Author's Note: I really am sorry this one took so long. I had to drive down to college, move in, scramble around to register for classes, and do all my research for my BA paper all in the past two weeks. Oh yeah, and I'm sick, too. So naturally I'm writing this chapter instead of doing all my homework or getting some much needed sleep... ~_^

Previously: Buffy and Spike have teamed up to foil the spell Jonathan cast in 'Superstar'...except they got a bit sidetracked by some hot'n'sweaty sex. Fortunately, the juicy lovin' broke the tracking spell Willow was using to hunt them down. Now Riley's gone out looking for them in a fit of jealous rage. And, oh yeah, Buffy just might have let the L-word slip out at the sight of Spike's sexy naked vampire bod. Lucky for her, he said he reciprocated...

“Guys,” Xander said nervously, “I think we need to stop him.”

Five curious heads turned in his direction.

“What do mean?” Giles asked, his brow furrowed.

Xander sighed. “Riley kind of…lost it back in the cave,” he finally admitted. “I tried to stop him from firing, and he practically strangled me. I think he’s gone slightly over the edge – enough to hurt Buffy.”

“B-But Riley wouldn’t do that!” Willow protested, her opinion of the Initiative agent wavering.

“Did you see his aura?” Tara pointed out. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that angry…”

“He practically turned his back on the commandos for Buffy,” Willow pointed out.

“That was before Buffy started having sex with someone else,” Anya pointed out. “It looks like they’ve reached the vengeance stage of their relationship. And, trust me, I know about the vengeance. It isn’t pretty.”

Reluctantly, Willow agreed, remembering all the painful death threats she’d promised she would carry out on Riley if he hurt Buffy and preparing herself to carry them out if need be…metaphorically, of course.

“I should be able to track him,” Jonathan agreed. “I’ll go.”

“I’m going with you,” Xander insisted.

Jonathan looked about to object for a second but then conceded his point. “Willow, Tara, keep trying the tracking spell. If you can get to Buffy and Spike first, you can cut Riley off.” He turned back to Xander. “Let’s go,” he said with a grimace.

“Mmm…” Buffy slowly opened her eyes to the feel of cool breath brushing her temple. She yawned and smacked her lips once before cuddling back into the pale crook of Spike’s neck. His occasional random breaths continued to tease the short hairs across her forehead, and she let out a contented little sigh.

The angle of the light against the blinds indicated to her that most of the afternoon had passed while they slept. She craned her neck to make sure that they were closed properly before returning her attention to her newfound lover.

He murmured slightly in his sleep, soft mewls and purrs that alternated with the unnecessary breaths he took. Buffy took a moment to memorize his sleeping features, so peaceful and calm and beautiful. And so seemingly innocent. If she hadn’t known first hand that he was a creature of darkness, she would never have believed that this god beside her was anything but the purest white.

The narrowness of the standard issue dorm bed had forced the two of them to press up right against each other as they slept, but now Buffy inched back from him a bit to look at him more completely. The only other time she’d really had a chance to observe him this closely was during Willow’s spell, and she’d been too preoccupied with the kissing…and the Giles blindness and demons attacking Xander…and then the more kissing to really study him. And she’d never gotten such a good view before.

Every inch of his body lay bare and open to her inspection, and all of him was so beautiful to her. Her eyes followed the gentle curve of his throat to the strong line of his collarbone, down across the planes of his chest to the firm muscles of his abdomen that twitched slightly when he breathed. His cock was only semi-hard and still resting in the wiry curls at the junction of his thighs.

She studied him a bit and finally determined that his natural hair color must have been brown. She had always guessed black from the color of his eyebrows, but the truth lay right there before her.

She could see the line of one lean, white hip, but exposing him further would have required pulling the blanket back further from him, and it seemed such a crime to disturb the tranquility of the gorgeous vampire beside her.

Instead, she curled back up against him, appreciating the feel of him all the more now that she had a clear picture of every rippling muscle in her head. Strangely enough, that moment seemed more intimate to her than everything they had done the evening before. Just being here with him, in his embrace…

She let out another sigh. “I love you so much,” she whispered softly, one of her hands gently stroking his hair.

