Driving to Distraction - Chapter 7

Spike wasn’t tired. In fact, he was totally wide awake and taking every advantage of it to make good time and get some miles covered tonight.

Not that they were making bad time anyway. He just wanted to keep moving.

Because if he stopped then he had to think about what had happened at the last gas station and then the headache he’d had since he first met Buffy would return full force.

Buffy wasn’t tired. In fact, she was completely wired. She’d never felt so awake. She watched the lights whizzing by in the darkness, amazed at how few cars were on the road at this hour.

It was over four hours since the incident at the garage, and the mood between her and Spike seemed to be holding steady. He’d made a few witty comments about signs they had passed and her activities—mostly directed at her attempt to paint her toenails while travelling in a bumpy car.

She liked it, liked this easygoing repartee they had happening, liked how nice he was being to her even after she’d been a complete cow to him.

She arched a brow as her phone rang and rummaged through her bag to find it. Pulling it out, she sighed at the caller ID that was letting her know that Cordelia was phoning her. For some reason, she didn’t feel like talking to her friend right now, she just wanted to enjoy the silence in the car—the comfortable silence.

Flicking it open, she resignedly told herself that she had asked Cordelia to call her and if she didn’t answer, they would probably have the police after them.

Cordelia was always one to presume to the worst.

“Hi.” She said into the phone, sneaking a glance at Spike and smiling when she caught him looking over at her.

“Hi, are you dead yet?” Cordelia came in loud and clear over the phone.

“Clearly.” Buffy replied sarcastically and pulled a face at the phone. She just couldn’t get past the irritated feeling she got in her stomach from speaking to Cordelia. It was almost as though she really didn’t want anything to do with her friend, as though she wanted something more than the inane babble she had always supplied.

She wanted decent conversation.

The kind that Spike seemed capable of.

“So you’re not dead then…well, that’s good. How’s the peroxide wonder?”

Buffy just rolled her eyes at Cordelia’s name for Spike. “He’s fine…driving…talking…”

“Like a normal human being?”

Buffy didn’t miss the sarcastic tone in Cordelia’s voice. “Yes, like a normal human being.”

Spike’s head snapped around to face Buffy, his left brow raised into a look that was a mixture of curiosity and annoyance.

“He’s really quite nice once you get to know him.” Buffy added and smiled as she heard a stunned gasp come from Cordelia’s end.

“You have a crush on him!” Cordelia said shrilly into the phone.

“No, I don’t…I have to go now…” Buffy blushed furiously over the idea of having a crush on Spike and began making a crackling noise into the phone with her mouth. “You’re breaking up…signal here is bad…speak…”

She clicked the phone shut and shoved it back into her bag.

She didn’t have a crush on Spike.

It wasn’t possible.

Glancing over at him, she smiled sweetly and then just sat back in the seat casually. Okay, he was beyond hot and he’d proven that he was a sweetheart underneath that bad boy exterior, and there was that moment at the gas station where she’d felt as though she could happily drown in his eyes, but other than that, he wasn’t crush material.

He didn’t care about her, or anyone, not even himself.

“You okay?” Spike asked as he looked over at her, his eyes briefly locking with hers.

Buffy mentally cursed him for killing the one reason she had for not having a crush on him. When did he start caring about her?

“That was that girl you were with when I picked you up, right? Thought you were best friends, bosom buddies like?” Spike frowned at the road as he thought about what she’d said to the girl on the phone. “So, how come you were giving her the cold shoulder?”

“She said some things I didn’t like.” Buffy just pouted slightly and idly rubbed her sore ankle.

“Is it alright? Pretty nasty twist you did.” Spike nodded toward her ankle and wondered why she was suddenly being so un-talkative.

Buffy watched her hands as she rubbed her ankle and realised that he really did care about her and she actually liked it. “It’s fine, just a little twingey.”

Spike smiled at her and then brought his focus back to the road.

Buffy glanced over his shoulder at the speedometer as he put his foot down on the gas. She watched it going up from sixty to eighty.

“You know, you really should slow down.”

Spike just looked at her. “Why? It’s pretty dead out tonight…no worries.”

“I’m just saying, we’re making good time but we won’t be if you get pulled over.”

“I’ll be fine, sweetheart.”

Buffy just shrugged and sat back again, letting him get on with it and secretly hoping he’d get pulled over so he’d learn a lesson about speeding.

A hundred miles down the road and flashing lights appeared in the rear-view mirror. Buffy gave Spike a look that said ‘told you so’ and folded her arms.

As he spoke, she instantly regretted hoping that he’d get pulled over.

“I can’t stop.” Spike flicked her a panicked look and her arms instantly moved away from her chest, her eyes wide with worry.

