Here's chapter 4. I really wish that some of you would review. This story is really going well, I think, and it seems like no one is reading it. I'll even take flames at this point.

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Ashling struggled against him, pushing viciously at his chest for several moments, before, with a curse and an oath, she succumbed to him, wrapping her arms around him, pressing against his chest. Her tongue tangled with his, her nails clawed at his back, pulling him closer. His hands swept down her body, covering, kneading her breasts, pressing her hips into his with his hands on her ass.

There was no reason for it, no rhyme to it. She didn't even really like him. He stood for everything she had always held herself apart from. He was dangerous, more than a little intriguing, and the wrong type of guy for her. He didn't want a relationship. He wanted a bed partner. He didn't want her. He wanted a warm body to share a couple of nights with before running off to the next woman.

It was a mistake to feel the way she did. To want him the way she hadn't ever wanted another man/. Desperately, with no strings, no emotional ties, nothing except the physical attraction. She should say no. She should shove him away and tell him that it couldn't ever happen again. That he wasn't for her, that she didn't want him. And they would both know she was lying.

Instead, she found herself tugging him closer, meeting each movement of his mouth with one of her own. He was so bad for her. He would ruin her. Make her feel things and show her how it could be, how it was supposed to be, and then leave her. It was always the same way.

With an oath and a muffled sob, Ashling wrenched herself away from him, huddling in a corner of the car, wrapping her arms around her knees. King sat back, studied her for a moment, trying to decide how to best broach the situation.

"What's this all about? Did I scare you?"

Ashling shook her head. "No. I'm sorry. I'd really rather not talk about it."

"What is it, Ash?" King raked a hand through his hair. "Did something happen to you?"

"I said that I don't want to talk about it. I wish you would please drop it."

"Well, it isn't often that I have a woman yank away from me crying. I can't possibly be that bad of a kisser."

"No, no, you're fine at it. Better than fine. I just, I don't do this, okay? The last time I was involved with someone, it ended very badly."

"What happened?"

Ashling sighed. "Could you drive, please? If I'm going to tell you this, which you aren't going to let me choose not to, I'd really rather you weren't staring at me."

King obligingly pulled the car back out onto the highway. "There. I can't even see you now."

"I'm sure you heard the scandal. With why I left Hollywood just as I was starting to make it."

"Something about an affair with a seventy something married director."

"It wasn't the director I was involved with, it was his son. He was thirty five, and everything you always imagine movie stars being. Handsome and charming, nice, polite, a real gentleman. Or so I thought. He took me to parties, introduced me to all my idols in the business. I can't tell you how many actors and politicians I sat at dinner tables with. It was like a fairy tale. We were very exclusive, or at least I was. I found out later that he had a whole string of women while we were together. It wasn't long before everyone knew, or thought they did anyway, that we were sleeping together.

"It was the natural progression of things, and a complete lie. I'd never even dreamed of going to bed with him. He was a magnificent kisser, and I was tempted almost every time I was with him to just give in and let go and go to bed with him. But it never felt right. Natural, I guess. The way I imagined that it should. He became unhappy, said I was unresponsive and not giving him what he needed. When I said I wasn't ready to have sex with him, he decided he didn't care. He threw me down and raped me. So, no, King, I'm not a virgin, though I didn't lie when I said I hadn't ever seen a naked man. He had me tied and blindfolded. His father found him, us, and saw what was going on. I was beaten, bloody and bruised, and it was obvious to anyone what had happened. He had a heart attack on the spot, and in order to save face, Charles told everyone that I had given his father the heart attack because we were having an affair."

King was silent for a minute. "How long ago was that?"

"Six months. I didn't make it long before I had to get out of there."

"Do your parents know?"

"No, and if you tell them, I swear to God I'll whip out my pincushion and spike you to death."

"Did you ever press charges?"

"His lawyers gave me a huge amount of money to keep me quiet. I don't want Mom and Dad to have to go through a trial. It's done and over with, and I don't want to have to deal with it anymore. Besides, it's punishment enough that he contracted AIDS from the next woman he slept with."

"Poetic justice, I guess. And you haven't been involved with anyone since?"

"No. Look, I didn't tell you this because I want you to feel sorry for me. I don't. I just want you to understand why I can't do this. I can't have an affair with you. I want to, I do. To dive in, eyes closed and let things go where they go and have fun and be wild, but I can't. I'm not built for that, and quite honestly, men like you, slightly rough ones, who don't go about things the way they were meant to be done, make me nervous. You've been trying to seduce me since we met this morning."

"I've taken on less rewarding projects than that. I want you, Ashling, and I'm not going to lie and say I don't."

"Okay, then let's leave it at you want me, but can't have me yet. And I want you, but can't give myself yet. I need time, and I need you to go slow, and when I say stop, I need you to stop."

"I've never forced a woman to do anything they didn't want to do."

"We both know you could make me want to. So that I'd only say no once and then you'd have be begging you to keep going."

"That's a dangerous kind of honesty you've got there." King said gruffly.

"I know, and I use it to my advantage a lot, like I am now. Do we have a deal?"

"Any idea on how long you're going to be making me wait?"

"Long enough for you to woo me. I want romance, King, and I intend to get it."

