Willow sighed softly at the feel of Angel's lips on hers. In the last two weeks, she had rarely felt this relaxed, this comfortable, or this energized. She moaned as he caught her lower lip between his teeth and began to worry at the tender flesh.
With gentle hands, he lifted her from her kneeling position on the couch to a reclining position in his arms. They continued to kiss but now their hands came into play. Lightly, lovingly, their hands traced the lines of each others faces and played up and down each others backs. Time slipped away unnoticed as they learned the taste and texture of one another.
Willow moaned softly as her head fell back baring the graceful length of her throat. The moan turned to a sigh as Angel accepted the invitation and began to nibble on the soft skin. At the same time he moved one of his hands and cupped one of Willows breasts in his palm. In response, Willow pressed herself into his hand, eager for more physical contact.
With a slight chuckle, Angel complied with Willows silent request. Slowly he unbuttoned her top and spread it open revealing her lace bra. Languidly he leaned forward and placed a kiss on the flesh just above the bra, then he kissed the valley between her breasts. Slowly he moved his hand along her back to the clasp of her bra preparing to undo it.
Sudden, insistent knocking at the door startled them. Reluctantly, with many quick and gentle kisses, Angel lifted Willow off his lap, straightened her clothing, and tenderly placed her on the couch.
"We will continue this, little one," he said then smiled at Willow's soft nod of agreement. With obvious reluctance he walked to the door and opened it. Finding Buffy, Xander, and Giles on the other side shocked him.
"Hi, Angel," Buffy said with a loving smile. "Have you seen Wil…" Buffy stopped speaking when she saw Willow nestled on the couch. "Willow!" she cried rushing forward. "What are you doing here? We've been looking everywhere for you!"
Xander quickly followed Buffy into the apartment. His happiness at finding Willow safe kept him from glaring at Angel as he usually did. He rushed over to Willow and gave her a quick hug as he sat down beside her. He and Buffy, who sat on Willow's other side, gave Willow a thorough look over.
During their inspection Willow had remained silent she hadn't even bothered to answer Buffy's earlier questions and barely even looked at her friends. Her attention was focused on Angel as she looked to see how he felt at Buffy's sudden reappearance in his life. But Angel was focused just as intently on her as she was on him. Both barely noticed Giles as he stood just inside the apartment door and watched as Buffy and Xander tried to find out why Willow was at Angel's.
"Why are you here, Willow?" Xander asked drawing the young woman's eyes away from Angel. "Your note said you would be with a friend, so why are you here at Angels?" Xander never even noticed the anger that started to burn in Willow's eyes.
"Yeah," Buffy said. "No offense or anything, Angel, but your just not the type of person Willow hangs around with." Buffy smiled her most winning smile at the vampire. Angel's only response was the slight lifting of one eyebrow and a slow walk from the door to the couch. Buffy's smile widened to a grin as she watched Angel walk towards the trio. She fully expected Angel to pull her into his arms and kiss her or make some other display of affection. Her surprise knew no bounds when he stopped directly in front of Willow instead and held out his hand to the young hacker.
"Shall we go for a walk, little one?" he asked, his affection for the young woman visible on his face. Willow responded by smiling, taking the vampires hand and letting him draw her to a standing position. Angel pulled her closer to the door, drew a leather jacket from the closet, and handed it to Willow. "Put this on while I move your bags into the bedroom then we can head out." He turned to Buffy and the others and said, "I'm sure the three of you can show yourselves out." He lifted Willow's bags and left the room but was back in less than a minute. He returned to the main room to find Buffy and Xander staring at Willow in confusion.
"Wil?" Xander asked, "What's going on?"
Willow looked at Xander and shook her head. She was surprised to find herself uninterested in anything he had to say. She could barely stand being in the same room with him but it was because she was no longer in love with him. The idea of spending more time than she had to with him was now slightly repugnant to her.
"Angel, let's go," she said linking arms with the vampire.
Angel smiled and opened his apartment door. Together he and Willow ushered the others out then followed. As he locked the door Buffy tried to draw Willow from his side but the hacker obstinately kept her place.
"Buffy, Xander, Giles," Angel said turning from the now locked door. "We'll see you around sometime but right now we have a walk to get to. Goodbye."
With slack jaws, Buffy and Xander watched Willow and Angel walk away. The still silent Watcher merely observed, as a look of dawning understanding appeared on his face and his eyes filled with unanswered questions. Painfully he realized that Buffy and Xander's relationship had put a terrible strain on their friendship with Willow. With nowhere else to turn for understanding, Willow had become friends with Angel and that friendship had evolved into love. The Willow they had all known was gone and in her place stood a new, confident Willow. A Willow who didn't need the library quite so much. Giles now knew that he wouldn't be seeing Willow around the library as much as he used to. Without him noticing, she'd grown up.
The End