Title: Never Leave Me 4/5
Author: Gail Christison
Pairing: B/G
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The timeline is kind of Jossed now, but Giles is back and Buffy remembers his birthday at last and organises something equine for them to do. In due course revelations and romance ensue. :-)
Distribution: All those who have permission. Also my site: http://www.wickedsky.com/oncemore very shortly
Feedback: I'd love to know if you liked it :-)
Disclaimer: Joss owns everything yadda yadda...
Author's notes: This is a fun B/G fic that grew out of a discussion I had some time ago with Gileswench. I actually finished the story before I went to Hawaii, but it's been in beta until tonight. :-) Hope y'all enjoy. Big Big thanks to Karen, Headrush and Liz for their input and encouragement. They had a lot to do with how the fic finally turned out and I can't thank them enough for that.

Dedication: To Good Friends. All of you...you know who you are :-) Enjoy the Holiday Season, be well, and above all be SAFE.

Buffy's eyes bulged. "Sister...I-I'm her sister," she gobbled. "And you are so not dating my sister." She turned to the second, larger boy, brown hair falling in his eyes and a bored expression on his face. "And neither are you, buster. Dawn, we're going home."

Dawn and Janice made haste to slide out of their seats and the two boys followed.

"That'll be fine, lads," Giles said carefully. "We can take them home from here. Thank you for giving them a pleasant evening."

"Go stuff yourself, old man," the blond sneered and pushed past them, followed by his companion.

When they were out of sight, Dawn and Janice finally relaxed, their pale faces filling with colour. "God, Buffy, I didn't know what to do. They came in just after I called you. We couldn't stop them sitting with us."

"Are they vamps?" Buffy demanded. "I felt something but it could be anyone in this place...or outside it..."

The younger Summers sister shrugged. "They followed us out of the movies and all the way here. I figured they probably were but..."

"You don't have a stake?" Buffy guessed.

Dawn shook her head. "It's been quiet lately, and I was in a hurry and..."

"You forgot," Giles finished succinctly.

She shrugged again. "Kinda."

"Well, let's get you home," he said dyspeptically, trying not to show how frustrated he was at having his evening with Buffy interrupted.

They were half way to the car when the attack started. The two boys from the Espresso pump were back accompanied by four more companions, all of whom were having a bad face day. Buffy's mood grew decidedly darker as she drew her favourite stake.

Giles drew his and told the girls to stay behind them, surprised when Buffy threw a second stake to her sister. Moments later he was too busy fending off an attacker to stop and watch Dawn holding her own, or Buffy taking on three at once.

It took Giles a well-timed trip and all his strength to finally force his opponent off balance and stake him just as another one attacked him from behind. He threw his shoulders back, trying to dislodge the unwanted load from his back, but the vampire wasn't having any. Giles knew a moment of real fear, aware that if he couldn't get the creature off he couldn't stake it, and that he and his throat were entirely vulnerable until it was removed. He spun around trying to elbow it as it clung to him.

In his peripheral vision he saw Dawn now struggling in the grip of two of them. The subsequent adrenaline rush of rage took hold of him and he threw himself forward with such force that the vampire sailed over his head. A moment later he was punching it hard in the face while it was still on the ground before staking it hurriedly and spinning to see how Dawn was faring.

She wasn't struggling any more and one of the vampires had his teeth in her throat. Giles launched himself at them, dragged the vamp off Dawn's throat and kicked the other away before either of them had time to really rouse themselves from their focus on feeding.

He'd just staked the closest one while it was still on the ground when he found himself showered with dust from behind. He wheeled to find Dawn, stake still raised, at his back.

"Sorry, Giles," she said ruefully, swaying from what was almost certainly significant blood loss. "He was going to hit you with a rock."

He caught her as she stumbled. Buffy finished off the last of the remaining two assailants with a vicious thrust, wheeled, saw Dawn's misstep and raced over, followed by a terrified Janice who'd been hiding behind another parked car.

"We should take her to the ER," Buffy announced, uncharacteristically panicked when she saw the bite marks, as well as how pale her sister was and how much Giles was still supporting her.

Giles shook his head. "They didn't take enough to even render her unconscious. We'll take her home and get something to eat and drink into her and put her to bed. She just needs time to replenish her blood volume."

"What he said," Dawn agreed creakily.

"Are you sure?" Buffy fussed.

Giles and Dawn both gave her the look.

"Fine," she huffed. "Home." Then she remembered Janice and turned to her. "I...um...you okay?" she asked as Giles lifted Dawn into his arms before she really did lose her legs from under her.

