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“Watching you do your homework wasn’t what I had in mind,
pet.” Spike
grumbled as he watched Willow typing furiously at her
computer. She was writing an
English essay. It was nearly noon and she had hardly
spoken to him.
“Oh? Maybe I should call Xander and he could come and pick
you up.” Her voice
was infused with sarcasm.
“I don’t think so. In fact, I think I’ll head downstairs
and have a cup of cocoa with
your mum and dad. Be sociable, y’know.” He stood up and
took off his shirt as he
walked to the door. “My, it’s hot in here.”
“No! Sit down, Spike.” Willow did not want to explain to
her parents why there
was a half naked man sitting at their dining room table.
“And put your shirt back on!”
“What’s the matter, luv? You look a little flustered.”
He walked over to stand
beside her desk. Reaching out his hand, he cupped her chin
to examine her face. “As a
matter of fact, I do believe you’re blushing.”
“If you’re craving chocolate, there’s a candy bar in my
backpack, okay? Now, be
quiet so I can finish this.” As he headed toward her
backpack beside the bed, she sighed
and began to breathe easier as she tried to think of
another phrase for “unreliable
narrator” to describe Holden Caulfield. She heard Spike
rustling through various
things, then heard him zip the bag back up, apparently
having found what he wanted.
“You always keep Dove bars in your bag, pet?”
“Shhhh.” She continued typing. Ten minutes later, she
realized that he was being
incredibly quiet. She couldn’t even hear a candy wrapper
rustling. She turned to see
what was going on. “What are you reading?”
“A very unique volume about this cute little red head I
know, who’s really sad
because she just lost her puppy.” He held her diary aloft
like a red flag, then casually
settled back in to continue reading.
With a screech of pure fury, Willow launched herself
across the room. She leaped
onto the bed and grabbed at the book.
Spike dropped the journal to grab her wrists and smirked.
“You just had to say
you were in the mood, luv. No sneak attacks, necessary.”
When she made a sound of
inarticulate frustration, he blew her a kiss.
“You, you , you . . .well, if I could think of something
mean and nasty, I’d call you
that. Let me go, and give me back my diary or I’ll–“
Willow was cut off by a knock at
the door.
“Willow?” Mrs. Rosenberg called. “Are you alright? I
thought I heard a
scream.”
Willow looked into Spike’s eyes. “If you don’t let me go,
I’ll tell her to come in
and you are going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Outside, in the nice bright
sunshine.”
Spike smiled. Then he rolled over on top of her and
pulled back to look down at
her. “And how will you explain how I came to be here?
Come on, Red. You know and I
know that you aren’t going to do anything. Anything but
tell her to go away, that is.”
Willow made no move to do so. “Would you rather I told her
you were just fine?”
“I’m fine, Mom. I just dropped a book on my foot.”
“Alright. Lunch is in five minutes, sweetie.” And her
mother moved on.
“Now let me up!” She hissed.
He rolled over slightly to his side, his bare chest
sliding over her. She slid out
from under him, journal in hand, and went back to her
desk, shaking with quiet
outrage. She sat down and tried to go back to her essay.
Willow had barely typed a
sentence, when she peeked at Spike under her lashes.
He sat on her bed with his arms crossed, sulking. “Luv,
there’s nothing to do
around this place. Been ignoring me to do your homework
and you’re working on the
computer so I can’t use it. Won’t allow me to go through
your closet again. You don’t
have a bleedin’ telly in your room for me to watch. And
now, you ‘ve gone and taken
my book.”
Seeing an out, Willow said. “Why don’t you read one of
those books, Spike? You
know, the fictional ones?” She gestured to the large shelf
of books which dominated one
wall in her room.
She saw him stand up to peruse the selection and began to
type when he
interrupted her thoughts again. “Well, well, well. What
have we here? What a naughty
book, Red. Never knew you read this kind of thing. I’m
shocked. “
She refused to let him bait her, but she had a pretty good
idea which book he’d
found. Spike pulled out the romance novel that had been
shoved behind some of her
more respectable tomes and let out a whistle. She turned
around to see what he was
doing. Spike was eagerly reading the back cover. “Dark
Embrace, eh? What’s this? A
vampire romance novel. Why, Red, I had no idea!”
He examined at the cover, which featured a black-clad hunk
clutching a woman
who was nearly bursting out of the top of her dress. Spike
waggled his eyebrows at her.
“Now this should be interesting.”
