But the moment she had lain down her head, he was turning her back to face him.
And without so much as a sound he was on top of her…and running his hand over her hair…and touching her face tentatively…and he was kissing her; kissing her soft.
And deep. And imploringly. And anxiously.
She felt herself slowly react from the lethargic state she’d suddenly been cast into when he’d first surprised her with the kiss. She exhaled slowly into his lips and suddenly they were running their hands up and down, and over and across, and around and below. And then their lips were biting and nipping and foraging, and eager. And her body came alive with impatience, and she felt herself press further into him.
And he pressed back. And then she realized the sheer weight of him was upon her and he realized how perfectly she fit there beneath him as she curled up into him, clutching him and rubbing against him, and they were kissing, truly kissing, and their heads were spinning in confusion and amazement.
When he finally pulled away, she was breathless, and suddenly embarrassed he said,”I don’t know if it’s you, or all the raw meat,” She caught her breath, and found herself wanting more.
“Must be the meat,” He rushed forward again and they clashed together. Minutes flew by as they swallowed one another in a dizzying spiral of kisses and gropes.
Angel pulled back, their lips still interlocked, and she rose forward with him. He grasped her around the waist, turning over, falling on his back, and pulled her on top of him. She half straddled his waist, half way shrugging out of his long leatherjacket, one leg following the length of him, the other curled at his thigh. She let the full form of her body fall against him while her hands caught at his clothing.
He rose up, his lips traveling to find the nape of her neck and then Angel began to kiss her again in such a way she thought she would melt. Shivers ran up her skin, and the heat seemed to collect just under the patch of skin caught in his kiss. Cordelia made up her mind right then and there that if he initiated it, she would sleep with him, Angelus placed dangerously aside.
His lips moved against her aggressively, but not that aggressively, and she sank against him when she realized he was so caught up in the kissing that he wasn’t focusing on going any further. It was good; kissing was good. But she had to hold back when she felt her body naturally expecting more. She felt the sheer steel of muscle in his arms about her, and she moaned slightly when he started to suck faintly at the place below her ear.
The fear of teeth never entered her mind; they were just kissing, making out actually, something Cordy hadn’t done in a long, long time, and Angel even longer. She suddenly realized how junior high it all was and smiled.
She broke away when she felt a hickey starting to burn, and then decided to return the favor by locking her lips over his skin in the same place. Angel shuddered, bucking slightly but then gripped her harder against him. Apparently, whatever she was doing, he liked it.
They were interrupted by the sound of a lock clicking, and the darkness broke as a thin trail of light cut through from the doorway.
Breaking apart, Angel, already on his feet, had already moved to shield Cordelia, who although stunned, was quickly getting to her feet. Angel shoved her safely back towards the wall, and as his dizziness dissolved, and his fight kicked in, he became very aware of every movement and every sound within the small space and within the doorway before them; waiting and listening, and anticipating their attackers first move.
And then Gunn and Wesley stepped inside.
“There you are!” Wesley said. “We’ve been looking all over the place for you! Where’s Cordelia?”
“Didn’t you hear us calling you?” Gunn asked as the light from his flashlight bounced off the vampire’s chest. He lowered it to the floor respectively.
“No,” Angel answered truthfully. He looked away shyly, rubbing a hand through his hair.
“Reinforced steel,” Cordelia explained, trying to appear as normal as possible as she stepped around Angel to reveal herself. Gunn and Wesley raised their flashlights, and the faint light bounced briefly across her face.
They paused at her appearance, noticing the swollen pucker of her lips and her disarrayed hair, but said nothing. The beams fell to the floor, and there was just enough light in the room for the humans to stare at each other. Angel folded his arms. Cordelia glanced at him and then gestured around the enclosed space.
“We couldn’t hear anything outside of this freezer…”
“How on earth did you survive!” Wesley remarked as the cold came over him, and goose bumps trailed down his arms.
“Angel gave me his coat,” Cordelia said shortly, stepping past them to exit the confined space.
“What happened to your hair?” Gunn finally asked.
Cordelia said nothing but left, and Angel followed her, out into the dingy kitchen. Wes and Gunn trailed after them, leaving the freezer door wide open.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Cordelia snapped, an obvious annoyance in her voice, though both Gunn and Wesley thought it was because she’d been trapped in a freezer, not because of…well, what they didn’t know was happening with Angel at the time they’d decided to bust on in.
“After the dinner party, I decided to stop back at the hotel to pick up some research materials and found that Angel hadn’t come home. I called your apartment and no one picked up, so I called Gunn and we came to investigate. We found Angel’s car still parked out back.”
“It’s a good thing we came along, or you’d still be stuck in that freezer,” Gunn commented. Cordelia gave him a dirty look.
“Oh, Damn!” She said sarcastically.
Now Gunn gave her a dirty look. “Am I missing something here?”
“She’s cranky, as usual,” Angel said as convincingly as possible, passing them all up and heading out to the main dining room. “You know how Cordy gets when she doesn’t get a full eight hours of sleep…” He glanced at her, blankly at first, mortified if she guessed correctly, but then Angel did something completely uncharacteristic; he smirked, a private amusement on his face.
He arced his brow at her and she felt herself blushing hot and looking away.
“I’m glad I’m out of there…” he then said, letting the smirk fall away. He looked at Gunn and Wesley seriously. “You know, one more hour with her, and I don’t know what I would’ve done.” Boy, didn’t that imply something.
“I’m glad it wasn’t me,” Gunn said. “I don’t think I could have handled it.” Cordelia gave him an icy glare “I meant the cold, Miss Thang!”
“Yeah, sure ya did!”