"Oh, just great," the girl drawled, the effect ruined by the residual tremulousness in her voice. "What is it with you and the creepiness, Summers?" she asked Dawn, but continued wryly, without waiting for an answer: "I think I'm going to go home now and do my homework." She hesitated for a moment, looking around. "There aren't any more, are there?"

"Not right now," Buffy confirmed. "But I wouldn't dawdle on the way home. Here," she said, giving Janice her spare stake. "You should carry one of these from now on. But it's probably best if your mom doesn't find it, okay? Oh, and always aim for the heart."

Janice looked at her, then at the stake, then at Buffy again. "Eiww," she pronounced and flounced off but, significantly, didn't give the stake back.

*******

Buffy came downstairs wearily after making Dawn comfortable, to find Giles in the kitchen making hot drinks. She could smell both tea and mocha and smiled to herself.

"What a day."

Giles looked up as she came in and leaned on the counter. "Indeed...a rather spectacular birthday. Not unlike most of yours, really," he added dryly.

Buffy gave him a filthy look. "A squib compared to mine. I'll take a fall off a horse and six incompetent vamps over Angelus, Cruciamentums, Fyarl demons, Ethan, Glory, Vengeance demons and all the other fun stuff designed to make my birthdays just a big ol' ball of fun every year."

"Yes. Sorry," Giles agreed uncomfortably, almost stuffily, looking away again, pouring his tea and adding cookies to the tray.

Buffy smiled affectionately. He was so adorable when he did that. And he'd been doing it for so long she wondered why she hadn't noticed before.

"I missed you at my birthday last year," she told him. "Apart from the usual Buffy birthday suckage, it sucked even more than usual because you weren't there."

He looked up and smiled slowly. "Nice to know I was missed," he teased then the smile faded. "I really hated not being there, particularly for your coming of age."

"Why didn't you even call?"

He paused for a moment, as though collecting his thoughts carefully. "Because if I did, I know I would have been back on the next flight. The separation was absolutely necessary, but I didn't want to leave you any more than you wanted me to go. I blocked it out of my mind long before the event."

"And you did such a good job you never even sent a card," she grumbled. "You sent Xander and Anya a card and you paid for all their flowers..."

He looked even more uncomfortable. "That was different."

She frowned. "Different, how?"

"They weren't you."

The frown cleared. "Oh," she said uncertainly, then seemed to change the subject. "You know Willow said she'd listen out for Dawn when I was upstairs, because she's going to be studying up there for hours...?"

"Did she, indeed? Does that mean you want to patrol?"

"No, it does not mean I want to patrol!" she shot back at him in a rapid tattoo, wondering if she'd imagined everything that had happened between them earlier, and aware of the delayed reaction of her body to the night's slayage, muted somewhat until now by the concern for Dawn.

"Ah. Then perhaps you should enlighten me?" he suggested, half teasing, half serious.

"I'd rather do that at your place," she managed almost huskily.

Giles' eyebrows lifted and his mouth once again worked hard to prevent his lips from showing his very real amusement.

"Then you'd best tell Willow we're going and that your cell phone will be turned on if she needs us for anything," he observed blandly.

*******

"Can I get you anything?" Giles asked as he locked his front door behind him, amusing Buffy, who'd spent years wondering if he'd ever learn to do that.

"When did you start doing that?'

Giles looked at the key in his hand. "Tonight," he admitted, turning to face her again.

"Tonight?"

"You're already here," he explained, looking up slowly.

"Oh." Her eyes widened. *"Oh..."* Unbidden moisture glistened in her eyes.

"A-are you sure I can't get you anything?"

She couldn't *not* smile. He was adorable, and she'd never even noticed before. He was standing there looking as broad and long, and as sexy as he had when they went riding, the denim shirt and the worn blue jeans hugging the most provocative places and angles. For a moment Buffy's thoughts came to a halt as still warm post-slayage embers suddenly roared into a forest fire. A moment later she'd focused again. Everything about him was so aggressively male, yet he was as uncertain of himself as boy, with her.

"You can get over here," she told him.

"Sorry...?"

"Come. Over. Here," she enunciated.

He came to a halt about a foot in front of her. Buffy could smell him: the remnants of his cologne, a more subtle herbal scent from his hair, lingering horsiness and the most provocative aroma of male exertion. It was all she could do to stop herself from fidgeting on the spot.

"Buffy, are you quite all right? You seem to have taken rather a lot of colour...?"

She looked up and watched his mouth move almost mesmerically. "More than all right. And it's pretty much not the sun, if that's what you mean," she added.

He cleared his throat. "Oh?"