“Why not?” She scrambled toward him on the seat and searched his face for an answer.

“I don’t have a licence. Well, I do…it’s just not American. I only have a British one.” He grinned sheepishly and Buffy wondered exactly what the implications of that were.

Deciding not to risk it being okay, Spike went to put his foot down on the accelerator but found Buffy’s hand on his arm.

“It’ll be fine. Just pull over and I’ll think of an excuse.” She struggled to keep the nerves out of her voice as Spike looked straight into her eyes, a mix of amazement and gratitude shining through them.

“Sure?” He asked as he began to indicate toward the side of the road.

“Sure.” Buffy replied and took a deep breath as she desperately tried to think of a reason they could be speeding.

As the car pulled to a halt an idea hit her. She pushed Spike.

“Move!” She shoved him again and he frowned at her.

“Why?”

“Don’t question, just move.” She pulled him toward her and scrambled over him so she was sitting in the driver’s seat as the officer approached.

Spike just gave her a confused look as she settled herself behind the steering wheel of his car. As he looked at her, he couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto his lips. She looked so tiny behind the wheel of his baby.

A knock on the window made Buffy’s heart leap into her throat and she hurriedly wound it down.

“What seems to be the problem, officer?” She smiled her sweetest smile at the man as he leaned over and looked into the car at her and Spike.

“You were speeding, miss. I’ll have to take your details.”

Buffy leaned forward a little more as she handed over her licence, trying to casually give the officer a view straight down her top as she looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

“I was? I’m so sorry…I really badly need to pee and there isn’t a rest stop for miles and miles.”

Spike wondered if that line was really going to work. He looked around her and arched a brow at the officer as he saw him staring at Buffy’s cleavage.

“You were going twenty over the limit, miss.”

Spike shuffled close to Buffy and put his hand on her thigh, rubbing in little circles as he smiled up at the officer.

“We’re sorry. It’s just when my girl’s got to take a leak, she really has to go and she hates the idea of stopping by the desert…she gets a little skittish about the night creatures.” Spike grinned at the officer and smiled internally as Buffy’s eyes followed the pattern his fingers were tracing on her inner thigh. “We’re really sorry though…aren’t we, baby?”

Buffy just stared at the mesmerising movements of his fingers against her flushed skin for a moment before realising he was speaking to her.

“Oh! Yes…really sorry…please? I promise that I’ll let him drive so I can hold it in.” Buffy fluttered her eyelashes at the policeman, her senses still focused on where Spike’s hand was and the desire it was igniting in her.

She wanted to grab hold of him and kiss him, hard.

“Okay. I’ll give you a warning this time. Just, take it easy…there’s no point in rushing.” The policeman smiled at her.

Buffy swallowed hard as the officer handed her back her licence and Spike’s hand slid a little further up her inside thigh. Her heart was pounding hard in her throat, restricting her breathing as she silently hoped he’d go that little bit higher.

The officer’s voice broke her focus. “Now, if you will just switch seats with your boyfriend we can both be on our way.”

Buffy smiled crookedly and opened the car door. She walked around the Desoto on wobbly legs, her mind still on what Spike had been doing to her and her heart still racing as her thighs ached.

Spike slid across the seat so he was sitting behind the wheel and flicked a smile to the officer as Buffy got in the passenger side.

As Spike pulled the car away, Buffy slowly put her licence back into her wallet and stared down at her lap, or more specifically at her thigh.

What the hell had that been about? Was he just acting for the officer, or would he do things like that to her if she let him? Did he wanted to do things like that to her?

Spike shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to secretly adjust himself as he ached to be touching her again. He could still feel the silky smoothness of her skin on his fingertips and how warm she was.

Focusing on driving, he tried to shut out all thoughts of her but she kept moving, kept getting close to brushing against him.

Buffy felt beyond confused. She couldn’t get past what he’d done and she knew that if neither of them spoke about it soon then it was going to be on her mind for the rest of their journey.

Clearing her throat, she moved to speak.

Spike beat her to it.

“So, something tells me you’ve played the flash-your-bits game with the cops before.” He looked over at her and saw she was frowning—clearly unimpressed by the way he’d labelled what she’d done.

He still couldn’t believe she’d done it. She’d jumped in and saved his backside without him even asking her to. She had taken the warning in her stride, seemingly not caring about it, and played up to the policeman to protect him from getting done.

“Never.” Buffy answered his observation and caught the surprised look in his eyes. “You seemed to like playing along there…”

Spike avoided her eyes at all costs, keeping his firmly fixed on the road so he didn’t have to deal with what she’d said. When she’d flashed her cleavage at the officer, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from talking, from moving toward her and claiming her as his.