He stirred a bit at this, and one of his arms reached out instinctively to wrap around her waist and pull her to him. He nuzzled against her throat lightly, still half-asleep but slowly returning to consciousness.

She gave him a radiant smile when his long lashes finally fluttered open and she was met with twin brilliant blue orbs. “’Morning, handsome,” she teased lightly before giving him a quick, chaste kiss.

He sighed, and then frowned slightly, his head cocked to one side as if gauging something.

“What?” she asked curiously.

“’S mid-afternoon,” he finally commented, a teasing smile on his lips. Lazily, his hand glided down her side.

“Guess that means you can’t leave for a while yet,” she said slyly, “not until the sun goes down…”

“’m trapped, baby,” he agreed happily, laying his head back down on the pillow.

She wound her hand around his waist and pressed their bodies close together as they just lay there, touching and kissing lightly.

She felt the heat ignite in her body once more at his nearness, and her hand snaked down between them to encourage him to ‘rise to the occasion’.

Surprisingly, however, he batted her hand aside.

“Bi-Buffy,” he quickly corrected himself, a slight frown marring his brow, “we should talk, luv.”

She groaned. “Why talk?” She bit her lip petulantly. “Talk bad. No talk. Want you now.”

A smile twitched at the edges of his lips. “Want you too, kitten,” he agreed, “but what happened…”

“Regrets?” she asked nervously, her eyes suddenly widening with fear. This was it. Get too attached and they just run off and—

“No,” he quickly reassured her, brushing the hair back from her face, “no regrets, just…me vampire, you Slayer… ‘S not right, kitten.”

“It feel right last night,” she reminded him. “It felt better than right, it felt…wonderful…”

He chuckled slightly. “No arguin’ there,” he agreed. “I jus’…” he trailed off, unsure of himself.

“Tell me,” she said softly, cupping his cheek with her palm. “Let me in.” She hadn’t meant for the pleading tone to be in her voice; it just was.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “I can’t help feelin’,” he began, looking her right in the eyes and cautiously reaching out to stroke her hair, “that I shouldn’t be reactin’ to you like I am. ‘m a vampire for cryin’ out loud! The very thought of you should make me homicidal and repulsed an’…an’ why do I want you?”

“Mmm…” she giggled slightly. “Similar thoughts crossed through my mind. But you know what?” He cocked a curious eyebrow in her direction, and she went on. “I don’t care. All I know is that last night was probably the best of my life, and…I don’t ever want it to end. So I don’t care if this is ‘wrong’. It’s not wrong for me, and hopefully it’s not for you, either.” She gave him a shy little smile.

“No,” he reassured her, a surprisingly endearing shy little smile of his own on his lips. “’S not like I give a damn ‘bout what anyone else thinks anyway. But I jus’ wanna know…when? Why? How?”

She didn’t need clarification to know that he was referring to her little admission. “When?” she said thoughtfully. “I don’t know exactly. I would have said just last night, but now that I think about it, there were signs earlier. After Will’s spell? Before that? There were definite lusty feelings before that.”

“’m not too concerned about the lust, pet. That I understand…”

“But you don’t understand why I love you?” she asked softly.

He looked slightly abashed at the fact that she’d said the words again. Frankly, he’d been half convinced that it was one of those heat of the moment things…

“Not jus’ that,” he sighed, rolling over onto his back as much as the narrow bed would allow and coming to rest against the wall, “but ‘s as good a place to start as any.”

She curled up beside him and let one hand rest on his smooth chest, her finger caressing the sleek muscles there. “I can’t fully explain, of course,” she began. “But you make me feel strong. And you make me feel beautiful. And you make me laugh, and you make me furious, and you make me burn.” Her thumb found one flat, male nipple and began playing with it experimentally. “And when I’m with you…” she blushed, “I feel like you understand me, like you get me…”

“I do get you,” he insisted. “No one’s ever made as much sense to me as you do.”

Her smile brightened at his admission. She’d actually been a bit concerned that she was manufacturing a lot of that last part because she so wanted it to be true…

“I can be myself around you,” she added softly. “It’s like I can be all of me at once, Slayer, woman, child, adult, confident…scared. I feel so natural around you, like I don’t have to hide anything.”

