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Rating: R
Disclaimer: These characters belong to Joss Whedon and
any other large conglomerate that he sells them to (yeah, he’s the
pimp in all of this); I’m just borrowing them for a while.
Spoilers: Everything in the Buffyverse up to and including
the episode “Destiny” of AtS season 5 and then splitting off
into an AU that I created in “The Christmas Wish”
Dedication: Kathleen – Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Previously in “The Christmas Wish”: In England, as they’re walking home from last minute shopping on Christmas Eve…Dawn, Giles, Willow and Xander talk about Spike and what they miss most about him while Buffy sits at home pining for the dead vampire. Both Dawn and Buffy notice the Christmas Star and make a wish, knowing full well that it will never come true…although Buffy should know better since she miraculously came back from the dead, not once, but twice. To her amazement, a very much un-ashy Spike shows up at the door while she’s on the phone with Angel who is desperately trying to tell her that Spike is still among the living, or at least the undead. Buffy welcomes Spike with open arms and a few other, uhm, open things and then admits that she wished for him to be there with her. While they’re in the midst a second go-round, the group walks in on them and Dawn is overwhelmed with emotions, throwing her arms around both Spike and Buffy, whispering to her sister that her Christmas wish has come true.
When in Rome…
Morning light began to seep into the small bedroom in Rome, Italy where a sleeping couple lay; casting a pale pink glow on everything within the room as the sun commenced its usual ascent into the sky. A bleached blond man, with tousled curls, slowly rolled over to make sure the heavy curtains were closed on the windows, barring any direct sunlight from entering his peaceful kingdom. On noting that they were indeed closed, he rolled back over and snuggled into his lover, molding around her thin frame. He lay there entranced by the sounds of her heartbeat and the steady, calm of her breathing. Her blonde hair, in marked contrast to the black satin of the pillowcase and sheets, was splayed across the pillow, leaving her neck bare and allowing him to watch her pulse point beat in rhythm with her heart. Suddenly, it all became too much for him and he gently placed a kiss on the silky curve of her throat, eliciting a small whimper of appreciation from the object of his adoration.
Why on earth he would ever want to leave the confines of this room and the warmness of her body was beyond him, but leave he must. There were too many things to be done and sleeping in, curled up around his lover, as nice as it would be, would have to wait for another day. Quietly he slid out of the bed and grabbed a pair of dark blue sweats to throw on before heading out of the room. No need to be showing off his dangly bits to those who shouldn’t be seeing such things at their tender age.
The house was quiet as he padded out to the kitchen, putting on the usual morning coffee; pouring coffee grinds into the filter, pressing buttons and then absently rubbing sleep out his eyes. Some vampire he was turning out to be, domestic god was more like it. As the coffee was…coffee’ing…he grabbed his favorite mug and poured blood into it, mostly pig’s blood with a little otter thrown in to liven up the taste, and popped it into the microwave. Once the timer went off to let him know that his blood was ready for consumption, he grabbed the mug and headed out to the veranda.
The little balcony was partially enclosed and covered in vines, which shaded it from the harsh rays of the sun, giving him the freedom to be outside during the day, or at least until the late afternoon hours when the sun started to set. Normally he’d retreat back indoors then, being careful to avoid the windows and turning into Mr. Big Pile of Ash. Doing that once was more than enough for this vampire. He still remembered how it felt when he burst into flames down in the caverns below Sunnydale High.
Burying those memories to the back of his mind, he decided to concentrate on the here and now. It was a beautiful morning, quiet and peaceful, like all the mornings he’d experienced here so far. A gentle breeze blew through, making the chimes swing and tinkle while lifting his soft curls and tousling them some more. Leaning back against the wall with his hand curled around the mug and thoughts of his lover sleeping in the back room, he felt like the luckiest man alive, or undead as the case may be.
They’d been in Italy now for about a month and a half, first coming to the country to track down a dozen or so Slayers that Willow had reported sensing, then they’d decided to stay for a little vacation once the girls had been rounded up. However, it had been Dawn who had begged to stay and go to school here. She swore that she wanted to reside here because she was in love with the culture, but her sister accused her, rightfully so, of being in love with the Italian boys. Dawn, of course, denied it, but he knew better. He’d seen the way the boys looked at his Niblet as she walked down the street, and the way she looked at them in return.
