Epilogue – Part 1
Three weeks later …
The door crashed open, straining on its hinges. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Angel looked up from the drawer he was searching through to see an agitated Cordy standing in the door frame, a horrified look on her pretty face. “Umm – looking for some clean boxers.” he replied, not quite sure what all the fuss was about.
“Why are you out of bed?” the seer demanded.
“I needed to take a shower. The bed baths have been fun, but they don’t exactly clean the hard to reach places very effectively.”
“Why didn’t you call me? You could slipped and fallen – anything could have happened!”
“Relax Cordy, I’m fine.” Angel began to laugh at her over-protectiveness even though it warmed him from the inside out.
He reached down and loosened the towel that was wrapped around his waist, letting it drop to the floor. “See – all healed now. Not a blemish on me.”
The vampire’s smile broadened as he watched Cordy’s eyes grow wide with shock, when he revealed his muscular body so casually to her. The seer glanced behind her at the open door, her mouth dropping open and her cheeks flushing bright pink at his total lack of modesty; anyone could walk past and see him in all his naked glory!
Angel strode confidently across the room to shut the door before turning around to face his flustered girlfriend. He leaned offhandedly against the wooden panel and folded his arms across his bare chest.
“So – you still have that red satin night-dress?” he queried in the same tone he’d used when he’d greeted her on the phone with ‘What are you wearing?’ over a month ago.
Her heart thumping with growing excitement, Cordy silently padded across the room to her chest of drawers and pulled out the night-dress to show him.
“Did you want to watch me put it on?” she asked coyly, dropping her gaze and peering seductively up at the vampire through her long dark lashes.
Even though watching her undress would be a major turn-on for Angel, he wanted to experience the full effect of the night-gown, so he shook his head in the negative. “No, go and get changed in the bathroom. Don’t be long; I’ll be waiting.”
Cordy nodded, and went through into the on-suite pushing the door shut behind her. Fingers trembling, she quickly disrobed, her breathing quickening and her panties becoming damp with her aching desire for the vampire. Just the mere thought of finally making love to Angel, to have him touch her in a way she’d only imagined up until now, caused her nipples to harden to tight points and turned her insides to jelly.
The seer reached into the cabinet, found her favourite perfume and sprayed her pulse points with the subtle scent. As an afterthought, she removed her panties before making her way back into the bedroom. The scene that greeted her on her return immediately flooded her uncovered sex with liquid arousal.
Angel sat in the armchair by the bed, with one foot flat on the floor and the other propped up on the mattress. He looked, for all intent and purposes, like one of those marble Greek statues. His pale skin, stretched taut across the underlying muscle structure, glowed with an ethereal radiance in the room’s dim light.
The vampire’s sensual pose immediately drew Cordy’s gaze down to his groin and her pupils dilated in reaction to what she saw. Even flaccid his size was impressive, and her clitoris began to throb as her body responded instinctively to the erotic sight.
The aroused seer sucked in a sharp breath as Angel’s penis began to twitch and swell, becoming engorged with blood at the image of her voluptuous body encased in the sexy blood-red night-dress.
Angel growled in frustration when Cordy unconsciously licked her lips, as she watched his sex harden to its fullest proportions. Fantasies of that gorgeous pouty mouth surrounding his throbbing shaft with its wet warmth immediately bombarded his over stimulated brain.
Cordy gasped when she suddenly found herself, flat on her back, pinned underneath the vampire’s solid form. As Angel’s mouth descended to cover hers in a hard demanding kiss, she clutched at his back, massaging his ropy muscles with her fingers. The vampire’s cool tongue forced its way through her lips to explore every crevice of her hot pliant mouth.
Cordy craved the touch of Angel’s cool hands and lips on her heated skin and his rock-hard sex thrusting deep within her body, with an overpowering intensity. She had waited so long for this moment to arrive that she was now in complete sensory overload.
Her own tongue participating enthusiastically in their passionate embrace, she wound her legs around Angel’s waist and deliberately pushed her hips up into his, pressing her heels into his firm backside for leverage.
Responding to her wanton gesture, Angel pushed his groin into the cradle of her thighs, eliciting a moan when the action brought his hard length into contact with her sex through the satiny material of her night-dress.
“Off.” Angel grunted hoarsely, tearing his lips from hers and tugging roughly on the hem of the deep red negligee.
“Yes.” Cordy agreed breathlessly, sitting up so that he could remove her clothing in one swift move.
