Thank you for the faves and follows and reviews. I made it over a 100 *bounce*
K – we're going for M. You have been warned. *mwhahaha*
Hermione followed him into their sitting room. "Did you know they'd react like that?"
Severus sank into one of his heavy armchairs before the fire and loosened the tight knot of his cravat. The clock on the mantle chimed softly. Was it really only nine-thirty?
"Not in such an extreme way, no." He gave a loose shrug. "But it was better there than in front of the students. Tomorrow will be difficult enough –for you especially." He stared into the fire, golden light limning the harsh lines of this face. "The staff will have reined in their disgust."
"Severus…"
She stood before him. Her hand uncurled from a nervous fist and she stroked a slow line along the sharp plane of his jaw. His head lifted and black, guarded eyes held hers. "I don't care," she murmured.
He pulled in a heavy breath, but didn't draw back from her touch. "You should." His mouth ticked up into a bitter smile. "And whilst this evening and seeing some of my esteemed colleagues completely lose their marbles has been fun – it taints you. Your future."
She teased a line under the curve of his bottom lip and his mouth parted. "This is all strange and new." She smiled at him, something bright and open. "Did I mention strange? But given the choice again, I would still be here standing in front of you." She wrapped her courage around her, too aware that the heat in her face had nothing to do with the roaring fire. "In desperate need of kissing."
Severus lifted one of those imperious eyebrows and her stomach flip-flopped. "Desperate?"
His voice curled around the question and she nodded, her mouth too dry to speak. She wet her lips and his gaze arrowed there. "And you should know, I am tenacious in the pursuit of what I want."
His grin was wicked…before it faded. "Hermione, you don't have to do this. I know I said I needed-"
Her eyes narrowed. "And what about my need?" She took a step closer, standing between his knees. His scent surrounded her, sandalwood and herbs and something else more nebulous that she couldn't quite name. "I haven't done this before. To be honest, I was never really interested." She flushed, but frowned as Severus' guarded eyes gave a betraying flicker of guilt. "No. Victor, Ron," she spat out his name, "didn't make me feel anything. You lift an eyebrow and I want to climb you like a tree."
He gave her a wry smile and his laughter was soft. "Gryffindor honesty." He stroked her hip, his gaze following the curve he traced to the length of her thigh. He winced. "Two bloody kisses before me," he muttered under his breath. His eyes found hers again. "You are new to this. I am not. I wasn't before I became whatever in Merlin's name I am now. Therefore, I will set the pace."
"So what do I get tonight?"
He glared at her, but there was no anger in his eyes. "Ungrateful chit." His large hands covered her hips and eased her back. He stood, towering over her, his face caught in the blaze of the fire. Gods, he was mesmerising.
"Tonight." He leaned in and his mouth brushed her ear. She shivered, a flicker of hot want dancing through her veins. "I will give you…pleasure."
He was going to kill her. He was. And she'd die happy by his voice alone. "Yes, please."
"Such a good girl."
Her knees almost gave out. "How good at this are you?" It was meant to be rhetorical and not spoken aloud, but his soft huff of laughter caught her breath.
"I am patient. Observant." His velvet smooth voice poured over her in a heated whisper and she clutched at his robes, almost squeaking when his hands stroked firmly over her backside. "My hands are…meticulous. And I cultivated this voice. How good do you think I was before?"
Hermione wanted his mouth on her, simply to stop the torment of that voice. His delicious scent surrounded her. His heat. Her mind was spinning. She was drunk on him. "Do something."
"I would like to do a number of things to you, Hermione. None of which you are ready for." In a sudden move, he lifted her and she yelped her surprise. He grinned at her. "Wrap you legs around my waist."
She looped her arms around his shoulders and did as he asked, all the while too aware of his hands on her backside. Her dress had rucked, exposing her thighs and her belly tightened as he drew a hot palm down her stocking.
"Silk," he murmured, his dark gaze fixed on her. "Interesting choice."
"Ginny." She attempted a smile, but her nerves, her fast beating heart and the increasing ache between her legs made words difficult to form. "She thought…" His thumb traced the crease of her thigh and words became overrated.
She groaned as his mouth found the underside of her jaw, licking, kissing, a slow, slow torture. She tightened her thighs, pushing herself against him, desperate for relief from the unfamiliar ache. "Please, Severus."
"Since there is a ginger feline in your room, will my bed suffice?"
Only he could word an offer like that and make it…delicious. "Yes." Her lips touched his and a sigh escaped as he opened his mouth to her. He teased her with light touches, the nip of his teeth, tantalising her. She wanted, needed more. She clung to him and deliberately deepened the kiss. This was pleasure. She gave a moue of disappoint as he drew back.
"There are other pleasures to show you."
She drew a path over his lip, liking that her kisses had plumped it. "I enjoy kissing you."
He smirked at her. "So you demonstrated." With ease he carried her to his bedroom. "You are…exceeding expectations."
Hermione stared at him in a sudden, irrational panic. "You're going to mark me!"
