Angel’s Bedroom.
Cordelia stared at the bed in a whole new light. It hadn’t seemed quite so intriguing when she thought it was just going to be where she slept. “Umm. Which side do you want?”
Keeping the mask of disinterest firmly in place, Angel pointed at the right side of the bed, “That one.”
“Okay,” Cordelia managed to sound nonchalant despite her nervousness at the idea of being in bed with Angel even if it was for something as innocent as watching a video. Pfft! She was being ridiculous, but this called for a little distraction. “Here’s the tape. I’ll be right back.”
Glancing down at the tape of ‘A Walk in the Clouds’, he looked up to see Cordelia run off toward the kitchen. Angel put the tape in and grabbed the remote control from the top of the television, hopping onto the bed with a little more enthusiasm than he probably should be feeling considering that he was just going to be watching a movie with a friend.
Only Angel was way past trying to convince himself that was all he felt for Cordelia these days. Though he certainly believed friendship was all she felt for him. If she had a hint of his feelings about her, surely Cordelia wouldn’t be so quick to trust him like this.
Cordelia reappeared, this time with a jar of peanut butter in her hand. “I’m back. Just had to get a snack for the movie.”
Frowning down at the jar like it was a dangerous object, Angel asked, “You’re going to eat in bed?”
“It’s peanut butter. Sheesh! You’d think I was having a five-course meal,” Cordelia rolled her eyes.
“What if it gets on the sheets?” Angel pointed out worst-case scenario. “We have to sleep there.”
Having already discovered that Angel was something of a neat freak, Cordelia figured this shouldn’t have surprised her. Not being much into food, he wouldn’t understand life’s little perk of getting to eat in bed. “I’ve been eating peanut butter since I was a kid. Trust me.”
Looking doubtful, Angel watched as Cordelia put the peanut butter jar down on the nightstand before crawling onto her side of the bed. She faced away from him while kneeling down to push the covers toward the end of the bed. The move drew Angel’s gaze down to the way her pajama bottoms fit across her lush buttocks. No panty lines there, he noticed despite trying to focus on the previews flickering across the television screen.
Turning around, Cordelia plumped the pillows next to him giving Angel an unintended eyeful of the cleavage that peeked out from the scooped curve of her top. Finally settling down, Cordelia flopped over and snuggled into the pillows to find just the right spot.
Beside her, Angel asked with equal parts amusement and arousal, “Comfy?”
Eyes glued to the opening credits, Cordelia answered, “Uh-huh.”
Halfway through the movie, which Angel was actually enjoying much to his surprise, Cordy scooted out from the spot she had gravitated to up against his chest with his arm around her shoulder. He frowned as her warmth left him wanting to reel her back in. But she only moved as far as the peanut butter before returning to her place next to him.
Angel pointed out despite the fact that he didn’t want her to move, “You forgot your spoon.”
“Nope. Don’t plan to use one.” She figured it was only the fact that the vampire didn’t breathe that there was no horrified gasp sounding in her ear. Opening the lid, she scooped out a small amount of peanut butter onto her fingertip putting it directly into her mouth.
As that finger disappeared into the warm cavern of her mouth Angel lost all interest in the movie. Instead, he watched Cordelia’s tongue peek out, curl wetly around her finger and her lips close down around it. A tiny moue of pleasure hinted at Cordelia’s obvious enjoyment as she lapped up the peanut butter.
Hearing a rumble from Angel’s chest, Cordelia mistook it for hunger. “Hungry? We could pause the movie. I could warm up some blood for you.”
His blood was warm enough at the moment and it all seemed to be rushing in one direction. Shaking his head, Angel didn’t want to do anything that would cause her to move away from him again. He’d been surprised by her unconscious snuggling as they watched the movie. Any tenterhooks she might have felt by joining him on his bed had apparently vanished.
Cordelia glanced up at him, unconvinced that he wasn’t hungry for something. She held up the plastic jar, “Peanut butter?”
