***

"Why?"

Willow stared at the essay in front of her.  She was starting to hate that word, especially coming from Angelus.  Under lowered lashes she
glanced at him.  They were lying on huge pillows in the diffused light of the huge stained glass windows in the library.  He had, for the last
hour and a half, been painting.  She wasn't sure what he was painting, she hadn't gotten a clear look at it, she'd been too busy working on her English essay.  Although she was still officially ill and recuperating with her father her schoolwork was dropped off at the mansion every
evening and she would work on it, under Angelus watchful gaze, from 10 in the morning until she finished.  With her intelligence it was usually
completed within a few hours.  But not today, not this essay, he was questioning everything she wrote.

"Why?" he asked again, not looking up from the wooden case he was painting.  Willow frowned and silently read the passage that had
provoked the question.

"Because the Romantics were a bunch of women who were too scared to live their own lives so they lived vicariously through their
characters..." snarled Spike walking into the room.

Willow twisted around on her pillow to look at him, beside her Angelus laughed.  He was heading straight toward the fireplace, cigarette held
in his fingers, looking for a flame to ignite it.  She always thought that Spike looked rather comical when he first woke up, hair in disarray,
scowl on his face, generally barefoot and clad in only his black jeans, craving his nicotine fix.

Since she had spent the past week in the mansion she knew their routines well.  If Spike was up and walking about it meant that it was about
four o'clock.  He usually slept from about 10 in the morning.  Angelus, on the other hand, appeared to need little sleep.  Willow herself found
that she was constantly craving sleep these past few days, often falling asleep in Angelus' arms on the stroke of midnight, the sound of his
voice always whispering words of invitation "You can come with me...if you want...". Then she'd wake up, generally around nine, with Spike
walking through the sitting room door with a breakfast tray.  Sometimes he would sit and talk to her while she ate, other times he would just
stare at her or leave.  After breakfast she would shower, Angelus would join her sometimes, she'd dress and wander out to the library where
he was always waiting for her, lessons spread out before him.  Afterwards they would sit and talk, listen to music or do whatever took
Angelus' fancy.

It also took Angelus' fancy to leave her doors open, always.  She could close them if she wanted, however she found no need to.  The door
leading from the bathroom in Angelus' room had generally been left unlocked but it was now also left wide open.  It was like something had
shifted in the mansion.  She was no longer forcefully kept there, with physical locks and bonds, but still she made no attempt to leave.  Her
time alone with Angelus, after her schoolwork had been completed, fascinated her.  The man before her was nothing like the descriptions of
the Watchers Diaries.  Intelligent, witty and charming was the best way to describe him.  She wasn't fooled, she knew that below that
charismatic exterior he was a demon, a vampire who could kill her easily, who had fed from her.  No she wasn't fooled but she found herself
forgetting at times.  He would engage her in discussion that infuriated her, made her argue her point, make her scream in frustration,
constantly pushing and questioning everything that she said.  Just as easily as he could frustrate and upset her he could make her laugh and
grin.  Many a time he had her in a fit of giggles, or laughing so hard that she cried.

"Ignore him," Angelus whispered in her ear.  "He just spent too many nights listening to girls ooh and aah over various romantic works rather
than play with him."

"Ha, ha," snarled Spike from the fireplace as he lit his cigarette.  "If I remember correctly, Angelus, you were the one banned from the
drawing rooms after declaring that 'Heathcliff' was your type of man..."

Angelus laughed and got up off the floor, taking his paint palette and the box he was working on with him.  Willow turned her attention back to her essay, smiling at the comment.  Chewing on her pencil, she ignored the two jousting vampires, use to the narky comments that usually
resulted in horseplay between the two.  It was Spike's way of getting a wake up kiss and Angelus seemed to enjoy the banter.  Next to the
passage that Angelus had questioned, she made some notes.  Five minutes later her thoughts were interrupted as a cool toe ran across her
bare arch making her squeal and yank her foot away.  She turned and glared angrily at Spike who was smirking, enjoying her ticklishness and his cigarette.

"So, little girl's ticklish..." Spike smirked throwing his cigarette butt into the fire.  Willow glanced around the room, surprised to find it empty.
Suddenly Spike grabbed her foot and tickled it with his cool fingers, causing Willow to shriek and kick out at him.  Grabbing her other foot he
spun her onto her back and pinned her down, his hands quickly stilling hers, his knees and legs keeping her still.  "Now that's something I'm
going to have to remember.  You've forgotten your lessons already, love."

"Get off me," Willow demanded wriggling beneath him, trying to free herself.  Spike laughed at her attempts and lifted up slightly so he could
leer down at her, his eyes roaming over her body, taking in every detail.