He brushed her face. "No. Believe me." He eased his fingers into her hair, drawing her to him and a soft, sweet kiss. "Simply a poor joke."
The door opened and by the light of the fire, he made his way across the room. It was a rounded tower room similar to hers, but all that she cared about was the looming presence of the vast, four-poster bed.
Severus eased her down onto the high mattress. A spell chased down the length of his frock coat and the buttons came apart. He shrugged out of his coat and dropped it across a nearby chair. His cravat joined it.
Hermione fought to keep her breathing even. He was dressed as he was the first time she saw him yesterday and in the light and shadows from the flickering flames he was impossibly beautiful. Was this all to do with him being the incarnation of a god? She'd never had anything like a crush on him before, had she?
Of course, he had caused her obsession with Lockheart to fall apart as Severus flattened him with one simple expelliarmus. Though she hadn't noticed his grace and power… And naturally, she was grateful that he'd protected her –them- from a transforming Professor Lupin. The scent of dusty parchment and grass from that horrible night sometimes still caught her—
"Where have you gone, Hermione?"
His soft voice broke into her thoughts and she smiled up at him. She wanted him. It was perfectly all right to do so. The open neck of his shirt tightened her belly. In her excitement, she'd forgotten about her scars. She looked to the floor and tried to ignore the panic in her chest. He'd made her forget. Completely.
"Hermione?" He bent down and lifted her chin, making their eyes level. "What is it? We can stop…"
She wanted to hug him, hard. She had never thought he could be so caring… Pressing her lips together, she shook her head. "You made me forget." Her words were met with a frown. "Forget my scars."
The tightness in his shoulders eased away. He stood. "Show them to me."
With her eyes closed, she willed herself strong and pushed the velvet dress from her skin. The fabric pooled to the floor. She gasped at the gentle stroke of a finger against her breastbone, tracing the puckered line of Dolohov's scar. Feather-light, Severus followed the ruined flesh to just above her navel.
"A mark of your survival. The man who made it is dead."
Hermione stared at him, finding no pity in his eyes. She held up her arm and Severus jaw tightened. His palm covered the word 'Mudblood' raked into her skin.
His chest lifted. "Molly Weasley did one thing right in her life."
"It's why…" Heat flushed her cheeks and she gave him a half smile. She'd always feared what Ron would say about her spell-marked flesh.
"Teenage boys are notoriously stupid." He raised an eyebrow and that single gesture reminded her why she was standing in her knickers and bra in his bedroom. And what he had promised. "Should we continue?"
"Yes, please."
"Always so polite. On the bed, Madam Snape." His smile was positively wicked.
She grinned and scooted back onto the high mattress. Waiting. Eager. He followed her, still dressed in his loose shirt and trousers, though his feet were bare. A moment later, he vanished her bra. She squeaked, her hands covering her breasts.
Severus loomed over her, his breath brushing the back of her hand. "Such sweet little nipples. Don't you want me to taste them?"
Her heart thudding, she slid her fingers back. This was what she wanted. Him, with his mouth on her flesh. His eyes held her for a long moment, dark and endless, with the flickers of hunger that made her want to throw herself at him.
He licked her peaked nipple and Hermione gasped. Her hands fisted the heavy cover and her spine almost arched. She thought he murmured "so responsive" before his hot mouth took her breast. Hermione shook, the riot in her blood, her flesh almost beyond endurance-
His mouth broke away and she let out a discontented moan. He smirked at her. "Over the coming nights I plan to map you. Find every point of ecstasy on your skin. Is this agreeable?"
She sucked in a breath, almost breaking under that promise alone. She twisted under him, aching for skin, but finding cloth. "I want to touch you."
"This is about you…"
"It would be my pleasure to touch you."
His forehead pressed to her stomach and he pulled in heavy breaths. "I would take you, girl." His voice was just above a growl, wild, ungoverned. "Break you so easily."
She arched under him, wanting just that. "Severus…"
He ignored her, his rigid body seemingly under control as he licked his way down the length of her scar. It's sensitivity surprised her and she writhed against his sure tongue. And still he went lower.
He vanished her knickers, his breath hot against her sex. Hermione closed her eyes, so near to exploding that the sight of his dark head between her legs would be enough to send her falling. The silk of his hair brushed her thighs, his long fingers gripping them and easing her legs apart.
Hermione cried out as he kissed her, sensation sudden and wild. And then there was more, and this kissing became her absolutely most favourite thing. Ever. His tongue, his lips, the delicious nip of his teeth, building the tension, binding her with it. He sucked her clit and fire rocketed through her veins. She thought she screamed as white hot joy burst over her, her body shaking, her mind simply lost to pleasure.
"That's my good girl."
Severus was holding her, his shirt gone, his warm flesh pressed against her damp skin as tremors still convulsed her. She clung to him, licking his collarbone, dropping open-mouthed kisses. Everything about him and her life was absolutely fine in that golden moment. "Outstanding," she murmured. "Utterly outstanding."
His soft laughter followed her down into sleep.
And the smexxy takes so much longer to write!
As ever, let me know what you think!