She must have misunderstood him. He hadn’t said that—couldn’t have. “What?” she asked faintly.
“After school gets out today, pack your things.”
“Pack?” repeated Buffy in disbelief. Pack? He couldn’t mean—couldn’t…. No, no he didn’t. Of course not. It was a joke. A strange, inexplicable joke. Maybe he’d had a little brandy in his coffee this morning. Or a lot. “That’s—that’s funny!” she managed, forcing out a painful laugh. “It almost sounded like—like—”
“Your mother was very angry, Buffy. It can be hard to reason with someone when they’re like that—they’re entrusting you with the care of their children, and suddenly they’re not sure if you’re keeping that trust—”
“And I have to go home?” Buffy asked, almost in tears.
“No, no!” William exclaimed in horror. Buffy let out a cry of relief and threw herself against him, burying her face against his chest. God, he’d made a mess of it, hadn’t he? He was useless—worse than useless. To cause Buffy so much pain! “I’m sorry, darling,” he crooned into her hair, pressing kisses against her temple and rubbing her back soothingly. She shuddered a little as the sobs passed through her. “You’ll still be here. It’s just….”
“What?” she asked, pulling back a little.
“I’m afraid I built a little bit on your lie,” he admitted guiltily. She gave him a curious look. “About staying with Miss Chase during the weekend.”
“What did you tell her?” Buffy asked, starting to smile.
“Umm, well, I told her that I believed Miss Chase was a bad influence on you and that your problem behavior would most likely cease if you were no longer rooming with her.”
“And let me guess—you told her the perfect solution would be if I moved in with you, so that you could keep an eye on me and keep me out of trouble?” Buffy predicted happily.
To her surprise and dismay, he burst out laughing. “Are you insane? Live with me? Why don’t we just put up a sign that says ‘Headmaster/student shagging, inquire within’?”
Buffy looked irate. “People trust you,” she protested.
“They trust me to watch over the school,” William countered. “They most certainly do not trust me or anyone else to live unchaperoned with a student, nor should they. There is no way that people would not talk about such a thing, Buffy—no way at all.”
“If you say so,” she said sulkily, staring at the floor.
He tucked his finger under her chin and raised it so he could look at her. “If we do something stupid, we’ll get caught. If we get caught, that will be the end. There’s no way we could be together anymore.”
Buffy nodded unhappily, acknowledging the truth of his words. That didn’t mean she had to like it, though.
“Don’t you want to hear about where you’ll be moving?” he tempted. A spark of curiosity lit her eyes, although she didn’t say anything. Finally he relented. “You’ll have a private room in the dorms,” he told her.
Buffy gasped, delighted. “You mean I won’t have to sneak past Cordelia, or make up excuses about where I’ve been?”
William nodded, and Buffy squealed and threw her arms around him, peppering his face with kisses. “And I can stay out all night!”
“Oh no, you can’t,” he denied, slipping his hands around her waist and holding her still.
“What is it?” she protested, pushing against him temptingly. Minx.
“We’re not alone,” he explained, glancing towards the door. “If you keep rubbing against me I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure if alone means what you think it does, William,” she said dryly. “Because I’m pretty sure there’s no one else here.”
“It’s not safe here,” William said emphatically, putting her away from him. They’d skated so close to the edge of disaster the last couple of days that he was jittery. As if it would all fall to pieces if they took the slightest risk.
Of course, that didn’t mean they were going to stop. Of course not.
That was just ridiculous.
~*~*~*~
“Where do you want this?”
“Over there, I guess,” Buffy said, pointing randomly. They were schoolbooks. What did she care? All she cared about at the moment were moving in completely and trying out her new freedom to come and go.
Buffy snickered under her breath. Come. Yeah, she had a lot more freedom to come now.
“What?” asked
“What I want to know,” interrupted Cordelia, walking in with Buffy’s sweater—as far as she was concerned, that constituted help—“is how you got your own room.”
Buffy opened her mouth to answer, but unfortunately her mind froze. Well, the headmaster was trying to convince my mother to let me stay here, and having a private room is much more convenient for all our sex and everything. Plus, you snore. “My mom pulled some strings,” Buffy answered vaguely.
Cordelia tossed Buffy’s sweater on the bed carelessly. “Well, thank her for me. Now I get a private room, too!”
“You’ll be okay, won’t you?”
“I’ll be fine,” Buffy told her.
“Okay. But if you do get lonely, just tell us, and we can
have, like, a slumber party or something,” offered
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Leave me out of it. The only thing that would convince me to sleep on the floor or eat cold pizza at two in the morning is Orlando Bloom, and I’m pretty sure neither of you qualify.”
“You’ve never been to a slumber party?” asked
“No, thank you. And that’s exactly how I like it,” she added
firmly, preempting what she knew
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Why would I be offended?” she answered dryly.
