Chapter 2 - Brassed Off At The Bronze.
The stage lights flared and 'OGD' came on stage. The crowd cheered and then, from the wings, out walked what could only be described as sex on a stick. The cheer lifted to a scream. The girls swooned as one and as Gencon's lead singer, Wes James, took the mic in his hands and started to sing, Buffy was sure that she was in love.
"Oh, god Will," Buffy whispered, "couldn't you throw that down and do bad things to it? And look at his hands, all strong and at the same time graceful." Buffy quivered at the thought of him using those hands on her body. She had always had a secret fascination for hands.
Spike walked up behind Buffy and caught her comments about the guy singing on stage. Spike looked up, curious about what kind of guy could elicit such a response from the Slayer. What he saw shocked him. He couldn't believe that she actually liked that ponce. He would make a better chit than a guy, he thought to himself, all high cheekbones and pretty boy looks. Spike leaned in close to Buffy's ear so he could be heard over the song. "Here luv, that'll be enough of that, then. Don't want to be leaving a wet spot on the floor here for some poor git to slip on."
Buffy turned and looked him straight in the eye, her face only inches from his. With mischief in her eyes she smiled sweetly and replied "Why, want him all for yourself?"
Spike gagged and pulled away from her, then a little too loudly he pronounced, "I am not, not have I ever been a prancing poof, you are confusing me with your nancyboy ex-boyfriend."
Buffy merely looked at him with a wicked twinkle in her eye. If he didn't know better he would think that she was flirting with him. This was a side of the Slayer that he had never seen before, and he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. He looked at Willow and the other girls but they were engrossed with the band, and to his frustration the singer too, although the Wicca couple may have been looking at the backup singers. His gaze returned to Buffy. He realized that she had turned her back on him and was standing mesmerized, also. At that moment he realized with a pang that Buffy had no idea that he even existed.
"This just won't do." Spike mumbled to himself as he slipped away from Buffy and headed for the bar. What he needed was a good couple of drinks.
"Bourbon," he growled at the barkeep, "make it a double and keep 'em coming." The barkeep knew Spike pretty well, and lifted an eyebrow at him. Spike reached into his pocket and slammed cash down onto the bar. "Happy?" Spike questioned. The barkeep didn't reply but he did bring Spike the Bourbon.
Spike took the opportunity to glance round the bar. There were a lot of women here that he'd never seen before, and they were all very easy to look at too. If nothing else, ‘OGD’ did attract a higher class of skirt. Spike smirked to himself, he might just have to turn on some of that old Spike charm and chase himself up some company. Especially as the Slayer was paying him no never-mind.
At the opposite end of the bar there was a woman, brunette, tall, leggy and buxom. Just what he was looking for, Buffy's antithesis. He collected his remaining cash and his drink and headed over to her.
"Ello there pet," he said, "enjoying the show then?" Spike nodded towards the stage. She looked him up and down, decided that she liked what she saw, and waved to the chair beside her.
"Yeah, thanks, it's not too bad." She smiled "Your kind of music?" she asked skeptically. Spike laughed out loud at that. "Hardly" he replied.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a couple of seconds, ‘til Spike's new company decided to take the initiative. She reached across and took his hand, starting momentarily at how cool he felt under her touch.
"You're cold," she said. "Would you like to go somewhere and warm up?" The double meaning was obvious, and Spike was keen, but as he glanced over to Buffy, he suddenly had a better idea. "Want to dance first?" he asked.
Her reply was to stand up, and up. **She must be at least 6ft tall.** he marveled.**And well worth the climb I’m thinking. She glided effortlessly over to him. Taking his hand she led him, like a child, out into the middle of the dance floor. When they got there she draped herself around him and started a slow motion lambada on his leg. Spike decided then and there that he wouldn't last another dance with her, before he really needed to go somewhere. Somewhere that was preferably horizontal.
He questioned why he had bothered moping about after the Slayer. There was far too much in this world to have fun with to bother obsessing over that bitch Buffy. Spike decided then and there that tonight was going to be the start of a whole new attitude.
As they swayed together in time with the music, he started to lip along the girls collarbone, stroking the back of her neck with one hand and using the other to hold her hips firm against his own. As his attentions turned to her earlobe, she arched into him, moaning and using her fingernails up and down his spine, underneath his coat. An involuntary shiver ran through him and he leaned into her even closer.
Spike was sure that this was pretty close to heaven. He hoped that she lived fairly close by, because a Crypt-inhabiting vampire wasn’t exactly the first impression he was going for. As the song ended, he whispered in her ear, "fancy a walk?" she just smiled and took his hand again, but this time he pulled her close and snaked his arm round her waist.
"Lets get out of here pet, reckon we might make some music of our own." Spike glanced over at Buffy one last time, and what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.
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Buffy was completely gob-smacked. She couldn't draw her eyes off Spike and the mystery brunette. She had never thought of Spike as being sexual before. Oh she'd noticed that he had a good body, you'd have to blind not to notice that. But that the hard muscled body equaled sex, had truly never occurred to her.
Buffy knew that the other girls were talking at her, congratulating her on getting Spike a new friend. But of course she had done nothing. The Master Plan hadn't even been started and here he was, heading for the door with not-so-little Miss Skanky. This was the aim of the evening, of course, to get him away from her and her friends. But now that it had been achieved, and without the mercy mission that she had anticipated it requiring, she felt weird, anxious even.
Just as all of these emotions played across her face, Spike had turned and looked straight at her. Buffy froze. Rooted to the spot. She knew that she was caught out.
His heightened senses detected her racing pulse. He could smell her as she perspired, and he smelt something that had never been directed at him before from her. Arousal.
The mystery brunette leaned over and whispered in his ear. He turned slowly, a smile played over his lips and he nuzzled her cleavage. Little Spike was doing the talking now, even though big Spike really wanted to go over to the Slayer and sweep her of her feet. He knew in his heart that she was just as likely to stake him as kiss him. Spike had other needs to consider now and little Spike won the argument. Spike turned his back on Buffy and left The Bronze.
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Willow didn't understand, Buffy should have been grinning from ear to ear by now. Spike was gone, the band was awesome, and it was half price drinks for the next hour.
"Buffy. Earth to Buffy, come in Buffy."
Willow was teasing but Buffy just stood, transfixed by the exit door. Willow looked at Tara, silently begging for an idea that would snap Buffy out of her hypnotic state and back into the land of the living.
Surprisingly, it was Anya that Buffy finally responded to. And all that Anya had done was come back over from the bar, and handed Buffy her drink.
"Wow. Did you see that girl that Spike was with? She looked like that supermodel person. Cindy Crawford. Go Spike." Anya gushed on, oblivious to Buffy's state of mind. "But she didn't really look like her, cause Cindy is old now, and she wasn't old. She was young, and much slimmer. And looked very bendy also."
Willow was listening to Anya babble and was momentarily lost in her own mental appraisal of the woman. There was no doubt in any of the girls’ minds that Spike was in for one hell of a memorable night.
Buffy turned and looked Anya in the eye and then, to everyone's surprise, threw the newly purchased drink into Anya's face. Before anyone had a chance to react, Buffy was gone. She had run out the door into the night, determined to hunt herself a vampire. And he would most definitely be a bleached and British one, too.
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