Spike smiled. His mate was curled against him. Her tiny hand rested possessively on his chest. It was heaven. She was exhausted from the mating. He hadn't expected it to be so powerful, hadn't warned her. She shifted slightly and sighed in her sleep. There had been pain and ecstasy. He closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of her body and the connection the bond had created. She would be awake soon.
He needed to get the stockings out before she got up. The candles had guttered out and the sun was high, but it didn't matter. He wanted her to have a real Christmas. He slid out from under her hand and pulled the down comforter up. The room was cool. She'd kept him warm. He felt practically alive.
He stood staring at her. She was beautiful. His Buffy, his slayer, his mate. He could feel the warm glow of her inside him. She was his by her own choice. He felt the wonder of it, the enormity of it. He was her choice. Drusilla had happened across him, but she had never chosen him. Buffy was the only one that had ever pursued him.
Moving away from her was torture, but he wanted to see her surprise when they got up. Their first Christmas together. He pulled out the two stockings and hung them from the ornate woodwork of the mantle with some ribbon.
"I'm married to Santa?" Buffy giggled.
"Wanted to give you a happy Christmas." He waved his hand at the small, perfectly decorated tree that had been in the cabin when they arrived.
"You already did." She blushed and touched her neck. He felt the call and shivered.
"Want me back in bed, do ya?" He grinned and jumped onto the bed next to her.
"I'm not quite ready for round two." She rolled her shoulders and winced. "But, I wouldn't say no to some cuddling."
Spike pulled her close so she wouldn't see his eyes tear up. She could sense it. Din' have to lay her eyes on it.
"Love holdin' you." He kissed the top of her head.
"I can feel you inside, like a warm hum. It's wonderful." She rubbed her cheek on his chest. "What is your full name? I mean Mrs. The Bloody sounds a little strange."
"Vampires don't do the name switch. Only thing that changes is the clan. The outsider joins the dominant clan." He shrugged.
"So, you're of the slayer clan now?"
"You're not a vampire, my love. Don' have a clan."
"Well, I kick Aurelian ass, so you're last name is Summers?"
"Summers-Pratt." He shrugged, and avoided her gaze. "Would make my da proud to know I honor it still."
"I like it, William and Buffy Summers-Pratt." She pressed him into the pillows and grinned down at him. "We sound all stuffy and formal. Giles will swallow his tongue."
"Watcher's not going to be over the moon 'bout this." Spike traced a finger around her healing bite.
"He'll get over it." Buffy ran her hand down his torso. "Let's not spend our time here thinking about the nonsense they're going to put us through. We're on our honeymoon and I'm feeling much, much better."
"Are you now?" He smiled at her eager expression. He stroked her side and shifted so she sprawled over him. He could smell her burgeoning desire and see it in her emerald gaze.
Buffy traced his scar with her finger. He shivered as the bond flared. Warmth radiated through him from the touch of just one of her fingertips.
"Wow." Her pupils dilated further and she clenched her legs against his hips. "What was that?"
"The bond has a bit more kick than a sire bond. Gonna take some time to adjust." He kissed her lips gently and ran his finger a over her mark.
Buffy tossed her head back and moaned. She was beautiful as she rose above him, a golden warrior goddess. He swallowed when her eyes opened, glowing green. She raked his chest with her finger nails and slid along his cock, teasing herself. He arched his back, and she slid down onto him in one stroke. Being inside her was as close to heaven as he would ever get.
She dropped to kiss him, flattening her breasts against his chest. The world fell away. Santa Claus and all his elves could bloody well parade through, singing good King Wenceslas for all he bloody cared.
Her little gasping breaths and strumming heart filled his ears. She placed her palm flat against his mark and his world exploded. Her mouth was everywhere, biting and kissing in turns. He grabbed her hips and thrust up into her heat. She moved with him, riding him at speed, slamming down onto him and screaming his name. All he cold do was writhe beneath her, reveling in her sweat slicked skin. He emptied himself into her and she collapsed, spent, her lips playing across his throat.
"Oh, Spike, god." She panted.
"No, just a vampire." He pushed her damp hair back from her face.
"Mine." She kissed him. The smooth slide of her tongue on his was sweet. She broke the kiss and looked down at him with a giant smile.
"Yours." He wanted to say more, to pledge his love, but she hadn't said anything about that emotion. It was enough that she cared. "Never been happier."
"I need a drink." She pulled away from him, blushing as he slid from her with a wet flop.
He watched her bend over and reach into the tiny ice box, presenting him with a lovely view of her derrière. He smiled as she wiggled it.
"I know you're having naughty thoughts." She pulled out a pint of blood and smiled at him over her shoulder and winked. She poured the blood into a mug and popped it into the microwave. "Do you want to open your presents?"
"Thought I had."
She rummaged about in a drawer and pulled out several brightly wrapped boxes. He swallowed, suddenly at a loss. No one had given him a Christmas gift since he had a heartbeat. He watched as his mate balanced a water bottle with the gifts, grabbed the mug of warmed blood, and made her way to his side.
"A little help?" She held out the mug to him.
He grabbed it and took a sip. Power and life poured into his body. It was her blood. He looked at the warm red liquid, stupefied.
"I have a friend at the blood bank. I managed to store three pints before we had to leave." She curled next to him and spilled his presents across her lap. She sipped her water and stroked his back. "I wanted to surprise you."
"Why would you do this? You're my mate, not food." He didn't want her to believe this was what he valued.
