The pulse of the bass beat thrummed throughout her being, as sweat drenched her fiery locks and ran in rivulets down her lithe form.  A silent testament to how hard she'd pushed her body on this particular dance floor.  The tall green demon stood watch over her not far away, making sure that she was not unduly accosted as she worked out her issues through the dance.

She'd been coming here every Sunday night for the past two months, just to dance.  Freeing herself from the cares of her everyday life…hiding out from unfulfilled dreams, unrequited passions.

Lorne felt the guilt, pain, sorrow, anger, spiced with just a tinge of desire emanate off her in waves.  "Poor Little Lamb," he sighed regretfully.  Then his eyes took on a happy glow.  "He's coming for you."

Swaying her hips in time to the sultry pull of the bass music, she was unaware that at that moment, two sets of eyes observed her.  Angel swiftly crossed the room from the entrance, intending to not only greet his friend, but berate her for coming to such a place alone at night.  A linen-clad arm halted his progress onto the dance floor.

Brown eyes met red.  The demon spoke.  "Let her be, Angel-face. Unless, you plan on dancing with her.  If your dancing's as crowd-pleasing as your singing, don't bother."

Angel half-growled, "She shouldn't be here, Lorne.  She's not safe."

The Host scoffed.  "Back off, man.  This *is* Caritas.  This is her sanctuary.  Since she's been coming, I always make sure she gets back home safely.  Besides, what are you going to do? Drag her off the floor like an errant child, give her a spanking and send her to her room without supper?  She's been through and is going through a lot.  The only thing you can do for her is to slink quietly back to your den of brood or dance with her."

"She doesn't need a dance," he disagreed, flinging an arm and a glance in her direction.  "She should be home, in bed, dreaming of teddy bears and everlasting gob-stoppers or something like that."

"You really don't know much about Willow, do you, Prince Charming?" the demon inquired.  "The only home she knows has been a secret locked in her heart for years now.  The only bed that could possibly give her comfort, is now occupied by a ghost and a man who has no idea she exists.  The only dreams she has give her, not rest, but torment.  They tease her with a life and love that never was, nor can be.  Unless…" he amended,
then took a drink of his cocktail.

Angel again addressed the demon.  "What, Lorne? What can I do to help her?"

Lorne sighed.  "There's nothing you can do.  She will die tonight. Go home, Angel.  Go home to brood and ponder your grief and guilt about the Slayer.  Sleep in your lonely, cold bed.  You're beyond helping her."

Angel grabbed the lapels of Lorne's jacket none to gently.  "Tell me what I can do, damnit.  I can't leave her to just die.  I would be failing Buffy.  Tell me what I need to do, Lorne."

Lorne's eyes glowed, contemplatively cocking his horned head to one side.  "You just might be able to help her after all.  Dance with her."

Sensing that the demon knew much more than he was revealing, Angel increased his grip on Lorne.  "Tell me what you know, Lorne," he threatened.

The host rolled his eyes heavenward, then acquiesced.  "She's under a spell; not of her own doing.  Some well-meaning fae put it on her.  But as you know, the faes' spells cut both ways.  She will have one last dance tonight.  Then, she will share a night of passion with some lucky fella. Unless she dances then mates with her true love, she will die by sunrise.  But, it's okay, she doesn't really have the will to go on living.  She'll be much happier, appreciated and rewarded in her after-life than she has been on this earth."

Angel involuntarily took a step back, releasing the well-dressed demon, trying to digest the information.  "Okay, so we find out who her true lover is supposed to be, then we bring him here and make sure she goes with him tonight. I'm gonna call the gang.  In the meantime, you keep an eye on-"

The host held up a hand, shaking his head mockingly.  "Whoa, there, John Wayne.  You can't just call the posse and saddle up. This isn't a *case* you're working.  Why do you suppose your Seer didn't have a vision of one of her nearest and dearest? This is Willow.  You can't call in the wrecking crew on this.  It's *your* job."  Then he added wryly.  "Your mission, if you will. Should you choose to accept it."

Angel processed the new information.  "How the hell am I supposed to find out who this dream-lover is, Lorne?"  he argued.

Lorne surprised Angel by laughing in his face.  "Oh, that's the easy part, Sugar.  Her lover's name is on her lips.  Any and every man she dances with tonight, she will greet with her lover's name."  The host spared a glance her way.  "Looks like things are heating up.  You'd better get to work."

Angel looked out at Willow, who was busy shimmying on some guy's leg, and felt something insidious tear through his insides. He glanced back at Lorne, straightened his suit, and muttered his thanks to him.  The dark vampire began to wade through the crowd towards Willow.

Near the bar, Lorne and the spell-casting fae toasted one another as Lorne said with barely concealed amusement,"This message will self-combust."

