__Dawn__
By GylzGirl
"Race ya!" Buffy removed her high heels. Holding them in one hand and the hem of her prom dress in the other, she headed toward the moonlit water. Giles smiled as he removed his shoes, socks, and jacket, sitting them on the front seat of his Citroen. He ambled toward the beach, rolling his tuxedo pants up to his knees, pulling his tie to hang loosely about his collar,
unclasping the top two buttons of his shirt. He walked with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face watching Buffy frolic and giggle. The sand felt cool and soothing as it enveloped his bare feet while he walked. He sat on a dune, close to the surf. Soon Buffy, breathless from laughing and running, sat beside him.
"You know, you're going to get sand all over that pretty dress."
"Oh um...okay." She stood up, brushed the sand off of her bottom and sat down again, this time on his lap.
Giles felt the warmth of a blush hit his cheeks. "That's uh, that's not quite what I meant."
She shrugged as the rising sun began to lighten the sky. "I know, but I kinda like it here," she stretched an arm around his shoulders, "unless you mind?"
Giles was between a rock and a hard place, or to be more precise a dune and a soon-to-be hard place. The first burgeoning rays of the sun were reflecting in Buffy's eyes, making almost kaleidoscopic magic of the blue there. When he looked down to avoid thinking the thoughts her eyes were provoking in him, he was rewarded with a more than ample view of her cleavage in the strapless pink dress she wore. Her hand had come to stroke his jaw line and she was unintentionally squirming a bit on his lap. Everything combined was having an effect on him. One, to his embarrassment, he was sure Buffy was about to become very aware of. Giles looked straight up to the heavens in mortification as his erection stirred to life.
Buffy suddenly got a strange look on her face. She looked down at her lap, the direction the new sensation was coming from. A look of realization crossed her face as she figured out what was causing it. She ground herself lightly against him to be sure. His hiss was answer enough.
"Giles?"
"I-I-I'm sorry Buffy. I-I-I didn't mean to..."
She took the hand on his jawline and used it to force him to look her in the eyes. "Shh," she leaned forward, and slowly kissed him. Giles was struggling for all his worth not to respond, until he felt her tongue trace the part in his lips. His mouth opened then of its own accord, his tongue trying to impart all the passion and love he felt for her just by contact with her own.
Buffy's hands slipped into his hair, his hands perched on her cheeks, caressing. She tasted sweeter than any of his guilty fantasies had led him to believe. She reached to his shirtfront and undid the next two buttons there, sliding her hand under the material. The feel of his chest hair was like electricity under her palm. Her thumb found his nipple and petted it into a hard replica of her own. She could feel the heat radiating from his own palm as it neared her breast, then veered off to rest on her hip as he lost his nerve. She found herself hungry for his touch, for his approval.
She reached behind herself and lowered the zipper of her dress to almost her waist. Pink made way for peach as the material of her dress fell away from her breasts. She took his hand and guided it back up to her chest, pressing his palm over her nipple and holding it there until he moaned against her lips and began to squeeze. He kissed his way down the side of her throat and leaned her back to rest against the soft sand. His mouth bent to her nipple, taking it in his mouth and suckling there. She gasped, her hands returning to his hair, holding him to her.
Giles' hand came up to knead her other breast. It was like that action sent waves of molten lava through her veins, straight to her core. Her legs came up to wrap themselves around his waist. Her heels rubbing his ass through his tuxedo pants. She was thrusting herself against his erection, trying to feel the pressure of it against her sex.
Giles groaned in his need for her. He was trying to find the voice to tell her they had to stop, the will to do the right thing. His body however was being very uncooperative to that end. He pulled away a little to look at her. Her eyes were closed in bliss. Her mouth slightly open, breathing heavily, her perfect breasts rising and falling under the labor of her breaths. Just as Giles started to allow the happiness of being with Buffy, finally, after all his dreaming and longing, to touch his heart, he had a thought. He had a shattering, heartbreaking thought that acted like a bucket of cold water on him. Why now? Why would she finally see his heart,
finally reciprocate his love now? She wasn't. She wanted Angel, but Angel was leaving. He was there, more than eager. He'd won by default. He was a lonely sad man taking advantage of her confusion.
Giles reached down and covered her breasts with the front of her dress once more, reverently. Her eyes opened in a flash. His smile was half-hearted and full of self-loathing. He reached behind his back and unhooked her heels. Standing up and immediately stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I-I better g-get you home. I'll meet you in the car."
Buffy sat up, one hand holding her dress against her body, watching him walk away. She didn't know whether to cry, or laugh. She fought down a hysterical reaction to the sudden absence of his body by trying to think her way through it. How could she have been so stupid, and insensitive? She should have waited. She'd waited this long. Of course Giles' would think she was using him as a substitute for Angel. Giles had no way to know she hadn't thought of Angel once since she and her Watcher had danced together at the prom. Her timing was, as usual, the ubersuck.
She reached behind herself and started to zip up her dress when the realization struck her. She *hadn't* thought of Angel once that evening. Not since Giles had held her in his arms. Thinking of him now, yes it still hurt like hell. She wished he wouldn't go away. She wished they could be together. She wished he wasn't a vampire. But Giles was no substitute
for anybody. When they were together, she was the only person in the world to him, and she could feel it. She still loved Angel, would probably always love Angel in some way. But she also loved Giles, and had always loved him.
She just hadn't let herself admit it until now. It wasn't the love of a daughter. She had a Dad. It was the love of a woman for a wonderful man.
Buffy stood, brushed as much of the sand from her body and dress as she could manage and started back in for the car. She could see Giles already, clutching the steering wheel, his head bowed against it. She picked up some speed. At the sound of her approach, his head instantly came up and he turned his head away, trying to inconspicuously wipe a tear away from his cheek.
She got in the car and he started it up, driving towards her house without another word. She didn't break the silence, merely watching him. The way the light of dawn played in his eyes. The weariness there. He was upset, but knowing him, it was directed at himself and not at her. She didn't know what to say to make it better for him. He wasn't in the mood to believe her feelings for him. Also with the mayor's ascension approaching, she didn't feel she had the right to distract him with the complications this new aspect of their relationship would bring. But what if something happened to either of them at the ascension and she never made him really understand.
Buffy pouted and leaned her head against the glass of the window.
"We're here," he said it quietly.
"Giles I..."
"Good night Buffy. I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully with some more answers about the Mayor."
"Right. Back to work mode now." She smiled up at him weakly. He sat staring at his driving wheel. "I..."
"Yes, well. Take care."
Buffy swallowed the lump in her throat, tried not to cry, and unlocked the door. Just as she was about to step out, she turned back to him. "Giles," her tone was sharp, almost angry. His head snapped to face her. She rushed forward, clamping her hands to the side of his head and holding him still as she kissed him, hard and passionate. When she pulled back, he
blinked his eyes open and looked at her. "Night." She got out of the car and shut the door behind her, nearly running up to her front door.
Giles sat in the car, a bit stunned. Eventually he drove away. Buffy watched him leave from her bedroom window. She quickly dressed for bed, grabbed her phone and sat by her footboard. She chewed on her bottom lip as she dialled the phone. "Willow?" She grumbled as she realized she had gotten her answering machine. "You must still be out. No big. I just...something happened. Oh not a Hellmouth something. A good something...I think
um. Anyway I just needed some advice, but I can ask later, so uh..." she started to hang up the phone but then brought it back up to her face. "Will, do you think it's possible to be in love with two men at once?"
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