Still silent, all of Angel’s thoughts were focused on not responding to her warmth. It was a good thing his sweat pants were heavy and dark because his body started to stir despite his good intentions.
Turning on her side to face him, Cordelia stuck her finger back in the peanut butter and offered her finger up to him trying to tempt him into a sample. “It’s thick and creamy. Irresistible peanuty goodness.”
That was one offer Angel wasn’t about to turn down and it had nothing to do with the peanut butter and everything to do with having his mouth on her. Holding her wrist, he sucked the slender digit into his mouth, moving his tongue sensually on her finger until all traces of peanut butter disappeared and all that was left to taste was pure Cordelia.
Finally, he pulled her finger back out, but still held her wrist captive. “You’re right, it’s good… that way.”
“Oh?” Her heart was beating so fast at the sensations he caused. Then he gave her finger one last unnecessary suck before releasing her. Cordelia’s lips felt strangely poofy, her breasts full and tingly, and the rest of her just seemed hot and flushed.
Her reaction wasn’t lost on Angel who followed a whim and dipped his own finger in the peanut butter jar. “Want more?” Figuring he probably shouldn’t be asking her that, Angel knew it was far too soon to go after what he really wanted even if the opportunity and the setting seemed perfect.
Cordelia looked a little uncertain at the offer of that finger. The spark of desire in her eyes proved she wasn’t entirely immune to him. She closed her hot, wet mouth over his fingertip and licked the peanut butter away never taking her eyes off of his. Then she dared to ask, “Do you want more, Angel?”
They both know she wasn’t talking peanut butter. Angel stifled a moan, “I want more than I should, Cordelia.”
Leaning closer, she lifted her upper body until they were face to face. Cordelia held her breath as she waited for him to meet her halfway. The sudden need to kiss him had her forgetting all about the countless reasons why it might not be the best idea.
Angel’s hands moved to clasp her upper arms, setting her back on the bed at a safe distance. Scooting off of it to stand beside her as Cordelia rose to her knees, giving him a puzzled look, Angel explained his actions, “It’s past midnight. Time you were asleep. You’ve had a rough day.”
“The movie’s not over,” Cordelia glanced at the television screen where Victoria and Paul were fighting the raging fire in the fields. She wasn’t at all happy with the idea that he planned to tuck her into bed and slink off to the living room after teasing her with the damn peanut butter. So what if she’d done her equal share of teasing.
“It’s over for tonight,” he said firmly which only made Cordelia feel that Angel wasn’t just talking about the movie.
Cordelia Chase wasn’t about to beg anyone for kisses. Giving him a look of complete disinterest, she plopped back into the middle of the bed, yanked up the covers and told him, “Goodnight, then. Turn then light out when you leave.”
Reaching for the remote at the same time, they jerked their hands away as if burned by the sensation of their colliding fingers. Angel reached down again, pressing the off switch and putting the remote down on the nightstand. His dark eyes moved across her face like a caress and Cordelia felt mesmerized by the way he looked at her.
“See you at dawn,” Angel stepped back from the bed and moved toward the door.
Back in the Bedroom.
“Wake up,” Angel said for the third time. “Cordelia, wake up.”
Despite the louder tone, Cordelia only mumbled, snuggling deeper into her spot at the middle of the mattress. One word came across clearly enough, “No.”
Trying again, Angel told her, “C’mon, Cordy, you agreed to this. I’m not sleeping on that lumpy couch.”
“Sleepy.” More mumbling followed.
“Then the couch awaits you,” he offered.
Not budging, Cordelia covered her head with the pillow stifling the noise of Angel’s constant chatter. Grumbling in complaint, she begged for a reprieve. Who’s stupid plan was this anyway? “Just go to sleep.”
Angel was already dressed for bed. Not that he usually wore anything, but this time for her sake he had donned a pair of boxers. Though he didn’t need as much sleep as Cordelia, he still needed a few hours. There was no way he was going to squeeze his big body onto that small couch.