"Nah, you should've been able to stop me in the first place," Spike murmured his eyes fixing on hers.  Willow swallowed and wriggled again,
trying to release herself from his grip.  Then she froze as she saw a spark of mischief flicker through his eyes.  He shifted slightly and held
both her hands in one of his.  "Now, however shall we punish you?  Wonder where else you're ticklish?"

"Spike, don't you dare...aaaahhhhh," screamed Willow as Spike fingers proceeded to find every sensitive ticklish part of her body. After five
minutes of the mindless torture she was a twisted wreck, her throat raw from laughing and screaming, her clothes in disarray, her face
flushed and wet from tears.  "Please Spike, stop.  PLEASE!"

"Spike," Angelus' voice boomed through the room.  "That's enough."

Spike smirked at her before releasing his grip and rolling over to lounge against the pillows, his eyes shinning with merriment.  Willow sat up
and straightened her clothes, glaring stakes at Spike.

"Willow," Angelus called softly, catching her attention as he threw Spike's cigarettes at her.  She easily caught them and tossed them across
to Spike before glancing back at Angelus.  He walked across to his usual chair and sat down, glancing at the fire and patting the ottoman that was kept between his chair and the fire.  Pushing her hair off her face Willow stood up and moved over to sit down next to him.  Smiling he held out a book to her.

Willow took the book, turned it over in her hands and paled.  It was her journal.  She slowly glanced up at him from under her lashes only to
find him studying her intently.  She swallowed and looked back down at her journal.

"I'm bored, Willow," he leaned in closer and tapped the cover of the journal with his finger.  "Read to me."

"This is..." Willow began to protest only to be cut off by Angelus.

"My choice of literature," he spoke quietly, leaning back in the chair his eyes straying to Spike's half naked form lounging in the dying light of
the afternoon, comfortably spread across the sea of pillows.  "Open the book to the page that is folded and read, Willow."

Willow dropped her eyes to the journal and opened it up, flipping through the pages until she found the dog-eared page.  Her hands trembled as she straightened back the page, her eyes falling on her handwriting without reading the words.  It was no use glancing up at Angelus to plead, instead she lifted her eyes and took in Spike, lounging comfortably on the pillows, smoking another cigarette, watching as the smoke curled and twisted in the air.  Closing her eyes briefly, she looked back down at the page and began to read, her voice low and hesitant.

"There is nothing I can do now, I am lost," she shifted slightly on the ottoman, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the neat handwriting of her
journal.  She could hear Spike move on the pillows undoubtedly looking up at her.  "One week and now I feel there is nothing left to lose.  I
don't understand my position here, what is expected of me..."

She continued to read, her face flaming red with every intimate detail she had recorded.  There were the detailed reports of each of their
couplings, of her feelings, confusion, anger, frustration, fear.  With every word she read she felt the humiliation grow.  It only got worse when
she mentioned Spike.

"Now, we get to the interesting part," he muttered lighting up a cigarette and fixing his gaze on her, listening intently.  Willow read for several
minutes, discussing her feelings during the training sessions, of her subordinance to him, then she paused and swallowed.

"As I see more of Spike, the less I understand him.  At times he is so childlike, playful and carefree, the next a vicious killer," Willow glanced
at him from under her lashes, he seemed less than enthused over that little summary of his character.  Biting her lip she paused before going onto the next bit.  "I sometimes feel, if it were not for my arrangement and connection with Angelus, that Spike would happily kill me..."

Spike laughed out loud and Angelus joined him, reaching out and taking the journal from her hands. He flipped through the pages and Willow turned away, fixing her eyes on the fire, hoping the heat would be sufficient excuse for her flaming face.

"Well what do you think, Spike?" asked Angelus of the blonde.

"Too girlie for me," Spike stated walking across and accepting the journal from Angelus.  Throwing himself down in the chair next to his sire,
he flicked through the pages, to her first meeting of him, before Angelus' return.  "Oh look, first impression of me...'I don't like him, he's
scary'...well I'm flattered."

Spike laughed and then continued to read, mimicking Willow's voice and exaggerating the childishness of her earlier writings.  Angelus
reached out and stroked her hair, she jerked away from the contact, still focusing on the fire.  He laughed and took the journal from Spike.

"I think we should go to LA tonight for dinner," he said standing up and walking over to the fire, carelessly tossing the book into the flames,
watching it burn.  Slowly he turned back to stare at Willow, a shrewd smile on his face.  "We'll leave in two hours."

Willow stood up and shot him a defiant look before turning on her heel and walking to her bedroom.  She had shoved at the door with enough force that it should have slammed shut, but it didn't.  As she continued to walk through her sitting room she could hear the dull thud as the wood was held open and Angelus' laughter.  Blindly she kept walking forward, her feet had barely crossed the threshold of her bedroom when he grabbed her upper arms, pulling her back against his chest but keeping them moving into her room.

