Part 9
Day 33…
Cordelia woke up with a huge grin and threw the covers off, not caring one iota about the rush of cold air that hit her body. She did, however, care about the sudden sting on her lower back and she hissed when the skin around her tattoo pulled tight. He’d warned her about that and gave her some cream to apply to the surrounding area, drumming into her head not to put it on the tattoo directly.
The sting went as quickly as it came, and she was once more miss happy sunshine. She tugged her jammie top up and gave her belly a little jiggle, grinning like an idiot when the steel bar responded with a jiggle of its very own. Two itty bitty purple stars tickled her skin and her grin widened when she flicked it, watching the gems twinkle.
Angel wanted her to have red stars, but she demanded on the purple as it would match the shading of her tattoo. He did get his own way with the jewels. She would have proper amethyst or nothing at all. Not that she minded having the genuine article of course, but the tattoo and piercing were free. If she added up everything he’d done for her over the past week or so, including her car and burger, he’d shelled out well over $200 dollars on her.
Her dad was the only other man to spend that much on her in under a week.
Cordelia frowned as a good dose of guilt began to weigh heavily on her chest. She was already deceiving him, now she was spending his money. How horrible a person could she be? The worst part of it was Spike being right in what he said.
Any good feelings she had went flying out the window at Concord speed until they disappeared in a puff over a distant horizon. She wanted to tell Angel, but how would he react? She had an inkling her head would either roll or become prettily mounted on his bedroom wall. Things wouldn’t be so bad if that pesky Cupid had her alone, but he hadn’t, and now she was falling fast for someone who would turn on her the second he discovered her deceit.
If she got him really, really drunk before confessing, the blurry vision might come in handy as she made her escape. Not that she deserved to escape his wrath, not after letting him spend so much money on her and repaying him with lies.
She couldn’t keep doing this to him. Evil wretched vampire or no, he didn’t deserve to be treated with disrespect by a money stealing, dishonest harlot, because that’s exactly what she was. A lying, cheating, good for nothing woman who was no better than an average whore. No, she decided, she wasn’t a whore. Worse than that, she was a wuss for letting Spike threaten her into this.
Cordelia knew she should have gone straight to Buffy or Giles right away and made them listen, not let them brush her off with less than a hand wave. Better yet, she should have told Angel the first chance she got. Sure he probably would have yelled a bit, maybe lost his temper too, but she didn’t doubt who would come off worse, and it wasn’t her.
She had to tell him and she had to tell him soon.
****
“Nice design, that tattoo,” Spike said through a cloud of smoke, the smirk on his face increasing as Dru continued to pet and stroke his hair. “Wonder how you came up with it.”
Angelus drank the rest of his coffee and pinned the blonde with a harsh glare. “Good imagination,” was the abrupt reply. He sat down, toying with the empty mug and finding himself staring out into space. After he took Cordelia home last night, he’d been so damn hungry, he’d nigh on inhaled a few good meals. It hadn’t really done anything to sate his appetite as those meals hadn’t been quite right.
Eyes too dark, hair too short, too tall, wrong blood type, not to mention the lack of tattooes and belly bars.
He glanced at the wall clock. Eight thirty it read and he sighed. She had school today, which meant he was gonna be bored out of his skull having Spike and Dru rub his nose in it.
Spike silently watched his grandsire’s distant expression and kept his smirk inward, only speaking when Angelus started to tap his fingers against the mug. “What’s the plan today, then? Your bit popping round for a cuppa tea and quiet chat?”
The elder vampire slowly blinked, but said nothing in favour of coming up with a plan. He supposed he could always wait for her to finish school, or he could go lurk around Sunnydale High, watching and waiting for an opportunity to snag her for some fun. It really didn’t matter what they did, anything was better than hanging round here.
“Oh that’s right,” Spike slapped his head, faking a bad memory. “Got school. Don’t that put you at loose ends?” He chuckled when he still got no response.
