Chapter 15

"I love you too much to share you," she whispered.

"You've never shared me," he said carefully. "There have been women before, but not after I saw you. When I couldn't have you I found out I didn't want anyone else. You are the only one."

"But Cordelia."

He laughed and looked down into her rather annoyed eyes.

"Cordelia," he murmured. "She is not, never has been and never will be my lover. Cordelia is very pushy, and what she wanted was money...mine."

"But...you told me she was your lover," Buffy said fiercely, her annoyed eyes turned to a very dark green. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it lingeringly.

"I wanted to make you jealous. And it worked marvelously. I hid behind her."

"I saw you kissing her."

"I had never kissed her." He denied quickly.

"The night I met Riley, I saw you leaving a restaurant with her. I saw you kiss her." She couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. She loved Angel, and now she knew he loved her too, but was he capable of staying faithful?

He looked at her as if she was crazy. "You're still jealous," he said with a grin. "You have no idea how good that makes me feel."

"You still haven't explained," she murmured breathlessly as his muscular thighs hardened against hers. Cupping her head in the palms of his hands, his long body spread-eagled on top of her, Angel rubbed his nose against hers in a gesture of affection.

"That was business dinner; she wanted me to invest in her new collection. She became exited when I agreed and started to drink champagne to celebrate, she finished the whole bottle by herself. When I escorted her out I saw you outside with Riley and some other guys. I was so jealous I wasn't thinking clearly when she kissed me. I didn't kiss her back."

"Well, there's Darla," Buffy pouted. "You knew her before."

"Before what?" he enquired, highly amused at her anger. "I got her from an agency, at my grandmother's special request. Until then I'd never set eyes on her."

"But she became a lot more to you," Buffy probed.

"In my grandmother's house? I'm shocked at your imagination, Miss Summers." Then Buffy remembered something else that made her heart sink. "Was Harmony one of your lovers?" she asked bluntly.

"Harmony? What are you talking about?" Angel demanded hardily. "She was just my assistant, nothing more. I barely knew her."

Buffy wanted to believe him, but her doubts surfaced, bringing a frown to her face.

Angel grimaced and tightened his arm around her. "I know you don't trust me, but I swear to you I have never made love to any woman but you in the last two years." Buffy blushed and he laughed delightedly as he pulled her into his arms.

"For the moment I saw you," he whispered, "there has been no one but you. I belong to you, Buffy, and to no other woman. I'll never look at one."

Angel, celibate for two years! Buffy couldn't believe it! She wanted to trust him...

"Let's get going."

"Oh my God! Look at the time, I promised your grandmother I'll help her with thanksgivings dinner." Angel looked at her for a long time and then leaned forward to kiss her tenderly.

"Angel!" she slapped him playfully on his arm. "We'll never be on time."

The view before her was magnificent; an enticingly cool-looking swimming pool and beyond it the garden, flowing down the hillside in a mass of flowers and shrubs.

Her only garment was a bikini, and yet the heat was still hot. Glancing at her half-naked body, she hauled herself into a sitting position and idly picked up a bottle of sun lotion and began massaging it into her arms and legs, across her flat stomach. The trouble was, she thought wryly, it wasn't so much the heat outside that was making her so restless, but the heat within her.

Thanksgivings dinner had been wonderful. They had become officially engaged. A tiny smile pursed her lips as she twisted her ring on the third finger of her left hand. Every time she looked at it she got a lump in her throat, not just for its beauty, but for what it represented.

Everything had been perfect; she had danced the night away in the arms of the man she loved, the man she was going to marry. Wesley and Fred had come, so did Lindsey McDonald, Angel's cousin, although Lindsey was family from his father side and they didn't get along at all. Angel's grandmother had always seen him as family and invited him over. Darla for her part had given Buffy the most peculiar look, and a positively evil smile. Still, all in all it had been a great party.

Buffy sighed again, and lay back down. She only had one slight complaint, and she knew she was being stupid but... After the guests had left, and the house guests had retired for the night, finally she and Angel had been alone. He had walked her to her bedroom door and taken her into his arms.

Her eyes closed, just for a moment as she relived the sensations his kiss had aroused. Her lips had quivered beneath the light touch of his mouth, then he had lazily nibbled her bottom lip, his tongue exploring when her mouth opened to him. Her hands had moved up his arms to cling to his broad shoulders. He'd deepened the kiss with an ease and sensuality that had made her whole body burn with a trembling need that reached the very core of her being.

She'd murmured his name, "Angel." She wanted him so badly the bed was just behind the door. Her body had arched into him, the power of his arousal against her pelvis making her ache with frustration.

"Vixen," he'd murmured against her lips. "Not here." He'd eased her away from him. "We'll leave tomorrow, and that means keeping my desire under control until then. It's not going to be easy."

She opened her eyes and saw Angel's cousin looking down at her.

"Well, well! What do we have here?" His eyes gleamed with obvious approval.

"Hello Lindsey."

"Do you need any help with that sun lotion?"

"No thank you."

"Pity." Lindsey's eyes were overtly curious as he examined her slender legs, the petite line of her hips and breasts. Buffy didn't like the way he was ogling her.

"Angel has an excellent taste...you'll make a beautiful bride." he persisted, his grin widening. "I've got a soft spot for tiny blondes." Lindsey said seductively and sat down next to her.

"Well, there's Darla."

Lindsey twisted his mouth regretfully. "Darla...at one point I thought I had a chance with her..." He paused. "...seems she's already spoken for, by the great man himself."

