Title: Never Leave Me 5/5
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.

Giles found himself striving to hold back a suddenly overwhelming tide to wait for her, chewing the inside of his mouth as a distraction, while his body trembled with pleasure as it worshipped hers.

Within moments Buffy's body began to writhe beneath his, and he felt her orgasm begin.

"Giles!" she gasped, "oh, God, oh, God...*Giles!*"

Simply being inside her had been almost more than he could bear...it had been so long and he'd wanted to love her for so very long, but now, watching her face in the throes of ecstasy, and feeling her pleasure closing around him with typical, and stunning, slayer strength, swiftly pushed him over the edge to follow her in a thunderous, mind-shattering explosion that shook his whole body, overwhelming any rational thought and making him gasp with the sheer intensity of it.

It was long minutes before either of them could talk.

When Giles finally lifted his head from her shoulder, Buffy smiled rosily at him.

"Hello, lover. Everything still working?" she teased.

"Very funny," he said gruffly.

"I thought so," she told him, her grin widening. "Did I tell you how much I love you?"

Giles stopped being huffy and stared into her grey-green eyes for long moments before smiling tentatively and shaking his head before adding in a distinctly facetious tone:

"As a matter of fact..."

Buffy slapped his bicep playfully then grew serious. " I love you so much. I can't believe...I can't believe I didn't know, you know? It's not about the sex...it's never about the sex, is it? I didn't know it could be like this..." She reached out and touched his face. "I love you, Rupert," she said softly, trying out the name almost tentatively.

Giles smiled lovingly at her. "It sounds good when you say it." Buffy raised an eyebrow. "All right. Not that good," he conceded, aware that 'Rupert' was never going to be a fashionable appellation by the current generation's standards, "but I still like hearing you say it."

"Rupert," she said again, experimentally. "I think I can deal with it...but mostly you'll still be Giles, because 'Giles' is the guy I love...the one I want to be with forever..."

Moved, he was about to reply to her statement when his face screwed up a little instead and he shifted uncomfortably.

"And I you, love," he managed finally, then added ruefully: "except perhaps for the next few minutes. It would seem that it's past time that I moved."

Buffy looked uncertain. "Oh," she said, then: "oh! It's been so long I forgot..."

Giles' eyes widened as something else suddenly occurred to him. "Oh Lord, Buffy, you are...?"

Buffy moved, equally uncomfortably, as things got stickier and stickier, her eyes flicking back up to his when he spoke.

"...Protected? Oh, sure. Stop worrying. I just started pretty much everything again where I left off after I...um...got back, so to speak. I have been...protected that is, since...well, college. Not much for the fun of the little foil packages after the 'magic marathon' with Riley," she explained sheepishly and stroked his chest. "I'm glad we didn't have one. I wanted all of you...I wanted to be a part of you and you to be a part of me."

His eyes grew bright with warmth and tenderness then he chuckled again. "I'm afraid we have to move, love, or you're really going to get your wish, only not quite the way you hoped."

Buffy made a noise that sounded distinctly like an 'eiww' and moved at the same time he did, both of them rolling in different directions. When Giles had attended to both their needs with some man-sized tissues, Buffy unexpectedly stood up on the bed and slid her arms around his neck.

They shared a tender, slow kiss that became a spontaneous embrace, each of them holding each other tightly, closely.

"Never leave me," she begged.

"Never," he promised brusquely.

She pulled back enough to look at him and touch his face. "I wish I could promise you forever too," she said sadly. "But I can only promise you everything I've got...I just don't know how long that's going to be."

"Whatever it is, it's enough," he said in a voice charged with emotion. "I'm not exactly in a position to offer you that kind of forever, either," he pointed out grimly. "But all that I am, all that I can give, is yours, and always will be."

He was watching her face, and frowned when it suddenly crumpled and her eyes filled with tears.

"Don't cry, love," he said very gently. "Whatever it is, we can handle it together."