The sound of a car pulling up outside sent both vampires into silence, but it was Angelus who reacted. He was up and opening the door before Cordelia had a chance to knock. Her back was to him at first, giving him a lovely view of his excellent artwork. A purple slide clipped her hair back, her shoes were a rich plum, and knowing her as he did, he figured her underwear would be a pale shade of lilac.
“Cordelia,” he greeted and moved back a few steps before her shadow unblocked the sun. “This is a nice surprise.” His eyes blinked when she turned around to face him as her hands were full of two large black bags.
“It certainly is,” Spike’s interested, smug voice went ignored. “Not often take out delivers itself.”
“Not to be rude, but you coming in?” Angelus made a dramatic gesture for her to enter, his eyes never leaving the bags.
“Oh, uh. Thanks.” Cordelia inched in at the side so he had enough room to quickly close the door before light got in. She felt two sets of eyes on her, one pair was a brilliant blue and the other was a set of intense, hypnotic green that held an essence of insanity. She gulped and scooted closer to Angelus when Dru trailed her hand down her neck in a very suggestive manner.
The vampiress purred, holding her gaze as she leaned over to whisper something in Spike’s ear. She giggled childishly and covered her mouth, but not fast enough for Cordelia to miss the lip lick.
Okay, that was creepy. Cordelia shook her head and immediately got to the reason why she was here. “We need to talk.” She wasn’t gonna let Spike intimidate her into silence.
“What about?” Angelus asked.
Spike narrowed his eyes as a certain sense of dread started to well up. “A filly wanting to talk can only mean one thing, mate.” He began to hum the wedding march, much to the amusement of Dru.
At this, she glanced at the blonde and saw his meaning. If she told Angel, right here and in front of them, about what was going on, she doubted she’d ever see him again. If she did, it’d probably be to watch as he prepared to slaughter her.
“Shut up, Wimple.” Angelus half growled, then turned his attention back to a blushing Cordelia. “So talk,” he grinned wickedly. “Unless he’s right.”
“What?” Cordelia looked to him and saw the cheeky expression. “No. God no!” She laughed, feeling her face get slowly redder. “No. Definitely not.”
She nervously fiddled with the hem of her top and tried hard to keep her courage, but felt it slipping when his dark eyes silently asked if she was okay. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to, um…” What the hell was so hard about asking him out? She’d never had this much trouble before. “Remember that thank you thing I mentioned?”
“A thank you, eh? Hear that, poodle?” Spike tapped Dru’s nose in an affectionate gesture and earned himself a lick on the cheek. “The Prom Queen wants to show daddy her gratitude.”
“She will show daddy lots of things,” she half sighed. “Like a ring of roses, my Spike. They all fall down.”
Angelus cocked an eyebrow at Cordelia’s reaction to his childe’s dreamy prediction. “She has the sight,” he explained with a smirk. “Dru, honey. Come see Cordelia.” Then he stood back to watch the sparks fly.
She froze on the spot as the vampiress all but glided over to her, having no choice other than to let Dru take her in. “Hi?” What the hell else could she say? Porcelain fingers touched her hair, a nose came close to her cheek, and lips practically brushed her skin. The vampire stroked her neck from front to nape as she walked in a slow, graceful circle around her, and Cordelia was visibly shaking by the time Dru was done.
“Ooh, I like her. Pretty little thing. Likes to play with dolls and soldiers. On the cusp, she is. Torn in two. Reaks of humanity, tainted by the slayer.” She hissed, and Cordelia leaned away with a bewildered look on her face. Dru pleaded with her sire, “Take it from her? Make her sweet.”
Spike shook his head and got up to remove Dru from the bit. “Come on now, there’s a good girl. Let’s leave daddy to his lady love.”
“She’s not well, my pet.” Dru took a final look at Cordelia as she was led back to the couch.
“Course she ain’t,” the blonde agreed. “She’s with him.”
