Chapter 21- Troubled Love
The lotus flower is troubled
At the sun's dazzling light;
With sunken head and sadly
She dreamily waits for the night.
The moon appears as her wooer,
She wakes at his fond embrace;
For him she kindly uncovers
Her sweetly flowering face.
She blooms and glows and glistens,
And mutely gazed above;
She weeps and exhales and trembles
With love and the sorrows of love.
-Heinrich Heine
Aletta roused from her restive slumber that night, her mentality uptight about something. She involuntarily whipped her head around to view Severus' sleeping bag and saw him absent from its comfy environment. She was certain that she had heard him come in, momentarily after her, and settle down inside his divan. Aletta also swore that she had distinctly heard him mumble a 'good night' to her. Suddenly fearful that he might have left her, she stood up and pulled on her black negligee to go look for him. After Aletta slipped on her flip-flops she made her way out of the tent, along with her flashlight.
As she explored the nearest grounds, they seemed entirely foreign to her. Absurd ideas of how they had gotten to such an alien place intruded her customarily serene mind. The noise of a rapid waterfall sounded ahead of her, and Aletta became even more bemused.
On and on she hiked, no sign of Severus to calm her frustrated, anxious demeanor. The forest became more cheerful the farther she walked, though she felt in danger of becoming lost if she wandered any further. But her mental pictures of Severus being strangled by enchanted vines, and bitten by a swarm of poisonous snakes pressed her onward. It felt like hours before she finally reached the waterfall she had begun to hear a short time back.
She approached a cliff that overlooked the aquatic scene and was taken aback by what she saw. Down by the small river, which was being replenished by the waterfall, was a horde of fruitful plants and trees, tropical plant life and wildlife. Aletta giggled at the solitary flamingo that stood blissfully in the shallow waters located at the side of the river. Her spirits lifted even more when she heard his voice behind her.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said with silky content.
Aletta turned to him and smiled brightly, "Yes, it certainly is!" She was breath-taken at his sight. He was clad in wet black boxers and a tight chemise with no sleeves, his hair sopping wet. Aletta assumed that he had taken a bath in the river judging by his appearance and the soap he held in his hand.
"I feel refreshed," he said, the first light starting to shimmer over his features.
Aletta smiled again. "Apparently, though I am curious to know why you come to bathe so early?"
Snape smirked as he stopped in front of her. "Well, I suppose it was because I didn't want an audience. And if you knew, I'm sure you would have come and watched me," he watched Aletta roll her eyes and added, "I had just finished pulling my boxers on when I spotted you."
Aletta blushed and stared at him for a moment before she said, "I thought you had left me."
Severus chuckled deeply, which seemed to ignite a fire deep down in Aletta's stomach, "A gentleman would never abandon a lady in the middle of the Forbidden Forest."
"Who says you're a gentleman?" she asked playfully as he ran his slender fingers through his silky, inklike hair.
Snape gave her a look of contemplation until he answered, "You."
Aletta shook her head and said, "I never did."
Snape shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, as I said, a gentleman would never abandon a lady, and I never did abandon you." He smirked at her and added, "Therefore I am, indeed, a gentleman. And a good one, at that."
Aletta shook her head in amazement at his fast intellect and wit. "Well, I guess I'll take a bath since I'm here."
Snape handed her the soap and she took it gratefully. She had not had a shower in Merlin only knows how long. She glanced over the cliff and then around her with a look of curiosity.
"There is a path I cleared over here," he said as he walked to the left.
Aletta followed him down a steep hill on the side of the cliff that gradually turned to an end at the riverbank. She slipped off her sandals and poked the tip of her right foot into the water. It was fairly warm, so she stripped herself of her robe and threw it aside. Her nightgown was pretty revealing, what with her ample bosom peaking out of the V-neck and the sleeves being mere spaghetti straps. Aletta had forgotten Severus was behind her as she started to lift it off. When she had the bottom of her gown to her belly, her black panties and sunbathed legs discovered by his hungry eyes, she heard him clear his throat behind her. Aletta swiftly dropped her gown and turned to him, very red in the face.
"Would you prefer me to stay?" he asked throatily with a smirk, his eyes aglitter with desire.
Aletta gazed at her surroundings. Even though it was beautiful, she couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about the wildlife that lived within the trees and brush. She looked back to his pale face and answered seriously, "Could you?"
Severus evidently gulped, his Adams apple bobbing. He had meant his question to be a tease.
Noticing his discomfort, Aletta added quickly, "With you facing the other way, of course."