“How did you get locked in there anyway?” Wesley asked. They were now heading outside to the parking lot where Gunn’s truck and Wesley’s new Alero were parked next to Angel’s classic Plymouth.
“After you left,” Cordelia said, still bundled up in Angel’s leather coat. “I went in to see what Angel was doing, and then he tripped,”
“On shrimp.” Angel said.
“On expired shrimp…And then when I was helping him up, someone closed the door and locked us in.”
“Expired shrimp?” Gunn said disgustedly. “Remind me never to eat here again,”
“Ditto,” Cordelia said.
“Was it the Spontoon Demon?” Wesley asked.
“It had to be.” Angel said. “He somehow got past me, and when Cordy came in, he slipped out.”
“I can’t believe I was that close to a demon,” Cordy shivered. Angel gave her a direct look. “A Spontoon demon, I mean.”
The subtext was getting thick.
“You two could’ve been in a lot of trouble,” Wesley said worriedly. “It’s a good thing I went to the hotel.”
“Yeah,” Cordelia said nervously. “It’s a good thing you found us when you did. I don’t know how I would’ve felt in the morning…”
“Huh?” Wesley asked.
“I mean, I don’t know what would have happened to me, what you would have found, in the morning. I might have froze to death, you know.”
“Angel wouldn’t let that happen,” Wes said.
“No,” Cordelia said, smirking at her boss as he was busy fishing for his keys. She reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his key ring.
“He sure wouldn’t.” She slipped them into Angel’s hand and let her fingers linger just enough for Angel to tell she’d meant to linger. She let go, and passed him to go around to the passenger’s side.
“So, what are we going to do?” Gunn asked, looking at Angel.
“Should we go after it now?” Wesley asked. “It’s trail may still be warm.”
Angel looked to Cordelia, swallowing slightly. “No. I want to get Cordelia home. Make sure she doesn’t get sick. We can hunt it tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Gunn said with a shrug.
“It’s your call,” Wesley replied.
“Yeah, just head home,” Angel looked up at the sky. “We’ll go after it later. He’s probably long gone by now anyway.”
“Later, then.” Gunn said. He walked away.
“Later.”
“Good night, Angel, Cordelia,” Wesley said, going to his car.
“Night, Wesley.” Cordelia called. Angel waved and the ex-watcher climbed into his car.
The parking lot came to life with the two distinct roars of their engines. First Gunn pulled out of the lot, speeding off into the street traffic, and then Wes.
Alone now, Angel and Cordelia climbed into his car. In the moments of silence that followed, the air suddenly became unbearably thick and Angel coughed. Cordelia cracked the window and looked outside. Angel checked the positioning of the mirrors; anything to avoid what was so ready to boil to the surface after what had just taken place.
Satisfied with the mirrors, Angel finally decided to get the car moving.
“Cordy,” He started as he slipped the key into the ignition. Cordelia pulled on her seatbelt and looked straight ahead. Angel waited for a reaction, but got nothing. “We…” He said meekly. “We probably shouldn’t have…”
“Right.” She interrupted. “Totally right.”
“I only…it was…I didn’t mean…” He looked flustered. “It wasn’t what…oh. This is hard. We…you…we were sleeping together…and…it just…well, you know.”
“Not sleeping,” Cordelia corrected him. “Just ‘sleeping’.”
“Oh, right. Right.”
“And things got kinda intense, what with the conversation and all…”
“Yes, the conversation was…intense,”
“And I really didn’t mean…” Cordelia sat up straight in her chair.
“Well, I didn’t mean…either!”
“And we’re still friends, right?” Angel slumped in his seat and stared at her.
Cordelia stared back, and nodded. “Of course. Always.”
“Good.”
“Really good.”
Angel sighed and started the engine.
“Cordy—”
“Angel—”
“Sorry, go ahead.”
“No, you go ahead.”
“Um, okay.” Angel looked down into his lap and cleared his throat nervously. “I just…I want to thank you, for everything you’ve been to me. You’ve been a bigger part of my life the past two years than I might give you credit for, and I couldn’t have come this far without you. I’d never risk losing that for anything, and even though something…really weird and bizarre, happened tonight, between us, it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel the same…way, about you that I always have. You’re my friend. You’re my seer, and…my point is, we’re family. We, er, kissed, that’s all. Nothing catastrophic, right! We…we…we can get through this, right?”
“Angel,” His eyes rose to meet hers.
“We’ll get through this.”
“Ah, good!”
“But I want to clear something up here! You were really warm and comfortable so I’m glad it was you I was stuck with. And yes, we’re family, and I love you. But, if you tell anyone about what happened in that freezer, I’m going to personally stake you!”
Angel smiled at her from the drivers seat. “I won’t tell,” He promised, sitting back. “As long as you don’t tell anyone about the leisure suit thing.”
“I promise I wont,” Cordelia smiled.
“Good.” Angel sighed in relief. Cordelia’s smile widened into a grin.
“So…” He started, nervously watching her out of the corner of his eye. He drummed his fingers across the steering wheel multiple times before finally resting his hands in his lap. He looked over at Cordelia, and after clearing his throat, in a soft and slightly anticipating voice, asked, “Your place, or mine?”
Cordelia arched her brow, and taking one good, long look at his pale, cool lips, thought of all she’d been missing. Kissing. Mmm, kissing was good. Kissing wasn’t catastrophic, right? He’d said so himself. They could get through it. Later. Maybe tomorrow. But what about tonight?
Kissing…Mmm, kissing.
Cordelia pushed a stray strand of hair back from her eyes, and turning in her seat to face him, she answered, “Yours.”
And they kissed happily ever after.
Hey, why not, right?
FIN