Angelus rolled his eyes, tossed his mug up and down, then lobbed it hard at Spike’s head, where it bounced with a sickening crack. Cordelia’s jaw dropped at the slew of curses that followed as he smacked a hand over the large cut above his eyebrow. She’d never heard of half the things he said, but figured they were meant to be insulting.
Dru was giggling even as she licked up the blood with a soft, low purr of delight.
“You were saying about the thank you?” Angelus asked as though he hadn’t done anything. The only sign saying he’d commited an act of violence was the self satisfied smile on his face.
“Feel better?” Cordelia asked, helpless to stop her own lips from curling up at the edges. That was pretty funny if she said so herself.
“I actually do.”
“Glad to hear…”
Her words were cut off by a Spike shaped blur flying past her eyes and what reached her ears was the crunching of a spine against a wall. It took a second or two for her to realise Spike had tackled Angelus, and another second later she realised a full scale vampire war had kicked off right in front of her.
A powerful punch to the jaw sent Spike staggering back, Cordelia screeched as she jumped back out the way of blood spatter. Wide hazel eyes had little choice but to watch Angelus receive an equally hefty smack and she felt the pain as though it was her face on the receiving end.
She barely had enough time to yank Dru out the way as an unnaturally strong kick had Spike heading in the vampiress direction. Hopefully, this would be the end of things, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Spike got up as fast as he was sent down and just about missed getting Angelus in a headlock.
“Oh my God!” Cordelia shrieked, dragging Dru as far away from them as possible. “Stop it!” She yelled, but to no avail.
Angelus tried to run Spike head first into a wall, but the blonde ran up it and used his grandsire’s body to perform a damn cool somersault, thus making Angelus connect with the poor wall.
“Ouch,” Cordelia winced when she saw the blood trickling from his nose.
The retaliation was worse. Angelus slammed his palm high and hard directly into Spike’s chest, and she was sure she just heard bones break. “Son of a…” The younger vampire wheezed in agony.
His grandsire merely laughed, but it was cut off by a fist smooshing heavily into his chin, sending his head snapping to the side. God, this was so much fun. Angelus face changed and he turned on Spike with a serious fury burning in his eyes.
Cordelia was about to try stopping them before they totally trashed the place, only thinking better of it when Angelus grabbed Spike by the throat and threw him halfway across the room. She wasn’t entirely sure what was more captivating. How much they could take or the raw power both exuded. It was no question a human would have instantly died in the first three seconds and she extremely glad she wasn’t the target of their anger.
When Spike picked himself up, his face was also demonic. He took a moment to dust down his shirt before barrelling into his grandsire at the speed of light. They both landed hard on the couch, effectively breaking one side of it, and rolled off it, making her peer over it to see what happened next.
Angelus had a hand in his face, while Spike was getting his ear pulled. It would have been amusing if it wasn’t for the blood and bruises littering their flesh. God only knew what their bodies looked like.
The whole place was an utter mess with bits of wood and plaster here, pieces of clothes and blood there. Basically, all that was left were two bloody, beaten vampires lying side by side on the floor and harshly breathing unnecessarily.
Sure Cordelia had seen fights before, but that was when Buffy had been there. She’d never truly seen a full on brawl between two vampires, and she had absolutely no idea what to do. Should she do something to help or stand there and do nothing, letting them get it out of their system? Not that they had anything left by the looks of things, but one could never be too careful in these situations.
She also had no idea why, but she looked to Dru to see what she would do, and frowned when the vampiress was cowering in a corner with hands slapped over her ears, singing softly. For some unknown reason, that really pissed her off. Just how insensitive could men be?
Cordelia dumped her bags on the floor and stomped round to where they lay, not giving a crap about her own hide as she leaned down and snagged the pair of them by the ears. “Get up,” she snapped and dragged them up. “You over there,” Spike was shoved to one corner, “And you come with me.”
“That hurts! Gerroff!”
“You’ll be in a world of hurt if you don’t do as you’re told.”
The elder vampire started to laugh at hearing his grandchilde get a sound telling off and received sharp nails digging into his injured ear. “You be quiet.”