"I'm not crying for me," she told him almost crossly. "I'm sorry. I've never given you...I-I've never given you..." She sniffed. "Between the Slaying and the family stuff and the scarily bad...thing...that was my love life...my tiny brain never seemed to get past 'Giles will be there' and 'Training bad, Bronzing with Xander and Willow pretty.' God, every time I think about all the time we've been together I wonder why you didn't just go back to England a long time ago." Her expression grew a little bleaker and she dropped her eyes.

"In your place, I'd have left me. All that time I thought I had it together...I thought...but I didn't know anything. I thought Angel was everything...that it could never be like that again. I never let anything be that important again...not you, not Riley. Nothing; not even when I wanted it to be..." Her voice tapered off as memories overwhelmed her for a moment.

"Spike?" he guessed softly, watching her face show far more than she realised.

She nodded. "...Nothing was, except the Slaying, because, well, it's supposed to be, right?" She looked up slowly. "None of it meant anything...until now." She traced the laughter lines at the corner of his eye. "Is it...is it always like this?"

"Always like what?" he asked gently, a smile in his eyes.

"Like, you know...that there's no doubt...that you just know that this is where you have to be...that this is the person you want to be with for the rest of your life...that whatever there was before doesn't exist now. That all those times I said 'I can't do this without you!' was truer than I ever understood back then. I called it 'need'...but it had another name..." She leaned forward and caressed his mouth tenderly with hers. "I so totally don't deserve you...but I love you so much I can't even put it into words...well, not pretty ones anyway. Not the way it should be...not the way you deserve it to be."

Giles let a divot form between his brows. "It doesn't matter anymore," he told her, returning her salute, equally tenderly. "This is what matters." He kissed her again.

'But you deserve to..."

"I'm not as bloody noble as all that," he told her, amused, and caressed a soft breast, making her shiver. "And I have everything I deserve and more already. Don't worry. I remember very well every moment of every incident where you needed your tiny arse kicked...and I also know you...better than you do. So stop flapping like a demented hen, and come here." He drew her into his arms, crushing her breasts against his chest, and kissed her thoroughly.

Somewhere about halfway through it became far more than just a kiss, and both of them felt it. It flared again into a need to be a part of each other, to know that exquisite moment of fused flesh, shared existence that only true lovers...true soul mates...ever knew.

By the time Buffy was crying out her second orgasm, straddling his hips and impaling herself upon his once again ridiculously aroused member with the same demanding need as his hips were rising to her, they were both stunned by what each could inspire the other's body to do and feel...

And then Giles was following her, lunging upwards in a wholly unexpected and bone-shaking second release, as she plunged and twisted her body in the throes of her own completion.

By the time it was over, Buffy had collapsed on his chest, content to lie there until he completely stopped moving and slid his arms around her. They stayed that way for a long while, drifting into a sex-induced torpor, and finally sleep.

When they woke again, or at least Buffy roused, content and stretching like a cat as Giles continued to sleep beneath her, she grinned down at him, barely controlling a desire to brush the hair from his brow as she would a child. It was as though she could see inside him, looking at his face: so peaceful and unburdened in the refuge of sleep. He was beautiful...

Just as she might have bent to kiss him awake, she realised that once again the lack of tiny foil package meant a really big eieww...and an even worse...and stickier...state of affairs because she was on top, her face screwing up commensurately. There was nothing close enough to grab. She eased the quilt off and carefully removed herself from her lover, squeaking as...things...shifted and it became apparent that either she'd have to find something quickly or make a mad dash to the bathroom...or both.

"Trust you to be the major stud...in every way," she hissed at the sleeping figure as she stuffed one of his t-shirts where it would do the most good. When she had things under control again she took the soiled clothes downstairs to his clothes hamper in the bathroom and climbed into his tub to get to the shower faucets.

