Kiss

By Fabrisse

Wesley/Cordelia | PG-13
Dedication: For Jen who acts as my cheering section. With thanks to Gileswench, for the plot bunny. It's her fault they keep breeding.
Disclaimer: All hail Joss sole owner and profiter from the below named characters. Not me.
Content: Spoilers for Angel through "The Trial"
Feedback: Always welcome.

For the third time that day Wesley felt Cordelia craning over his shoulder. This had been going on for a while now. Ever since Angel had mentioned Wesley's sex life, she'd increased her catty remarks about his sexual orientation. His relationship with Virginia had worsened the situation considerably. At first he'd thought it was the reflected fame he was getting from dating a rich and well-known young woman. Cordelia's dreams of fame had caused all sorts of problems not least of which had been her butchery of Ibsen.

Now, however, he'd come to the odd conclusion that somehow Cordelia was jealous. Jealous of his having a social life, perhaps. Although she had auditions and acting lessons and dance classes and went out herself quite frequently. All he knew was that in addition to her protectiveness mixed with cattiness, he was getting, hmmm, what was the phrase, "come on" signals. And it had to stop.

"Cordelia, it's very annoying. If you want to help with the research, grab a book from the pile otherwise go study a scene or something."

As she turned to leave, her breasts brushed against his arm. "Oh, and just because you have a girlfriend now doesn't mean that you can't do dishes. It's your turn tonight."

Wesley shut the book and left his usual reading area in the back office. Better to do the dishes now; he couldn't concentrate anyway. As he passed Cordelia looked up from her computer. Only a few cups and the coffee pot today, oh and prepping the coffee for tomorrow. Wesley began to run warm water in the sink and turn up the sleeves of his shirt. Cordelia came in and leaned against the draining board. Just glancing sideways, Wesley's mouth twitched a little as he noticed how far back she was arching. "Has your agent sent you on an audition for Playboy?"

Cordelia straightened up and glared, "How would you know about that, I thought Playgirl was more your style?"

Wesley threw the cup he was cleaning into the water with some anger, "Has it occurred to you that your constant harping upon my supposed sexual orientation is grounds for an harrassment suit?"

Cordelia looked truly shocked at the idea. "But I've always teased you about it, I mean ever since I left Sunnydale and you came to LA and all. Besides you're, you know, bookish and polite."

"Aah. Years of study and no-one has ever before informed me that politeness is a *female* secondary sexual characteristic. Yes, I am bookish, but that's hardly all there is to me any more than fashion is all there is to you. Think very hard about all the fighting we've done. I'm no where near Gunn's size nor do I have Angel's superhuman speed and strength, yet I think I've acquitted myself adequately.

"Yeah, well you're always on about me and my lack of brains. Just because I chose not to go to college, doesn't mean I couldn't have."

"That I'll grant you. Truce. I won't imply that you lack intelligence and you'll allow me to escape most conversations without an attack on my masculinity." He put the last cup on the draining board and let out the soapy water. As he refilled the coffee pot with fresh water to set up for tomorrow Cordelia leaned in closer. Wesley had to sidestep before turning around to get to the coffee pot and Cordelia dogged his steps. He finished setting up the timer and filled the basket with coffee. Cordelia was practically breathing down his neck. "If you trust me in a fight, can't you trust me with the coffeemaker?"

Cordelia reached up and pulled him to her. Her nose knocked his glasses askew as she kissed him with some vehemence. Wesley tried to step away and politely pull her off him, but it just looked as if he were flapping like a newly landed fish. Finally she let go.

Wesley adjusted his glasses and wiped off lipgloss with his handkerchief. "May I ask what that was about?"

"I don't understand why it didn't work with us and it does with Virginia. I mean it's not like I want you or anything I tend to prefer my men a little more mas -- um -- shouldery and stuff. But it doesn't make any sense to me. I was the most popular girl at Sunnydale high and while I'm not quite as..." Cordelia noticed Wesley rubbing the bridge of his nose with a pained expression.

"Cordelia, some people just don't have chemistry together. You're beautiful." It didn't escape her that he said the words as he would about a sculpture. "And you have a terrific sense of loyalty and protectiveness, but there are a lot of men out there. Lacking chemistry with one isn't an apocalypse. Besides, now that we're working together, I think it could be very bad for the firm were we more than friends."

"And Virginia. Don't forget your girlfriend."

"I hadn't, but that's none of your business. Agreed?" Cordelia noticed the edge that crept into his voice as he looked over his glasses and tried a different tack.