It wasn’t until after he had taken Buffy on a personal tour of Rome that she had agreed to stay in Italy though. For someone who hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention in school, the history, the architecture and the feel of the ancient city had moved her, speaking to some part of her that had been dormant. Perhaps it spoke to the romantic in her or maybe she liked it because it wasn’t on a Hellmouth, he wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t going ask since he liked it here himself.
When they had officially decided to stay, they’d started looking around at rentals so that they didn’t have to live in hotel room after hotel room any longer. That’s when they came across this little villa in the hills and both Buffy and Dawn had fallen in love with it at first sight. It was a little more expensive than what the Council was willing to pay for, but Buffy had promised Giles that she’d get a part time job to cover the difference. Instead, Giles had proposed re-opening the Italian office for the Council, thus re-employing those Watchers who had been based there prior to the explosion in England. It had been a good plan in theory, but in execution it was damn hard work. Retraining the Watchers to the new Council’s ideals and getting them to work with the new Slayers they had rounded up was proving to be downright impossible. The whole lot of them had very little field experience, so Buffy was starting from scratch, taking them out night after night and showing them exactly what it was a Slayer did to survive and what a Watcher did to assist keeping said Slayer alive. Some nights it drove him absolutely insane.
He shook his head to clear out those nasty little thoughts. As he was about to raise the mug to his lips, he sensed a presence at the doorway. “Morning, Bit,” he said without turning around. “You’re up awful early.”
“Spike,” she replied, nodding her head, a bowl of cereal in her hands. She took a seat at the white iron table that decorated the little veranda and proceeded to dive into her breakfast.
Spike was amused to see that she was still dressed in her pajamas – white tank top and pink shorts, with fuzzy pink slippers and a terry cloth robe rounding out the ensemble. Yep, that was his Bit, teenager all over and the biggest pain in his ass. However, after everything they’d been through over the years, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He watched as she stopped chewing and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. He figured she was probably trying to savor the fresh air and the calm that existed here, unlike Sunnydale.
“How come you’re making coffee?” she asked with a frown. “It’s not like Buffy has to work today or anything.”
“Well, big sis gets sorta on the cranky side if she doesn’t have coffee first thing in the morning. Just thought I’d start it now so it’d be ready when she got up.”
“You’re so whipped!”
“Am not!” He declared with a growl.
“Whatever,” she replied, rolling her eyes and giggling. “I still think you’re whipped. Hey, you know what today is, right?” she asked suddenly, her eyes boring into him.
Quirking an eyebrow, Spike smiled. “Uhm, Saturday?” He knew the significance of the day, but he just wanted to tease her for a few minutes.
“You’re kidding, right?” she demanded as she folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. “It’s the biggest day of the year!”
“Well, no. That would be Christmas. Even I know that, Bit,” he said, trying hard to maintain his stoic face.
“Spike,” she huffed, “It’s Valentine’s Day!”
He exaggerated his surprise and put his hand to his chest in fake horror. “And me without a Valentine. Whatever will I do?” He laughed, warm and rich, watching as she realized he knew exactly what today meant.
“You suck.”
“Well, yeah, vampires do that sort of thing.”
“No, you just suck. Period.”
“That I do.” He paused to take a sip of his blood. After a few moments of silence, he then took a seat across from her at the table. “So…” he began, not exactly sure how to broach the subject of her dating. He had overheard her making plans on the phone with some boy, but he wanted to hear it from her.
She put her spoon down and looked at him intently. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes I have plans for the evening so you and Buffy can have all the loud, wild sex you want while I’m not around to hear it. And thanks oh so much for not keeping it down last night.”
If he could have blushed, he would have, but instead he ducked his head and averted his eyes. Sometimes when things between him and Buffy became passionate, everything else, including the fact that a young, impressionable teenager was just down the hall, was forgotten. “Uh, yeah. Sorry ‘bout that, Bit.”
She rolled her eyes again and went back to eating her cereal.
“Well?” he asked, eyebrows raised and an expectant look on his face.
“Well what?” she replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“Your plans?”
“That’s for me to know and you…”
“You’re not going anywhere until you give me the low-down young lady.”
“Geez, Spike. Overprotective much?”
“Maybe,” he responded, eyes narrowing. “I’m only looking out for your best interests. You know that.”