Angel caught her hands as she started to lie back down on the bed, shaking his head. “Sit against the headboard.” he instructed gruffly, getting to his knees as she quickly shifted to do as he asked.
The vampire reached down and caught hold of her slim ankles in his cool hands, then lifted her feet to his mouth and delicately kissed the end of each toe. He separated her long tanned legs and placed the soles of her feet back on the mattress so that she was splayed out before him.
Angel knelt between her spread thighs, sat back on his heels and just looked her, his deep brown eyes burning hot with lust. Cordy shivered as his dark-eyed gaze swept the length of her exposed body, from the hollow of her throat, over her round breasts with their dusky pink tips, and down to rest on the dark triangle of damp curls that guarded the entrance to her womanhood.
Angel lifted his eyes back up to meet hers and smiled. “You are so beautiful; I don’t know where to start.” he murmured reverently, his look of carnal lust suddenly replaced by one of simple adoration.
“Kiss me.” Cordy whispered in response to his declaration, her heart beating wildly at the intense feelings provoked by this expression of admiration for her curvaceous body.
Angel duly obeyed, leaning forward and bracing his hands against the headboard as his cool lips moved slowly over hers in a hot sweet kiss. When they broke apart, he bent to nuzzle at her neck, trailing one hand down her body to rest lightly on her slightly rounded stomach.
“Tell me what you want.” Angel whispered seductively in her ear, his dancing fingers circling her navel, and inducing sparks in her belly that mutated into a fresh rush of moisture at her already slick centre.
Cordy arched her neck into his exploring mouth, moaning as the vampire began to suckle gently on the pulse point there, drawn by the steady flow of her blood pulsating beneath his questing lips.
“Touch me.” Cordy breathed in answer to his request. “Oh God, please just touch me Angel.”
Angel nipped lightly at her skin with blunt teeth, then soothed the bite with the flat of his tongue before pulling away to look his fill again. He laced his fingers through hers and lifted her arms above her head, placing her fingertips against the wall so that her back arched and she involuntarily thrust her full breasts out towards him.
“Stay.” He whispered softly, and released her hands to trail his fingers lightly down the length of her arms and the sides of her body, to settle for a brief moment in the dip of her waist.
The vampire then swept his hands together over her ribs, and upwards to cup and mould her creamy cleavage in his palms. He brushed his thumbs over her already engorged and sensitive nubs, before pinching them lightly between his thumb and forefingers.
“Angel!” Cordy cried out loudly as a jolt of pleasure ran through her at his actions.
Placing a cool hand flat between her shoulder blades, Angel dropped his head to suckle one pink nipple into his mouth, causing the seer to lift her bottom off the bed, and arch up into his touch as another wave of wetness collected between her open thighs.
His keen sense of smell immediately detected the scent of her growing desire for him, so Angel dipped his hand between her legs running his fingers up the length of her sex to gather up the moisture concentrated there.
“You really are soaking wet for me.” he commented, releasing her breast to suck her creamy arousal from his fingertips. He closed his eyes and hummed with pleasure as her sweet and spicy flavour stimulated his taste buds.
Cordy’s colour was high, her damp hair stuck to her flushed cheeks, and her breathing coming in soft pants. “Oh Angel please.” she begged, besides herself with her need for him. “Oh God – I want you; I need you in me. Now!”
Angel’s self-control snapped at her soft demand and, catching her around the waist, he effortlessly lifted her so that her shoulders were against the wall and she was squatting with her hands clutching the top of the headboard for support.
Kneeling between her spread legs and holding onto her hips, the vampire teased her red and swollen clit with the tip of his erection, coating himself in her essence and making her cry out again as he stimulated her most sensitive spot. Angel had wanted to make their first time last, but they had waited so long for the opportunity that now the moment was here, it was destined to happen in a frenzy of raw need and savage want.
There would be time enough for slow passionate lovemaking later; right now all he wanted was to be buried deep inside her hot channel as their two bodies finally become one. Unable to wait any longer, Angel pushed up into her hot core in one smooth hard stroke, his large hands cupping the twin globes of her ass to hold her still for his penetration.
“Oh God!” Cordy cried out with a mixture of pleasure and pain as the vampire buried himself to the hilt, the headboard crashing against the wall with the violence of his initial thrust. His thick length stretched her relatively untried vagina to the limit and her inner muscles clamped down around him in protest.
“Are you okay?” Angel gasped out between gritted teeth, holding himself still until he felt her begin to relax her vicelike grip on his throbbing sex.