"Look Wes, I tease you like I do because I've never really had a girlfriend." At his bemused glance, "Ew, not like that. I mean at school I had followers but no-one that I ever just talked to and if you were gay we could have that kind of Will & Grace thing going and...Basically I'm asking what's she got that I don't because since I've been in LA you're not the only man that I've had trouble kissing." She couldn't even look at him as she finished the sentence.

Cordelia wasn't going to make this at all easy. "Well, for one thing, Virginia tends to allow my ears to remain where God placed them."

"But I thought guys liked it if you pretended to be all passionate and hot."

"I'm not even going to begin to analyze that sentence in here. Let's go to the office. Hang out the closed sign and we'll talk." Cordelia stopped to power down the computer and turned out the lobby lights.

Wesley had finished his lock-up routine and was leaning against the desk when she came in and sat on the sofa. "So, Cordelia, let me ask, besides Xander, whom did you date in High School."

"Well Devon, of course, but mostly before loser boy, I dated a few fraternity guys at the local colleges -- only the good fraternities of course where the rich guys hung out -- and the captain of the football team and the captain of the soccer team and one guy on the swim team. But not the basketball team. Too tall."

"Just to prove that I now comprehend the American vernacular -- mostly jocks and frat rats?"

"Those are the popular guys and the rich ones. They always seemed to like what I did. And stop standing over me like you're about to teach a class."

Wesley sat at the other end of the sofa. "Not to disparage your dating habits, but no wonder you never learned any finesse. Kissing is a skill, no -- an art -- in itself, not just, -- well, bluntly -- foreplay. Haven't you ever just sat on a sofa like this and kissed all evening?"

"Guys want to do a lot more than that. Not you, you're not a guy. -- No wait, not like you're a woman or something. You're different."

"I think I'm flattered. Cordelia, I meant what I said earlier: we're colleagues now. Getting involved would not be a good idea. And Virginia is my lady right now. But. How to phrase this? I'm not doing anything this evening, maybe I could show you why bookishness isn't such a bad trait."

"What?"

"I'm offering to teach you more about kissing. One caveat," Wesley looked at her sternly over his glasses, "Grab my ears again and all bets are off."

"And Virginia?"

"I'll tell her about it when I see her tomorrow night."

"What if I want more?"

"No. No more than kissing. Preferably in ways that won't make me look for the ÎHoover' plate on you."

"I think I'd like that." Cordelia smiled one of her rare, beautiful, genuine smiles.

Wesley took off his glasses and laid them on the endtable. He slid closer to Cordelia and put his arm around her shoulders. "For right now, just let me do all the work. Let me teach you." Cordelia closed her eyes and pursed her mouth. Wesley chucked her under the chin, "Open your eyes and relax."

"Open my eyes?"

"Sensuality lesson 1: all five senses feed off each other. When I'm this close to you I can smell the scent you use and the scent of you; I can hear your breathing," his fingertips traced the bones of her face and his thumb dragged across her lips to soften them, "I can feel your softness; I can see your beauty." He kissed her very gently on the edge of her mouth and feathered in toward the center of her lips. When he got there he increased the pressure of his mouth just a little and kept raining delicate kisses until he saw her eyes begin to close. He stopped and pulled back. Cordelia's eyes snapped open. "And you're delicious," he finished.

This time as he leaned in to her, he aimed right for the sweet center and very lightly traced his tongue between her lips. Cordelia's tongue started thrusting into his mouth like a metronome. Wesley broke the kiss.

"What, are we stopping already?"

"We have all night. I have 4 fillings, and I had my tonsils out at 7." Wesley settled back on the sofa and pulled her closer. "Books -- let me --, right." Wesley took a deep breath, "From a purely academic interest, you understand..."

Cordelia look at him slantwise and saw that he was blushing. "Is this where you admit to having a spank bank?" Wesley coughed and turned a shade of raspberry that Cordelia had been looking for in a sweater.

"How can Americans be so frank and so bloody puritanical at the same time? I had a fairly extensive collection of *written* pornography before I left England." There he'd said it; it was easier if he kept it academic. "The Victorians were into all kinds of things, many of them involving canes which left me rather cold, but I always liked one phrase very much. Using one's tongue while kissing was called Îtipping the velvet.' That's what I always thought it should feel like," Wesley's voice was getting softer as he leaned in to her. He stroked his tongue over her bottom lip, then he breathed the last word as his mouth covered hers "velvet."

This time when she responded to his kiss, Cordelia just put her tongue a little way in to his mouth and left it there. Wesley used his tongue to flick along the underside then trapped and sucked it gently. Cordelia stirred in his arms and then her entire body relaxed. Maybe it was time, he released her tongue and slipped his into her mouth. She did the same things right back to him. Wesley broke the kiss and smiled at her.