She moved toward him. "Yep, I'm just fine...just pretty much back where we were before we were rudely interrupted..."

"Ah," he said, that impossible mouth threatening to widen into a grin, despite the magnitude of what was happening to them. He slowly reached out and brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers before trailing his thumb across the tender lips.

"Just as I imagined," he whispered, fussing a tendril of blonde hair off her brow before cupping her cheek with the large hand and drawing her to him at the same time, so that she was pressed against him.

Buffy quivered with a kind of anticipation she'd never felt before. With Angel there had been desire, mixed with fear and self-doubt, and with Riley there hadn't been much of anything, really...well, except for a really, really lot of sex...and Spike...Spike had almost taken her humanity. In a small corner of her mind she acknowledged for the first time that despite what she thought she knew, she'd never really known what in the hell love...real love...was, until now.

Slowly, almost overwhelmed by the moment, Giles bent his head.

Buffy's heart moved into her throat.

And then his mouth, his masculine, sensual mouth, was covering hers, lips like velvet over iron, moulding and controlling hers for long minutes, asking the question, and hers were melting like butter under the heat of their caresses.

Finally, her arms slid around his neck and she answered not only his questions, but all of her own as they merged into one, each of them somehow channelling years of loneliness, pain, need into the passionate love making of their seeking lips, mouths and tongues.

When they finally parted, they stared at each other, trying to catch up, both uncertain, both...waiting.

Eventually Giles bent his head and brushed her lips very gently before once again searching her face.

:Slowly, Buffy smiled. "It's so..."

"Ridiculous?" he asked, a small part of him steeling for disappointment in spite of everything that had happened.

"Perfect," she corrected. "So perfect it kinda...hurts a little."

"Too much?" he asked very quietly, echoing another time, another place.

Despite still looking dreamily content, her eyes finally focused sharply on his. "How can it be too much, when we've hardly...God, Giles, if you feel anything like me you know this is no game...you...do...feel like me, right?" she digressed, suddenly alarmed.

Giles' shoulders relaxed again and his expression softened. "If you mean do I love you to distraction and do I want you so badly I'm in extreme danger of behaving like a callow youth...? Then, yes...exactly like you."

Buffy reached up and stroked soft golden brown and grey peppered hair behind his ear. "I don't want a 'callow youth'. I want the man who was kissing me before...the one who makes me feel like everything is right and good even when everything else feels bad and rotten."

He smiled. "I'm still here," he told her. "In danger of being just a little overwhelmed, but here. I never expected that you would ever look at me the way you are right now."

"I'm guessing pretty much the same way you're looking at me," she teased. There was power and passion, and yet tenderness and love in his eyes. *How could he look like that...so powerfully male and yet...able to make her go all squishy inside?*

"Quite probably," he agreed wolfishly. "The question is: where do we go from here?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Déjà vu, much?"

Giles looked sheepish and coloured nicely when he realized what he'd said.

"Very funny," he growled huskily.

"Um...well, if we don't go *somewhere, soon*, I'm going to have to go and slay *something*, even it it's just your mailbox," she teased.

."In that case," he murmured, deliberately slipping his hands around her waist and sliding them upward, drawing her top with them and revealing the tender breasts beneath.

Buffy gasped in spite of herself. It was one thing to want him so badly she couldn't think straight...but the reality of Giles seeing her...for the first time...was...well, she couldn't find words for what it was...but when she'd recovered from the shock she realized that he was looking at her in way that made her blood boil...made her want to arch her back and invite him to...

She shook herself mentally just as his hands moved up to cup her breasts and to massage them gently, almost reverently.

Buffy groaned, sending a tremor down Giles' spine and making him even more impossibly hard than he already was. With a low noise of his own he swept her into his arms and carried her swiftly upstairs. She groaned again with delight as he deposited her on the bed, following her down and kissing the softness he'd been holding moments earlier, trailing hungry lips and a sensuous tongue all over the tender flesh until she shifted, suddenly, urgently, trying to remove his shirt. Finally, he moved a little, took over, and in a blink it was gone.

Breathing heavily, Buffy studied the wide shoulders and lightly muscled torso and decided that she'd never seen anything quite as sexy as the scattering of tawny hair on his chest. A tremor went through him as she ran her fingers through it, playing with each of his nipples in turn, but mostly fascinated by the feel and the maleness of him.

"God, I love the way you feel...the way you smell," she said, sounding as though she'd just made an amazing discovery. Then she gave in to her senses and kissed the base of his throat, trailed across to lick one nipple before kissing her way across, with a few diversions to play with the soft hair in her path, to mouth the other one, enjoying Giles' groan as she did so.