This time, it was Spike who laughed and he got a swift kick to the shin. “Ow! Bloody bint.”
“Look at yourselves,” Cordelia yelled before Angelus had a chance to start up again. “You’re covered in bruises and…and blood, and poor Dru is terrified! Your mothers would be ashamed of you.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Spike muttered, a line of red falling from the corner of his mouth. “He ate his.”
She paused for thought as her brain digested that slice of info. “Believe me when I say this,” she took a deep and calming breath. “I don’t care. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, surprises me anymore.”
Defending himself, “Weren’t my fault.”
“And I suppose it was a different Spike who became a demonic cannon ball?”
“He started it,” Spike bit out. “He threw a mug at my head.”
“Well duh,” was Cordelia’s easy reply. “But that didn’t mean you had to carry it on. Now. I’m going to take Bash Street Angel here upstairs while you sit there and think about what you’ve done. Is that clear?”
She arched an eyebrow, never once letting up with the lecturing tone. “I’m waiting.” Her foot began to impatiently tap. A minute or so went by until she got the pleasure of watching a century old vampire shuffle his feet like a kid and sullenly mumble out an answer.
“Yes, mum.”
“Can you be trusted to look after Dru?”
“Yes, mum.”
“Good. Angel, upstairs now.” Cordelia never bothered to walk slow or let up on her grasp of Angelus ear as she made him follow her, the only time she stopped was to pick up her bags before taking him up the steep flight of stairs. Somewhere in the back of her mind lay the reason why she had originally come for.
*~*~*~*~*
“Take your shirt off and sit,” she ordered and began to open one of the bags.
Angelus did as requested, but with great difficulty as his body was in a fair amount of pain. Unfortunately for him, his groan of suffering pretty much went ignored for the most part, and he was made to watch as various bits and pieces landed on his bed. Creams, packages of tissues, and what looked to be some decent torture equipment. Strange shaped scissors, sharp thin sticks of wood, a white plastic thing with an orange tip, cotton wool, and really odd long thing with a silver bit.
Cordelia finally looked at him and her eyes turned to saucers. His entire torso was covered with ugly shades of blue and purple, and his face wasn’t much better either with stains of red contrasting with his pale skin. “Oh my God!” She felt her resolve to punish slipping, and try as she might, she couldn’t stay angry at him, especially not when he was looking at her through the best set of puppy eyes she’d ever seen.
So much for school, she thought as she unscrewed the wild yam. “This will help the bruising,” she explained in a soft tone.
Angelus hissed and flinched when the cold cream was oh so carefully smoothed over each injury before lovely little fingers massaged it into his aching muscles. His groan was lacking in agony, while his torso relaxed a tad under the caring touch of her. “What is it?”
“Wild yam. It’s great for sore muscles and bruises. Comes in handy after a rousing game of dodgeball.”
“Smells nice.” He cranked open a gold eye in time to see her fighting off a smile. “What?” He asked as if he didn’t already know.
Cordelia shook her head, discarding the cream in favour of the antiseptic wipes. “Do you always fight like that?”
“Usually it’s much worse. Once I stuck a stake in his…”
“And that is really something I do not need to know. Turn your face to the side.” He did, wincing when she dabbed the antiseptic over the cuts. “Sorry. I’m trying to be gentle.” She could say complete honesty that she never wanted to see Angel in this state ever again. The more she thought about the fight, the less funny it became.
Angelus noticed the change in her demeanour. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“Nothing, just thinking.” The antiseptic wipes were put down and she pulled a few cotton wool pads out.
“Penny for em.”
“Hate to tell you this, but I’m not that cheap.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Alright. One whole dollar and dinner tonight.”
Cordelia paused in her treatment and glanced at him. “A whole dollar and dinner? You really know how to push the boat out.” She saw he wasn’t going to give up until she spoke. “Fine. Don’t say you weren’t warned. I’ve seen you have fights before, for and against Buffy, even then you held back, you know? You never fought like you just did and it scared me. Well, not scared me because I was in danger or anything, but scared because I was wrong about you.”