The alternative was far more pleasant, though, Angel knew, “That’s not such a good idea.”
From beneath the pillow, Cordelia yawned her answer, “You sleep. I sleep. We both sleep.”
Angel paced back and forth along side the bed. Should he or shouldn’t he? Cordelia seemed willing enough to share. Not that she was fully awake to make the decision. But this was his apartment, after all. Cordy had barged right in without an invitation.
She’d climbed into his bed of her own free will.
Well, Cordelia could just stay there if that’s where she wanted to be. He’d warned her fair and square that it was his turn in their little time-share agreement. No way was he sleeping on the damned couch. Climbing in, Angel scooted her over to one side of the bed and Cordelia rolled that way only reluctantly.
Immediately, Angel felt the heat left behind, his body automatically turning into it and placing himself closer to the warm female lying next to him. With her scent surrounding him, Angel drifted off to sleep content in the knowledge that Cordelia was on one side of the bed and he was on the other.
Hours of blissful sleep passed.
Cordelia sighed as she awakened completely rested only to find herself curled all over the hunky manpire in the bed. Her arm was thrown over his waist, her breasts pressed fully into his hard chest as his body angled toward hers and one of her legs curled over a powerful thigh. As her senses focused on the large palm cupping her bottom Cordelia realized his hands had done a little wandering of their own during the morning.
Was it morning? She seemed to recall, vaguely, that Angel tried to get her to wake up. So this was possibly not his fault.
Considering that waking up in Angel’s arms in no way felt wrong, Cordelia took time to stare at the handsome face of the sleeping vampire. Yup! Still a hottie. Finally, she decided to extract herself from Angel’s grabby embrace, hearing him mumble a protest. Maybe she liked being there in his arms, but she still had reason to suspect he might be thinking she was someone else.
The thought immediately spurred Cordelia into action. Squirming, her leg stretched out along the bed. She let out a yelp as her foot connected with something soft and mushy. Realizing exactly what it was, Cordelia’s hazel eyes darted to the vampire expecting him to wake up at her soft screech.
Fortunately, he slept like the dead now that she was out of arm’s reach. Tossing back the covers, Cordelia stared down at her foot surrounded by the peanut butter jar that she’d somehow forgotten at the bottom of the bed.
“Eew!” she shuddered at the sensation. “This gives a whole new meaning to the words toe jam.”
Sliding the jar off of her foot, Cordelia grimaced at the icky feeling and scrambled to get off the bed. Escaping to the shower, she took the evidence with her.
Angel’s Apartment, The Kitchen
Cordelia sat on one of the kitchen chairs, garbed in her fluffy white robe, combing through her wet hair. She glanced up at the sound of the elevator as Doyle emerged calling out, Angel, are you around?”
The seer stopped in mid-tract, stunned to see Cordelia in such a freshly showered state of undress.
“Hey, Doyle,” she greeted him without a hint of embarrassment at being found there. “You ever get the feeling that you just can’t shower enough. Like something’s happened and you’re never going to get clean?”
Staring at her, Doyle wasn’t certain he could stand hearing the details. “What?”
Angel suddenly stormed up behind them, holding up one hand and accusing Cordelia, “You got peanut butter on the bed.”
“Really?” Her look of complete surprise made Angel stare back in awe of her sheer nerve at trying to avoid culpability. “I don’t think so.”
Showing her his hand, Cordelia noticed that several fingers were covered with sticky peanut butter residue. Her tongue swept across her lip as she remembered last night. Angel’s gaze focused directly on her mouth and Cordelia realized that they had an audience of one gaping Irish seer.
“I’ll go look,” she scampered off to the bedroom before Angel could say anything else.
Doyle watched until she disappeared through the doorway. Turning to face Angel who was wiping his hand on a kitchen towel, he shared his amazement, “I-I don’t believe it, man.”