“Yes, I think so.” Cordy replied breathlessly, taking a few deep breaths as the pain of his penetration subsided, and her body began to adjust to the size of him. “It’s been a long time and you’re not exactly small in the trouser department.”
Angel laughed at that, then pulled gently out of her, moaning at the loss of her hot walls around his aching shaft.
“Angel – it’s okay. I didn’t mean you had to stop.”
“I know.” The vampire replied, palming her face in his hands and kissing her. “I think a different position might be more comfortable for you though.”
Cordy melted into a puddle at his overwhelming concern for her. “I love you.” she whispered, tears sparkling in her eyes while they moved so that she lay underneath him on the soft mattress.
“I love you too.” Angel replied, before sliding slowly back into her, a low groan of ecstasy escaping his lips as her slick wetness enveloped him in a warm welcoming hug.
“Better?” he asked softly, watching as her eyes closed and her pretty face contorted with pleasure when he filled her to the brim again.
“Mmm.” Cordy replied, bending her knees towards her chest so that he sank in deeper still, bumping up against her cervix. “Feels good.”
“Are you sure?” Angel asked, then groaned as Cordy flexed her hips and deliberately clenched her inner muscles around his engorged sex. “Cor!” he protested with a low moan.
Cordy giggled, and opened her eyes to look up at him with a mischievous twinkle and a playful pout on her full lips. “Get yer butt moving, broody boy, cus this girl wants some serious lovin’ tonight.”
Reassured that he was no longer hurting her, Angel finally let go of his barely there self-control and started to plunge repeatedly into her tight wet core, his hands placed either side of her on the bed for leverage.
Cordy opened her legs a little wider to accommodate him and clutched the sheets between her fingers as he pounded her into the mattress with strong deep thrusts. The clitoral stimulation, caused by his size and his movements atop of her, sent shock waves throughout her whole body and quickly brought the seer to the edge of orgasm.
“Oh God Angel – Harder. Please .. Need .. More.” Cordy gasped out between heavy pants, her fingernails drawing blood as she clutched at his shoulders desperately trying to find her much needed release.
Angel groaned, his thrusts becoming almost brutal as he complied with her demand, shifting his weight further onto his hands and hunching his shoulders with the effort. The vampire’s head was spinning, his vision blurry, as the force of his movements rocked the bed and slammed the headboard rhythmically against the wall.
He was so close – the long awaited culmination of his desire for the writhing woman beneath him was more than ready to burst like a tidal wave through the crumbling dam of his heart and soul. Cordy’s climactic scream and the sensation of her rapidly convulsing core around his painfully hard sex finally pushed him over the edge into oblivion.
“Oh God Cordy, yes.” Angel cried out loudly, his upper body going rigid as his cool seed poured out of him in long pressurised spurts, his hips jerking uncontrollably between her spread thighs. Finally spent, he collapsed on top of the exhausted seer, gasping as her burning skin seared his much cooler flesh with heat.
Slowly coming down from his high, Angel was shocked to discover that Cordy was shaking with sobs, her tears dripping onto his neck as she buried her face against his collarbone, and wrapped her arms around his broad back.
Angel pulled gently out of her and rolled over onto his back, tugging his seer with him so that she was sprawled across his chest. He slipped a concerned finger under her chin and lifted her tear-streaked face to his. “What’s wrong baby? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No.” Cordy shook her head in denial, salty tears still running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying – I’m not sad – I’m happy!”
She took a deep breath trying to steady herself. “I never knew it could be like that.” Cordy confessed quietly. “It felt like you actually became a part of me.”
“That sounds really sappy, doesn’t it?” she added after a brief pause, tucking her damp hair behind her ears and grinning sheepishly at him.
Angel smiled and kissed the end of her nose, running his fingers down the length of her spine to squeeze her bottom gently in his palms. “Yep, but I don’t mind.” he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her slowly and thoroughly, opening her lips with his probing tongue.
Cordy cupped his face in her hands and kissed him back, humming in contentment as their mouths fused together and their tongues slid past each other in long slow strokes. Angel rolled her back underneath him as he felt his lower body begin to stir with renewed arousal.
“I want to kiss and taste every inch of you.” he softly declared, before beginning to descend the length of her curvy body, pressing his lips against every square centimetre of exposed golden skin.
Cordy closed her eyes and surrendered completely to Angel’s gentle touch as he slowly, but surely, began to make love to her, communicating the strength of his devotion in every single sensual kiss and caress.
***
Fred smiled in amusement as she watched Gunn trying to calm an agitated Connor by bouncing him up and down on his knee. Wesley ventured out of the office, the inevitable book in his hands. “Haven’t Angel and Cordelia emerged yet?”