Cordy left without another word, but
Buffy waved her off. “Don’t worry about it; I got used to her months ago. Which is good, because otherwise I would have killed her.”
Buffy giggled. “Oh, I don’t know...bashed her over the head with a lamp when she told me to get out of her light…jammed my eyeliner into her temple when she pushed me away from the mirror…smother her with her pillow when she snored. That kind of thing.”
“Maybe we should just be happy you two aren’t rooming
together anymore,” said
“Probably,” Buffy admitted.
“So…you’ll be okay tonight?” ascertained
“I’ll be fine,” Buffy reassured her. “Go on to bed, and
sweet dreams of Oz,” she teased, watching
Just not that night.
~*~*~*~
Buffy snuggled down into the pillow, feeling strangely
lonely, despite what she’d told
But now there’d be no more sneaking around. Well, except for going in and out of his house, of course, and she had to be careful in his office, and made sure no one saw her coming back into the dorm really late, and…okay, the only thing she didn’t have to worry about anymore was Cordy waking up. Other than that, everything was the same.But it was the same without a roommate.
Maybe sometime she could even convince William to visit her in her room.
She wouldn’t let herself think about the trouble they’d almost gotten in because of her. When that maid had been drooling all over William all she could think about was putting her brand on him, making sure that the woman understood that William was HER man. Instead, she’d almost gotten him arrested.
Stupid, stupid, idiot,
she berated herself, before realizing she wasn’t doing a very good job of not
thinking about it. Go to sleep, she
thought. Go to sleep, and forget about
this. Dream of William, and how much fun you’ll have.
But her thoughts were all gray and muzzy, and she knew she wasn’t going to have pleasant dreams.
She was just starting to drift off when she became aware that her pillow was vibrating. “What the hell?” she muttered, sitting up hurriedly. God, it wasn’t a bug, or something like that, was it? Gingerly she reached out with one hand and grasped the edge of the pillow, picking it up so she could shake out any marauding, many-legged insects.
There was no insect. There was, however, a strange cell phone resting on the bed, vibrating to indicate an incoming call.
Buffy eyed it for a moment before picking it up and pressing the talk button. “He—hello?” she said uncertainly. Did the last girl who had the room forgotten to take her phone? And, uh, leave it charged?
“Hello, beautiful. Enjoying your new room?”
Buffy blinked in surprise. “William?”
He chuckled. “Obviously.”
She felt better just hearing his voice.
Of course, it would be much better to actually be with him. “Let me come to your house,” said Buffy wistfully. “I miss you.”
“No, baby. This first night you should stay in your own room. We’ve just had a couple of close calls, let’s lie low for a bit.”
“But I want to touch you,” she protested.
“Why don’t you touch yourself instead,” William suggested huskily.
“I want you to touch me.”
“But I have a special fondness for when you touch yourself. That’s what you were doing the first I saw you…remember?”
She remembered him walking without knocking into the room she shared with Cordy, and freezing in shock when he saw her with her skirt rucked up around her waist and her hand hungrily pushing into herself.
“I was thinking of you,” she told him sweetly, and he groaned. “You’re touching yourself now?”
“Of course I am,” he said plainly.
She shivered at the knowledge, feeling herself become aroused.
Vaguely, a memory shifted to the front of her mind. “The first time you saw me was in class, and you punished me with a ruler,” she reminded him. And had turned her on so much that she had to go back to her room and get rid of all that nasty tension. After he’d hastily left her room, she’d come so hard she’d forgotten her name.
William chuckled unsteadily at the other end of the line. “I’d forgotten about that…seeing you touch yourself wiped everything else out of my mind,” he admitted. “I tried to forget about it, but that afternoon I wanked off like mad thinking about it.”
“You did? You were thinking of me way back then?”
“You know I was,” he accused.
“No, I didn’t,” she denied. A flush of pleasure suffused her, and she realized that she’d unconsciously reached down and begun fingering herself while they talked. Now her hand was slick with her arousal, and it was become difficult to speak.
“Of course you did…bad girl, you’ve always known what you do to me. Make me crazy. Make me hot. Make me lose control.”
“Yes….”
“I’m not like that normally…I’m calm and civilized…but when you’re around, I want to bite and claw,” he told her, hearing her breathing quicken into pants. “Tear your clothes and mark you. Make sure everyone knows you’re mine.”
A strangled gasp reached him, and he knew she’d climaxed. The smothered sounds of her pleasure pushed him over the top, and he came all over his hands and stomach. He wished she was there to lick him clean.
She’d be there soon enough. He couldn’t wait much longer.
“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he told her, his voice hushed. “Sleep well.”
Buffy turned the phone off and pushed it back under the pillow. She could already feel her eyelids pulling downward.
She knew she’d have sweet dreams this time.
