~*~*~

Three days.

Four hours.

Twenty-nine minutes.

And counting.

That was how long the air conditioning had been out at Angel Investigations. The lobby was hot, the basement hot, and the upstairs rooms were infinitely hotter than that. The only relief in the building seemed to be standing with one's head in the freezer currently located in Angel's kitchen.

Which was what Spike was currently doing.

"Come on, Spike," Willow whined, arms crossed. She gave him a baleful stare when he turned his head just enough to look at her. "My turn? Please?"

"Yeah, Blondie. Give it over to Red so that she can take her turn and then I can take mine." Cordelia growled. She was all of two seconds from yanking the vampire forcibly from the freezer. The room was so hot and stuffy that she could feel sweat beading on her back, dripping in little rivulets down her skin. It tickled and was altogether unpleasantly. Their boss had abandoned them as soon as it was dark, running off to find his own brand of relief somewhere else - far from the heat in the hotel. -They- had to stay, though, just in case clients came in. Not that clients were going to be able to find them with everyone pooled around the freezer, anyway.

"Find, luvs." Spike sighed, pulling his head from the freezer. He knew better than to piss off the two women in the room with him. They were evil personified when they got cranky - and they were definitely cranky right now. He stepped away from the cool air, feeling his skin immediately warm up once he was away from the cold air.

Cordelia watched, trying to be patient, as Willow stepped up to the freezer, enjoying the feel of the cold air blowing out against her pale skin. The brunette found herself watching the young witch, lips half parted, with desire beginning to heat up her body even more than it already was. This wasn't the first time over the last few weeks that the former cheerleader had found herself lusting after the little red haired woman. Willow and Spike were there for the summer, to help out around Angel Investigations with demon slaying and research. In the three weeks they had been in the offices Cordelia had discovered that she wasn't completely straight in her own thinking. The red head threw switches in her body that Cordelia hadn't even known existed.

And Willow was clueless to it all.

She knew that the red head was bi-sexual. It was hard not to be aware of it after the relationships Willow had partaken in over the past couple years. But that didn't mean that Cordelia was someone that stood a chance with her. They had, after all, been mortal enemies during high school. She could still remember the days of the 'We Hate Cordelia Club' of which Xander and Willow had been the primary members. Sure, she had won Xander over, for all the good that had ended up doing her, but she surely didn't stand a chance with Willow. Deep in her heart she knew the red head might be her friend now but had, in the not too distant past, been someone she had been indefinitely cruel to for no good reason.

"Your turn." Willow sighed, stepping back from the freezer to allow Cordelia her turn. After this they would need to go downstairs and make sure no clients walked in to an empty office. Damn Angel for leaving them here by themselves. She stepped back, near Spike, and watched as Cordelia came to stand in front of the coolness for a minute. At this slight distance she could see the sweat on the back of the brunette woman, the tiny droplets beading up and dripping down her bare back. The ties of the halter-type top the receptionist was wearing were next to nothing and gave her a practically unimpeded view of the woman's tanned skin. Willow licked her lips, the gesture unconscious even though her thoughts were anything but innocent at that moment. She could picture herself oh so clearly walking up behind the other woman and laying gentle, sucking kisses up and down her spine.

'Bad, Willow.' She chided herself, attempting to calm her raging hormones. The past few weeks had been hell for her - spending so much time with a woman that she had hated at one point and now just wanted to get into bed. There was no love between them - though Willow was definitely willing to explore a relationship with the brunette if the sex was good.

Not that she would ever know just how good or bad the sex may be with Cordelia. The brunette had never shown any inklings of bi-sexuality. Nothing to make Willow think that she stood any type of chance with the dark beauty. She sighed, forcing herself to stare at a spot on the wall up near the ceiling and not think of anything even remotely related to Cordelia.

"You know what would be just perfect?" Cordelia asked, pulling herself from the freezer and shutting the door with a soft click. "Ice cream. That one they advertise on TV - those Klondike things. Vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate."

"Oh oh!" Willow cried. "I want!" She turned to Spike. "Go get us some, please? You're the only one here with a car…" She pouted at him, her eyes innocent.

The vampire looked back and forth between the little witch standing next to him and the brunette that was still standing near the freezer. He hadn't missed the looks the two of them had been throwing at each other for weeks - or the way their desire had filled the air only moments before as they had watched one another cool off. He knew the exact type of ice cream the two were asking for and the commercial hummed through his brain. "Well pets - What would you doOoOoo for a Klondike bar?"

The women looked at each other and then back at him, their eyes registering confusion. "Hmm?" Cordelia asked at last, her hands on her hips. She tilted her head to the side, eyeing him warily. "You want us to -do- something for the ice cream?"

"What?" Willow chimed in. The thought of something cool to eat broke down all sense of better reasoning in the girl and she looked at the vampire with eyes that were begging. "What do you want us to do? I'll do just about anything."

"Or anyone?" Spike asked, leering at her. "I want you to give the chit a kiss, Red. One with tongue."

"Tongue? Kiss?" Cordelia murmured, her eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights. "You have to be joking, right?"

Willow sighed. There was too much laughter in Spike's eyes and she knew him too well to think this was a casual request. Maybe she hadn't been as circumspect in her own feelings as she had tried to be. He had, it seemed, picked up on them and was now using them to tease her. A hardness entered her eyes and she turned to Cordelia. "Come on - we kiss and then he gets us ice cream. No big deal. We'll make it quick."

"Quick?" The brunette could barely talk. Her knees felt like they were about to give out on her at any second. Willow was standing there, offering to kiss her - French kiss her nonetheless - and she was offering to make it quick? That was the last thing Cordelia wanted and also the last thing she was going to let Willow in on. She took a deep breath, blowing it out through half-parted lips. She could do this. "Ok. Fine. Let's do this."

"Remember - with tongue." Spike chuckled, stepping back to allow the girls to come together.

They stepped close enough for Willow to feel the smooth cloth of Cordelia's shirt on the bare flesh of her stomach. Willow placed a hand on the brunette's hip, wishing she had the nerve to just encircle the other woman with her arms completely. Almost simultaneously they licked their lips, eliciting a small laugh from Willow. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Cordelia whispered, she leaned in, closing her eyes instinctively. The first touch of Willow's lips to her own was soft, hesitant, as if the other woman would pull back at any moment. But then the pressure increased, their lips spreading ever so slightly with each kiss, the moment growing until it expanded into minutes. She sighed into Willow's mouth, opening wide enough to allow the red head access with her tongue. The soft length dove gently into her mouth and Cordelia felt her arms go around Willow, pulling her closer without even realizing she was doing it. Weeks of pent up passion had built up to this point - a slow climactic meeting of mouths and, perhaps, bodies.

Willow almost jumped back in surprise when Cordelia pulled her closer. If anything she had thought that the brunette would want to pull away once they had met the conditions of Spike's request. Instead she was pulling her closer? She smiled inside, deepening what was already a passionate kiss. Her own hands trailed lightly up and down the brunette's sides, her fingertips brushing the edges of Cordelia's breasts through the thin fabric of her shirt. The heat she was feeling now was more a product of her body's intense reaction to being this close to Cordelia than to the temperature of the room. A light caress on her back deepened into a glancing touch of her butt and Willow moaned, the sound returned with an appreciative half-chuckle from the woman she was kissing.

"Riiight." Spike drawled softly. "Good girls. I'll go get that ice cream now."

His laughter rang back from the hallway into the room as he made his way down the stairs and out of the building.

But neither Cordelia nor Willow came up for air long enough to notice or care.

Who needed ice cream anyway?

~*~The End~*~

Send Feedback: druscilla@cox.net