“Nah – eighteen hours and counting. The vamp is one lucky son of a bitch.” Gunn replied with a wide grin.
Angel’s not the only lucky one, Fred thought silently, remembering the cries of feminine ecstasy that had kept her awake most of the night; the souled vampire obviously knew what he was doing and Cordelia was reaping the not so inconsiderable rewards.
“I’m going to need to change rooms, or get better soundproofing if they carry on like this.” she commented wryly, making both men laugh.
“Hello?”
Three heads swung towards the Hotel’s double doors at the sound of the clear female voice. A petite blond woman stood on the top step, her hands on her hips.
“Buffy.”
“Don’t look so surprised to see me Wesley; I told you I would be coming to visit.”
“Yes, you did.” Wesley agreed with a heavy sigh. “I’m not sure that this is the right time, however.”
“Don’t be stupid, of course it is. Where is he?”
“Err – um. In his room.”
“Which is where?”
“Buffy, I really don’t think he wants to be disturbed right now.” Wesley told the slayer, frowning at Gunn when he snorted with laughter at the ex-watcher’s statement.
“Wesley!” Buffy exclaimed, then shook her head in exasperation. “Never mind, I’ll find it myself. I can feel his presence with my slayer senses anyway.”
Three pairs of eyes watched as the slayer strode confidently across the Lobby floor and up the stairs.
“I hope they locked the door or the B-word is about to receive the biggest shock of her life.” Gunn said with a sly wink at the baby in his arms.
“Where are you going?” Wesley called after Fred, who was scurrying towards the staircase.
“To eavesdrop – what else?”
Gunn and Wesley exchanged a look, then got up to hurry after the inquisitive Texan.
***
Cordy woke to the sensation of cool fingers tracing patterns on the soft skin of her belly. She opened her eyes to find Angel’s chocolate gaze focused on her face, his head propped up in his hand as he watched her come awake
“Hey!” she said softly, gracing the vampire with her wide beautiful smile. She linked her fingers together above her head and stretched, groaning as her aching muscles protested the movement.
“You a bit stiff?” Angel asked with a teasing grin, his hand still circling her navel.
“Just as long as you aren’t again!” Cordy joked back with a cheeky smile. “I think I’ve discovered muscles in places I didn’t know existed – I’m not gonna need to go to the Gym for weeks.”
“Honey, I’m here to give you a workout anytime you want.” Angel laughed as he leaned in to kiss her. “You only have to ask.”
“Angel!” Cordy half-protested when he released her lips to nuzzle at her neck, his wandering hand slipping between her legs to stroke the moist folds of her womanhood. “We have to get up.”
“I’m already up.” Angel mumbled against her skin, pressing the evidence of that against her hip as his callused thumb circled her clitoris, causing the seer to clamp her thighs around his hand with a soft moan of his name.
Tugging the sheets down to expose her full breasts to his perusal, Angel removed his hand from between her legs and straddled her nude form. He bent and closed his lips around one of her sensitive nubs, fondling her other mound of soft feminine flesh expertly between his fingers.
Cordy sighed, laced her fingers through his spiky hair and held him to her as she unconsciously started to undulate her hips, trying to quench the aching desire building at her centre. Angel had just moved to suckle her other breast into his cool mouth, when the door to the bedroom suddenly banged open.
Cordy squeaked in alarm, pushing Angel unceremoniously away, and tugging the sheet up to cover her nakedness.
“Oh my God Buffy! What the hell are you doing here?”
Epilogue – Part 2
His brain fuzzy with sexual excitement, Angel growled and reached for Cordy again, unhappy at the abrupt suspension of his worship of her perfect breasts. Why had she pushed him away?
“Oh my God Buffy! What the hell are you doing here?”
The vampire froze; the words having the same effect on his arousal as dousing his private parts in frigid ice-water would have done. Twisting around, he spied a scandalised Buffy standing in the door frame, her mouth hanging open like a goldfish.
Great! That’s all I need.
“Get out!” Cordy’s shock and embarrassment was quickly replaced by anger at the slayer’s rude interruption.
How dare she barge her way in here like she owns the place? And what the hell does she think she’s doing ogling *my* manpire!
“I said ‘Get out.’ Are you deaf or something?” Cordy stormed, quickly reaching out to pull up the comforter and concealing Angel’s rapidly deflating erection. She glared at the stunned slayer with an icy look that had ‘Hands off – he’s mine’ written all over it.