“Whatever,” she said, about to roll her eyes for yet a third time when she realized that he would be true to his word and not let her out of the house until he knew where she was going and who she was going with. “Fine. Antonio is picking me up and taking me out to dinner tonight and then we’re going to a movie.”
“Antonio, eh? Not sure I’ve met him.”
“You have! He’s the one that came over to study with me the other night. He’s tutoring me in Italian.”
“Right. Seemed like a nice enough bloke.” He paused, leaned forward and looked at her closely. “I can tutor you in Italian, Bit, I’ve already told you that.”
“I know,” she said with a shrug. “But you’re not hot like Antonio.”
He didn’t know whether to be offended or amused by the comment. In a way he was glad that she was seeing him as the big brother type and not as a romantic interest, but at the same time, it meant she was growing up. “You do realize they don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day here, don’t you?”
She looked at him with an expression that said, ‘duh’. “Antonio thought it would be nice to celebrate an American tradition so that I wouldn’t feel so home sick for the States.”
“Did he now? Well, wasn’t that bloody nice of him.”
“Spike, it’s just an innocent date,” she assured him.
“Right. I may have been brought up in the Victorian era, being all prim and poncy, but I was a seventeen year old boy once with raging hormones.” He stopped when she glared at him. “What?”
“And your hormones don’t rage now?”
Ignoring her comment, he let out a sigh. “Look, Bit, as long as Buffy says it’s okay for you to go out tonight, I’ll be okay with it, but don’t expect me to be nice to him when he comes over to pick you up. Gotta keep up my reputation as a bad ass.”
“Yeah, because that soul of yours lets you be such a Big Bad. Face it, Spike, you’re a do-gooder,” she said with a wicked smile.
It was his turn to roll his eyes at her. See, biggest pain in his ass and she was only seventeen.
“So what’d you get Buffy?” Dawn asked, trying to change the subject away from her and what she was doing this evening.
“I’m not telling you!” he responded, smirking evilly.
“Telling who what?” a sleepy voice asked from the doorway.
Spike turned around to see Buffy standing there looking amazing in nothing but his shirt and a coffee cup wrapped between small hands. “Morning, Luv. The Bit and I were just talking about what I did when I was evil. But I refused to tell her, ‘cause I know how much you hate it when I fill her head with nasty stories. Isn’t that right, Bit?” He hoped Dawn got the implication in his voice to go along with what he was saying.
Dawn smiled slightly. “Yeah, that’s it. I just wanted to know what it was like to go from a Big Bad to a defanged puppy.” While Buffy was snickering, Dawn took the opportunity to stick her tongue out at Spike.
All right, two can play at that game, he thought. “Dawn here has a date tonight, did you know?” He caught her glare out of the corner of his eye and smiled triumphantly.
“Yeah,” Buffy sighed as she walked over and plopped herself down on his lap. “I already said it was okay for her to go.”
“Ha!” Dawn shot back at him, winning this round.
Spike growled at her. She may have won this battle, but she wasn’t going to win the war!
“Why do I feel like I’m missing something here?” Buffy asked, stifling a yawn.
“You’re not, Luv. Really.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, burying his face into her hair and breathing in the faint scent of vanilla with a hint of roses.
“Will you two get a room already and preferably one that’s not in this villa or anywhere near where I can hear?” Dawn huffed, getting up and grabbing her now empty bowl and spoon.
“Sorry,” Buffy replied sheepishly. “Guess we were sorta loud last night, huh?”
“Only for like the eight hundredth time this week,” Dawn declared, one hand on her hip. “I swear you guys are going to bring the walls down yet.” She left the veranda before she saw Buffy and Spike exchange knowing looks.
“So what are your plans today, Luv?” he asked, his face still buried in her hair.
“Dawn and I are going shopping. That’s pretty much it.”
“Is it now? Well then, I guess you two should go get ready to shop ‘til you drop.”
“No dropping here,” she replied, stifling another yawn. “I’m ready to drop as it is. Last night’s patrol was tiring.”
“So why don’t you go back to bed for a spell? I can go shopping with the Niblet.”
Buffy laughed. “Right, you shopping with Dawn. In the daylight. Would love to see that.” She sighed and leaned back against him. “As much as I would love a little more sleep, I promised Dawn we’d go. What’re you going to do while we’re gone?”
