"You seem distracted."
Lily jumped slightly and looked away from the moonlit surface of the lake, feeling more than a bit embarassed. She was being a lousy date, and she knew it, but she couldn't get the heart-broken expression on Potter's face as she left out of her mind. Damn him for making her feel guilty! If he'd just give up--focus his attentions on a willing recipient--they could both be happy. Instead, here she was, on a date with a handsome, brilliant, sophisticated man--the ideal embodiment of all her girlish fantasies--and all she could think about was a certain pair of hazel puppy-dog eyes.
"I'm sorry." She muttered, turning her attention--her full attention--back to Paolo.
"Am I very bad company then?" He asked, adjusting his grip on her hand and interlacing his fingers with hers.
"Not at all!" She protested quickly, willing the blush that heated her cheeks at his nearness to cool. "I was just...thinking." About Potter.
"A galleon for your thoughts?" he persisted, tossing his head to shake back his hair.
She smiled. "So much? I assure you, my thoughts aren't worth a fraction of that."
"Let me be the judge of that. After all, love, I am the one who's paying." He flashed her a charming smile--all teeth and dimples--that banished all thoughts not directly related to him from her mind. Potter who?
"I could hardly allow you to waste your money." She replied, realizing that there was no way she could tell him the truth without completely spoiling the mood.
But he didn't seem bothered at all by her evasive reply. He was smirking slightly, as if he were privy to a secret he didn't intend to share with her. "To the contrary, Lily, there is nothing about you that any man would consider a waste."
And then his lips were on hers, crushing her mouth--raw and torrid.
It was not at all what she'd been expecting. Not even close. They were only a few hours in to their very first date. One simply did not kiss that way on a first date. Or a second date. Or even a third date. But she wanted it, wanted to kiss him and was utterly incapable of drumming up the willpower to make even a token protest. Her pulse raced with the impropriety of allowing him to have his way--to kiss and touch her so--when they were barely aquainted. His tongue slid between her unresisting lips, claiming her mouth forcefully, possesively. He pulled her closer, his hand brazenly roving from her waist to her bum, cupping it. It was when she felt his obvious arrousal grinding into her hip that she realized how wrong this was. Just what kind of girl did he think she was? He couldn't possibly think...but it was obvious that he did. His hands were clutching, pulling at her blouse with the clear intent of removing it.
It was enough. Her hands followed her thought and she pushed him off of her with a strength she wasn't even aware she possessed. He staggered backward, surprise and anger jocking for dominant position accross his features.
She glared at him, eyes blazing and hands on her hips. "What the ruddy hell do you think you're doing? What kind of slag do you take me for?"
All trace of emotion faded from his expression, rendering his thoughts unreadable. He held up a hand as if in supplication. "Apologies." He said rather coldly. "I thought--"
"Well, you thought wrong!" She cut him off, turning to flee back to the castle in humiliation.
He grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. "Please, Lily, don't go. Let me explain." His large, cinnamon eyes were fixed on her, convincing her to hear him out in a way that words could not have accomplished.
"So explain." She wrenched her hand free of his grasp and crossed her arms, waiting.
"I didn't mean to offend you." He tried again. "I...um...take...it that you thought...my intentions were less than honorable?"
"What was your first clue?" She wasn't about to make this easy for him.
"Let me assure you, I never intended to take advantage of you." His eyes flickered downward, towards the browning grass at their feet. "I just...lost control...a bit. You seem to have that effect on me."
"Sorry, Giovanni, not buying it." Was her icy reply. "You clearly intended to take things significantly further. And I am not that kind of girl. I've never been that kind of girl. Ever."
His eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped. "Are you saying that you...you're a...you've never..."
"That," She replied scathingly. "is precisely what I'm saying!"
He looked simultaneously shocked and pleased. "So you and Potter never..."
"WHAT?" Lily all but shouted. "No! We never even dated. Why in Merlin's name would you think..."
"Well for one thing, everyone knows he's obsessed with you, Lily, and you happen to share a dorm. But aside from that..." He sounded somewhat bemused. "Black was hinting around about it earlier in the week."
How disgusting! Black was so dead. He just officially passed Snape on her list of people to punish.
"I'll kill him!" She said aloud.
But Paolo looked as if he couldn't care less what she did to Black. He was watching her with a pecularly flirtatious, low-lidded expression. "So if we shagged, I'd be your first?"
It should have been offensive, but somehow...it just wasn't. She found herself smiling back at him. "That, my dear sir, would be a pretty big 'if' at this point, don't you think?"
He didn't look the slightest bit abashed by her statement. "You didn't answer me." He pointed out.
She rolled her eyes, but not in annoyance. "Yes. You would be. But if I allow you within ten feet of me again you'll be lucky."
He smirked. "Somehow I doubt that, Lily."
His confidance, his arrogant self-assurance that, inspite of her protests to the contrary, he was still going to get some, excited rather than offended her. Why was it, she wondered, that she was so powerless to resist him? She should be furious with him, but instead...
"Well, you're certainly not getting any tonight!" She huffed, trying to keep up the pretense of being upset.
"Now that, love, I can live with. Expecially knowing what I can look forward to." He winked and offered her his arm, causing her to blush furiously. She accepted, tingling all over at the renewal of his touch. His sensual touch. If he could awaken this depth of feeling, of desire in her, after a single kiss, what might he be capable of if she allowed him further liberties?
A/N: OK, so now you hate me. I'm sure you can see now why chapter six, though short, is seperate. Please keep in mind that this story, in essence, is Sense and Sensibility--with modifications.