The heat of the water and the amazing events of the day combined to make the hot shower...and her life...seem blissfully surreal...like heaven, in a way. Buffy paused, trying to remember what it was like, only to come to the conclusion some minutes later that heaven was upstairs...sleeping like an angel.

She made a face. Sleeping *like a babe*, she amended, turning the faucets off. *...And that was 'babe' in the hottest way, too*, she added silently, and smiled to herself. For the first time in her resurrected existence, life was better than heaven, and maybe, just maybe, for the first time her gift truly could be love...

Giles' long eyelashes fluttered on his cheeks and he stirred slowly, gradually opening his clear green eyes to stare questioningly at the person who'd woken him, their fingertips caressing his temple.

"Hi," Buffy smiled.

"Hello," he grinned back blearily, his eyes lighting up. "Not just a dream..." he whispered more to himself than to her, perhaps not even aware he'd spoken aloud.

Buffy, wearing nothing but another of his white t-shirts, chuckled.

"Nope," she agreed. "More like a nightmare, but a nightmare who loves you."

"What...what time is it?" he asked, still struggling to come to terms with the new and wondrous turn his life had taken.

"Late," she offered, "or early, depending on your point of view. Around about the time I usually do the post-slayage snack thing."

"Oh Lord, I remember those. Made me long for the days when it was difficult enough to even get a yoghurt into you, let alone..."

"Very funny. Nobody told me back then how many calories a Slayer burns, or that there's no such thing as a fat Slayer." She paused, smiling, her eyes bright, as his fingers wandered up and traced the outline of her cheek.

"There's nothing wrong with being round...more to love, more to hold," he told her, letting the fingers trail down her neck and across the creamy curves.

"And that could happen too...if I retire and spend not just my days, but my nights as well, sitting on my duff. Slayer retirement...sounds good. I should have benefits," she teased. "Do I have benefits...?"

Giles looked at her bleakly, and Buffy caught up, remembering, as he was, the true nature of Slayer retirement.

She kissed his nose. "There's always a first time for everything," she told him. "I seem to keep finding that out...I mean, hello, twenty-one and still here, so hey, someday we could be watching our grandchildren graduate...maybe even without the snake part...or the vampire part..."

Giles suddenly seemed overwhelmed. "Grandchildren?"

She leaned forward and kissed his lips. "Would you rather have dogs...or maybe cats?"

"Oh...oh, no," he managed, laughing a little and holding her gaze. "Grandchildren sound...wonderful."

Buffy grinned. "That's what I thought, too." After a beat she finally roused herself and broke the silence. "But getting back to post-slayage feasting...I raided your kitchen."

Giles eyed the tray when she moved it to the bed. "Buffy, this is not food."

"When did I say feasting had to involve actual food groups?" she retorted playfully, surveying the bounty she'd found in his cupboards. "I can't believe you had all this stuff. What exactly do you need double chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate sauce for?"

Giles rolled his eyes. "Dawn," he replied, "and, uh...possibly Xander."

"Chocolate chip cookies?"

"Xander...and Dawn."

"Dutch Edam cheese?"

He smiled. "For my Slayer...and probably Xander."

Buffy grinned. "Good thinking. And the jelly babies?

"Um...actually," he stammered, looking sheepish.

Her smile widened even further. "They're yours?"

Giles smiled back, then nodded toward the tray. "Are you seriously going to try and eat all that?"

Buffy shrugged. "It all looked so great...and I'm hungry. I'm the Slayer...sue me...I have appetites," she said in mock aside, and traced a line up his shin where one leg was uncovered, under the sheet, and inside his thigh.

"Yes...yes...I had noticed," he said as her fingers found their mark. He made a noise under his breath halfway between pleasure and aggravation before she reclaimed her hand. "Appetites. Yes, all right," he conceded. "Just so long as I'm the one to sate them all."

She poured chocolate sauce all over the bowl of ice cream. "Giles: down with the sating." She grinned again. "*All* the sating...check. Which reminds me did anyone ever tell you how great you are with...um...the sating? Are all guys your age so...y'know...with the *again*, and all...?"