His eyes raked up and down her naked body, and he licked his lips. “You’d better not hide anythin’ from me, luv,” he joked.

She batted him playfully in the head. “I hate you,” she grumbled.

“That’s not what you were sayin’ when I was poundin’ you into the mattress,” he teased.

She gave him a sly smile. “Then maybe you should try pounding me into the mattress again,” she suggested coyly.

“Not too sore for another round?” he grinned.

“I’m good to go,” she agreed, wrapping one leg around his waist.

“Couldn’t hardly move your legs last night, though,” he said, his chest slightly puffed up with manly pride, “not after I was through with you.”

“What can I say, baby?” She bit his earlobe. “Slayer healing and all…”

“That combined with the Slayer stamina an’ Slayer strength an’ Slayer muscles makes for a most…appealin’ package, too, luv,” he groaned and pulled her up on top of him.

And then she lowered herself down onto him and showed him just how well she’d recovered…

Catching up to Riley had actually been remarkably easy. Especially since he used the same standard grid pattern every single time he patrolled.

He looked especially annoyed to see them but held his tongue on account of Jonathan’s presence: the other man clearly outranked him.

“You’re never going to find them this way,” Xander pointed out, still panting heavily from his recent run and leaning against a nearby tree to steady himself.

“This is the most efficient pattern for covering the campus,” Riley declared, casting Xander a dark look.

“Yeah…if they’re just hanging out in the middle of the quads in broad daylight,” Xander retorted, deciding that he liked Riley less with each passing second.

Riley frowned and struggled to come up with a valid retort, but Jonathan stepped in before things turned nasty.

“The most efficient technique,” he informed Riley with a stern look, “was to stay at Giles’ and wait for Willow to complete the tracking spell.”

“It wouldn’t have worked in time,” Riley retorted. “They need to be stopped now.”

“I hate to break it to you,” Xander repeated for the umpteenth time, “but Buffy wasn’t in any danger.”

“That thing was about to rape her!” Riley’s eyes widened in horror at the other man’s callousness.

“Y’know, technically force is required for it to be rape…”

“He’s brainwashed her!” Riley insisted. “Why else would she let him touch her?!”

“Maybe because her boyfriend’s turned out to be a paranoid psycho?!” Xander shot right back at him.

“And Spike’s sooo much better?” Riley demanded sarcastically. “It’s a thrall!”

“Like Anya said earlier, if Spike had a thrall, he would have used it long ago.”

“Oh, and since your demon fuck toy said it, it must be true!”

Riley’s head snapped back at the force of Xander’s punch.

“Don’t you ever talk about her that way!” Xander screamed in outrage, a murderous rage in his eyes.

Riley wiped the blood from his mouth furiously. “I should have known you side with them,” he hissed. “After all, what else should I expect from a demon lover?”

“Yeah, and your girlfriend’s finding out right now just how much better demon lovers are,” Xander retorted spitefully.

“Only because of a spell!” Riley insisted. “Buffy would never willingly touch that…vampire.”

Xander rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah,” he muttered under his breath, “’cause Buffy’s never gone for the hot vamp in town before…”

“What are you insinuating?” Riley hissed.

“If you don’t know, then that just proves you know even less about Buffy than I first thought,” Xander countered.

Riley shook his head. “It’s a spell,” he insisted. “Just a spell. Buffy would never… No!”

“There is no spell!” Xander exclaimed in frustration. “In fact—”

“There is,” Jonathan finally commented, breaking up the argument that had been spiraling out of control before his very eyes.

“What?” Xander turned to look at him in surprise, while Riley’s face showed a triumphant grin.

“There’s a spell,” Jonathan repeated, “and it’s starting to get out of control. I say it’s high time we break it…”

“This is going to take forever, isn’t it?” Anya complained, idly fingering Tara’s bedspread. The tracking spell had worked for a bit, leading them towards campus until it fizzled out again, and their guide vanished. Tara’s room had been nearest, so they’d gone there to try recasting. “Vamps have almost endless stamina,” she continued. “This could go on for days…”

Giles massaged the pressure points on the bridge of his nose and tried desperately not to invoke the image Anya’s comments brought to mind.

