TRAIL OF BREAD CRUMBS

email: bcunningham@sk.sympatico.ca
spoilers: Gingerbread
rating: NC17 m/f
disclaimer: Joss and WB and Fox own the characters, just borrowing for non-profit fun.
distribution: my site: http://www.oocities.org/Area51/Crater/7657/index.html if you want it, please ask.
note: this is my response to Tricia's challenge on SecretLives. It might not quite meet it, but any excuse to write this pairing will do.
dedication: for Kim and Ann for putting up with me the last couple of days.
feedback: yes, please!

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Giles made certain that Buffy, Willow and the books had survived their near-demise at the burning stake. All were a bit singed or smoky, but it appeared that they would be fine. He helped gather up the books which Oz and Xander loaded into Oz's van. They promised to take them back to the library in the morning after the repercussions of the raid were over. By that time he was ready to go home. The rush of adrenaline from the spellcasting was gone and, as always, it left him wiped.

The teens went home together, Willow cradling a small box with holes punched in the lid, saying they'd come to help him re-shelve the books tomorrow. Ira Rosenberg arrived to collect his wife and Joyce Summers. Both women looked a bit shellshocked. Giles was certain neither of them had yet come to terms with almost murdering their own daughters. They would need some time to recover from the near-tragedy.

Giles headed for his car. As he walked, his shoe scuffed against something. A glance downward revealed a chunk of bread. Shaking his head at the foolishness of someone littering that way, he continued to walk across the parking lot. When the third and fourth pieces of bread crust flattened under his foot, he stopped and looked around. There was a trail of them scattered in a fairly widely- strewn path leading directly to his car.

Walking slowly, he approached the Citroen with caution, his hand automatically going to a stake in his jacket pocket. This might not be some kind of trap set up by a vampire, but he wasn't going to take any unnecessary chances.

As he got closer, he saw someone lounging against the hood of the car. It was getting dark and he couldn't quite make out who it was.

"About time you got here. I've been waiting so long I'm getting cold." The familiar complaining tone of Cordelia Chase floated over to him. He relaxed somewhat but not completely. One never knew what was in store from the mind of Cordelia.

She straightened up when he stopped in front of her.

"Why didn't you go home with the others?"

"And ride with Xander? No, thank you. Besides, I wanted to talk to you." She walked up to him and casually tucked something into his breast pocket.

He pulled it back out. It was a partial slice of bread.

"You're the one wasting a good loaf of bread?"

"It's not good. It's white bread. Do you know what white bread does to your body? Besides, it was all they had at the convenience store down the street."

"But why, Cordelia?"

The brunette folded her arms across her stomach. "Hansel and Gretel? Duh."

Giles removed his glasses, rubbing his fingers across his eyes. "Of course, how foolish of me. What I meant was why did you scatter bits of bread across the parking lot?"

"They're bread crumbs. To lead you safely home." When he continued to stare blankly, she added, "To your car. To me."

He blinked, putting his glasses back on. "To you?"

"Yeah." She sidled closer and ran her fingers under his collar. "Ever since you picked the lock on the door at City Hall, I couldn't stop thinking about how utterly attractive you are."

"Because I picked a lock?"

"Trust me. It's the bad boy image." She pressed herself up against him full length and wound her arms around his neck.

Surprised, Giles looked into her dark eyes so close to his own. Determination was firmly set in them. He started to pull away but she held on.

"Uh uh. I want this," she told him. Her nose bumped his. "I've been waiting out here for hours."

It couldn't have been more than two hours, but that still said much about her resolve. Cordelia didn't hang around in parking lots -- or, indeed, wait on anyone -- unless she wanted something badly. Giles was flattered and intrigued. A beautiful young woman wanted him sexually. That sort of invitation didn't fall into his lap everyday.

His guard had been lowered enough due to the events of the day, not to mention the lingering effects of being chloroformed, that he was tempted to shove all caution aside. And, there was a nice little mood-altering buzz forming from the spellcasting he'd performed. Could it also be affecting Cordelia somehow? It certainly wasn't like her to come on to him. She normally insulted him every chance she got.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"How do I feel? What kind of question is that to ask at a moment like this? I'm horny and I want you. What else is there to know?"