Did he want her to be his?

Christ, he was crazier than he’d thought if he believed that this girl, this pure little girl next to him would be at all interested in him.

“So?” Buffy asked, not letting him get away with giving her question the silent treatment. “I tell you what. I’ll make it easy on you…did you do it for show, or because you wanted to?”

Spike swallowed the dry lump in his throat as he thought about what she was asking. It was both in reality, partly for show and partly because he just couldn’t help himself. He needed to touch her.

God, did he need to.

Realising she wasn’t going to let it go if he didn’t give her an answer, Spike looked over at her and gave her his best wicked smile.

“Bit of both, really.”

Buffy smiled internally, feeling strangely powerful as she saw him tease his lips with his teeth and his eyes dropped to rest on her thighs. She shifted slightly in her seat, accidentally moving forward so her skirt rode up a little higher and exposed more of her thighs.

As his lips parted slightly, she wallowed in the sensation of power it gave her. She couldn’t believe how much she loved the idea that she could command him, that she had some kind of thrall over him and he was unable to resist her.

She felt irresistible.

Sexier than she’d been before she discovered how attracted he was to her.

Spike tore his eyes away from her legs, satisfied that he’d given her all the answer she needed without even saying anything. He felt drawn to her, unable to deny the desire that swam inside him, the need to make her really his.

Focusing his attention back on driving, he put his foot down and watched a sign whiz by outside.

Fifty miles to the next rest stop.

He arched a brow as Buffy’s stomach growled and she gave him an awkward smile while pressing her hand to it.

“Wanna get some grub?” He watched her nod at him and flashed her a toothy smile as he decided it was probably about time they called it a night anyway.


Buffy ran her fingers through her hair, clawing it away from her face as she struggled to tie it back into a ponytail. She adjusted the neck of the sweater she’d changed into back in her room and then toyed with her fork as she waited for Spike to appear.

As he walked across the room to her, she stifled the smile that tried to spring onto her lips.

Whenever she looked at him now, she felt as though she was seeing a different person. When he’d openly hated her, she had seen him as some arrogant jerk with an attitude problem that just happened to be hot. Now she saw him as a complex person, someone with a lot to tell if a person offered to listen, and someone with a tender heart that just happened to be hot.

Spike slid into the plastic moulded seat opposite her and placed the tray of food down. He leaned back and took a long drag on his cigarette as he glanced around the glaringly brightly lit café. It was gone two in the morning and the only company they had was a couple of truckers who were drinking coffee and sharing tales of their journeys.

He smiled as he brought his eyes back around to Buffy and met hers.

“Finest food in Christendom.” He grinned at her and pushed the tray toward her.

Buffy arched a brow at the greasy burgers and fries and then shrugged. It wasn’t like she’d been eating a lot recently and who cared if she put on a pound right now, she’d lose it again before college started.

Spike grabbed one of the burgers off the plate and took a big chunk out of it, chewing it with a grin as Buffy rolled her eyes at him.

“You really are disgusting, you know that right?” She teased him, knowing full well that he was intentionally being a pig.

He watched her like a hawk as she took a petite bite out of her burger and chewed it properly. “You know you don’t really eat like that…you’re a teenager…I’ve seen teenage girlies eating and it doesn’t look like that…let yourself go, dammit.”

Buffy just gave him a cautious look and then looked around at the other occupants of the café. He was right, she didn’t eat like this and it wasn’t like anyone was going to see her. Besides, it would be fun to just be a complete pig for one night.

Shoving as much of the burger as she could into her mouth, she chewed it a few times and then swallowed it down with a wide smile.

Spike looked at the burger in her hand and then up into her eyes, giving her a stunned look.

“Bloody hell, you practically ate half the damn thing in one go.”

Buffy just grinned. “I’ve got a big mouth.”

“Who told you that, your ex-boyfriend?”

She looked confused for a moment and then let her eyes widen as she understood that he was implying something sexual. She kicked him gently under the table and scowled at him.

“Eww, no!” She frowned as he chuckled at how indignant she was.

Spike just smiled at her as she started eating again, her eyes twinkling with her own smile. He couldn’t get over how different she looked tonight, so much more relaxed and so much more grown up. Her tiny skirt and revealing top had disappeared, replaced with jeans and a jumper that hid her body from his eyes. He wondered if he had anything to do with the change, or whether it was just something to do with the ever growing distance between her and New York.

She had left New York to go to college, to grow up, and from where he was sitting, she was well on her way.

When he’d first met her she was just a pretty girl, and now she was so much more. In only a few days she’d changed so much, had become a completely different person.

Now he saw her as a woman.

And she was beautiful.

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