She took a deep breath as she tried to get her thoughts in order. “I only ever saw the consequences from one side, if you get that. I didn’t even know vampires could bruise for God’s sake! I guess seeing you bleed makes you more…”
“More?” Angelus encouraged.
“Touchable,” she said after a second and averted her face from his intense stare. “More real, like you’re not bulletproof. You can get hurt and it scares me.” Scared her that he could die just like the rest of the world.
He let her words sink in and broached it with all the subtlety befitting a vampire. “Bulletproof, huh? That’s a big ideal, and I can’t say I’m not flattered. Guess all that heroic rescuing of you did some good after all. So,” he grinned and winked. “Exactly how touchable am I?”
Cordelia pinned him with a glare. “Touchable enough for a beating if you don’t quit winding me up.”
“That’s half my fun.”
Yeah, and didn’t she know it? “Just try to stay out of trouble for a day or two till these heal, okay?”
Angelus leaned on his hands and took a good, hard look at her. There was a gleam in his eye that she really didn’t like. He watched her silently as she finished up tending to wounds that were already in the first stages of going. “Tell me about this thank you.”
“Oh, that. I wanted to see if you wanted to go out later, my treat. Bowling maybe or whatever, plus I brought my stuff to give you those treatments.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were falling for me.”
****
Cordelia felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a ten ton artic truck. She closed her eyes and wondered if this was another one of those crazy fantasies she’d been having. Opening them told her that no, it wasn’t a fantasy, and Angelus was waiting for a response with an arrogant, all-knowing smirk on his face.
“You’re as deluded as you are psychotic,” she said, despite so much evidence to the contrary. If she was falling for him, then he’d be the last person to know about it. “Get a grip, Angel. Falling for you? Pfft! Yeah, right.”
He chuckled in a way that made her want to smack him. “Of course you’re not.” There was a pause. “Hey Cor?”
“Um-hm?” If she concentrated on her equipment, she wouldn’t have to look at him.
“We slept together the other night.”
“I kind of figured that out by myself, what with you borrowing my shower and all.” When she did get the balls to look at him, it was with a smile which clearly said whatever.
There was another pause. “You snuggled.”
What? The handful of stuff she held hit the floor and her head snapped up to stare at him in surprise. “I so did not.”
Angelus kept on smirking. “Yep. Had to do the hug ‘n’ roll. Man, you can’t half cling.” He hadn’t done any such thing of course, but she didn’t need to know that. The early morning hugs had been quite enjoyable if he did say so himself. Having a hot woman wrapped tight was a man’s wet dream come true.
Cordelia glared. Clingy her ass. “You make it sound like I’m some sort of…” She waved her hands as she searched for an appropriate term. “Serial snuggler or something.”
He laughed to the point where his battered ribs hurt, and he coughed. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I mean, who wouldn’t wanna snuggle me?” He gave a casual shrug. “Plus it’s expected since I am the only man to share your bed.”
“You know that how?”
“You telling me you’ve slept with another man?” This time, it was his demeanour which changed as he pictured her with someone else. Those hands holding another man, those legs over another man’s hips, her cheek against another man’s chest. It was safe to say he didn’t like it one little bit. “Who?” Angelus asked, his tone like raw silk.
Cordelia took in his tensing posture and knew now was not the time to joke at his expense, but she frankly couldn’t help herself. “Careful there, Angel. You’re starting to sound a little jealous.”
“Not jealous,” he warned lightly. “There’s been no sex.”
She frowned a tad. Why was he so irritated if he wasn’t jealous? “No sex,” she confirmed quietly. “Contrary to popular belief.” She shook it off and finished putting most of her stuff away. “I gotta get to school…”
“Stay.” Off her look, he pointed out, “You’re already late, so why not skip and stay here?” He persuaded with an easy smile. “You can do the thanks you’re so desperate to give.”
