Title: Shiver 4/6
Author: Elle
Feedback: Please! Elle56200@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. If I did they would
spend a lot more time in the sack, and Riley would be dead…or
Jonathan's love slave.
Buffy flipped through some of Giles's research books. "So, what are your symptoms?" she asked.
Giles paged through another book boredly. "I don't have any."
"How do you feel then?"
"Sort of warm…and tingly," he replied. "And relaxed."
"And you're sure you're not drunk?" Buffy asked.
He drummed his fingers on the table. "Yes."
Buffy shook her head and continued to flip through pages of incomprehensible Greek, Latin, and even less recognizable languages. She sighed. "I can't even read half of this."
Giles planted his hands of either side of her and leaned over. "It says that the Mollag beast prefers warm climes, while it's cousin, the Trayvor, prefers the cold." His breath whispered across the back of her neck.
"Not quite what we're looking for," Buffy remarked quietly.
"No," he agreed, his breath still warm. He bent down and softly brushed his lips over the sensitized skin there.
Buffy jerked upright. "Stop it! Now!"
Giles backed up, arms raised. "Relax, luv." He chuckled.
"I swear, I will put you in a coma if—"
"If what?" he asked sardonically. "We both know I could never force you to do anything. You're much stronger than I am." He paused. "Besides, I could never harm you. No matter what came over me."
Buffy let out a tense breath, but knew he was right.
He voiced her anxious thoughts. "Whatever happens tonight, luv, happens because you wanted it to."
Spike was in a fit of near rage. He paced the house like a pent up animal, his movements tense and jerky.
Willow worried at her bottom lip. "We shouldn't be concerned. I mean, it's not like Giles could overpower Buffy. She could restrain him if necessary. Besides, the book says violence isn't a side effect."
"She could still need us," Spike snapped. "And we're stuck here."
Outside, the storm had reached a fever pitch. The lights had been fluttering on and off for the past few minutes, and lightning flashed close overhead. Willow had done a great deal of arguing to keep Spike from going out, not because she thought he would get hurt in the storm, but because he was bound to show up and make a bad situation worse. She couldn't go with him as a mediator, either, not without leaving Dawn alone.
It was Dawn who was the most rational of the three. From her spot on the couch she remarked, "You guys are paranoid. Like Buffy's gonna have sex with Giles or something…" She shook her head. "Never in a million years."