Chapter 11

"Buffy, are you really sure about this?" Giles still sat on the edge of the bed, mesmerized by her. She stood before him, her top unbuttoned. He could see her soft pink bra where the blouse separated.

Buffy smiled at him, stepped closer, and ran her right hand down the side of his face. "I've never been more sure about anything else in my life. In my lives." He matched her smile with that. Usually, he didn't like it when she'd joke about her deaths, but he couldn't help his smile this time. "I love you, Giles. Perhaps I always have, and I know I always will. This is real. For the first time, I'm not scared of loving someone. Because it's you."

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She was still standing, and he was still sitting. He turned his head and placed his ear upon her breasts, listening to her rapidly beating heart. Buffy ran her fingers through his hair as he held her like that. "You never have to be afraid of loving me, Buffy. I'll never leave you. And I'll never intentionally hurt you. My whole life is living for you, to keep you safe."

"I know, Giles. I've learned so much about myself since being with you in Europe. And I've learned that is where I belong, in Europe, with you. I know I don't deserve your love, but I want it anyway. Will you love me now Giles?"

He lifted his head and looked into her face. "Always. And it's I who isn't worthy of you." Then he pulled her onto his lap, and kissed her. She wrapped her legs around him, and he fell backwards onto the bed, clutching her to him, devouring her mouth. He put all of his feelings and emotions into that searing kiss, and Buffy reciprocated it all in turn.

Giles ran his fingers underneath her blouse, and up and down her back. Slowly he removed her shirt. Buffy sat back on her haunches on his lap. She felt his hardness between her legs. His eyes burned like bright emeralds at her. She smiled again, and then reached back to unhook her bra, taking it off and throwing it onto the floor next to her shirt.

He drank her in with his eyes. As his gaze ran over her, Buffy's skin tingled and her skin went flush.

"So beautiful," Giles inhaled her lavender scent, and silky skin. He took his fingertips and ran them over her hardening nipples, rolling them between his thumb and finger. Buffy gasped, and threw her head back. Then Giles sat up a bit more, and ran his tongue up her neck, nipping at her chin, and then down in between the valley of her breasts.

There was no turning back now, for either one of them. The passion held them together, molten fire running through their veins, yearning and crying for release.

Moments later, they were skin on skin. Their remaining clothes had been pulled and dragged off, and thrown throughout the room. Soon, Buffy lay beneath him. As he entered her, he rested his brow on her forehead. "I love you," he whispered. She was too lost in feeling him inside of her, finally, to say anything coherently. Her moans and gasps and screams said it all, and she matched him thrust for thrust, until together they exploded and finally found the peace that only love can bring.

As he lay upon her stomach, hazy with bliss, and beginning to descend into sleep once again, a smile was glued to his face. His breathing slowed, and as he fell asleep, he heard her say, "I love you, Rupert." Then they both slept, cocooned in their love for one another.

The sun was streaming in through a crack in the curtains, when a loud knock jarred them both out of sleep. They both jumped, a jumbled mass of entangled limbs. Buffy reached up and felt her hair, standing on end. "Oh, ack, bed hair." Giles smiled down at her tenderly. "You are more beautiful than ever, luv." Then he kissed her on the tip of the nose, as the knocking continued. "Ok, ok, just a minute," he yelled at the door as he rolled off of Buffy and stood to find his jeans. Buffy giggled as she pointed towards them hanging half off the television at the end of the bed. "Ah, there they are." He smiled back at her and quickly threw them on, then peeked through the peephole on the hotel door. With a glance at Buffy to make sure she was covered adequately with the blankets on the bed, he slowly opened the door. "Is everything okay?"

It was Fred, and with one glance at Giles, shirtless, only wearing jeans, a red blush quickly crept up her throat, and to her ears. "Morning, Fred." Buffy smiled and waved from the bed.

Fred was mortified. Obviously she had interrupted something here. "I'm sorry, uh, Mr. Giles, but…Angel and Wesley need you and Buffy at the office."

Giles frowned. "Why didn't he just phone?"