"Spoken for...?" she echoed in a choked voice.

"She and my beloved cousin are lovers. You should have realized that by now. Obviously you can't be that blind?"

"Who told you?" The question came out more sharply than she'd intended. She couldn't help herself. She couldn't manage cool indifference.

"Darla...who else?" Lindsey's face had changed, narrowing to a speculative gleam.

"She was lying." Buffy said in a tiny voice, her doubts resurging once more.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" He leaned across and slid a mock comforting arm along her shoulders, making her flinch in outrage. "Take my advice, save yourself the grief. He'll never commit to only one woman..."

She made a desperate bolt for her room, she ran straight into Angel as he emerged from his. She was still wearing her sunglasses. Catching her by her shoulders, he stopped her and lifted the sunglasses off her nose, and scrutinized her red eyes and devastated expression.

"Why are you upset?" he queried.

She opened her mouth to retort then caught her breath as the open door into Angel's room was pulled wider and Darla sauntered out on to the landing. She was smiling. There was a rumpled, tousled air about her. Her lipstick was smudged. Her mascara made her blue eyes dark pools of malice in the paleness of her face. The buttons of her black sundress were unfastened at the bodice. The gleam of cruel amusement in her eyes was very difficult to ignore.

"Hello Buffy," she purred, resting a hand on Angel's shoulder in a possessive way. "Did you have fun at the pool?"

Buffy felt her whole world tilt into darkness and pain. The last vestiges of color drained abruptly from her face as she stared up at Angel. She turned to go and he caught her arm.

"Buffy, what's wrong...?"

"Let go of me!" she choked.

"Buffy!" His dark face was a ferocious mask of suppressed emotion.

"Don't touch me!" Her misery exploded into violent anger, as she wrenched herself free, shaking all over. "I don't want to see you again. And I must have been out of my mind to trust you the way I trusted you, Angel..."

There was a lock on the door of her room, but before she could slam the door on Angel and turn the key he'd put his shoulder against it and forced his way in, closing it with a crash behind him.

Grimly he surveyed her shaky appearance. He took a step towards her.

"Don't come any nearer..." she warned bitterly.

"What's the matter with you..." he began, narrowing the gap between them. "Please sweetheart calm down?"

"Calm down? After the way you've...you've betrayed me?" she managed to bite out. His proximity, the warmth from his body, was wreaking the usual chaos with her senses.

"I did not betray you!"

"It's all right. You really don't have to humor me, or play me along." She managed to keep her voice level and admirably pleasant. If she let go of her iron control, the depth of her feelings would be frightening. "You got what you wanted. Didn't you? It doesn't matter, anymore..."

"Talk to me, Buffy. You're not making much sense."

"You are involved with Darla!" she accused him with a voice was unrecognizable in her own ears, delicately polite.

"I told you before. I'm not involved with her!" His eyes were intent on her face.

"Seeing you together just now... after hearing what Lindsey had to say to me..."

"I was wondering when you were going to tell me about that," he mocked softly.

"About what?"

"I saw the two of you having a very cozy little chat by the pool. He had his arm around your shoulders?"

"I can't believe you!" she managed at last on a shaky breath. "You're trying to put the blame on me? This isn't going to work!"

"Please love, trust me. I am not sleeping with Darla. And I have no desire to sleep with her."

"Then what was she doing coming out of your room in that disheveled state?"

There was a pause, before Angel said dryly, "I didn't say that Darla had no desire to sleep with me."

"So you're saying she flung herself at you and you rejected her?"

"Yes! Buffy please...I love you!"

"I'm going to take a walk...I need to think." She didn't wait for his answer so she spun on her heels and left him.

Buffy bent down to pick up a small pebble from the sand. She brushed away the clumps of clinging grains and rubbed the flat, round stone between her finger and thumb in tactile appreciation of the smoothly polished surface. She curled her forefinger around the outside edge and looked out at the wide expanse of sea.

She waded into the foam at the edge of the water and paused, judging her moment then splashed sideways in a series of little hops to skim the stone into the shallows over the top of a disintegrating wave. It skipped three times on the swirling water before smashing into the next curling breaker.

She backed out of the water, brushing at the splashes on her pink cotton shorts. Five was still her best score. The wind stung her wet legs and she tucked her hands into the pocket of her shorts and turned back, deciding it was time for face Angel. She glanced to her left where the house stood. Wesley was coming her way.

"Buffy...are you all right?" Wesley asked concerned.

"I'm all right," Buffy assured her.

"Did you and Angel have a fight or something?"

"Just an argument. Don't worry I'm not calling off the wedding."

Wesley laughed. "Well that's a relief. Just an argument? Well, it explains his black scowls. I thought for a while..."

He looked at Buffy considering. "I suppose I'm always expecting the worst. I never believed that Angel would marry. I never thought he would be able to tell any woman that he loved her. Strong and successful though he is, there's a wide streak of vulnerability in Angel. He had a very bad childhood."

"I know. He told me about his mother...well not much, but enough for me to realize the unhappiness."

"She was never a beaten wife." Wesley's lips tightened. "His father kept his violence exclusively for Angel. But she never did anything to stop him. She loved him enough to forgive his violence, enough to let Angel sink into the hard person he is nowadays."

Buffy's eyes were filled with tears. "He said he loves me."

"He didn't believe in love, until he met you. I've known him since we were children, he's my best friend and I've never heard him confess to love a woman before you."

Buffy smiled widely at Wesley and ran inside the house searching for her love.

"By the way he fired Darla after you left!"

Tbc...