“Spike, don’t-“
”Shh, finish your essay. I’m just going to read this.”
Willow was loathe to try to
take it from him lest she end up trapped beneath him again.
Well, that had it’s moments.
Back to work! She turned her back to him so he couldn’t
see her flaming face and tried to
write again.
He had been reading several minutes when he began
flipping through the pages.
“Prattling fools! Talking themselves to death. When do we
get to the good stuff?” He
stopped. “Ah. Here it is.”
Willow got up and went to the door. She just couldn’t be
in the room while Spike
read through the novel’s sex scenes. “Pet, would you bring
me a cup of warm blood
when you come back from lunch?” She nodded but Spike was
not looking at her, once
again absorbed in the book. Willow sighed as she shut the
door behind her. Hopefully,
she could eat lunch with her parents and Spike would lose
interest in the novel by the
time she came back.
*******
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Willow walked
back into her room
with a cup of blood for Spike. She had managed to
convince her mother that it was for
a spell, a good spell! Spike was still sitting on her bed.
The book lay on her night stand.
He was smoking a cigarette and watching her very carefully.
She strolled over casually and handed him the blood. He
let his fingers brush her
hand as he took it.“Have a thing for vampires, Willow?”
“No, I don’t. That book must have been a gift or
something.”
“Oh, really? From who?”
“Xander.” It was the first name that popped into her head.
“That would explain it.” He muttered.
“Explain what? And stop smoking in my room.”
“Well,” he exhaled slowly, blowing a an “o” with the smoke
and before he put
out the cigarette. “Why he always ties me up at night, why
he looks at me like that, why
he tried to convince me that he was a nummy treat . . .”
“Nummy treat?”
“Yes, he said he was moist and delicious.” He rubbed his
chin. “Though who
could blame the idiot. I am a handsome devil.”
Willow shook her head, not wanting Spike to elaborate on
this little tidbit of
information. Some things you just don’t want to know
about. Besides, Spike and Xander. .
.ewwww, nasty.
Spike’s eyes fastened on hers again. “But, back to you.
So, it may have been a gift
from the idiot. . .but I saw creases on the pages, pet. I
know you’ve been reading this
little book.” His head tilted to the side. “And I know
exactly which parts.”
Her eyes flew from his and she turned to seek the
familiarity of the computer,
determined to ignore him. He sauntered over and sat down
on the desktop. “Now, luv,
you can tell your old friend Spike anything.”
Spike noted a twinkle in red head’s eyes as she sat down
on the chair and tilted
her face to stare up at him. “Hmmm. . .anything. Can you
keep a secret?” She murmured.
“Uh-huh. Tell me all about it, pet.” He said, inching
closer so she could whisper
into his ear.
“I am curious about vampires. I mean, living on the
Hellmouth, I can’t help but
wonder about. . .things. And then, when I read that book.
. .”
“Go on, Red.” He leaned closer to her, their heads were
touching as she continued
speaking, her lips brushing against his ear as she spoke.
“Well. . .its embarrassing. . .but sometimes I can’t help
but get carried away. . .I
begin imagining what it would be like. . .”
“Mmm” He said, feigning polite interest. His body gave
him away. His eyes
were heavy lidded, his hands gripped the desk, and his
jeans were fitting a bit tight.
“Vampires are so powerful, but I bet they could be gentle
too. . .”
“Gentle, uh-huh.” His voice was hoarse.
“Spike,” she said in dulcet tones. “ If I asked you for a
favor, would you. . .help
me?” She nipped his earlobe.
“Yessss. Anything for you, Red. ” His hands were shaking
as he reached to pull
her into his arms. He knew exactly what this favor was.
She put her hands on his bare chest, stroking the cool,
firm flesh. “Help me with
Angel.”
“Yes, you look like an angel, luv.” He barely registered
her words, his mind in a
haze of desire. He sought her mouth with his lips.
“No, Spike. I want Angel.” She gave him a gamine grin,
that sparkle of mischief
in her eyes. “And since he was your undead buddy, I
figured you could help me seduce
him. You must know what kind of woman he likes. ” Warming
to her game, she placed
her arm on his sleeve and said, “Buffy and I were talking
one night and from what she
said. . .wow!”
“What?!?” He stared at her fuzzily. What was she going on
about?
Her cheshire cat smile was wide. “You thought I was
asking you for something
else?”