Angel smiled inwardly at his seer’s possessive look and gesture, but tamped down his amusement to deal with his troublesome ex-girlfriend.
“We would appreciate some privacy to get dressed if you don’t mind.” he told her pointedly, making it clear by the tone of his voice that he wouldn’t tolerate a refusal on her part.
“I’ll be waiting downstairs.” Buffy huffed, deeply offended by his unequivocal dismissal of her. She turned on her heel and slammed out of the bedroom in high dudgeon.
“Who the hell does she think she is?” Cordy was shaking with rage, as she angrily tugged on some clean panties and a pair of navy combat pants.
“Cordy – just let me deal with Buffy okay?” Angel implored, trying to calm the situation down, as he zipped up his pants and pulled a grey sweater over his head. “I know she was out of order barging in here without an invitation *but* I do owe her an explanation as to why I didn’t return to Sunnydale when my soul was anchored.”
“You’re not going to change your mind about us, are you?” Cordy asked him, her voice small and her hazel eyes suddenly wide with fear.
Angel crossed the room and wrapped one arm around her waist, fisting his other hand in her silky hair. “Of course not. I love you.” he reassured her softly, before bending to kiss her with unrestrained passion.
Cordy opened her mouth under his to allow his tongue entry, moaning as he pulled her closer and the soft material of his sweater stimulated her uncovered nipples to hard points. The vampire eventually released her mouth, but reached down to palm her still bare breasts in his large hands instead, lightly teasing their dusky pink tips with his thumbs.
Her confidence in his love for her returning, Cordy smiled at his actions. “I think you have a one track mind.” she teased him playfully, even though she knew that wasn’t really the case.
They had spent the last eighteen hours in bed together but, in between bouts of lovemaking, food and sleep, they had also talked and opened their hearts to each other. Cordy had shared things with him that she’d never told anyone else about and Angel, in turn, had confided in her about his past with an honesty of emotion that she somehow knew he hadn’t before given to any other woman in his life.
Rubbing his nose gently against hers in a tender Eskimo kiss, Angel smiled down into Cordy’s shining eyes. “Just making up for lost time.” he said, then stepped back from her with genuine regret. “You’d better get dressed before I have to give into the temptation to ravish you again.”
Cordy laughed at his rueful tone, and moved to her chest of drawers to find herself some clothes to put on. She slipped her arms through a simple white bra and fastened the clasp behind her back, then rummaged through her T-shirt drawer to find a suitable top to wear.
Smiling wickedly, she pulled out and donned a motif T-shirt that she’d bought eighteen months ago – the words emblazoned across the front had a completely different meaning now. Angel threw back his head and laughed his rich deep laugh, when Cordy turned to face him with a decidedly evil twinkle in her hazel eyes.
“I suppose that’s one way of marking my property.” he declared, then reached out to take her hand in his. “Come on – Let’s get this over with.”
Buoyed by the fact that he hadn’t made her change, Cordy let the vampire lead her out of their bedroom into the corridor. She was nervous about how Angel was going to deal with the situation, but was determined not to let Buffy spoil her good mood.
“You not going to go all spineless vamp like you usually do when Buffy’s around, are you?” she bluntly asked him as they ambled, hand in hand, towards the main staircase. “She can’t just show up here and disrupt our lives whenever she feels like it. If you don’t tell her that, then I will, and you better back me up or your life will not be worth living.”
Angel sighed and stepped around to stand in front of her, lacing the fingers of his free hand through hers. “Look, I’m as pissed off as you about her unscheduled little visit this morning, Cor.” he told her, a serious look in his deep brown eyes. “I know what I used to be like around Buffy, but it’s different now. You just have to trust me.”
“I do.” Cordy replied, squeezing his fingers and meeting his steady gaze with her loving one to emphasise the point. “You’re not like that with me.” she added, pursing her lips into a mock pout.
The seer wasn’t really that bothered; she liked that he didn’t give in to her every demand like some of her previous boyfriends had done. Their relationship was one of give and take on both sides and she was happy with that.
Angel dropped a gentle kiss on her jutting lower lip and palmed the side of her face in one cool hand. “No, because I don’t have to be.” he told her, somewhat cryptically. “But that’s a good thing.”
The seer wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that statement, but guessed that it had something to do with the way she accepted and loved him for everything that he was. It was completely natural to Cordy to love both sides of him; he was just Angel, her man-pire. She wasn’t blind to the fact that Buffy had only really loved his human side though.