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The house was on Midnight Avenue, which was fitting, because that was about what time they arrived at the house. It was huge. Three stories if you included the attic, four if you included the basement. Six bedrooms, five and a half baths, formal living room, family room, an office, kitchen and dining room, sun room, two pantries, a laundry room, exercise room, and a pool complete with a pool house.

"Oh yeah," Ashling said when they pulled into the driveway. "This is really inconspicuous."

"Did Angel get us the biggest house here?"

"Possibly. Probably, knowing him."

"Why?"

"Same principle as when he moved to Sunnydale forever ago. He wanted to be known of and mysterious. He wanted an in to the darker side of things, and we need one here. Things here obviously aren't all sunshine and ice cream."

"Or there would be no need for us. Oh well, this big of a place will make it easier for us to hide what we're doing, and for us to have separate rooms if we want to."

"We can sleep separately, but I think it's best if we only have our things in one room. Don't want to make anything obvious."

"True enough. I'm fine with one bed if you are. That may be all that we have for the first few nights anyway until we can get some more furniture in here."

"We're both adults. We can handle sharing a bed. It isn't a huge deal." Ashling, her objections of that afternoon calmed, got out of the SUV and carried the first load of stuff onto the porch. "Let's get it all to here first, and then worry about getting it into the house. Do you have the keys?"

King withdrew them from his pocket. "Keys. Wanna go inside?"

Ashling shrugged. "Might as well have a look around."

"Okay, let's do that then." King unlocked the front door, turned, and before she could step through the entryway, scooped Ashling into his arms and carried her over the threshold.

Laughing, she tossed back her dark hair. "What was that for?"

"Isn't it tradition that when a couple moves into their first house, the woman gets carried through the front door?"

"I think so. But I always thought it was the threshold of wherever they're spending their wedding night."

"Well, we'll just consider this our wedding night. Since, technically speaking, it is."

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It was four in the morning before either of them fell asleep, and even then, they did so in the living room, on the floor, surrounded by boxes. Ashling was the first to wake, at nine thirty, and she only woke up because there was someone knocking on the door. She climbed to her feet, took a quick glance in the mirror sitting on the couch waiting to be hung to check her appearance, which was surprisingly decent, and kicked King to wake him up before heading to the door.

She found a woman. Tall, willowy, with bright red hair and intense green eyes. She was in her mid thirties, Ashling guessed, and from the necklace she wore around her neck, had a couple of kids, as there were three children's pendants hanging there.

"Hi, I'm Laura McCallum, from next door. I just wanted to stop over and make sure you and your husband were settling in all right."

Ashling extended a hand. "Ashling King. Nice to meet you. My-" Ashling paused for a split second. "husband should be our shortly. We just got in late last night, so we're starting to unpack."

"Oh, yes, I know how that it. When my husband and I moved here a few years ago, it was the same way. It took us months to settle in completely. When is it you start work at the school?"

"After Christmas break. So, in about three weeks."

"You'll have such fun with the kids. They're really wonderful."

King came up behind Ashling, leaned around her to offer his hand to Laura. "Hannibal King, nice to meet you."

"Laura McCallum, from next door." Laura couldn't help oogling King for a second. "I just wanted to welcome you both to the neighborhood, make sure everything was going all right for you. I should let you get back to unpacking."

Ashling's manners kicked in. "Are you sure you don't want to come in? I think we've got some coffee somewhere."

"No, thanks. I really do have to go. Just yell if you need anything. I'd be glad to help."

Ashling watched their neighbor dash across the lawn and into her own house. "Well, that was slightly strange."

"It was more than slightly strange. She saw me and took off like I was a demon or something."

"That's just Laura. She gets nervous around men." Another woman, this one close to Ashling's age, walked onto the porch. She was blonde, the hair falling to her shoulders in a bob, with laughing blue eyes. "Grace Harrison, I own the bookstore downtown. I was also drafted by the biddies who buy up all my romance novels to come over here and make sure the two of you aren't psychotic serial killers. You aren't, are you?"

Ashling too an instant liking to the tall blonde. "Not that I'm aware of. Got any secrets honey?"

King nearly cringed at the pet name, managed to control himself. "No, no secrets." He shook hands with Grace. "Hannibal King, and this is my wife Ashling."

"Nice to meet you. I always wondered who'd buy this house. Anyone bother to tell you the story?"

"What story?" Ashling's curiosity was piqued.

"Guess not then." Grace held up a bag. "If you can locate cups, I brought a pound of coffee. I'm not about to let you dig through all those boxes for a grinder, so I brought grounds instead of beans. I figured you'd have a coffee pot out already."

King nodded. "It was the first thing I unpacked. Come on in. I want to hear this story."

Grace didn't start until they were all sitting in the living room with steaming cups of coffee and a bag of chocolate chip cookies Ashling had unearthed from a box marked 'sweaters'. That epitomized her packing skills.

"Didn't you wonder why no one has lived in a house this great in almost a hundred years?"

Ashling nodded. "That's weird. It's a great house. Lots of character."

Grace laughed. "More than you know. And ninety years ago, a family moved in. Three kids I think, and a dog or two. They lasted two weeks. All of them were found dead one morning in the living room, throats ripped out, not a drop of blood left in their bodies."

Vampires. Which proved part of Angel's theory. There was definitely something going on. Ashling got a feeling it was a little more than the living dead. She could feel her demon senses kicking in. They were telling her she had a Hellmouth to deal with.