Cordelia thoughtfully chewed on her lip and checked her watch. He was right. She was running late, and knew from experience how everyone would look at her when she walked into class. Besides, she had little specs of blood on her top.
Angelus saw he was wearing her down. “Come on. Be more fun.”
Her shoulders twisted back and forth, and mouth started to curl at the corners. It would be kinda fun to play hooky with him.
“You know you wanna.” He just needed one more incentive. “I’ll throw in lunch.”
Why was it every time he wanted her to do something, he mentioned food? “You must think I’m a pig,” she commented. “Alright, I’ll stay, but you’ll have to call in for me.”
Angelus grinned and held his hand out. “Phone.”
****
Cordelia bit into his pillow as she shook with laughter. Tears trickled down her face, snorting and honking when breathing got too hard. She couldn’t believe the spiel he was spilling to Principal Snyder about why she wasn’t at school. He’d been at this for the last ten minutes and hell if the novelty wasn’t going any time soon.
“She said it was the mystery meat that caused the poisoning,” Angelus said, his voice low and gruff with menace. “I will be having the school and its kitchens thoroughly investigated by the department of health. If they find so much as one bit of dust, so help me God I will crucify you.”
Oh God! What she wouldn’t give to see the look on the Troll’s face as he got ripped a new one by who he thought was her father.
“A settlement, you say?”
She slammed the pillow over her entire mouth to stop the giggles being heard. A settlement? The vampire certainly had talent.
“Are you putting a price on my daughter’s health?” He glanced at her and winked. “That makes this apology less than satisfying.”
“How much?” Cordelia mimed once she dared take her gag away.
Angelus rolled brown eyes at her predictable response. “No,” he growled into the phone. “I will not settle until her illness has been justified.”
She yanked on his sleeve. “How much?”
“Not your fault?” He snarled. “Is it not your school, your employees? When my daughter goes into your building, I fully expect her to be cared for by your people.” He glanced at her when she waved a hand to get his attention.
“Daddy is gonna donate new computers for the I.T classes,” Cordelia mouthed. Just a bit more ammo to use against the creature from the black lagoon. “And has six work experience positions a year for the business students.”
“You do want those new computers now, don’t you? Good, we’re getting somewhere.” She could only imagine how red Snyder’s face was at this current moment in time. Angelus grin got increasingly bigger. “I see. I see you offering a poor monetary compensation to cover up the negligence of hygiene on school premises.”
She watched a dark eyebrow rise. “That’s better,” he said. “There will still be an investigation, but how shall we say, a bit more lenient.” With that, he flipped the phone shut and sighed in pure satisfaction.
Cordelia waited patiently for all of two seconds for him to tell her the deal. “Well? What did he say?”
Angelus shrugged. “Oh, nothing except for a two thousand dollar out of court settlement for you being poisoned by the mystery meat.”
“Come again?” Did he just say a two thousand dollar out of court settlement? He had to be kidding, which was funny because he didn’t look like he was kidding. “Two thousand dollars out of Sunnydale High? For nothing? God, I love America.”
“And the best part?”
“What’s better than two thousand dollars?”
“You get the whole week off to spend with daddy.” He grin was completely perverted and she made a noise of disgust.
“Gross,” Cordelia scoffed, changing the subject before he got started on those issues. “So an entire week in the company of yours truly, huh? I’m such a lucky girl.”
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”
“And the most fun.” She grinned. “Righty then. Let’s get down to my thanks. I’m gonna need a few things.”
“Like what?” Angelus asked, as he watched her reopen one of her bags and began pulling various instruments out.
“Warm water in these…” She held up a bucket of sorts and a small bowl. “A robe for you, and plenty of towels, warmed if possible.”
“What the lady wants,” he replied, admittedly a lot more than a little intrigued. He left her to get her stuff ready while he fetched what she asked for, ignoring the overly curious gaze coming from Spike as he passed by him on the way to where he kept his linen.