To her delight, Angel kept his fingers firmly entwined with hers as they descended the staircase into the Lobby. Buffy couldn’t fail to miss this silent statement of togetherness, which was compounded by the seer’s subtle as a sledgehammer choice of T-shirt.
The top was baby blue with ‘Angel’ written in silver and black lettering across the front of it. A cockeyed golden halo encircled the ‘A’ of the vampire’s name, which was strategically positioned right across the full breasts that Angel had been so enthusiastically suckling on a short while ago. Cordy felt a thrill of satisfaction burn in her belly when the slayer’s eyes narrowed and turned frosty at the sight.
Observing the thunderous look on his ex-girlfriend’s face, Angel glanced towards Wesley who was perched casually on the arm of a chair, an open book in his hands. The vampire frowned; the ex-watcher’s pose was suspicious for a start. Wesley almost never did anything casually, despite becoming less uptight in the last year or so. His book was also upside-down.
Angel suppressed a grin as he looked around at his other friends, who were likewise trying to appear like they’d been in the same position for ages, when it was clear that they hadn’t been.
The vampire’s gaze eventually fell on his son, perched precariously astride one of Gunn’s jean-covered knees. Connor’s round face split into a wide sunny smile when he saw his father looking at him and Angel couldn’t help smiling back at his baby boy.
Releasing Cordy’s hand, the vampire addressed Wesley. “Do you mind if we borrow your office?” he asked, gesturing towards the pertinent room.
“No, go ahead.” came the brief reply from the Englishman.
Angel jerked his head towards Buffy, indicating that she should follow him, then strode confidently across the Lobby. As he walked past Wesley, the vampire reached out and turned the ex-watcher’s book the correct way up, winking craftily at his friend as he did so.
Passing by Gunn, Angel affectionately tapped his son’s button nose with one finger, then ushered the slayer into Wesley’s office and shut the door firmly behind them.
The short silence that followed was broken by Connor’s happy gurgles as he spotted Cordy and lifted his tiny arms out towards her. Cordy’s focus immediately shifted from her contemplation of the closed door to the baby on Gunn’s knee.
Although she wouldn’t have swapped the time she’d just spent alone with Angel for anything, she’d missed her little boy in the short time that they’d been apart. She swept him up into her arms, kissing him soundly and blowing raspberries on his tummy.
Geez, I’ve got it bad, the seer thought as she looked down into Connor’s big blue eyes and pressed another kiss on his downy head.
“I missed you little guy, yes I did.” she said to the smiling baby in her arms, as she bestowed a final kiss on his soft rosy cheek.
“Interesting T-shirt.” Gunn commented, with one raised eyebrow and tongue firmly in cheek.
Cordy sat down with Connor in her lap, looking partially ashamed of herself. “I suppose wearing it was kind of mean, but she just got me so mad barging in on us like that.”
“I don’t think Buffy’s going to take the hint unless she’s slapped around the face with it.” Wesley said gravely, shifting to sit properly in the chair that he’d been balanced on the arm of. “Hopefully Angel will finally be able to convince her that it’s over between them.”
“I think what she walked in on just now, probably qualifies for being slapped around the face with it.” Cordy said, a naughty twinkle in her eye and a pink flush staining her cheeks.
“You and Angel weren’t playing scrabble then?” Gunn queried, a faux innocent look in his chocolate brown eyes.
“Naked Twister actually.” Cordy shot back immediately, making her friends laugh at her unabashed sauciness.
“You go girl!” Gunn said, once their laughter had died down. He reached out and squeezed the seer’s shoulder lightly with one big hand. “We’re all really happy for you both. Glad you two finally got down and dirty.”
“I knew you and Angel had moira.” Fred asserted, a dreamy look on her pretty face.
“Moira?” Cordy asked her friend, puzzled by the unfamiliar term.
“It’s the gut physical attraction between two larger than life souls.”
“Oh.” Cordy nodded, then grinned. “Well, there’s certainly been plenty of moira going on between us in the last day or so.”
“Yeah, we know; we heard. Better than a loofah I take it?” Wesley asked completely straightfaced.
“Wes!” Cordy sharply admonished her friend and blushed, as she lifted a squirming Connor so that he was standing upright on her thighs and facing out towards the centre of the room.
She bounced her adopted son up and down on her knee, eliciting a stream of baby giggles from him. The action also brought his diaper-covered bottom in closer proximity to her face, and she screwed up her nose at the offensive smell emanating from the tiny boy. “Eew! I think somebody needs a change.”