“Hold off on the accusations,” Angel figured Doyle was about to accuse him of taking advantage of Cordelia or stepping on his toes. “Just because you—”
Not letting him finish, Doyle grinned widely, “You finally made a move. Good on you, Angel.”
Stunned, Angel could only ask, “What? Made what move?”
“With Cordelia,” he patted Angel on the shoulder. “If I flirted with the girl anymore, I’d have to start dating her myself.”
Now he was really confused. Angel shoved his hands in the pockets of his open robe. “You don’t want that? Besides, I saw her flirting with you.”
“Personally, I’d eat up the attention in a minute if I thought Cordelia meant anything by it,” Doyle revealed to Angel as he took a seat at the kitchen table. “Her interests are obviously with you.”
“Me?”
Frowning at that question, Doyle’s brow furrowed, “You say that like it surprises you. After last night…”
Angel was quick to say, “Nothing happened.” Mostly.
“If you say so, but what was Cordelia doing in your bed?” Doyle wasn’t leaving this apartment without hearing how such an event would occur without anything at all happening.
“Sleeping,” Angel returned quickly, hardly letting Doyle finish. “Her apartment is overrun with roaches. She needed a place to stay.”
Looking innocently at the vampire, Doyle slowly nodded his head in understanding, “Roaches.” Bet the vampire had no idea the number of favors he’d had to call in just to arrange that little scenario.
Then Angel realized Doyle had come over for a reason. “Why are you here, again?”
“I came to talk to you about a vision,” the seer immediately got back to business.
Kate Lockley’s Apartment
Realizing that this had to be where the whole tell-Kate-everything scenario came in, their hostess commented, “So you told Angel about the…uh…PTB’s message. That vision thing. About bringing me in on the big secret.”
Doyle shook his head. “Not yet. This one was ju—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it right there,” Cordelia held up both hands to put a stop to the conversation. Turning to Doyle with a look of incredulity, “You purposefully infested my apartment with bugs.”
Recognizing Cordelia’s fury, Doyle sent a pleading look toward Angel who was smart enough to stay out of the middle of it. Trying to reason with her, Doyle said, “It was for your own good.”
“That’s why they appeared so quickly,” Cordelia shuddered at the reminder of the scores of roaches crawling all over her furniture. “That’s why you never answered your phone. You were setting me up.”
“It worked,” Doyle reminded, sending her a dimpled grin.
Cordelia couldn’t deny that. “Lucky for you. Be happy I never had to set foot in that place again. Otherwise, there would be major payback coming.”
From across the table, Kate told Doyle, “You’re rather devious when you want to be.”
“All in a good cause.”
Kate admitted to Cordelia, “I’m not sure how I’d feel about starting off a relationship thanks to roaches and a jar of peanut butter.”
“It’s better than ending one impaled by rebar,” Cordelia returned.
At Kate’s curious look, Cordelia added, “Hmm. Come to think of it, that one started on a buggy note as well. Xander and I were hiding in the basement from this icky bug man.”
Next to her, Angel sounded out a little growl under his breath. “We can drop the subject of Xander Harris anytime now.”
“High school boyfriend,” Cordelia explained to Kate. “Not that Angel cared at the time. He had other distractions.”
“You wanted me way back when, sweetheart,” Angel reminded her. “Even when I was dat—”
Using his own words against him, Cordelia bantered back, “We can drop the subject of Buffy Summers anytime now.”
Kate felt certain an argument was about to break out and thought about offering up dessert as an incentive for a little peacemaking. Then Cordelia smiled at Angel, the most brilliant, teasing, loving smile she’d ever seen. It drew an echoing response from Angel, something Kate wasn’t accustomed to seeing him do during their short acquaintance.
Looking at the two of them, Kate could swear she was almost melting from the heat they generated. Talk about sexual vibes, talk about charisma, those two had it in spades and it was all for each other.
She felt like she needed to stick her head in the freezer just to cool off. “Dessert, anyone?”