Once Angel had reached the center of the floor, Willow had her back to him and was letting her current partner grind against her backside, oblivious to the show she was giving the spectators. He had to admit to himself that Willow's sensual pull did not leave him immune.  Every able-bodied man in the room looked at the flame-haired girl with barely concealed lust.

Leaning down to her current partner, he whispered fiercely, "I know this is Caritas, friend, but if you don't stop grinding on my wife, I'll show you no mercy when you leave this place tonight."

The guy raised his hands in surrender and abruptly disentangled himself from Willow.  In a shaky voice, the man said "Sorry man.  Didn't see a ring.  She's all yours."  Angel dismissed the guy and turned his attentions to Willow, who was undulating like a professional belly-dancer, her back still to him.

As she raised her arms straight above her head, several things happened simultaneously.  A new song was cued up, a mix of reggae-flavored R&B, a mix of bass, rich in texture, filled with the promise of a passion to come.  In that same moment, Angel's hands reached up to entwine his fingers with those of Willow's. An electric shock of unspoken desire raced through them both with that simple contact.  The pair gasped as Angel drew himself flush with Willow's heated body.  The vampire's member hardened, an instant and involuntary response.  Willow's center moistened as if in instinctive recognition.

A surge of protectiveness and possessiveness flared within Angel as his demon starkly revealed something that Angel thought he'd long ago buried within the recesses of his heart and mind. <Mine!> His demon roared in conquest.  <Oh, no!  I can't do this now!  Buffy is barely cold.>  The demon fought with reason and persuasion.  <She is ours.  She has always been. Make her ours.  Take her now, or she will die.>  Angel bowed his head with equal parts defeat and triumph.

Willow, unconscious of her partner's identity, much less that of his internal struggle, leaned her head back against his broad chest and whisper- whimpered, "Angel."

He growled in acknowledgment as their hips began swaying in time to the music.  Their arms moved in concert, spreading their way outward and down towards their hips.  Angel grabbed Willow's hips and spun her like a top to face him.

Tipping her chin up to look into his eyes, was her undoing. "Angel!" she gasped, her unfocused eyes held confusion and wariness.  He kept them moving in time to the music.

"Sh, little one.  One dance, then we're leaving."

She tried to unsuccessfully remove herself from him.  He bent his head towards the delicate shell of her ear. "Move with me, Willow. You've danced with every other man here tonight.  Now dance for me," he demanded. Then in a softening tone, "You want this as much as I do."

She had no choice but to comply.  His grip on her body echoed that fact.  Indignation and desire mounted within her.  If he wanted to give a floor- show, she'd give him one to remember. As the sensual lyrics played, she found herself lost in the pull of Maxi Priest's smooth vocals.

Ain't no use pretending
You don't feel the way I do
With this message that your body's sending
I can tell you want it, too.

The moves of Angel's body followed Willow's as she taunted and teased him, purposely grinding her hips against his.  The minx in her reveled in the fact that she could evoke such a response in the normally stoic vampire.  Her fingers danced across the black silk of his shirt, glancing across his nipples. Angel groaned, throwing his head back, pulling her to him.  She disentangled her hands, and rubbing a hot trail from his waist to his knees, her body crouching to accomplish her goal.  Her face came flush with his distended jean-clad member, and she rubbed her cheek against him, much like a satisfied feline. Gripping his ass with both hands, Willow used him to lever herself upright.

Why do you wanna hide the way you feel inside,
It's too late to turn back now
Every little touch
It means so much
So, girl just let me show you how.

Looking into his glazed eyes briefly, she turned her back to him once again.  Covering the tops of his hands with her smaller ones, she deliberately moved them to cover her shoulders. Willow skimmed the two pairs of hands down the sides of her body, detouring briefly to butterfly touch her breasts and taut abdomen.  Glancing the outside of her hips, she brought them towards the heat of her.  Never pausing, she skated their hands
lightly across her covered mons and moved them to rest high on her moistened her inner thighs.  Using her momentum, she bent slightly at the waist, pulling Angel with her.

Your body can't lie to me
Cause I know just what you're needing
Your body can't lie to me
Cause you're in need of sexual healing

Angel's arms encircled her waist, turning her about, so that they were again face to face.  Determined to lead her throughout the rest of the dance, Angel firmly clasped her hands and brought her into a classic dance position.  He moved them through a sensuous, scorching tango; Willow gave chase as he pursued. He finally ended the dance, catching her up into his arms, as the song came to a close.  The pair were met with a thundering
applause.  Willow hid her face in his chest, abruptly remembering that they had an audience.  Overwhelmed by the stress of it all, Willow slumped into a faint.

