Buffy looked at him in disbelief. "Angel?"
Angelus shook his head. "Guess again."
Buffy sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest. "Oh God, I can't believe I was so stupid."
"You weren't stupid at all...you freed me baby...and I'd like to thank you." Angelus told her as he sat up and pulled a stunned Buffy to him, placing soft kisses on the side of her neck.
"No!" Buffy screamed, pulling away. She jumped from the bed and, feeling an irrational urge to cover herself from his eyes, grabbed Angel's discarded silk shirt and threw it on.
Angelus smiled seductively and walked over to her, unashamed of his nudity. "Where you going?"
"As far away from you as I can get!" Buffy shouted.
"Scared?" he purred.
"No." Buffy lied. "I could kick your ass if I wanted...I just don't want to."
"I know. Adn that is what scares you. You want me....I want you...just admit it and your life will be a lot easier Baby. That way we can have more fun."
He kissed her softly on the lips on the lips, sending a shock of electricity right down to her toes. She let him deepen the kiss, holding her tight against him as he ground his lower body to hers and showed her his arousal...how much he wanted to make love to her again.
All of a sudden a little voice in the back of her mind screamed that this was wrong. That she had to stop. She cursed the voice for letting her go too far the previous night only to annoy her now.
Nevertheless, she pulled away. "You don't have a soul!"
"Obviously!" Angelus replied, rolling his eyes.
"Well, I'm a slayer!"
"So."
"You're a vampire!"
Angelus couldn't help but laugh. "You've fucked a vampire twice and now all of a sudden that's a bad thing?"
"Well, I have standards...and one of those standards is a soul!"
"How can you say that?" Angelus asked, appearing offended. "You've never even tried it! You know what they say, 'Once you have soul lack, you never go back!'"
Buffy stared incredulously at him for a moment. Angelus was making corny jokes? Begging her to sleep with him? The entire world must have gone mad! Shaking her head at the insanity of the situation, she walked into the bathroom and grabbed her dress. She quickly threw it on, gave up on her underwear and slipped on her shoes. She turned around to find Angelus smirking at her from the doorway.
"I get it....You want to play hard to get, keep me begging for more. Don't worry Lover, I could have you fifty times a day and still starve for you...but I'll play."
Buffy pushed her way past him determined to ignore him....Or at least pretend she was ignoring him.
"I'll see you tonight baby!" Angelus called after her as she left the apartment.
*** A pounding at the door awakened Cordelia. Glancing at her bedside clock, she saw it was just barely ten in the morning. Cursing the day whoever it was that was relentlessly banging on her door was born, she got out of bed and grabbed her brush. When she'd decided she looked 'decent' she opened the door only to find a trashed looking Buffy.
"What happened to you?"
"Uh...long story.."
"Well, now that I'm awake I have a long time to hear it. Why do you look so wigged? Did you run over here from Angel's apartment?" Cordelia asked as she shut the door behind Buffy.
"Yeah, well he only lives a block away. And, yeah, I'm wigged. Okay...well, you weren't here last night...one thing led to another...and Angel and I slept together."
"Jeez! Can't you keep your legs closed? I mean I know he's a hottie, but it's a really really bad idea to sleep with him. Is he still in possession of a soul?"
Buffy shook her head, her eyes filled with tears of guilt.
"Uh oh." Cordelia replied, sitting on the couch. "I don't suppose you staked him."
Buffy shook her head again. "That's not all....he's acting really weird...he's acting like....He still wants me."
"Do you think he's pretending he wants you just so he can trick you and kill you?"
"I don't know...but I don't think so. I mean, he could have killed me, I was in bed with him and sleeping."
"Yeah, but he used to sneak into your room before and draw pictures of you sleeping and he could have killed you but he didn't."
"I know. Buffy sighed. "Then again he did that to torment me, but his morning he was...really nice. I mean, if I hand't known he was a soulless demon I'd have....Liked it."
*** The girls agreed to go find Whistler as soon as the sun set, then Buffy went and showered. They tried to keep their minds busy with shopping all day, but Angelus was always in the back of Buffy's mind, as he always had been.
That night, they searched all the usual places Cordelia could find him, but to no avail. Sighing in defeat, Cordelia told the slayer that he must be on one of his frequent trips out towns. She drove Buffy back home and dropped her off, both girls more than a little on edge.
Buffy felt like Angelus had been there all night, seeing him out of the corner of her eye only to turn and see no one. She wasn't sure whether he really was stalking her or if it was just a product of her overactive imagination, but it bothered her nonetheless.
Cordelia rushed up to her apartment, wondering why it bothered her a lot more now than it had a year and a half earlier that Angelus knew exactly where she lived. Maybe because they were closer now....or maybe because she lived alone.
Once she had her door closed and locked, she breathed a sigh of relief. She flipped on the lights...
and screamed.
Angelus chuckled at the sight of the former beauty queen panting for air, her hand held against her chest and her keys flying to the floor in her shock.
"Surprise!"
"That was so rude!" Was all Cordelia could think to reply.
Angelus shrugged and stood from his seat on her couch. "If I had knocked you would have let me in?"
"Yeah, right after I purposely pulled out my two front teeth with pliers to be fashionable!"
"That's what I thought." Angelus replied. "Oh, by the way, don't worry. I'm not going to kill you."
"Oh right...you just came over to watch TV, maybe rent a video, right?" Cordelia said sarcastically.
"Seriously, I'm not going to kill you. I think as fun as it might be, I can't kill any of Buffy's friends. I can't risk pissing her off."
"You can't?"
"No...I....want her, Cordelia."
"Okay, color me confused."
"YOU?!" You're confused?! At least you aren't having all these...thoughts and...feelings.." He cringed, "I swear, not only did I lose my soul, I lost my mind! I think I'm in love with the damn slayer!"
"Okay, let's say I believe you...you came here because...?"
"You have to help me get her to love me too!" He pleaded.
Cordelia raised an eyebrow....this was rather interesting.
***
Over the next week, Cordelia either met with Angelus or called him every night. She found it amazing that the vampire wanted every detail of every conversation she'd had with Buffy, no matter how unimportant. She'd try to find out what the blonde was doing every night without seeming too obvious so that she could tell Angelus where to find her.
She almost felt bad about sneaking behind her friend's back. Almost. After all, whether she admitted it or not, Buffy was jonesing for Angelus in the major way.
Two weeks after Buffy and Angel had first met there, Cordelia dragged Buffy to the club again, with the knowledge that Angelus would show up as soon as the sun set.
Tonight was the night he'd make his move.
***