He snorted. "Hardly," he said eventually. "Why? Some of your boy lovers come up a bit short?"

Buffy's eyes widened. None of her lovers had the kind of stamina Giles had already shown...well, Spike, but that was the demon, not the man...and that was never really about love...as much as about power and control. If it had been the man, Angel might have been a little more... She paused mentally. Not that long ago thinking about him would have sent a painful pang through her. Now all she could see, or feel, or care about, even as she mused, was the owner of the mocking green eyes looking at her.

"So...that's what it means," she murmured.

"What *what* means?" He demanded ungrammatically.

Buffy ate another spoon full of ice cream and sauce. "Never mind," she told him, looking a little like the cat that got the cream.

"Tell," he said, his eyes glinting.

Buffy dipped her spoon and took another luxurious mouthful before shaking her head.

The gleam became dangerous. "No?" He took the spoon and set it in the bowl, pushed the tray aside, then leaned over and pulled off the T-shirt before Buffy could react.

"Giles..." she growled.

He dipped several fingers in chocolate sauce then slowly and deliberately coated her nipples with it. "Yes?" he replied, just before leaning down to taste his handiwork, drawing a jagged intake of breath from Buffy.

"What are you doing?"

"Why? Do you want me to stop?" he asked, and switched to the other breast, taking all of it in his mouth.

"Oh...oh God, no," she mumbled between shortened breaths and arching her back for more.

He ladled more sauce onto her chest so that it ran down her cleavage to her stomach, then trailed his mouth down after it. By the time he reached her navel, Buffy had eased backward to lie against the pillows. Giles caressed her inner thigh, prompting her to part them for him. She shuddered as he dripped more cold sauce and ice cream onto her now exposed heat, groaning a little as he licked the last of the sauce off her stomach and breasts. Then he looked up at her, the glint almost Machiavellian now.

"Tell," he repeated.

With typical Buffy logic, and a wicked grin, she refused. "No."

He trailed fingertips over the soft, sensitive inner flesh of her thigh. "No?" he inquired and caressed her sauce-covered centre just enough to make her arch and gasp, then took his hand away again.

Buffy groaned. "No fair!" She groaned again when he didn't move. "All right. I...I just realized what it meant...us...everything being so perfect...the past not mattering any more."

Giles caressed the other thigh, and toyed, in feather light caresses, with the soft folds beneath the chocolate, before pausing again, just as she was moaning with pleasure.

She whimpered and rolled her eyes at him. "I just realized...that the reason why none of it...Angel...any of it, matters any more...is because there's only one thing in the world that still matters to me..." She focused on him, her eyes bright with emotion. "Maybe the only thing that ever *really* mattered."

"In that case," he said tenderly, and leaned forward to kiss her mouth lovingly, "I think it's time I had some ice cream."

Buffy squealed and giggled as he half-tickled, half pushed her back down onto the pillows nipped his way down the inside of her raised right thigh to his target.

He teased and pleasured and removed every last drop of chocolate sauce and ice cream as she writhed and moaned, until, finally, he slid one finger into her over-sensitised channel, trailed his tongue and his mouth back up to the swollen evidence of her desire and claimed it, listening as she cried out in ecstasy, and smiling as she arched upwards, gasping and moaning as he brought her once again to completion.

Floating on a cloud of pure pleasure, Buffy was aware, only just, that Giles had moved up to lie alongside her. She turned so that her head rested on his right breast and sighed with real contentment.

Giles smiled down at her and bent to kiss the rumpled head.

"Never leave me," he whispered near her ear, a note in his voice that made it far more than an idle tease.

Buffy looked up slowly and smiled at him in a way that moved him almost to tears.

"Never," she whispered back, the unspoken vehemence of the word echoing long after both of them had curled up in peaceful slumber...

End.

AUTHOR'S PAGE