"I'm concerned that you might have gotten caught in the fallout of the spellcasting tonight." At her clearly baffled look, he explained, "Sometimes when one casts a spell, there are after-effects that might alter a person's thinking and emotional control."

"You're the one who cast the spell, is your control affected?"

"Well..."

"Uh huh. That's what I was hoping." At his baffled look, she added, "I read in one of your dusty old books one time that a person who fools around with magick sometimes gets a little high afterward. I figured that tonight since I was in the mood anyway, you might be looking for a little...outlet for your excess energy."

Giles stared at her, trying to read her expression. He couldn't find fault with her reasoning, but was he looking hard enough?

Then Cordelia smiled, completely obliterating his doubts.

"You'd better be very certain, Cordelia." He bent his head. Their lips met and clung. The taste of her was intoxicating. Shifting his grip on her, his hands slid down her back to rest on the curve of her backside. When they parted, she laid her head against his shoulder. A low throb vibrated throughout him.

Pulling back slightly, he asked, "Are you humming?"

"Mmm hmm."

Actually it was more like a barely audible purr. The vibrations seemed to wind through him, stimulating him.

He took her hand in his. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"My place," he replied, trying to get her into the car, but Cordelia distracted him. She kept bumping and rubbing against him, her hands wandering under his jacket. One of them found the buttons of his shirt and sneaked inside to stroke his skin. The other hand travelled south, past his belt and brushed against his fly. She fondled the bulge there through the material.

He hissed with pleasure. It had been too long since anyone's hands other than his own had done that to him. Swinging her around, he pushed her against the side of the car and attacked her neck with all the pent up frustration of a man who had spent too much time alone lately; a man with a wild side kept imprisoned because of the image he'd manufactured for himself. While he licked and nipped at her soft skin, his hands kneaded her breasts through her dress.

Cordelia whimpered under the assault, at the same time encouraging it. She dug her fingers into his scalp and held him to her, crying out when his teeth pinched her neck.

Giles' conscience yelled at him. He broke free of the clinch.

"Not here."

"Where?" Cordelia couldn't keep her hands off him, playing with his hair and undoing buttons on his shirt until it gaped open under his jacket. "I don't want to wait until we get to your apartment."

Giles didn't want to wait either, and wasn't sure he could wait.

He looked around. The parking lot was almost deserted except for a few other vehicles. Too risky for what he wanted to do. "Get in the car. I have an idea."

#

The little car bravely met the demands on its motor and quickly took them outside Sunnydale to a wooded area.

Cordy giggled when she realized where they were parked.

"Isn't Lovers' Lane some kind of cliche? I mean, a smart guy like you and we end up here?"

Giles shut the motor off and turned in the seat to face her.

"First of all, this isn't Lovers' Lane..."

"No, but it is just a short distance on the other side of that hill." She sat back against the door, folded her arms across her stomach and smiled at him. "You were saying?"

"I was saying that it was the closest place I could think of where we'd have some privacy." Slowly he leaned toward her.

Cordelia let him get very close until their mouths nearly touched, but she did not move forward. "Why not a back alley somewhere?" she teased.

"If you're only going to criticize, why did you start this?" Giles tried to sound stern, but he couldn't help smiling.

"Told you. You're a bad boy. A juvenile delinquent. A not-a-teenager-anymore juvenile delinquent," she qualified.

"Brat."

One of her eyebrows went up and she laughed haughtily. "I am not a brat."

"Prove it."

"I will. I'll ravish your socks right off you."

"My socks don't concern me."

"So you are worried."

"I didn't say that."

"You talk too much."

"Get in the back."

Cordelia climbed between the seats and Giles followed her. They were both too tall to accomplish that easily and ended up tangling their feet and falling onto the leather bench seat. They struggled to undress in the cramped space. Fighting with his jacket, Giles couldn't free his arms from the sleeves. There was a distinct lack of elbow room not to mention leg room, as Cordy kept kicking him in the ankle trying to get out of her dress.

Their eyes locked.

Cordy bit back a giggle.

"The hell with it," Giles growled, giving up on his jacket and working on his fly instead. Cordelia's hands were there helping him. She whimpered, frantically yanking his zipper down.

"Careful!" he yelped. His overly sensitive erection was straining to spring free from behind that zipper.

