"Cissy…"

Wrinkling her nose, a disapproving cluck escaped from her perfectly painted lips as she reeled on the broad man trussed to her headboard. She liked him best like this, liked it when he squirmed. "Where are your manners?" she admonished, walking up to the bedside to pinch his nipple.

A gasp tore from him as his back arched off the mattress, his hands fighting the binds on his wrists until her nails were no longer biting into his flesh. Instead, she trailed her manicured nails through the trim smattering of chest hair, then down to the trail just under his belly button. Merlin, she loved to tease him and she snickered to herself as he arched his groin to her.

"Please, Mrs. Malfoy," James bit out, his heels digging into her silk sheets as he squirmed.

Truthfully, she had maybe left him here a bit longer than she'd intended, but then, dinner had drug on dreadfully and it wasn't like she could just excuse herself with a, "Sorry, Lucius, can we hurry this up? My lover is still tied to my bedposts."

Shrugging, she lightly skimmed her nails around the tent in his pants, down his thigh and then up to firmly cup his balls in her tiny grasp. A shattered moan splintered the otherwise quiet room and he tried to thrust up again. She wrenched her hand away and turned away from him with an admonishing brow.

"You're always so impatient," she breathed, fussing with the tie on her robes as she peeked over her shoulder at him. "Always in such a hurry."

"Yeah." Choking on a strained laugh, he tugged hard on his binds once more. "Well, that's because I'm not meant to be here while he's here, in case you forgot. Not to mention, I'm fucking two hours late to my own—"

Rage surged in her chest and she whirled towards him, jaw trembling in a confusing cocktail of emotion she couldn't sort through. "I told you, don't talk about her. Ever. Not to me."

The hard edge in his hazel eyes softened, his arms going slack, and he nodded once. "Okay."

She blinked once. Twice. Forcing the vision of that beautiful red-haired witch waiting at home for her husband to the back of her mind.

It could have been her—should have been her—had she chosen differently.

With a sharp breath, she brought her attention back to the scene at hand. With a resigned sigh, she let the thick material of her robes fall away, leaving her in simple black lingerie with stockings that hugged her thighs.

Biting into the flesh of his bottom lip, James shifted. His cock strained against the thin cotton of his boxers. Every strip of muscle on his body flexed, the veins of his neck protruding as his gaze roved her body.

"I need you, Mrs. Malfoy." It was a rule they'd set early on—a rule they needed to separate their feelings from their actions—but for some reason, it sounded wrong on his tongue tonight.

Swallowing around a tangled knot in her throat, she tilted her chin proudly. "Call me Cissy, tonight."

A smile ghosted over his features. "Cissy."

It didn't matter how much time passed, she missed him. It'd been utterly foolish to go and fall for that smarmy Gryffindor with the smug smirk and the sure hands; the very one who would drag her into empty classrooms and bring her over the edge time and again; the one who wanted to run away with her and give her a simple life away from all this. But then, she'd gone and done it anyway and as much it pained her to be away from him, to pass him in Diagon with Lily Evans on his arm like it was nothing—like they were nothing—she couldn't bring herself to regret it.

"Come over here," he breathed and her first reaction was to pinch, maybe to spank, because if this was going to work she had to be in charge. She had to have boundaries; she couldn't lose herself again… but her resolve wavered, her breath catching in the back of her throat.

"Safeword?" Her voice trembled as she took the few steps back to him.

That damn smirk returned, his eyes crinkling with unbridled happiness. "Mischief Managed."

Tears welled at her lash line and even though she knew she was going too far, she climbed on the bed, straddling his lap. His thick erection pressed against her but he didn't move except to study her.

"Cis?"

Shaking her head, a single tear slipped free. "James, I—"

His abdominals tightened, jaw snapping shut. "Mischief Managed."

She sobbed into her palms and the binds holding him vanished. Then, he was everywhere, sitting up tall in her bed and banding his thick arms around her slight frame. His lips trailed over her shoulders and up her neck, fingers buried in her soft blonde waves. "I'm here, love. It's me, and you don't have to pretend with me. Not ever."

Tears slid freely over her cheeks and the tightly wound mess she'd kept precariously together all this time unravelled. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she caught his lips, kissing him like she had in every shadowed nook and cranny of Hogwarts—like she hadn't allowed herself to since.

She was so beautifully lost in him, in the hands that had expertly mapped every inch and freckle of her skin, in the way he knew to latch onto her neck just there, and how his hands felt snaking up her spine to cradle the base of her skull.

Every witch deserved to be kissed by James Potter—not that she wanted them to. But Merlin, his lips: they were the slap of the sin and the immediate absolution.

Too soon he pulled back, forehead pressing lightly against hers as his thumb swiped at the cold tears still staining her cheeks. "Say yes." The request was barely a whisper over her and she sucked in a shuttered breath, lips twitching into a smile.

"Yes."

He rolled them easily, settling between her thighs with that ridiculous fucking grin she loved so much. With a hard thrust of his hips, he rocked against her heat, dragging a moan from deep inside her as her knees hitched higher on his hips.

Slipping his hand between them, he freed his cock then slid her knickers to the side. His hazel gaze glided easily over her features, a lopsided smile pulling at his cheek as he inched inside her. They shared a low moan, his forehead dropping to hers as he hilted himself inside her.

"I missed you," he confessed, his breath fanning over her as he withdrew just to rock hard back into her. "Missed you so fucking much."

She curled around him, hands memorizing his taut shoulders and the length of his messy black hair between her fingers. With each hard thrust of his hips, the moment transformed, the static magic between them charging as the ache between her legs coiled hot and tight. Of all the ways James Potter had fucked her, this had to be her favorite. Slow and steady, strong and sure.

His hand hitched behind her knee, pushing it higher so he could sink deeper inside and she cried out as he rocked against that spot she swore only he could reach. The pressure that had built so deliciously snapped just as his thumb swiped at her throbbing clit. She fell apart, her cries swallowed as he slanted his lips over hers and swept his tongue into her mouth.

With a hard grunt, he picked up his pace, fucking her through the remnants of her orgasm as he sought his own release; his hips snapping and then stilling as he spent himself inside her.

The air around them shifted—stilled. They caught their breath between lazy kisses as he slipped from inside her and tugged her tight in his embrace.

"I love you, you know…" His words wrapped lovingly around her heart, warming her. But, as always, it was short-lived. Stolen moments were always gone too soon, his arms loosened around her.

Tracing her fingers through the valley of his chest, she shook her head. "I hate when you say that."

"Why? Because it's true?"

A hollow laugh worked its way free. "Mostly…but also because it doesn't change anything…"

"Someday, Cissy." His lips brushed against hers once. Twice. Three times. "Someday."

Part of her believed him—or at least wanted to—but as he slid from her bed, shrugging on his trousers and jumper with a final farewell at the Floo, she felt another splinter of her heart wiggle free and follow him, leaving her with a hollow in her chest that couldn't be filled.

A/N: This was prompted by Ravenslight for Fairest of the Rare's Lovefest! Hope you enjoyed it!

In case you're wondering what happens later on in this AU… I've headcanoned that Draco is a love child of James and Narcissa, they do some magic for that blond hair lol, and it all comes to light as the lightening gen comes of age at Hogwarts. Possible Draco-Gryffindor AU o.O

Anywho, thanks to MCal for her Alpha eyes and Frumpologist for beta'ing this! Mwah mwah mwah!

#LF2020 #TeamEros