By the time he got back, his room was filled with all different aromas, and she was coming out of his bathroom, drying her hands. She’d taken the time to change her top, now she wore a white blouse with a watch attached to the breast pocket, while her hair had been tied into a messy bun.
“I have what you asked for, they’re not warm though.” He said, wondering why she bothered to get changed at all.
“No matter,” Cordelia waved that off. It was time for her to get professional. “If you’d like to get changed into your gown?”
Since he already had his shirt off, Angelus toed off his shoes and unbuckled his belt, shamelessly sliding his pants down his legs until he kicked them into a heap in a corner. He chuckled when she quickly turned around on seeing he wore no underwear. “I’ve seen yours, so it’s only fair you get to see mine.”
Well, it would be fair if she was looking, but she wasn’t, and he shook his head. God, she was such a priss.
“You can turn around now,” he said with much amusement. “Where do you want me?” He loved double entendres. They made the world turn round.
“Um, how about in that chair? I’ll start with your feet and legs, then work my way up so you won’t need to move later.”
Angelus did as requested and sat down, his eyes never leaving Cordelia as she went putting two towels over one shoulder and bringing the bucket of warm water to him. Once they were in place, she fetched a black purse like object from the open bag, then came to kneel at his feet, and God, the submissive position tightened his balls right up.
She tested the water temperature with a finger, then plucked an emery board out of the purse. “Toe nails should be squared to prevent ingrowing,” she explained with a smile. “This won’t take long.”
No sooner had she finished with his right leg than she put it into the warm water, and left to soak while she worked on his other leg, getting each nail neat and tidy. Angelus watched it all in increasing amusement. “You actually like doing this to people?”
Cordelia grinned up at him. “The perfect hair style doesn’t mean anything if your hair is dirty, just like a gorgeous pair of open toe slingbacks with dry skin.” She paused long enough to comically shudder at the thought. “It’s what I can’t understand about Buffy. I mean, she has the time to stake a vampire or two, but doesn’t have the time to discover the joys of moisturiser. I told that girl plenty of times how to do her hair, but did she listen?”
She shook her head. “No, because looking nice is shallow and she is anything but shallow.”
He frowned at the way she hid from him. “That hurt you, didn’t it?” There was no need for an answer. “Want me to kill her for you?”
There was honesty enough in his voice to make her eyes drift up to meet his and what she saw had her chest constricting tight round her lungs. “Don’t ask someone to do something you’re not prepared to do yourself.” A smart reply, if she did say so herself.
“Cordelia,” Angelus smiled in his own charming little way. “You wouldn’t need to ask.”
Oh, and didn’t that make everything fine and dandy? “Why didn’t you? I mean, you had the opportunity to do it last year.” She put the emery board down and placed his left foot in the warm water, leaving them to soak for a moment while she picked up the long thing with the silver bit at the end. “This is a foot rasp,” she explained, “It’s designed to remove the loose, dead skin cells from the foot.”
That didn’t sound so pleasant, but he let her continue nonetheless. After all, it was her treat. She eased his right foot out and pat him dry with a soft towel, then placed his heel on her knee and over a large piece of tissue.
She was amused to see his toes curl in response to the ticklish sensation. “Okay,” Angelus tried to yank his foot away from her. “You can skip that part. I didn’t care enough about her to kill her. It was more fun to ruin her life. I went to give her flowers once.”
Cordelia’s mouth thinned into a tight line. Jealousy made it easy to ignore the fact he had ticklish feet. She held up baby powder and a bottle of almond massage oil. “Take your pick.”
“Oil me up, baby.” He guessed this was a good part and wiggled his cared for toes accordingly. He was expecting a little stroking, maybe some fondling of his digits, but not the feel of her fingers kneading his calf from ankle to knee. His eyes fluttered and he groaned low in his throat. Oh yeah, that was good. So very, very good.