****

Willow awoke in a bed not her own.  The midnight satin sheets caressed her form from head to toe.  Her mind took the next logical leap to inform her that she wore nothing underneath the sheets.  A fire, which provided the only light in the room, was burning in a hearth just opposite the bed.

Scrambling up and out of the bed, she tore the top sheet off the bed.  Wrapping it about her body, she made a mad dash for the door.  A voice from within the room slowed her steps.

"Willow, you're not going anywhere."

Willow turned abruptly, looking around. "Angel?", she asked, her voice laden with surprise.

"None other," he confirmed.

She walked on shaky legs towards the fireplace.  "Where are you and what's going on?"

"Nothing you haven't wanted to happen." He supplied.

As she bowed her head, Willow felt the air in the room shift. Angel stood in front of her, wearing nothing but a pair of silken black drawstring pants.  She gasped taking a step back away from him.   He followed her, settling his hands on her arms.

Quickly grasping his meaning and intent, she mumbled to herself, "This isn't right.  Let me go."

"Little one, this is more right than you know.  We have to do this. You need this.  I want this." His arms cradled her to him.  She briefly drew comfort from his embrace, then came to her senses.

"No." she pushed against his chest.  Angel gave her enough space within the circle of his arms to look into her face.

"Fine.  We won't do this.  On one condition." He requested.

Willow quickly vowed, "Anything," so ready she was to remove herself from his arms, his room and his life.

Angel smiled thinly.  <She's so ready to be rid of me.  She's so afraid of the depth of her emotions, not to mention her physical response to me.  You won't be rid of me so easily.>

"What's the condition, Angel?"

He cupped her face in his hands, willing her to look at him.  As she complied to that unspoken request, he answered.  "One kiss. If you honestly tell me that you feel nothing, you walk out of here.  No harm, no foul."

Willow tried to read his eyes, but found nothing but honesty and some unreadable emotion there.  She lifted her chin boldly.  "And if I do…feel something, that is?"

"Then you stay the night with me," he answered.

"I see," she said.  Then she began to weigh the implications. "Well, what about-"

He shook his head, cutting her off.  "You're stalling now, Willow. I don't want to hear it.  Tonight, there is only us and what we feel. No ghosts, no other lovers, dead, alive or otherwise comes between this.  We'll deal with regrets and reprisals tomorrow. Now, about that kiss-"

Angel swiftly headed off any more protestations and brought his mouth to meet hers.  That one touch seared Willow to her core and she whimpered in response.  His demanding tongue swept into her mouth to chase then duel with hers.  The taste of the hot cavern of her mouth nearly drove him to the edge.  The fingers of one hand caressed her face gently as his other hand moved to draw her flush with his wanting body.  Willow tentatively explored his mouth, seeking out his tongue, drawing hitched breaths through her nostrils.  She unconsciously brought her hands up, running her fingers through his crisp, yet unbelievably soft locks. The movement brought her heated flesh even closer into the cooling confines of Angel's embrace.  Angel, thrilled by her response, growled in satisfaction, as he continued to try and eat her from the mouth down.  With regret, he soon released her. Willow moaned in frustration and tried to resume the kiss.  He firmly pulled himself away from her.

"No more.  If we don't stop now, I won't be able to."

Willow blushed, embarrassed that she'd been so responsive to him and struggle to look anywhere but his face.

Again, he made her look at him.  "Now tell me that you didn't feel anything; and I'll leave you to your chaste bed." He muttered, knowing fully well he'd evoked a response out of her.

Willow was not about to give in so easily.  She stubbornly set her chin trying to get her scrambled brains to form a believable lie.

"No, you don't, kitten," he said, sensing the direction of her thoughts.  He reached into the loosened sheet down to the nest of her curls.  Willow gasped, attempting to squirm away from his questing hand.  Finding what he sought, he brought his glistening fingers up for her inspection.  "You were about to lie to try and cheat us out of this.  The body never lies, little one," he said resolutely, licking his coated digits, watching her all the
while.  Willow closed her eyes in defeat.  Angel closed in on her mouth as they shared another searing kiss.  He ripped the offending sheet away and grasped the globes of her ass, bringing her abruptly against his swollen shaft.  Willow rubbed against him in response as Angel groaned.

Let my caresses take you places
Where ya never been before
To the edge of your desire
Where you want it more and more
But do you want a prize?
Turn out the lights
Come let's make tonight the night
There's no resisting
Love is insisting
Come let's make it right tonight.
 

He caressed the soft skin covering her spine and she jumped with the contact.  He moved his exploration to her chin, then softly flicked at her ear with his tongue.  Willow shivered, burying her hands in his hair again, encouraging his ministrations.  His tongue trailed down the slim column of her sensitive neck and she moaned as his gently nipped at it.  Angel placed moist kisses along the line of her collarbone and repeated his caress on the other side of her neck.  Willow's legs unable to support her, threatened to buckle.