Fred blushed some more. "Well, he did, but he kept getting a busy signal." All three eyes fell on the table on the far side of the bed that held the phone. The cradle was empty. Giles had hung the phone up in such a hurry, he had missed the receptacle. Buffy giggled, and then corrected the problem, replacing the phone receiver.

Giles smiled sheepishly at Fred. "Sorry about that. We'll be right over."

Fred nodded. "Okay, and don't worry about breakfast. Angel brought donuts for you all."

"Oh, are their jellies?" Giles truly looked excited, which made Buffy giggle even harder. He turned and glared at her, and was promptly smacked in the face with a flying pillow. "Oh, you are in for it now, Slayer." With a quick nod goodbye towards Fred, he shut the door and pounced on top of Buffy, cutting off her oxygen with another long kiss. "They just don't make jelly donuts in Europe like that, do they?" Buffy said breathlessly when her mouth was free. Giles' mouth, however, was way too busy to answer. "Ohhh…"

Buffy soon forgot about the donuts.

Fred watched the door shut, heard the screams and giggles coming from within, and smiled. At least someone in this awful city was happy. She ran back across the street to tell her boss that Buffy and her Watcher would be over, but it might be awhile.

Everyone was in Angel's office. Harmony was laying out the donuts when Fred entered. Angel looked up, noted the flush on her face, and that Giles and Buffy were not with her. "Where are they, Fred? Are they okay?" His concern soon subsided, however, as Fred shook her head.

"They are fine, Angel. They'll be over soon. I think."

"You think?" Spike asked, quirking his brow at her.

"Um, yeah, I think. They were sort of, well, they were busy."

"Busy?" Angel asked for them all. Even Harmony was interested. Since when did Fred get so flustered.

Fred wrung her hands, and then noticed the jelly donuts sitting on the table. Her face turned beet red.

"Fred, what is it?" Angel stepped towards her, concern showing plainly on his face.

The young scientist took a moment and calmed herself, then looked pointedly at Angel. "They are involved in some alone time right now, but will be here shortly. And be sure to save Mr. Giles at least one jelly donut." Fred then turned and sank into a chair next to Gunn, the blush slowly subsiding. She gazed at her shoes as if they were the most interesting shoes on the planet.

"Maybe I should go over there, make sure they aren't killing each other or anything?" Wesley offered. He knew about their spats and disagreements of the past. Perhaps something had occurred between them again.

At Wesley's suggestion, Fred leapt out of her chair again. "No! Don't do that!" She cleared her throat. "They are most definitely not killing each other. They are together, okay? To…geth…er.." she ran the word out slowly, and pressed her palms together repeatedly.

"Oh. Good!" Harmony jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Angel and Spike frowned, and Gunn and Wes just looked confused. Harmony rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Gosh, you guys are dumb. I think what Fred has been trying to say, is that they are "getting some", right?" Fred nodded in agreement. "But why are you so happy about it?" Fred asked Harmony. But the ditzy vampire just looked adoringly Spike's way, "Oh, no reason."

Spike's face was a mask of emotion. He walked over to the table, and grabbed his cup of blood, then took a long drink. "Well, I hope they hurry up with it," he then said. "I don't have all bloody damn day."

Harmony laughed. "What else are you going to do?" She asked him.

He scowled at her, set the now empty cup down, and left the room, saying over his shoulder, "I'm finding me another duster." Then he was gone.

"Hello? Sunlight!" Harmony threw her blonde hair over her shoulder, muttering how dumb men could be. "Especially bleached blonde ones." Then she grabbed herself a donut, and also left the room. She had a new fashion magazine waiting for her behind her desk.

Angel's office fell into an uncomfortable silence. Fred sat back down in the chair, and no one moved, all lost in their own thoughts. Fred knew why Angel and Spike would not be happy about the news, but secretly, she was. It was obvious to her that Buffy and Mr. Giles were meant for each other. She then looked up and met Wesley's eyes. They smiled at each other. Fred's heart skipped a beat, as she was lost in their blue depths.

Then Lorne swept into the room. "Hey all. Hi there, Angel cakes. What's up?"

Chapter 12