Disclaimer: Don't own 'em - not making any money off 'em. Dern it.
Notes: Sorry it has been a couple of weeks. Was working in the HP fandom, and I had a bit of a block for this chapter. There's a lot of dialogue in this one.

Chapter 5

Buffy wakes up to a very insistent erection pressing against the small of her back. She looks behind herself over her shoulder and sees Spike still in a deep sleep. She smiles wickedly, deciding to do something she had never done for him, even with the number of times they were together.

She gently removes Spike's arm that had been clutching her tightly. She ducks her head beneath the blanket and scoots down so she's eyelevel with the erection. In a quick movement, she engulfs him as much as she can.

She hears a moan above her and grins around the flesh invading her mouth. Hips begin thrusting into her mouth as a hand tangles in her hair.

"Buffy," Spike groans.

Buffy looks up as she continues to suck her prize and finds Spike staring at her through hooded eyes, his lips hanging open in his pleasure.

Buffy brings a hand up to cup his balls, massaging them between nimble fingers. Her teeth lightly scrape against the tender head, which is all Spike needs to explode in her mouth. She swallows down the cool seed, and then licks him clean, savoring the tangy taste that she has missed so much.

She crawls up his body and rests on top of him, their legs tangled and his quickly reawakening erection nestled between her thighs.

"What a way to wake up," he breathes. His hand is still snarled in her hair, so he tugs her head back to bestow a kiss on her lips.

Buffy moans, returning it with a languid mouth and tongue. She writhes against his body, loving the feel of the evidence of how much his body still desires her, despite the fact he has just had an orgasm. When they pull away from each other's lips, Buffy caresses his check with a featherlike touch. "You can wake up like that every morning," she promises.

Spike chuckles. "I'm not holding out my hope for that."

Buffy frowns and pulls away, dislodging the hand in her hair. She pulls up the blanket to cover her chest and defensively crosses her arms, trapping the blanket there. "Are you saying we won't be together every morning so I won't have the chance to wake you up like that?"

Spike quickly sits up as the blanket pools around his waist. Buffy does her best to not get distracted by the lean muscles as hands go up in a placating gesture. "No, no love. Of course not. I meant there's a good chance you won't be awake before me most mornings. I know how much you like to sleep. That's okay, though." Her arms drop their defensiveness, and he takes her hand and squeezes it, affection and awe clear in his eyes. "I definitely don't mind returning the favor the mornings I'm up first."

He leans forward and captures her lips in a heated kiss, and she practically melts. While their mouths stay busy, she's pulled onto his lap and a hand disappears beneath the blanket and between her thighs.

Her legs fall open when a finger probes her center. She whimpers into the kiss and moves her hips in time to his finger and practically whines into the kiss when he adds a second and then a third finger. It's doesn't take much to get her off, not when it has been so long before last night.

After she shudders with her orgasm, her body still has slight tremors as she rests her head on his shoulder. She watches with heavy eyelids as he brings his finger up to his mouth and licks the digit clean.

She bites her lip at the sight. Her body feels incredibly heated by the erotic image he's portraying.

"Tasty," he murmurs before capturing her lips once again.

They come together again as the insatiable lust for each other overflows, and it's a couple of hours before they're temporarily appeased enough to have the much needed talk.

Buffy's head is cushioned by Spike's chest as his hand makes lazy circles on her back.

"I think the most important question we have to ask ourselves is where we're going to live." She tilts her head up to stare into his eyes. "You have a life here in L.A. and after you spent so much time doing everything you could for me, I don't want to take that away from you, or force you to give up the independence you managed to find."

Spike frowns and Buffy's not sure what she said to upset him. She's doing her best to be accommodating with not expecting him to leave everything he knows. She doesn't want to be the bitch she was in Sunnydale, and he seems upset by it.

"What makes you think I regret doing everything I could for you?"

She blinks. "I guess that last year wasn't that bad, but I didn't do anything for you during Glory and after I was resurrected, considering everything you did for me."

Spike holds her close. "Love, I think your memory is a bit skewed. I was definitely not a saint, and my only regret is I couldn't do more for you after your resurrection. In fact, I did you harm when I told you that you belonged in the dark. Things might not have gotten quite so bad if we kept our relationship strictly friendship which had been developing."

"I kissed you," Buffy points out.

"I know, but I could have put a stop to anything else happening. I knew you weren't in your right mind, but without a soul, I didn't have much of a moral compass. I did love you, but it was definitely a selfish love."