"What are you running from?" he asked against her hair.  Willow grimaced and yanked herself free of his grip.

"You.  Something I can never escape," she spat at him.  Angelus laughed.

"But that's not what you're really running from Willow, is it?" he grabbed her forearms and shook her.  "You're running from yourself, you
always have, always will."

"No," Willow denied frowning at him and shaking her head.

"No?  You aren't upset because I made you read your foolish little journal.  You're upset because it's no longer true, full of empty words and
lies.  What's expected of you, what you think you should be feeling, what you may have felt..." he started to back her toward the bed, his
fingers never loosening their painful hold on her.  "But it's long since been replaced..."

"No," she almost sobbed as her legs crashed into the bed but Angelus' hold kept her from falling down.  "No, I won't listen to you."

"No, you won't and you won't listen to yourself," Angelus stated.  "You deny it all, the pleasure you feel, you let the guilt over ride it..."

"No, no...I...I don't," Willow stuttered gasping for breath.  She almost collapsed as he released her and she grabbed at his arm to keep from
falling.  He stared at her, his eyes roaming over her still flushed face, over her body and his hands moved up to cup her face.

"It's no use...you know that.  I know everything," he purred the word, his lips brushing against her ear, his fingers pushing a few stray strands
of hair from her face.  Willow swallowed and closed her eyes.  "Everything that goes on in your brilliant mind, you can't hide anything from
me.  Whether it is your subconscious thoughts, your confusion, your clarity.  Nothing is hidden..."

His fingertips trailed down from her cheek, sliding along her jaw and dropping to her choker, two fingers ran along the edges of it while his
index finger caressed the intricate knot work.  Slowly he lowered his head and kissed her throat just below the choker near her shoulder.  He
repeated the kiss on the otherside of her neck before kissing the triangle of flesh under her chin.  Willow gasped through parted lips her hands falling on his hips to steady herself.  Slowly he nuzzled at her neck before working his way back up to her ear, his cheek rubbing lightly against hers.

"I believe," Angelus whispered against her ear as he mouthed it.  "That you are quite well and can go back to school next week...would you
like that?"

As he asked the question Angelus pulled back and looked at her flush face, his thumbs caressing her cheeks.  Willow took a deep breath,
knowing he was waiting for her answer, she opened her eyes to find his fixed on her.

"Yes," she murmured.  She bit her lip lightly as he continued his study of her.  Smiling Angelus continued to caress her cheeks, he leant down his lips hovering above hers.

"It isn't worth it, the guilt," he whispered. Willow parted her lips, breathing in, inhaling the sweetness of his mouth that his words carried.  He
shifted, moving in closer, closing the distance between their bodies. He whispered his words, caressing her skin with them. "You should revel in what you feel, it's natural, it's beautiful.  The way your body reacts...the way it is now.  Why deny yourself pleasure?"

Angelus purred the word in her ear, making her shiver.  Willow closed her eyes briefly, her breathing ragged, her body leaning closer to his as her hands tightened about his hips.

"Your body wants what you do.  To touch," his fingers caressed her jaw, tracing a burning path down to her collarbone.  "To feel, to taste..."
his mouth brushed against hers, barely touching.  "What do you want Willow?"  Angelus whispered against her ear and Willow tilted her head closer to his mouth, desperate for the feel of his lips.  "What do you want?"

"Touch me," Willow begged.

"Make me want to," he challenged her.

Willow swayed slightly, her hold on his waist the only thing that stopped her falling over, her need to feel him driving her insane.  Touch, feel,
taste.  The words echoed in her mind and her body reacted.  Her mouth found his neck, her lips whispering over his cool flesh, closing around his adams apple, her tongue caressing the skin while she sucked lightly.  Fingers danced across his silk shirt, tingling at the sensation of his muscles tightening beneath the material, and pulled at the buttons exposing the taunt flesh. Pulling her mouth away from his neck she glanced down at her fingers fumbling with the buttons, impatiently ripping them apart, her eyes and hands eager to expose him.  As the last button was released she pushed the shirt off and bought her hands back to hover millimetres above his chest.  She could feel the coolness of his flesh in sharp contrast to her own warmth of flesh and breath.  She pressed a soft kiss to his chest as her fingers traced the muscles of his chest, circling until her nails dragged across his nipples, making them harden.  Slowly she mouthed his neck, biting and sucking against long dead pulse points before kissing the flesh beneath his chin.  One of her hands tangled in his hair, pulling his head down so she could kiss his lips, her tongue stroking and teasing it's way into his mouth.  As soon as her tongue caressed his, her free hand lowered to cup his leather-clad ass, pulling him to her and his arms wrapped about her aching body.