Then he pushed her skirt up and tore at her panties, dragging them down her legs. She hurriedly kicked them off while he shoved his trousers and boxer shorts together down past his hips.

Cordy sat back against the door. She pulled him to her, raising her knees as he got between them with his pants around his ankles, melting into her embrace. She kissed his face and eyes and mouth with increasing hunger.

It felt wonderful to meet that way; it was like a homecoming. Giles wanted more skin under his hands, and sought out the zipper at her back. He slid it down a little further than she had gotten with it, but Cordelia was squirming so much he gave it up as a lost cause. Her movements were making him crazy, driving his senses wild. Her hands were everywhere, stroking his back under his shirt and sliding down to his butt.

Giles lifted himself up enough so that he could skim his hand between their bodies, burrowing down to the vee between her thighs. Slipping his fingers through the soft curls there, he caressed the moist folds of skin, slipping inside the enveloping warmth.

Another whimper escaped Cordelia.

"P-please...hurry. I want you...to hurry."

Surprised that Cordelia would beg for anything, Giles soothed her, petting her hair and stroking her face with his free hand.

"Shhh. Soon. Very soon."

"I can't stand it! Please, Giles!"

"Easy, easy," he crooned.

"Wait!" Cordy pulled free of his arms.

"What is it now?" he groaned.

She squirmed around and out from underneath him to reach into the front seat. She fell back with a paper bag clutched in her fist. Tearing it open, she pulled out a box of condoms. Giles silently thanked her for being so sensible when his urges made him reckless. He stroked her back while waiting for her to remove a rubber from its packaging. He moved to take it from her, but she snatched her hand away.

"I've got this all figured out on how to get it on you."

"I thought you were in a hurry."

"I am. Shut up and let me do this or it'll take all night. Sit back."

Giles couldn't argue with her logic so he did as he was told. She threw a leg over both of his. Giles liked the sensation of her warmth pressing onto his thighs, skin on skin, but it put her in the uncomfortable position of her head bent forward and her shoulders hunched up against the ceiling of the car.

In an odd voice because her chin was tucked into her chest, she said, "This isn't going to work."

Giles helped her off his lap to sit beside him. "Maybe if you..."

"I've got it. Geez. Who's seducing who here anyway?"

Giles held up his hands in surrender and waited for her next move.

Sitting sideways with her knees pushing against the side of his leg, Cordelia bent down until her face was nearly in his lap. Her hot breath blew across his sensitive skin, further inflaming his senses. Her hair fell across her face, tickling him and dropping a curtain over the sight of her about to go down on him. He felt her wet lips encircle his tip, then she took more of him into her mouth, her tongue swirling around the head.

"Cord..." he groaned, shoving her hair out of the way so he could see what she was doing.

She smiled around him, then closed her mouth and sucked hard.

Reflexively, Giles' hips lifted and he caught double handfuls of her hair in his grip, holding her to him as he pumped in and out of her mouth. When he realized that she had stopped sucking on him, and had tensed up, he released her. She straightened, a slightly frightened expression on her face, though she nearly succeeded in hiding it.

"I'm sorry, Cordelia. I thought you..." he trailed off.

She shook her head, "It's okay. I know what I'm doing."

Giles caressed her face, his palm cupping her cheek. She turned and rubbed into the touch as the fear faded out of her eyes. There was a faintly discernible tremor in her frame as she bent again and applied herself to the task of rolling the condom down his shaft. When she was done, she looked up at him through her eyelashes. He tangled his fingers in her hair, gently this time, and tugged until she leaned forward into a lingering kiss.

That volatile spark leapt between them again, and suddenly they were engaged in a fierce exchange of kissing and biting. His hands stroked her breasts, teasing the nipples into hard points that stood out through the fabric of her dress. Giles wrapped his arms around her back and turned so that Cordelia was once again lying on the seat. He got between her legs and started to lower himself until he was very close to her. The car was too small for him to stretch out so he slipped off the seat and knelt on the floorboards.

"Okay?" he asked.

She nodded reassuringly and held him close. "Very okay." She kissed him then said, "After all this, you better be good."

He nuzzled her neck. "And who started this anyway?"