"Not like it is now," Buffy says.

"Exactly. And that's why we're going to live where we were both be happiest. Be honest. Do you want to live in L.A.?"

"Although I kind of like Fred, I can't imagine having to deal with Angel on a regular basis."

"My thoughts exactly," Spike agrees. He kisses the top of her head. "How about England? Do you feel at home there?"

This time, Buffy is slower with answering. She has many conflicting emotions where England is concerned right now. "Despite the fact that it rains quite a bit there, Dawns likes it. And she has already made friends. Willow and I have gotten closer since the fall of Sunnydale. She understood that I was hurting from losing you and didn't pressure me to just get over it like the others, not including Dawn. She knows what it's like to lose someone you love and didn't tell me my pain was no big deal because you were a vampire. Unlike Xander, who decided his pain was greatest because Anya was a human. I wasn't allowed to hurt in his eyes. I don't even want to deal with Giles who kept the fact you were alive a secret. He didn't do it because he thought you might be soulless again or because where you were working. If it was one of those reasons, I could maybe understand it even if I didn't like it. He decided to keep your return a secret because he decided it was his right to dictate who I should be with and a vampire wasn't acceptable. It didn't matter to him that I was hurting. He's become quite a bit like the old council, something I never thought would happen!"

Her fists had been clenched throughout her rant, and Spike rubs them, trying to get her to loosen them a bit. "Love."

"I'm afraid he'd try to interfere with us."

"I can see that. Do you enjoy teaching the little slayers?"

Buffy looks at him, raising her eyebrows in astonishment.

"Just because I didn't think you would want to see me doesn't mean I didn't keep up-to-date with what you were doing." He pauses, and then adds defensively, "It wasn't stalking."

"I think it's sweet that you were still checking up on me. And no, I don't enjoy it. I trained the potentials at my house because I had to in order to give them a chance to survive. Then I continued it in England because I didn't really care. I was pretty listless with you gone. I didn't care enough to figure out what I wanted to do so I did what I was told to do."

"It sounds like the only reason you'd stay in England is because of Dawn and Willow. Although Dawn should be factored into our decision, she shouldn't be the only reason we decide something. If you could do anything, what would you do?"

Buffy thinks about it, and she's surprised with how easy the answer comes to her. "Anything?"

"Yeah, even if it's retiring from slaying. You're not the only one anymore, and you could retire if you want to."

Buffy smiles and kisses his neck. "I didn't even consider retiring. It took years to get to the point where I'm not afraid to admit it, but I enjoy slaying. I could do without the constant apocalypses, but I like patrolling graveyards and taking out random vampires and demons. I've discovered that I can't sleep unless I do a little patrol."

"You slept last night," Spike teases.

She sticks out her tongue. "You wore me out. Usually I wouldn't have slept that soundly."

Spike surprisingly lets that go with no lewd comment. "Okay, so retiring isn't an option. What was your answer?"

"I would like to guard a Hellmouth. It's something I know. I'd be a little worried about the research aspect of it, but I'm familiar with what goes into protecting one."

Spike nods. "Research would be an easy thing to fix. I'm not as brilliant as Red, but I am good with research. And I have a pretty extensive knowledge of demons obviously. And I'm sure Red would help, even if she's in England. Who knows? If we decide to take over a Hellmouth, she may come with us."

"What about Dawn? She likes it in England."

"You could give her the option of staying there with Rupert or someone else. Maybe Willow, if she decides to stay there. She can also have the option to come with us. The question we need to ask is what Hellmouth?"

Buffy grins. "Faith was just telling me the other day that she and Robin are sick of Cleveland. She's not used to being in one place for so long and hopes she can find another slayer to take over guardianship of the Hellmouth there."

Spike smirks. "I think there are some calls we have to make."

Buffy sits up. "Are we actually going to do this? We agreed we should both be happy with where we live, and we're going with my desire. What do you want?"

Spike sits up as well and cradles Buffy's cheek. "Don't you get it? I'll be happy as long as I can get a spot of violence in and I'm with you. Those are the only things I need to be happy, so to me, watching over Cleveland's Hellmouth is perfect."

"I know we have calls to make," Buffy says, a coy smile touching her lips, "But I have other things I want to do first."

Spike lets go of Buffy's cheek and leans back onto his hands, his posture relaxed. "And what's that, love?"

"This," and she pounces, knocking him back down onto the bed. They don't emerge for another two hours.