“Oh, I dunno. Probably sleep a little more. Maybe watch the telly. Might be a good footy match or two on.”
She wrinkled up her nose at the mention of soccer. “I think I’ll go get ready now.”
As she walked away, he grinned. He’d have the house all to himself to get ready for tonight.
The front door banged open with a thud as Dawn and Buffy came bounding through, their arms laden with bags and packages. Spike sat up from his comfortable spot on the sofa and turned off the TV. He’d been relaxing, watching a footy match when the two girls returned from their shopping spree. They’d been gone for hours and had given him more than enough time to set things up for Buffy’s Valentine surprise.
“Well now, looks like you two bought out the whole city!” Poor Rupert. He was going to be in for one hell of a shock when he saw his credit card bill.
“I needed a dress for tonight,” Dawn responded with a grin. “And then it turned into needing a purse and other stuff.”
“Shoes. She needed shoes,” Buffy agreed, smiling.
“Uhm, the Bit needed shoes, or you wanted shoes?” he asked, peering into the bags that they set down before him on the coffee table.
“Needed, wanted, it’s all the same thing,” Buffy replied, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead.
“Right. So, anything in those bags for good ol’ Spike?” he asked curiously as he started poking through the bag directly in front of him.
“No,” Dawn replied, shaking her head and grabbing the bag away from him. “It’s all girly things. You should’ve said you wanted stuff.”
“I didn’t want anything,” he stated, pretending to pout by folding his arms across his chest and looking wounded. “Just nice and all when others think about you while they’re out shopping, without you, and having a good time. Without you,” he emphasized.
“You’re such a big baby,” Dawn chastised. “Who’s the teenager around here anyway?”
He stuck his tongue out at her in response.
Buffy looked from one to the other and rolled her eyes. “I swear I don’t know who’s worse.” Quickly she went through the bags, obviously looking for something important. “Here,” she said, throwing him a package. “That’s for you.”
It was the latest X-box game that he’d been looking at the other night when they’d been out in the city. He was surprised she’d noticed and touched that she’d bought it for him despite the fact that she hated when he sat in front of the television and played video games – sometimes for hours on end. He tried to explain to her that it was good for the reflexes, but she never seemed to buy it. “Thanks, Luv,” he said, smiling and giving her a quick kiss when she came over and sat down beside him. “You’re the best.”
“I know,” she stated with a shrug. “Now you know it too.”
“I’ve always known it,” he whispered seductively in her ear while he put his arm around her and gave her a quick squeeze. If Dawn hadn’t been in the room, there would have been more than just whispering going on, but he put his hormones in check, knowing that he would be able to ravish his lover later, when the Bit was gone.
“Okay,” Dawn said, oblivious to the rising sexual tension in the air. She got up from the chair and grabbed her bags. “I’m gonna go get ready.” After walking down the hall, she came running back into the living room and stood before Spike, glaring. “If Antonio gets here before I’m ready, don’t you dare be mean to him!”
“Me? Why would I be mean?” he asked indignantly.
Buffy laughed as she stood up, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder and steering her back towards the hall. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he behaves.”
“Come on Slayer,” he moaned. “You don’t let me have any fun.”
“Behave yourself and you’ll have all the fun you want later,” she replied, giving him a sly smile.
“Uh, hello. Teenager still in the room!” Dawn roared, putting her hands to her ears and closing her eyes. “You guys are so going to scar me for life.”
“It was nice seeing you again, Mr. Summers,” the boy said with a thick accent as he shook Spike’s hand.
“Hold on now, I’m not Mr…”
“It was nice seeing you again too,” Buffy stated with a smile while Dawn’s eyes grew huge.
Dawn looked at Spike apologetically and then ushered her date out the door before Spike could say anything else.
Buffy shut the door behind them, a grin crossing her face.
“I don’t like him,” Spike declared with a growl. “Bloke thinks I’m Mr. Summers.”
“It’s an honest mistake,” Buffy replied, trying to hide her grin as she turned around to face him. “Don’t make too much of it.”
