Part Six
Willow sighed softly at the feel of Angel’s lips on hers.
In the last two
weeks, she had rarely felt this relaxed, this comfortable, or this
energized.
She moaned as he caught her lower lip between his teeth and began
to worry at
the tender flesh.
With gentle hands, he lifted her from her kneeling position on the
couch to a
reclining position in his arms. They continued to kiss but
now their hands
came into play. Lightly, lovingly, their hands traced the
lines of each
others faces and played up and down each others backs. Time
slipped away
unnoticed as they learned the taste and texture of one another.
Willow moaned softly as her head fell back baring the graceful length
of her
throat. The moan turned to a sigh as Angel accepted the invitation
and began
to nibble on the soft skin. At the same time he moved one
of his hands and
cupped one of Willows breasts in his palm. In response, Willow
pressed
herself into his hand, eager for more physical contact.
With a slight chuckle, Angel complied with Willows silent request.
Slowly he
unbuttoned her top and spread it open revealing her lace bra.
Languidly he
leaned forward and placed a kiss on the flesh just above the bra,
then he
kissed the valley between her breasts. Slowly he moved his
hand along her
back to the clasp of her bra preparing to undo it.
Sudden, insistent knocking at the door startled them. Reluctantly,
with many
quick and gentle kisses, Angel lifted Willow off his lap, straightened
her
clothing, and tenderly placed her on the couch.
“We will continue this, little one,” he said then smiled at Willow’s
soft nod
of agreement. With obvious reluctance he walked to the door
and opened it.
Finding Buffy, Xander, and Giles on the other side shocked him.
“Hi, Angel,” Buffy said with a loving smile. “Have you seen
Wil…” Buffy
stopped speaking when she saw Willow nestled on the couch.
“Willow!” she
cried rushing forward. “What are you doing here? We’ve
been looking
everywhere for you!”
Xander quickly followed Buffy into the apartment. His happiness
at finding
Willow safe kept him from glaring at Angel as he usually did.
He rushed over
to Willow and gave her a quick hug as he sat down beside her.
He and Buffy,
who sat on Willow’s other side, gave Willow a thorough look over.
During their inspection Willow had remained silent she hadn't even
bothered to
answer Buffy’s earlier questions and barely even looked at her
friends. Her
attention was focused on Angel as she looked to see how he felt
at Buffy’s
sudden reappearance in his life. But Angel was focused just
as intently on
her as she was on him. Both barely noticed Giles as he stood
just inside the
apartment door and watched as Buffy and Xander tried to find out
why Willow
was at Angel’s.
“Why are you here, Willow?” Xander asked drawing the young woman’s
eyes away
from Angel. “Your note said you would be with a friend, so
why are you here
at Angels?” Xander never even noticed the anger that started
to burn in
Willow’s eyes.
“Yeah,” Buffy said. “No offense or anything, Angel, but your
just not the
type of person Willow hangs around with.” Buffy smiled her
most winning smile
at the vampire. Angel’s only response was the slight lifting
of one eyebrow
and a slow walk from the door to the couch. Buffy’s smile
widened to a grin
as she watched Angel walk towards the trio. She fully expected
Angel to pull
her into his arms and kiss her or make some other display of affection.
Her
surprise knew no bounds when he stopped directly in front of Willow
instead
and held out his hand to the young hacker.
“Shall we go for a walk, little one?” he asked, his affection for
the young
woman visible on his face. Willow responded by smiling, taking
the vampires
hand and letting him draw her to a standing position. Angel
pulled her closer
to the door, drew a leather jacket from the closet, and handed
it to Willow.
“Put this on while I move your bags into the bedroom then we can
head out.”
He turned to Buffy and the others and said, “I’m sure the three
of you can
show yourselves out.” He lifted Willow’s bags and left the
room but was back
in less than a minute. He returned to the main room to find
Buffy and Xander
staring at Willow in confusion.
“Wil?” Xander asked, “What’s going on?”
Willow looked at Xander and shook her head. She was surprised
to find herself
uninterested in anything he had to say. She could barely
stand being in the
same room with him but it was because she was no longer in love
with him. The
idea of spending more time than she had to with him was now slightly
repugnant
to her.
“Angel, let’s go,” she said linking arms with the vampire.
Angel smiled and opened his apartment door. Together he and
Willow ushered
the others out then followed. As he locked the door Buffy
tried to draw
Willow from his side but the hacker obstinately kept her place.
“Buffy, Xander, Giles,” Angel said turning from the now locked door.
“We’ll
see you around sometime but right now we have a walk to get to.
Goodbye.”
With slack jaws, Buffy and Xander watched Willow and Angel walk
away. The
still silent Watcher merely observed, as a look of dawning understanding
appeared on his face and his eyes filled with unanswered questions.
Painfully
he realized that Buffy and Xander's relationship had put a terrible
strain on
their friendship with Willow. With nowhere else to turn for
understanding,
Willow had become friends with Angel and that friendship had evolved
into
love. The Willow they had all known was gone and in her place
stood a new,
confident Willow. A Willow who didn't need the library quite
so much. Giles
now knew that he wouldn't be seeing Willow around the library as
much as he
used to. Without him noticing, she'd grown up.
The End