"I want to share everything, every part of me." She looked pointedly at the cup. "Please enjoy it. I liked donating it, knowing you'd be drinking it."
"I can take the out of date blood from the hospital if I need human, but the pig keeps me alive."
"I want you to drink it. I want to give you life." She looked up at him. "You can bite me most of the time, but if you're injured you might need more than I can safely give."
He nodded and finished the blood off in a few gulps, and put the mug down on the bedside table. There was something he was missing. She had donated this blood for him. He looked at his mate. There was something strange about the whole scenario.
"Want to open your gifts?" She was biting that lower lip again. He could sense her turmoil through the bond.
"Tell me why." He stroked her cheek. "I know there's something bothering you, Love."
"I want you to stay with me." She shivered.
"You're my mate. I'm not going to leave you, not ever." He pulled her into his arms. "You don't have to buy me with blood. Now, let me see these Christmas gifts."
She scooted out of his lap and handed him the biggest one. He turned it over in his hands, examining the lovely paper. He rubbed his finger along the seam and removed the paper carefully. The book slid into his hand. He flipped it over. Poetry. Pablo Neruda. He grabbed her and kissed her fiercely.
She yielded to him, opening her mouth and returning his fervor with abandon. He clutched the book against her back. Passion pulled at him. Her fingers gripped his arms as she rose to her knees. Joy flared inside him. Buffy broke the kiss to breathe. Her fingers slid on his arms in frantic strokes.
The strange glow flared in her eyes again, she bent down and sank her teeth into his mark. He felt his skin give under her passionate assault. He ran his free hand up her back and buried his fingers in her hair. She was drinking from him, pulling his tiny draughts of his blood into her body.
He managed to put the book down on the pillows next to them. The scent of her honeyed arousal made him moan. Shifting her body from one knee to the next, she whimpered around the mark. The wet, pleading sound raked him, demanding his immediate response. He dropped his and to her thighs and pulled her close, guiding her to straddle him. The heat of her core beckoned and he rocked up, nudging her folds gently.
She shuddered and slid down enveloping him in one stroke. He held her to him, refusing to let her move. She shivered in his arms quaking as her orgasm exploded. Her muscles contracted on him and he joined her in ecstasy. She let his flesh slide from her teeth and lapped at the wound, gently collecting his seeping blood.
"Mine." She whispered. Contentment replaced the passion and he stroked her gently.
"Yours, Buffy. I'm yours." He kissed her damp cheek, the rumble of his purr vibrating through his chest.
"I bit you." She looked at his the spot where her teeth had marked him and stroked the healed skin.
"You renewed the claim, Love. It will happen, especially if we're emotional." He ran his hands along her back, comforting her.
"You didn't renew yours." She pouted, pushing that enticing lower lip out in blatant invitation.
"Do you want me to renew it?" He tilted his head considering the quick blush that rode her cheeks.
"I want it. I feel unbalanced like I've made you more mine than I am yours. I want to feel equal." She shifted against him and groaned when he thrust up into her. "Again?"
"Anytime you want me to bite you, Love, and most of the rest of the time." He caressed her back and kissed along her jaw. "Want you always."
She tilted her head to give him better access. He closed his eyes and thanked whatever power in the universe had brought about this miracle. He kissed the raised mark his bite had left, and then sunk his teeth in gently. The power of her rolled him. He felt her body shake and followed her over, pumping his seed deep into her. He swallowed her heat and slid his fangs gently from her body.
"Mine." He whispered against her ear.
"Yours, Spike, I am so yours." She sighed as he slid from her and stretched their bodies down on the bed. "I don't know how much of this I can take. I feel like mush."
"Haven't even seen to you properly, yet." He laughed as she put one of his presents in his hand.
"See to this." She handed him one of his gifts.
He raised his eyebrows and gave her a teasing leer. He ripped the paper and from the gift and tossed it over his shoulder. Never stopping to look at the gift, he kissed her.
"I don't need things, Love. You've given me more than I ever imagined having." He stroked her hair and purred.
"I want you to have a real Christmas." She looked at him and showed him the bottle of hot sauce he had unwrapped.
"Buffy, I spent one hundred and twenty six years chasing what I wanted, begging for it. Then I had it for a few brief, glittering hours. Willow's spell let me taste it." He took the bottle from her hands and set it aside. "I thought I'd lost it, lost you. Then this trip comes along, and I figured I get to have some time with you. Wanted to make it special, but I never dreamed of this."
"Well, this comes with presents, so open this one." She put a well wrapped CD in his hand.
He stripped the paper from it and smiled. The Buzzcocks. His girl had gone punk.
"Thanks, Love. Did you have a hard time buying this, what with one of the songs being Orgasm Addict?"
"No, but you've turned me into one." She kissed him and popped a small box on his chest. It was black and rubbed in places, old by his girl's standards. "Last one. This was my grandfather's. He fought in the War and came back with my grandmother. I never met either one, but they left me this. It belongs to you."
She opened the box, plucked out the gold band, and slid it onto his ring finger. The weight of it was welcome. He pulled his hand up and admired the turned leaves winding around the band, life worked in cold metal.
"I have something for you as well." He eased her back and walked to his duffle. "Was Mum's. She was a lovely woman."
He pulled the ring from the leather case. The emeralds sparkled amongst the white gold flowers.
"Flowers and emeralds. It was a bit of whimsy in an austere world. I had it in my pocket the night I died. I've kept it with me all along this journey. Didn't know it was yours, but I've never offered it to another." He slid the ring onto her finger. "I love you, Buffy."