As he was about to make a retort, her mouth covered his in a hungry kiss. He was stunned at first, but he had smelled her arousal for last two hours and it had been driving him crazy. If Dawn hadn’t been around, he would have been all over Buffy, showing no mercy as he shagged her senseless. But now, now she was the aggressor and he was her prey. He moaned as her hot tongue probed his, and her hands slid under the front of his shirt. If he didn’t break this off now, there wasn’t going to be any surprise for her. As much as he hated to do it, he gently pushed her back, breaking off the searing kiss.
“What?” she asked, looking up through heavy lidded, lust filled eyes.
“I, uh…” Damn. He couldn’t think. She had taken him off guard and now his brain was having a hard time catching up. Finally, he sighed and pulled her close, hoping to explain why he of all people was about to turn down sex with the Slayer. “Just thought you’d like to relax for a bit and freshen up first, is all. You look tired.”
“Spike…”
“No really, Buffy, why don’t you go rest and I’ll…”
Before he could get another word out, she threw him up against the door and kissed him hungrily again, this time pinning his arms behind him so that he couldn’t stop her. He wriggled, trying desperately to get his hands free. If she was insistent on seducing him, then who was he to say no? Her surprise would keep until they were finished.
Finally he wrenched his hands from her grip and grabbed her around the waist, never breaking the kiss. He crushed her to him, pressing into her, wanting to cover every inch of that incredible Slayer body. Lifting her up, to put her on the couch, he suddenly felt her legs wrap around him, holding herself up with her muscles and clinging to him desperately. His mind flashed to the night they first had sex, in the abandoned building. The night everything changed forever between them.
It was when his mind came back from those thoughts that he realized she was ripping his shirt in half and kissing his chest, leaving burning trails along his skin. He growled in response, the sound guttural and animalistic. He was losing control and knew it, but it felt so good.
It wasn’t often that she was the aggressor, but when she was, he became her willing slave. She was all over him now and his mind was spinning. Her hands were everywhere at once and wherever she touched him, with her hands and with her mouth, his skin was set afire. His body hummed and he needed to touch more of her so he ripped her shirt off as well, revealing a silky red, laced bra that he knew she must have just picked up today. Now he needed to find out if she had bought panties to match. He pushed up her skirt to find that she had and he groaned. Not that either were going to last very long at his hands.
The heady smell of her arousal was driving him over the edge. He knew that if he wasn’t in her soon and if she kept stroking him through his jeans the way she was doing so now, there’d be no sex to be had. Then again, that wasn’t always a bad thing since Buffy was very good at other things as well.
As he was about to flip her over onto her back and get rid of his jeans so that he could thrust into her, she slid down his length easily, enveloping him in her liquid heat. He had no idea when she had gotten rid of the clothing that had been in the way and at this point he didn’t care. The feel of her around him sent sparks flying through his body. His body may technically be dead, but whenever he was inside her like this, he felt very much alive.
Soon there was nothing but their frenzied passion, hands clawing and grabbing while they each moaned out the others name. Sweat slicked their skin as their rhythm increased to a fevered pitch. He felt her muscles tense around him and he knew that she was reaching her climax so he whispered in her ear, “Love you Buffy, love you so much.” It was enough to push her over the edge into bliss, and as a result, she latched onto him, digging her nails into his chest and screaming his name.
He fisted his hand in her hair and howled out her name as he came inside of her, following her into the abyss, his orgasm so intense that he thought his mind was going to explode right along with it. Then all was quiet, except for Buffy’s heavy breathing which he mimicked in kind, not out of need, but out of habit.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Buffy whispered in his ear.
“Luv, that was the best Valentine’s I’ve ever gotten.”
She swatted at his chest playfully. “It’s probably the only Valentine you’ve ever gotten.
That wasn’t true, but he wasn’t going to ruin the mood by telling her that Dru used to bring him victims to eat to show him her love and devotion. Besides, he wasn’t lying; this was the best Valentine’s gift he’d ever gotten because it was from his Slayer, his Buffy.
They laid together in post-coital bliss, right there on the living room floor, each drawing lazy patterns on the others skin. It wasn’t until they both started dozing off that there was a knock at the door.
“Shit,” Buffy sighed. “Who could that be?”
“Oh, that would be part of your gift,” he said getting up and throwing his jeans back on.
“My gift?” she asked with a frown. “It had to be delivered? And there’s more than one part?”
“Yeah, it did. Now excuse me while I answer the door.” He paused before opening the door. “You just stay down behind the couch and don’t you dare put on any clothing.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” she replied with a salute.