Cordy got to her feet and crossed the room, holding Connor against her hip with one arm around his middle. Before heading up the stairs, she cast a quick glance towards the office, where she could see Buffy standing with her arms folded across her chest and a scowl marring her pretty features.
Cordy sighed in relief; the slayer obviously wasn’t happy with what she was hearing, meaning that Angel was being true to his word. The seer turned away and left him to it, cooing quietly to Connor as she ascended the staircase.
***
“Don’t look at me like that Buffy.” Angel said, when the slayer turned her hurt blue-eyed gaze on him, the moment they entered the office. “It doesn’t work anymore. I don’t need your approval that badly.”
The look was one that, in the past, used to make him rush to apologise for every minor misdemeanour she’d convinced him that he’d committed. Now it just irritated him immensely because she had no right to act like he owed her something. The time when she was the most important thing in his life had come and gone.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Buffy glared accusingly at the vampire, her eyes icy blue.
“About my soul you mean? After it happened, it took me a while to get things straight in my head, to decide what I wanted. I sorry – I should have told you when I finally realised there was no future for us.”
“What about Darla, Connor – not to mention Cordelia?” Buffy spat out the last name with particular venom. “How could you betray me with them like that?”
Angel stared at her incredulously. “Let me get this straight – it’s all right for you to move on and be with someone else, but it’s not okay for me?”
He shook his head at the audacious accusation she levelled at him. “Darla was a mistake; I’m the first to admit that, but it wasn’t you I betrayed when I went down that road. My friends, my *family,* they’re the ones I showed no regard for when I let Darla and Wolfram and Hart get under my skin.”
“And why is Connor even an issue? He’s my son. My love for him is completely separate from anything I feel for you, or any other woman for that matter.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Buffy hurriedly tried to backtrack on the Connor issue, realising it was a no-win situation.
“The trouble is, I think that in some way you did. Even if I still loved you – which I don’t by the way – Connor would be number one in my life. You, however, always want everything to revolve around you, and you can’t stand it if something or someone else gets in the way of that. You are going to end up a very lonely and embittered woman if you carry on like that, Buffy.”
“Don’t try to turn this back on me, Angel. You were the one who slept with your sire and fathered a bastard. And to cap it all you’re now boning the cheerleading whore!”
“Don’t you dare talk about my Cordy like that.” Angel growled furiously, his brown eyes flickering to gold with the strength of his anger.
“What’s the matter? The truth hurts does it? I know Cordelia, Angel. She’s an expert at using her body to string men along until she’s bored of them. This morning’s sordid little display was proof positive of that – I didn’t think you were dumb enough to fall for it though.”
Vamping out without even realising it, Angel grabbed hold of Buffy’s upper arms in a tight grip, and slammed her against the wall in fury. “Now you listen to me.” he grated, his yellow eyes piercing into hers with a cold and frightening rage. “Nobody – not even you – speaks about a member of my family in that way. Nobody – you hear me.”
Reigning in his overwhelming desire to throttle her, Angel released the shocked slayer and shoved her roughly away from him. “There was *nothing* sordid about what was happening between Cordy and myself earlier. We love each other and were expressing that in the privacy of our own bedroom, just like countless other couples do every single day and night. You had no right to barge in on us like you did.”
“Well, excuse me for not realising that you’d have your face buried in her tits.” Buffy burst out, her eyes flashing and her voice shaking with her anger.
“That’s not the point. This is my home; you can’t just waltz in here whenever you feel like it. I have other priorities now and they don’t include you.”
“You don’t mean that.” Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “You can’t mean that.”
“Just go home, Buffy.” Angel said wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Cordy, Connor and my friends – they are my life now. I think it best that you stay away until you accept that. I won’t have you ruin what I’ve waited my whole life for.”
“Cordelia Chase is a cheap tramp.” Buffy declared as she marched past him out of the room. “You’ll regret throwing me away when you finally come to your senses and realise that.”
“No, Buffy. I won’t.” Angel replied calmly, placing a warning hand against Gunn’s chest as he came to his feet in fury on hearing the slayer’s insult of the seer. “Cordy is my heart, my soul and a brilliant mother to my son – she’s all the woman I’ll ever need.”
“You’ve changed Angel.” Buffy tutted in disgust at his heartfelt declaration. “I don’t know you anymore.” she added, then swept out of the hotel in a whirlwind of pure rage.
“And good riddance to you too.” Gunn said, as doors closed with a loud crash in her wake.
The slayer’s last statement still hung in the air. “No, Buffy; you really don’t.” Angel muttered under his breath in reply.