"You did when you broke into City Hall. This is all your fault. Just remember that, you naughty little boy."

Giles braced himself on the balls of his feet, raised up just enough so that he could slide his penis inside her.

Cordy cried wordlessly, clamping her legs around his back and her arms around his neck. They rocked together, hard and fast. There was no time for gentleness now. They were both too caught up in the headlong rush.

Giles' knees dug into the front of the leather seat as he gathered her to him, holding her as she met him thrust for thrust. Her eyes were wide with the intensity of the act they were undertaking. As she looked at him, her expression softened. Her concentration was as strong as ever, but in back of that was a fondness that surprised Giles. As he gazed at her she smiled at him.

Then a look of wonder overtook her. Cordelia's fingers gouged the flesh of his ass. She squeezed her eyes shut, pressed her forehead into his shoulder and screamed. Her voice ringing in his ears, Giles chased her over that transcendent precipice and they sagged in each other's arms.

Cordelia leaned into his embrace and Giles brushed the hair out of her eyes. Nearly all of it had come loose from her remaining hair clip. His fingers touched her cheek and came away wet.

"Cordelia? Are you crying?"

She sniffed noisily, refusing to lift her head so that he could see her clearly.

"No."

"Please look at me." She did, holding her head high despite the tears coursing down her cheeks. "Did I hurt you?"

She shook her head. "That's not why..."

"What then?"

She shrugged. "It was so intense. I've done it before...I just never realized it could be like this. The other times were over pretty quickly. No zing, no real emotion. This was..." finally lifting her head, she looked at him, "this was the best ever."

Absurdly pleased with the praise, Giles kissed her forehead. "You were spectacular."

"I wish I'd seduced you a long time ago."

"I wish you had, too."

They traded smiles, realizing that their state of semi- undress left them looking quite silly -- Cordy's dress was bunched around her hips and hanging open at the back, Giles' pants were nearly off, tangled around his feet and his shirt, undone except for the bottom button, gaped under his jacket. Also, they were still joined. When they began to repair the damage to their clothing, they separated and Giles slipped out of her.

Cordy glanced down between their legs, looked up and grinned at him.

"Yes?" he asked puzzled, wrapping the used condom in a tissue and placing it in what was left of the paper bag it had come in from the store.

"Nothing. Just...it felt funny. I liked it."

Giles gazed at her, "You're quite remarkable."

"Well, yeah! Tell me something I don't already know."

His mouth quirked up on one side. He didn't take her tone as seriously as he might have even a few hours ago.

It was a struggle to dress in the cramped space, but after Giles got his pants up and zipped, he climbed back into the front seat. Cordelia followed and, when she was settled, he started the car.

Glancing over at her, he asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Better than that."

Smiling, he said, "Tell me something I don't already know."

She frowned, looking down at something in her hands. "Um, do you want the rest of these?" She held up the opened package of condoms.

He took them from her and looked at the box. "Extra large." She certainly thought highly of his attributes. He wondered when she had sized him up. "Not sure. Is your memory better than mine?"

"What do you mean?"

"Will you remember to bring them the next time we need them? I might forget...in the heat of the moment."

Her eyes widened and then she turned her head to stare out the window. He saw her lips curve into a smile, lifting her profile. His gaze shifted to the reflection she cast in the window. Her eyes shone brightly.

"Maybe we should leave them in here." She popped open the glove compartment. A flashlight, a well-used candle, and a book on immolating vampires fell into her lap. "Geez, don't you ever clean this out? There's a sandwich in here and it's...ewwwgross! It's all moldy and everything."

He reached over and pulled the sandwich out, opened the car door and walked over to a trash barrel a short distance away, dropping the spoiled food and the used condom into it. He returned to the car and got back in. Glancing over at Cordelia, he noted that she was regarding him with a self- satisfied smirk.

He realized that tonight he had entered the universe of Cordelia Chase. Perhaps he should be worried?

He took her hand in his and kissed the palm. Cordy ducked her head and swallowed hard. Giles waited. When she looked up again, she tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Well, what are you waiting for? We both have school tomorrow."

Sporting his own satisfied grin, Giles put the car into gear. Then he extended his hand and let her slide hers into his grip. With fingers intertwined, they drove back to Sunnydale.

End.