Willow shuddered and moaned against his mouth as they came together, their bodies flush against each other.  She released her hold on his hair, her hand exploring and clawing at his back, feeling the muscle move and flex.  She squeezed his ass and rubbed herself against his
growing erection.  Blood was pounding through her body, her clothes were chaffing her, her skin screaming for the feel of Angelus'. Breaking
the kiss she dragged her lips along his jaw and back down to his throat, alternately nipping and kissing.  His hands were working at her
clothes, slowly discarding them, exposing her heated body to his caresses.  She bit him hard on the shoulder as her hand moved around to
cup his leather-clad erection and she felt him growl against her neck, the noise rumbling and vibrating through their chests.  Kissing his neck
she made her way back to his lips, their tongues duelling as she undid the fastening of his pants, her fingers pushing down the leather before wrapping about his hard cock.  She began to stroke him, her fingers and tongue making him groan into her mouth.

Angelus divested himself of his leather pants, stepping out of them while tugging Willow's skirt down, letting it drop to the floor.  She once
more broke the kiss her mouth dropping down to capture one of his hard nipples, her free hand ran the length of his spine, her nails raising
welts making him his in pleasure and arch forward.  He wrapped his hand about hers on his cock as his free hand tangled in her hair.  Stilling her hand he tilted her head back, capturing her lips, nipping at them, sucking softly on the bottom one.  Willow moaned and slumped down, her legs finally giving out.  Angelus caught her, supporting her tiny weight easily with one hand.  Cupping her ass he lifted her up to him, her legs immediately wrapped about his waist trapping his hard cock between his stomach and her wet cunt.  Willow groaned and thrust against him causing him to growl his fingers grasping at her back. Breaking the kiss she kissed his neck, sucking and nipping at the cool flesh, her fingers caressing his back.  Everything spun and Willow found herself thrown across the bed, her arms and legs still wrapped firmly about him.

"Pleasure, Willow, nothing else," Angelus murmured in her ear before kissing a path down to her sensitive breasts.  She felt his powerful body arch back and she tightened her legs about his waist as his hips thrust forward, impaling her.

"Yes," she cried out as he slid deep into her.  His arms snuck under her, his hands kneading and caressing her back, pressing against sensitive spots as he slowly set a rhythm of long deep thrusts.  Willow could feel his body curling about hers, moulding together as she moved with him.  Her hips meeting his thrust for pleasurable thrust.  Her lips were devouring him, kissing his shoulders, neck and face.  With deep carnal kiss he lifted her up off the bed, pulling her down onto him.  Willow wrapped one arm about his neck the other going around his waist as she held on to him, moving her body against his.  She was whimpering in pleasure, her mouth was fixed to his mouth, desperate kisses that demanded a response.  Occasionally their mouths would separate and kiss their shoulders and necks, teeth teased and nip, tongues caressed and licked, but always they would find each other again, locking together, teasing and tasting.  Willow threw back her head, exposing her neck to Angelus, she knew from his movements and her own that they were both close.  She could feel a raging heat spreading through her in crashing waves, clawing at Angelus she thrust down hard against him, the pressure building.  Moving her head her mouth found his again, tongues mimicked their movements and Willow found herself drowning in taste and sensation.

"Just pleasure, darlin'," Angelus breathed breaking the kiss his eyes boring into hers.  Suddenly everything froze for Willow before splintering, his name left her lips, a deep throaty cry and she cried out with every jerky thrust of his hips as he came.  She clung to him even as he continued to cum, her arms wrapped tightly about his jerking body as he grunted and held her close.  Her lips caressed his shoulders and neck, alternate nips and kisses.  Still she held him tightly as he laid them back across the bed, his own mouth caressing her breasts, neck and face.  One of his hands entwined with hers and she bought his fingers to her mouth, kissing and sucking them.  As she stretched her legs out and ran them down his she turned her head slightly, her free hand moving to caress his hair while his face was buried in her neck.

Willow smiled at the feel of his soft kisses on her fevered skin, of his hard body against hers, of him still buried deep with in her, of the sticky
mess running between her legs.  Utterly satisfied she continued to stroke his hair, kissing his shoulder lightly before a slight movement caught her eye.  Glancing up she saw Spike leaning against the outer sitting room door, his face was stoic, but his eyes held a sadness as he took a drag from his cigarette.  Angelus claimed her mouth again, his tongue soft and questing, demanding a response before breaking away and trailing kisses down her throat.  By the time Willow turned back Spike had gone.
 

Next