Angel, as if anticipating this, placed his hands about her slim waist and lifted her.  Wrapping her slim legs about him, he turned and laid her gently on the bed.  Her eyes still closed, she opened them as he removed himself from her.  Angel stood in awe, eyes wandering boldly over the physical perfection that was Willow.  Willow met his gaze as a blush spread from the tops of her breasts to the crown of her head.  She would have moved to cover herself, but was halted by the intensity of his perusal.  As if in a trance, he deftly removed his silk pants, and crawled up her body, both his eyes and hands glancing over her skin.  Willow kissed him tenderly.

Angel brought his hands and mouth down to play with her already budded nipples, teasing them all the more.  Willow gasped as his cool mouth latched onto her and ran her hands along his shoulders and back.  Flicking one nipple with regret, he moved to the other he had been keeping occupied with his fingers, and gave it equal attention.  She moaned his name aloud, thinking that absolutely nothing could eclipse this exquisite torment.  Arching her back to allow him more access to her swollen nipples, he smiled against her.

Angel kissed, caressed and nibbled a trail down Willow's stomach and she groaned in frustration.  Pausing to pay due attention to her navel, he laved it teasingly with his tongue.  Then, his fingers and mouth continued to burn a trail down to her thatch of chestnut curls, dampened with the dew of her desire. Willow, who had been lost in a sensual haze, was brought to abrupt consciousness as she anticipated his intent.  She clamped her thighs closed so tightly, she would've done her rabbi proud.  Lifting her head, to offer an explanation, she gasped, "Um, I don't think-"  Angel raised his eyes to look at her. "Nothing we do here is wrong, Willow.  Let me do this.  I've been waiting to do this all night.  Trust me?"  Rationalizing to herself that Angel had about 250 years of experience with this, she was swayed.  She nodded to him, opening her legs slowly.  Angel locked eyes with Willow as he lowered his mouth to her.  Willow got out a ragged shriek as his mouth made contact with the heated heart of her.  As her head fell back in surrender, Angel smiled and continued to explore her molten heat with his mouth and tongue.

Nearly delirious from the taste of her, he moaned into her and moved his tongue to slowly circle her clit.  Willow let out another series of high- pitched moans as the muscles in her thighs flexed.  Angel, continuing to tease her sensitive flesh, moved a finger to her entrance and invaded her.  Moving the finger slowly in and out, combined with the movements of his mouth and tongue were too much for Willow.  She met his fingers and
mouth with little circles of her hips.  Her breath went in and out in little gasps, as she flew higher and higher.  Willow pleaded with him to come inside her.  Angel suddenly increased the flicks and pressure of his tongue, sending her crashing into her first orgasm.  She wailed his name in a cry of sheer ecstasy.  Before his name finished clearing her lips, he climbed up her body, lifted her hips with his hands and guided himself to her hot,
humid entrance.  His eyes connected with hers, gaining the answer to his unspoken request, and slammed himself into her throbbing tightness.  Angel groaned closing his eyes, losing himself in the feel of her heated softness.  His heightened senses, also picked up on an all-too familiar smell, yet one which was uniquely Willow's.  All movement ceased as realization hit him.

He opened his eyes, a questioning and concerned look on his face.  Willow answered him frustrated that he'd stopped.  "No, not anymore, thanks to you and yes, I'm fine.  Can we please continue?" she said, sensuously rolling her hips underneath his. The feel of hers hips was his undoing as he fell back under her enchantment.  Slowly, their hips met time and again, fusing together in sweet abandon. Willow met his every downstroke with one of her own, gasping at the intimate contact.  She looked up at him as his brown eyes met her verdant green.  They smiled, then concentrated on prolonging each other's pleasure.

Angel soon felt himself quickening and speeded up his thrusts, reveling in the feel of her hot, wet tightness.  His felt his human visage give way to his true face and turned away, as not to startle Willow.  She captured his face in both of her delicate hands and repeated his earlier promise.  "We deal with it tomorrow, Angel," she gasped, lowering his head to the graceful curve of her neck. His hips moved blindingly, pistoning in and out of her hot core, as he nodded his head.  He kissed her neck softly then bit down into her flesh, releasing a hot fount of her sweet blood into his mouth.  Lifting his head, he came with a roar, spilling copious amounts of himself into her waiting chalice.  Willow came again, with a sweet cry of her own, his name again tumbling mindlessly from her lips.

Angel collapsed on top of her, attempting to regain his wits. They lay together like that for a time, until Angel removed himself from her and reached for a nearby blanket, covering them both, cradling her to his sated body.  Willow lay her head on his chest, letting his rumbling purr lull her to sleep, uncaring of the sunrise to come.
 

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