Spike looked at her, the little witch was enjoying teasing
him. His answered her
look with a wicked grin. He could play this game too, and
he had a hundred or so years
of experience on her. He looked at her thoughtfully,
bringing his body under control.
“Well, Red. I’m not sure your peaches’ type at all. I’m
afraid you’ll need some work.”
Willow frowned, this wasn’t going according to plan. “I
was kidding, ha-ha.” She
punched his arm playfully, as she would have teased Xander.
Spike wasn’t about to let her off the hook yet. He hopped
down from the desk
and studied her. “Well, first of all, those clothes have
to go. ”
“What?! I’m not taking off my clothes in front of you.”
“Red, I was talking about your unfortunate wardrobe.
Remember? We talked
about this last night.” He went to her closet, threw open
the door with a flourish, and
began to rummage around inside. Jeans, shirts, and the
occasional pair of shoes were
flying over his shoulder as he searched for something he
deemed suitable.
Willow was determined to win this little charade. She sat
on the bed, twisting her
fingers in the lace of her bedspread, while he rifled
through her closet.
“Aha!”
Willow stared at the article of clothing he had chosen.
“That’s not mine!”
“It was a gift, right? Red, how come whenever I find
anything naughty at your
house you didn’t buy it? No, don’t tell me. . . the idiot
gave this to you, too? I don’t think
so.”
Willow stared at the flared leather pants he had selected
with dismay. She had
bought it after seeing the vampire version of herself in
leather. She had been
mesmerized yet repulsed by her doppelganger. She wondered
what it would really be
like to be that vampiric version of herself. Willow
sometimes took the pants out and
tried them on for fun. She knew that she would never
actually wear it anywhere, but
she liked the feeling of power they gave her.
He began scrutinizing her collection of sweaters,
turtlenecks, and t-shirts with a
frown. He spotted something on the top of her dresser.
“What’s this?”
“It’s not mine. That’s Buffy’s shirt.”
He held up the scrap of satin with a mocking grin. “But
it really is! She stayed
the night at my house and she forgot it!”
He held it out the gold top to her. Willow groaned. That
top had been skin tight
on Buffy. She didn’t know if she could stand to wear it in
front of Spike. She took it
from him and he began to scrounge through her drawers.
“Hey, you stay out of my
underwear drawer! What are you looking for? I’ll find it
for you.
Spike backed away with his hands up. “I get the message,
pet. You don’t want
me to have my hands on your knickers, ” He smiled at her
bright red cheeks. “Besides,
what you wear underneath won’t matter the first time you
meet him anyway. Can’t win
peaches’. . .err. . .heart if you sleep with him the first
chance you get. You have to take
some time, make him chase you. That’s where the slayer
messed up, playin’ easy to get.
Remember what happened to Slutty?”
Willow’s eyes rounded. What happened to Buffy? Willow had
a moment of
clarity, she remembered exactly what transpired after Buffy
slept with Angel. This was
getting way out of hand, she had no intention of waking up
next to Angelus to win a
game of chicken with Spike. “Oh, I was just kid-“
”No, you asked me for a favor, pet. I’ll help you get
that nancy boy if it’s the last
thing I do.” Spike was enjoying this game too much to end
it yet. “Now, you just try on
those duds. Let’s see what you look like.”
*******
Willow stood outside her door, trying to compose herself
before she went back
into her bedroom. She had grabbed a flannel robe to throw
over her ensemble in case
one of her parents made an appearance. She smiled as she
suddenly realized something,
she hadn’t thought about Oz all day. When she was with
Spike, she didn’t feel so lonely.
It’s just a rebound thing Willow, don’t get too attached.
Just a harmless crush.
Putting on a brave face she went inside to find Spike
sitting at her desk. His eyes
slid over her form from head to toe. His eyebrow raised at
her obvious discomfort.
“Well, then. Let’s have a look.” He crossed his arms as he
nodded at her robe . “Take it
off, Red. I always did love a good striptease.”
Willow looked off into space as if she were bored,
affecting an air of nonchalance
she didn’t feel. She flipped the robe off her shoulders
and it landed on a heap on the
floor. She then fixed Spike with an expression that said
well?
Spike fought to keep his expression neutral. “You’ll do,
pet.” He suddenly
wished he could smoke in her room.
Willow decided it was time to regain control of this
little contest. She sat down at
his feet and looked up at him as innocently as possible.
She almost felt sorry for the
arrogant vampire. She laughed inwardly, he wouldn’t know
what hit him.

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