He shook his head, smiling. This was shaping up to be one of their best days together, ever. And that was saying something because since he came back from the dead and had found her again, he considered every day to be one of their best days.
When he opened the door, a boy of about fifteen stood there, bags in hands, the scent of fresh baked bread and pasta reaching his nose. “Hey, mate,” he said, greeting the delivery boy. “Tell your dad thanks again for doing this.”
The boy nodded and took the money Spike gave him, and then grinned appreciatively when Spike gave him a handsome tip.
“What’s that?” Buffy asked curiously after Spike closed the door.
“This would be our dinner,” he replied, walking over to the table in the corner of the kitchen and unboxing the food.
Wrapping a thin blanket around her naked body, she went into the kitchen to see what he was pulling out of the cartons. “But, how? Where’s this from?”
“That little bistro down the street that you like so much.”
“But they don’t deliver…”
“They do when you save them from a Chaos demon,” he replied with a smile.
She brought her hand up to her mouth and giggled. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, Nino was getting the stuffing kicked out of him by one the other night when I was walking home. So I put a stop to it. Right messy the whole thing was.”
“So that’s why your clothing was covered in slime!”
He frowned. “Yeah, why else would I be covered in slime?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Good point.” She sat down at the table and breathed deeply. “This smells like heaven.”
“Really?” He didn’t think Heaven would have a smell to it, but she would know since she was there.
“No, you idiot. It’s an expression. Can we eat now?”
“No! Go freshen up first and then we’ll eat.”
She pouted, her bottom lip jutting out slightly. “You’re mean.”
“Yes, I am. Now scoot. I’ve got things to do.”
He watched as she slowly made her way out of the kitchen and down the hall to their bedroom. Knowing full well that she’d be as quick as could be, he busied himself setting the table for their romantic dinner, getting out the tablecloth and candles that the bistro had provided for him. Once that was finished, he opened the cabinet over the stove and took out the velvet box he had hidden behind the cooking supplies. He knew she’d never find it there since she didn’t cook, which was a blessing to all their taste buds, even his.
Stepping back from the table, he admired the finished product. It was quite elegant if he did say so himself, not that he was a poofter or anything like that, but it did look nice, right down to the burning candles. He heard her let out a small gasp behind him and when he turned around he saw tears in her eyes.
“Spike, this is beautiful!”
“So you like it then?”
She gave him a fierce hug and kissed him longingly. “I do. It’s great.”
“Right then, let’s sit down and eat. I’m famished.” He was, but not for human food, but he’d have his blood later. For now he wanted things to be normal for her. He pulled out the chair for her and she sat down, eyes sparkling from the glow of the candles. It was his turn to gasp, but inwardly, at her beauty. He noticed that while she was in the bedroom, she had changed into a red fuzzy number that clung to her like a second skin. In the almost two months since they had been together, it never ceased to amaze him that she had chosen to be with him, despite knowing what he was – a monster, but also a good man.
They were about halfway through dinner when he decided that he couldn’t wait any longer to give her the gift. Quietly he pulled the box out of his pocket and placed it on the table, his nerves a little on edge. He wasn’t sure why though; since he knew she’d really like what was inside. At least he hoped she would.
“What’s this?” she asked, eyes growing wide.
“Open it and find out,” he said with a smirk.
Gently she picked up the box and slowly opened it, her breath catching in her throat. Inside the box was a beautiful diamond pendant in the shape of a heart. She looked at him, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. “Spike, this is…it’s gorgeous. I love it.”
He sighed with relief. He’d had the little bauble since they’d first arrived in Italy, buying it at a jewelry store in Venice. The moment he’d seen it, he just knew he had to give it to her. Getting up from his seat, he moved behind her to help her latch the chain. As she moved her hair out of the way, he placed a kiss on her neck, feeling her shudder in response. Once the necklace was in place, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her tenderly.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Buffy,” he said, absently tucking a loose strand of hair behind her left ear as they parted. Looking deeply into her emerald eyes, he felt like he could do anything. “I love you,” he said quietly.
“I love you too, Spike. Now kiss me again you silly vampire.”
He smiled at her, taking her into his arms once again and kissing her hard. Yep, this was definitely the best Valentine’s Day ever.
The End