***
“Pooh! You are one very stinky boy, aren’t you, Connor? What have they been feeding you hey?” Cordy removed the very poopy diaper and began to clean up the baby’s soiled bottom with a cleansing wipe. “I don’t suppose you’ve had a bath recently either, have you? No, well neither has Mommy. Daddy got her *very* hot and sweaty, so she’s not smelling too sweet right now. What do you say to you and me taking a soak in the tub?”
The seer took her diaper-less baby through into the bathroom and placed him on a towel on the floor, as she filled the bath with pleasantly warm water and shed her clothes. Kneeling next to Connor, she removed his little T-shirt and vest, then climbed into the tub with him, slowly lowering the small boy into the water whilst supporting his head with one hand and cupping his now clean bottom with the other.
“There – you like that, don’t you little guy?” she crooned to him as her baby boy happily kicked his little legs and splashed his tiny arms about in the water. To her astonishment, Connor had turned into a total waterbaby in recent weeks, whereas before he had hated being bathed, kicking up an almighty fuss whenever water was within a few feet of him.
Reaching for a soft sponge and some baby soap, she quickly washed Connor, singing to him to keep him happy. Like all little boys since the beginning of time, he still didn’t like this part of the bathing ritual! Finally when he was rinsed clean, the seer settled back in the tub with Connor propped up against her bent legs, so that the warm water gently lapped over his small body, but his head was kept above the water-level.
The baby boy gurgled happily at her as she tickled his little tummy and kissed his tiny toes. “What’s this Connor?” she said, reaching for a small plastic yellow duck and showing it to him. “It’s Mr Duck, isn’t it? What sound does he make? He goes quack, quack, doesn’t he? Yes he does. Quack, Quack.”
Cordy was so focused on Connor that she didn’t notice that they were no longer alone in the bathroom. Angel was constantly amazed by the range of feelings that this woman had the capacity to provoke within him. If she’d been alone in the tub, then the vampire would have been overwhelmed with desire for her nude curvaceous body, but watching her affectionately play with his son just filled his unbeating heart with tenderness.
“Hey – can I join in?” he asked, finally making his presence known when he had looked his fill.
“Well, I don’t know. What do you reckon Connor? Is there enough room for Daddy?” Cordy carefully turned the baby around so he could see Angel. The little boy clapped his tiny hands together at the sight and Cordy smiled. “I guess that means yes.”
“Buffy gone?” Cordy asked, as the vampire slipped into the tub behind her and she settled back against his broad chest, Connor cradled in her arms.
“Yeah.” Angel dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder and reached around her to slip a finger into his son’s curled up fist. “He likes the water.”
“Yeah – we should take him swimming, they’re open at night.”
“I think this place has a pool – I remember seeing something about it on the plans.”
Cordy twisted around to look at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Seeing you in an itzy-bitzy bikini every day would have been too much of a temptation.” Angel joked and bent to kiss her, his lips moving slowly over hers.
“Oh!” Cordy jumped and pulled away from him in shock, as she felt a tiny mouth latch onto her right breast and begin to suckle. “Connor!”
Angel smiled and quickly reached down to halt his baby son’s instinctive reaction to the close proximity of an exposed female mammary gland.
“No.” Cordy stopped him, stroking Connor’s little cheek. “He’s okay. It feels .. nice.” she said, tears sparking in her hazel eyes at the warm feeling of motherly tenderness that Connor’s unexpected actions had stirred within her. “I guess this is how it feels to breastfeed your baby.”
Angel kissed away the single tear that escaped to run down her cheek. “I’m sorry you won’t ever experience that with a baby of your own. Maybe I’m being selfish asking you to be with me – there are so many things that I can’t give you.”
“Angel – just stop okay?” Cordy reassured him, smiling through her tears. “You and Connor are all I’ll ever need. I don’t think I’m missing out – I’ve been here since the day he was born and I love him. He’s my son even if we aren’t biologically related.”
She lifted a drowsy Connor, who had released his hold on her nipple and placed him so he was snuggled against her chest. Her body heat kept the baby warm and lulled him sleep. Angel wrapped his arms around them both as Cordy settled deeper into his embrace, resting her head in the crook of his neck and sighing contentedly. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Angel pressed a kiss to her temple and stroked two gentle fingers down Connor’s back. What he’d said to Buffy was right – he really had been waiting his whole life for this.
He finally had a family that filled his life with love and hope for the future. This was that elusive something that the vampire had searched nearly two hundred and fifty years for.
It had been well worth the wait.
The End