"You're hard to see this close." Cordelia closed her eyes. Leaning back a little, Wesley increased the pressure of his fingertips across her forehead. Smiling he said, "One of the few advantages to nearsightedness, you can always focus on your lovers no matter *how* close they are." His lips brushed across her eyelids and he mouthed his way down her cheekbones, nibbling with just his lips. This time he caught Cordelia's full lower lip between his own and sucked it for a moment.

Cordelia's hand shot out and reached for his crotch. Wesley snared her hand with his and kissed the back of it as if he were a courtier. "I'll stop if you like." Something approaching dread showed in her eyes. "No, please don't stop, I won't ... I mean... I *like* what you're doing." What he was doing was tracing each knuckle with his tongue and sucking the sensitive skin between them. Suddenly he licked all the way to her palm and then blew against the moistness he'd created. He wondered if Cordelia could hear the little sounds that were coming from the back of her throat.

"Just kissing then. Are we agreed?" Cordelia nodded and was rewarded with his mouth sucking at her palm. Her eyes widened in surprise and then she closed them to focus on the pleasure. Never had she thought he'd have such a talented tongue. She could feel both her pulse and the pulse of his lips pressing at her wrist. When he stopped she gave a little blind cry that was stopped with his mouth covering hers again. This time more insistently.

Cordelia put her hand behind his head and flipped Wesley back so that she was on top. When she tried to move her hips against his leg a firm hand stopped her. This time she pulled back of her own accord and explored his face with her lips. When she hovered at his faint beardline just out of reach of his mouth, he turned his head. As they came into contact, electricity seemed to flow between them and this time there was no doubt as to chemistry. This kiss broke naturally and Cordelia's breathing was coming faster and heavier than it had before. For a few seconds he contemplated lying beside her on the sofa, but he knew that if he allowed himself that much he'd want too much more.

Their eyes locked, they leaned toward each other and began the slow, strong, long kisses that stop time. They managed to adjust themselves to each other. After a while, Wesley took her hand again, but this time he focussed on one almost random spot near her wrist. Cordelia gasped at the sensation and settled back. He held her hand to his heart so she could feel the quickening beat and know that this wasn't just some academic exercise for him. She began to move her hand down, but stopped when he shook his head. Her hand slid instead behind his neck and pulled him back to her.

Kissing, just kissing. Endlessly, deeply. Exchanging little signs and nearly trivial pleasures that warmed to an implacable heat. Cordelia's breath kept getting faster and more ragged. Wesley nibbled at her ear and breathed warmly into it. He sucked each one of her fingers, and good student that she was Cordelia licked his palm and nipped his inner arms where the sleeves were still rolled up. Wesley wanted to work his way down her neck, but knew that would lead to what he'd been trying to avoid. Instead he pulled her across his lap so that Cordelia was cradled against his shoulder.

Kissing, just kissing. The rosy spots on Cordelia's cheeks. Kissing, just kissing. The pulse at her temples and wrists. Kissing, just kissing. Her ears and eyes with quiet delicacy. The breath catching in her throat, her eyes half open, Cordelia was a perfect picture of a woman on the brink. Once again, he kissed her. This time his tongue flicked in and out of her mouth; she pressed up into him and Wesley felt her back arch as Cordelia cried out his name. He held her hand to his lips as he watched her flush and gasp. When she began to subside he nipped the tender skin in her palm, pressing his tongue into the center and another great wave washed through her. With a deep sigh, Cordelia went boneless in his arms.

Holding her tight against his chest, Wesley waited for her to rouse. Cordelia's deep brown eyes stared into his grey ones. She looked puzzled, "We were just kissing."

Keeping his arms around her, Wesley helped her sit up against the sofa. He smiled. "Do you want me to stay with you tonight?"

"I should do something for you now," Cordelia's brittle mask was beginning to fall into place again.

Wesley shook his head and kissed her cheek. "That's not what I meant. Not as lovers, but ... It doesn't seem right to just leave you alone after sharing in so much pleasure."

"Will you just keep holding me here?"

"Yes, love, all night if you like."

Cordelia snuggled closer to him. "I'll want to go home later, but right now this is good." She breathed deeply. "Can I ride home on the back of your bike?"

"If you promise you won't be sarky about wearing a pink helmet."

Another deep sigh. "Pink is so my color."

Wesley stroked her hair and thought of her face suffused in ecstasy. "I believe it is."

~ End ~