!" he gasped, their moans and cries no longer soft, their bodies held in thrall by the seemingly endless waves of pure pleasure until, limp, Buffy lay down so that her head rested on his shoulder.

"I love you," she said softly.

Giles, still breathing heavily, closed his eyes and drew his arms around her, letting the fingers of his left hand rest on the back her head.

"And I love you, more than I ever thought possible. Forgive me."

Buffy pushed herself up to look into his eyes. "For what?" she asked, alarmed.

"For this. For not being strong enough to give you your freedom…to send you away."

"My freedom, Giles? How could I be free without the one person I love more than anyone in the world?"

He exhaled long and hard. "I'm old and battle-scarred, and I come with a great deal of excess baggage…"

"No, you're not. You're new and sexy and I love you, and…eieww." Buffy's nose wrinkled as she stopped speaking and wriggled uncomfortably. "There just had to be a downside to the no condom thing, didn't there?" she growled, and dragged a bemused Giles out of the bed. "You're coming with me right now," she said.

---

"You know, a shower would have done just as well."

"Sure it would, but it would have been over way too soon. Besides, I've never shared a bath before…at least not since I was about five, with my cousin Cecilia."

Giles chuckled. "Then we're fortunate that my bath is rather…large."

"Very," Buffy purred, rolling over and kissing his chin. "Is this so bad?"

"On the contrary," he replied, amused, and slid his hands over the smooth contours of her back, to the delightful curves of her bottom.

Buffy groaned appreciatively as he stroked and caressed. "I think I'll just stay here forever," she sighed.

Giles closed his eyes for a moment. "Would that it were possible…"

She looked up. "It's not?"

He met her gaze, puzzled. "I thought you meant right here, safe, in my arms...?"

"Well, yeah," she smiled. "But mostly I meant here, with you, in your apartment. I'd kinda like to have that gorgeous body of yours on tap."

He laughed. "I suppose something could be arranged."

She grinned back. "We're going to have to do some pret-ty fancy explaining."

Giles moved his hands to caress the soft breasts, his expression rueful. "Well, there is that…"

"And of course there is this," she teased, drawing herself up to straddle his lap, finding his mouth with hers.

"Mm…I think I know which I find preferable," he growled as she moved against his hardening flesh.

*

"He's not here."

"Wait, I think he's taking a bath. I can hear him splashing."

Xander came down the stairs, and Anya came from the living room, to join Willow and Tara in the kitchen.

"That's a lot of splashing."

"Yeah it is," Xander grinned. "Maybe he's playing boats and monsters?"

"I don't think he's playing with his toys," Anya said after a couple of beats, while everyone was still snickering. "It sounds more like when Xander and I..."

Xander barely managed to clap a gentle hand over his lover's mouth, knowing exactly what was coming next.

The girls looked at each other, then at Xander and Anya.

"Nah," Willow said, wide eyed.

"Really?" Tara added, bemused.

The rhythm of the splashing grew faster and louder.

"Um…I think we should leave now," Xander managed in a strangled voice.

Everyone nodded and shuffled out into the living area very quickly, making it as far as the breakfast bar before a familiar voice rang out from the bathroom.

"Oh, God, oh God…*Giles!*" it screamed in ecstasy, followed almost immediately by his own loud cries.

"Buffy?" Xander mouthed as everyone's eyes went like saucers and they all stared at each other.

"Oh my God…Buffy?" Willow mouthed back, her expression matching his own scrunched one.

"Buffy?" Tara said softly, not really getting what the fuss was about.

"Buffy," Anya said in a normal voice, and grinned. "Who would have thought she'd be such a good orgasm friend for Giles?"

Xander and Willow made strangled noises and dragged their respective partners out of the apartment, closing the front door behind them.

"Giles and Buffy," Xander whimpered when they stopped on the terrace. "Somebody please wake me up now."

"Giles and Buffy," Willow repeated. "This can't be real. Maybe they've been turned…or something. I mean Buffy…a-and Giles," she spluttered.

"I don't understand," Tara said quietly, trying not to giggle at her lover and her friend. "It's been kind of obvious for a long time that they care for each other. I sort of thought it was one of the things that went wrong with R-Riley."

"Riley?" Xander managed, and focused.

Tara nodded. "I thought he must have seen it too…how close Buffy was to Giles, how much they need each other. I don't think he realised that they were in love…just that nothing was ever going to come between them."

"Well duh," Willow muttered. "Even we didn't know they were in love."

"We didn't *want* to know they were in love," Xander whimpered, "or that they do it in the bathtub…oh, God, bad, bad visual place…"

"Or that Giles is that good," Anya added. "We should go back to our apartment and take a bath, now."

Willow closed her eyes. "I so didn't need to hear that. Can we go find some ice cream or bad drugs or possibly even an amnesia demon, somewhere?"

"Amnesia is sounding really good right now," Xander agreed.

Anya and Tara looked at each other and then at their respective partners.

"Or we could all just go home and have orgasms," Anya proposed brightly.

There was a moment's silence then a very red Xander spoke.

"Everyone in favour, raise your right hand?"

All hands shot up.

"Last one back to my uncle's car gets to tell Buffy and Giles we know…!"

---

"I was sure I heard something."

"Nah. Who'd be around at this time of night?" Buffy asked, still drying herself as Giles padded back from looking out the peephole, his towel around his neck.

"Just as well," she pointed out, looking up and down his long, lean form. "You could have given Will, Xand and the others heart failure otherwise. Its not like any of us knock."

"So I've noticed," he said as she met him and insinuated her arms around his neck, her warm, soft body against his.

"We'll buy a lock," she purred.

"Two," he grinned, and bent his head.

 

The End