A moment later he'd turned her expertly onto her back again. She tensed for one moment when he slipped her jeans off and tossed them aside. Alarmed, Giles paused immediately to look at her quizzically, concern darkening his green eyes.

"It's not you," she told him, touching his face. "I promise I'll tell you...later...much later. Right now...just...just love me..."

His expression was gentle, reassuring, despite the concern still in his eyes. "We can stop at any time."

Buffy smiled at him lovingly. "Are you kidding?" she teased and lifted herself enough to catch his lips and kiss him hard.

After a moment to catch up, Giles kissed her back equally as hard, until they again became entangled, and she was arching her body against his. He shifted and trailed his mouth across her jaw, down her throat.

Buffy groaned. Warm, crazy-making lips were tasting her nipples again, lingering for a long while, then trailing slowly down a silken path to her soft, creamy belly, making her whimper, and her body throb with anticipation.

Giles smiled against the smooth skin before continuing over the silky material of her briefs, enjoying the increasing, and insistent, volume of her moans, they, and the scent of her, telegraphing the height of her arousal. Her scent was in his nostrils, his throat and it was driving his body to new levels of desire as he mouthed the warm flesh through the filmy bit of fabric that covered it, just long enough for her to give a strangled, gasping cry of pleasure.

"Giles, please!" she managed in a voice blurred by need.

His response was to slip one finger under the damp slip of silken fabric and brush it over her swollen flesh. Her hips lifted and she gasped a panting gasp, followed by a nearly screaming one when he pulled the fabric back, bent his head and ran a seeking tongue along the smooth, creamy flesh of her groin, before trailing across and finally tasting her for the first time.

Buffy thought she was going to lose it there and then. He was unbelievable...he knew exactly how and where and how to...her mind went blank for several minutes while he drove her insane with his ability to pleasure, to tease, to...she gasped again as the tip of his mobile tongue slid up the sensitive flesh from her opening to her swollen centre and over it before taking it in his mouth with the same exquisite touch that had already brought her so close to orgasm several times already.

"Giles..." she prompted when she couldn't wait any longer.

He knew immediately and exactly what she wanted. There was a movement and a rustle as his jeans and briefs came off together and then he was pushing himself up on his arms, over her. He wanted her so much...loved her so much...and she was looking up at him with the kind of desire in her eyes that he could have only dreamed about, even just days ago. She was so lovely...soft, round breasts with their pale pink peaks...flat, creamy belly...and the soft, dark smudge of hair...waiting. Waiting for him...

Buffy slid her arms around his neck as he lowered his head and took her lips again, their kiss possessive, yet gentle, passionate, yet lovingly tender. When they finally parted to look at each other again, she wasn't sure she really wanted it to end. Then she met the soft green eyes, so close she could see the exact shape of the endearing brown spot in the left one, and each tiny laughter line at the corner of his eyes as he smiled at her.

"Hello," he said softly.

She smiled back, all the lurking, hurtful shadows of the past falling away in the wake of the wave of love she felt for him then.

"Hello, Gorgeous."

He chuckled softly. "I think not," he said ruefully, then trailed his fingers over a still rigid peak, making Buffy tremble. "But you, love, on the other hand, most certainly are." He covered the goose-bumped breast again with his mouth for a moment, listening to her satisfying response, then moved between her thighs, smiling as her legs curled possessively around him.

"Then it makes two of us," she breathed as he kissed her throat, her ear and trailed across her flushed cheek to kiss her again. "Love me," she reiterated when he eventually lifted his head.

Giles needed no further invitation, sliding his hands down her hips and raising them. Buffy strained to him, ripples of pleasure already coursing through her body as she felt him come to her.

Something inside her knew, at last, that it truly was *him*, and only him. She loved Giles more than she'd ever loved anyone or anything. She belonged to him...and he belonged to her. It shook her...the knowledge that she wasn't alone. That perhaps she'd never really been alone...

Even more frightening was the realisation that this love...real love...had nothing to do with pain, or darkness, or hurt. And yet...

They cried out together as they became one, both overwhelmed by the moment and then by their desire, everything else forgotten. All Buffy knew was that she didn't want it to stop...that this was who she was, where she was meant to be.

She revelled in the strength, the maleness of him as he took her, as much as she was taking him. Only this time the strength was in the giving, in the passion, rather than in the taking...or the hurting.

He gave her everything as she rose to him, her thighs hungry for all the power he could bring to their love-making, matching him stroke for stroke, need for need, until they were both crying out, overwhelmed by the eroticism of their union and the sheer need to achieve completion together.

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