“Ha!” Willow abruptly exclaimed as the guiding tug returned to her hand, the feel almost like that of an invisible hand pulling her in the right direction. “We’ve got it again!”

The four of them practically ran to follow the path directed before Willow, hoping to get close before the sexcapades resumed again and the spell died once more. However, this time it began to lead them away from campus, in a direction almost at a right angle to their previous path.

“Are you sure the spell’s still trained on Spike?” Tara asked anxiously as they entered the edge of the woods.

“The sun just set,” Giles commented. “Spike could easily be on the move again.”

“I wonder why he’d go out into the middle of the woods,” Willow said thoughtfully, slowing her pace a bit since Buffy and Spike probably wouldn’t be doing the wacky if they were moving around again.

“To make my life miserable,” Anya groused, pulling her hair free of the branch it had been caught in. “After all, that seems to be the entire point of this day. And I was just getting to the really juicy parts of Jonathan’s book, too…”

“You’re sure you’re not just wandering around aimlessly?” Buffy repeated for the third time.

“This thing’s scent trail is crazy all over the place,” Spike growled out with irritation. “Must’ve been walkin’ in circles…”

“I think you’re lost,” she accused.

“I’m not lost!” he protested vehemently.

“Liar.”

“’m not.”

“Are too.”

“’m not.”

“Are too.”

“Look,” he finally exclaimed, “will stop bein’ such a bossy, stuck-up…”

“…Stubborn, unreasonable…”

“…Annoyin’…”

“…Clueless…”

“…Obnoxious…”

“…Sexy…”

“…B— Did you jus’ say ‘sexy’, pet?” he broke off suddenly.

“Oh god, I want you,” she moaned, catching his head between her hands and pulling him down for a bruising kiss.

He returned her fervor full-heartedly, teeth biting, lips demanding, tongue battling. Their arms flew over each other desperately, seeking to touch, caress, reclaim everything that they’d explored the night before.

Buffy finally pulled away for breath, panting heavily.

Spike was a bit breathless himself until he remembered that he didn’t need to breathe. “We’ve got to find the beastie, Berry,” he reminded her. “Then we can kill it, fix everything, an’ have ourselves a nice, long shag.”

“It’s Buffy,” she hissed, her eyes flashing, “and you should remember it since you were screaming it nonstop just a few hours ago…”

“Whatever you say, Bonnie,” he teased.

“Bonnie?” she said with a sly smile. “Does that make you Clyde?” She pulled him in for another quick kiss.

“’ll play the Clyde to your Bonnie any day, luv,” he said with a soft purr when she finally released him again.

“Later,” she nodded dumbly, her body still protesting from when she pulled away from him. “There’ll be time for everything later…”

“Later,” Spike agreed. He attempted to pick up the scent again and frowned at her. “Could you try not to smell so delicious? ‘S a bit distractin’…”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Yes, I can randomly change my scent at will. That’s one of those amazing Slayer powers that I have.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe you could try being a bit less annoying,” she smiled softly, “’cause it’s really turning me on…”

He gave her a sly smile and then picked up the trail again. He pushed past the bushes before them, and they both came to a dead halt when they saw the mouth to the cave.

“It in there?” Buffy asked nervously.

Spike nodded and laced his fingers with the hand that sought his.

“We have to go in,” Buffy said confidently, gaining strength from his touch.

“Jus’ be careful, luv,” Spike said softly.

She turned to smile at him. “I love you,” she informed him before marching into the cave, Spike right on her heels…

Next Chapter:
    Will Buffy and Spike defeat the monster this time? And what about Willow et al. that are following them? And, huh, what do you suppose Jonathan was talking about? And will we get more smut because it seems like Kantayra's been uncharacteristically light on it thus far? ~_^ You'll just have to read to find out...

I live for feedback. Gimmee. (Yes, I do get reduced to dull-witted commands when I get tired. It's best just to placate me. ^_^)