“You gave her a picture and flowers? Seems to me like you did care about her.” She knew him both by reputation and personally, and knew his way of bestowing affection was giving gifts of the gruesome kind. Flowers and pictures classified as gruesome gifts, right? What the hell did Buffy do to deserve flowers and pictures?
Oh yeah. Buffy tried to kill him right back.
Angelus opened his eyes when the pressure on his legs became less enjoyable. He was about to mention it, but the green tint to her skin stopped him short, and he smirked. “Jealous?”
Completely. “As if!”
He chuckled and shook his head, letting his eyes close once more.
She repeated the massage motions at the back of his leg, then the front. The pressure increased as she worked up and decreased downward, the rhythm never once faltering. His muscle relaxed under her touch, his head rolled back while he succumbed to one of life’s luxuries. It was definitely something he could get used too.
Angelus had no idea how much time passed before she was done, and opened his eyes when she shook his sleeping limbs into waking up. Demanding, “Why’d you stop?”
Cordelia beamed, having got the reaction she sought. “Arms now.”
“You can skip the nail filing and go straight to the massaging. Oil please.” There was nothing like being direct.
She giggled and blushed. “Sure.” The pedicure stuff was pushed to one side, she got between his knees, and began doing to his arms what she’d done to his legs. Except this time, he had the added effect of her warm breath brushing through his robe and over his chest, making it so damn erotic.
Angelus focused darkening eyes on the girl and smirked at the sight of white teeth scraping her lower lip. His thighs opened wider, pulling the robe apart a bit more, and making her breath stick in her throat as she realised he was getting off on this. His nostrils flared. God, her body was responding to his and he hadn’t touched her yet.
She was like a freaking Geisha sat there tending to him, hair tied in up like that and mouth slightly open.
He watched her hands slide down his torso, tugging his robe open to get a better feel. He felt nails trail softly lower until she reached the base of his cock, her big doe eyes blinking up at him. “Can I, Angel?” She asked, her voice all whispery and cute. “Can I?”
“Yeah, you can.”
Her sweet mouth wasted no time in swallowing him whole, her tongue playing hell on the tip, and a warm little hand cupped his nuts as she sucked him into oblivion.
Angelus grunted and shoved his hips up high, making her take more than what she could, and took great pleasure in feeling her moan shoot down his hard shaft. “That’s it, baby. Suck it good. Yeah.” Fuck, this was so fucking hot.
“Angel,” she breathed round him and he knew she was creaming her panties. Bitch probably wanted to be screwed good, and he’d be more than happy to give it to her. Hell, she’d get it whether she wanted it or not.
The sensation of lips on cock was heaven after a week of behaving, and he was determined to make it last as long as possible. He squeezed the thick base between thumb and forefinger, all the while not disturbing her clever mouth. “You love watching me get it up, dontcha? Love having me nice n hard. Gets your panties all wet.”
“Angel,” she said again, and much louder this time.
“Angel!”
Angelus snapped his eyes open and the world slowly eased into focus, his chest rising and falling heavily. He glanced dazedly at the pretty brunette, noticing the bright pink flush to her cheeks and shy smile on her face. Where did the cock sucking go?
Cordelia bit her lip, no longer bothering to be irrationally jealous over Buffy and her gifts. She’d just gotten something so much better than a bunch of flowers and a picture.
Still, she tried to be professional, tried to ignore his hard excitement, but couldn’t. Her gaze kept straying there and every time it did, she felt a throb deep inside when she clenched tight. No need to see his face to know he could smell her. Her nails scraped down his skin, leaving streaks in his pale skin, and she took hold of his arms. She wanted to see him, not with a towel or anything else, but really see him.
She didn’t wait for him to speak. “You, uh, fell sleep.”
What? Asleep? He gave his crazy head a damn good shake and took a deep, unnecessary breath, looking down his waist and seeing solid evidence of one seriously good fantasy.
He chuckled out a single response. “And you say I’m deluded.”
There had been one thing stopping her from doing what she wanted, and that was not letting Spike have an easy win.