Snape nodded, afraid that if he said something, it would come out as an awkward growl or croak. He turned with his sight on the cliff, but his mind still lingered on the woman that was now stripping behind him. He heard her sigh and walk toward him, he was about to turn around but she stopped him, "No, don't turn around! I was just wondering if you would hold my garments. The ground is quite dirty and I would rather my clothes be kept unsoiled."
Severus coughed and said, "Very well."
He held his hand out in front of him and saw her bare arm reach around him and set a bundle of garments in his hand. He grabbed hold of them and she whispered her thanks.
Her gown was wrapped around her undergarments to his perverted disappointment, and he was not going to unwrap it with her bathing just behind him. He heard a splash of water as she jumped in, but then heard her curse.
"Is anything wrong?" he asked, somewhat hoping she would say 'Yes' so he could jump in and rescue her gorgeous, nude self.
"No, it's okay," she said as she drew in a sharp breath. "I just cut my foot on something."
He nodded and started to rock back and forth on his heels as he heard her swimming about. After what seemed a half and hour, he heard the sounds of her withdrawing from the waters. The patters of water splashing the ground made his heart beat even faster, and the bulge in his shorts was growing more uncomfortable by the second. She approached him and reached around to get the clothes. When she had finished dressing, she told him it was okay for him to turn around. Oh, what a sight he had. Apparently she was not aware that her gown was see through when it was wet, and he could see the hard, light brown pebbles poking through her gown as it clung to her form. He could see her black panties as well, and to Severus' horror, he allowed a soft moan to escape his lips. She looked up at him from her action wringing of her wet hair. Her sheen eyes widened as they rested on the lump in his boxers. As she drew her head level with his, she held her breath, flinching when his hand moved. But it didn't reach out for her. Instead it snapped the soap out of her hand, dropping it to the ground. Stopped by the unexpectedness of his action and her own momentary shock, Aletta wasn't able to move. The suggestive intimacy of their appearances and the romantic environment, isolated from civilization, washed over like shockwaves.
"Once you trap a butterfly-" his low voice was closer, a soft and seductive weapon, and she gasped as his hands gripped her shoulders "-you must take it by the wings."
"Let me go!" she cried breathlessly, frightened by her sudden desire to lean submissively against his taut chest. She tried to wrench free of his grip, but Severus used her twisting motion to pivot her around, easily drawing her unbalanced body against his.
His dark head bent and he brushed his mouth against the sensitive skin below her right ear. Aletta couldn't control the shudder of delight. The heady male scent of him enveloped her, earthy and clean. Tilting her head to one side, she tried to elude his provocative caress, but only succeeded in exposing more of her neck to his exploring mouth.
"No," she pleaded, shaking back the feathery length of her wet, gold hair and increasing the pressure of her hands that strained against his chest.
Snape laughed softly, a deep delicious sound that shivered down her spine. His mouth lifted to the averted line of her jaw.
"Isn't this the way you planned it, Aletta?" he taunted. His warm breath fanned across the already hot skin of her cheek.
"I didn't plan this," she protested in a desperate whisper. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the softness of the bright sun streaming through the trees.
"You didn't plan to make me want you?" Snape jeered. Aletta breathed sharply. "I know you did. The idea has been in the back of your mind since the first time we met. Everything you've done has been calculated to blind me with desire for you so you could twist me around your finger, take what you wanted and fly away."
"No," Aletta gulped.
She bent her head backward, trying again to escape the disturbing nearness of his mouth. Strong fingers spread across the small of her back, molding her arching body more fully against the male vigor of his. A dizzying weakness spread through her limbs. Her tightly closed lashes fluttered open, focusing her gaze on his rugged features. Half-closed eyes studied her upturned face with a black fire that stole her breath.
"You look like some simulacrum goddess," Snape murmured deeply, "with those zealous lips and those eyes dazzling with starfire."
"Please!" she begged to be released, despite the growing desire between her legs.
A hand curled its fingers in the long sodden hair at the back of her neck. Aletta knew his mouth would tantalize her lips no longer and she started to struggle against the inevitable. But the hand on her neck wouldn't allow her to avoid his kiss. Her hammering fists glance harmlessly off his chest and shoulders.
At last his conquering mouth had her fingers curling into the thin material of his thin shirt, clinging to him weakly in surrender. Snape wasn't content with submission as he parted her lips with persuasive mastery, exploring her mouth until Aletta responded with demanding hunger.
Reason was banished completely under the molding caress of his hands. There was only the whirling, mindless ecstasy of his embrace urging her to new heights of sensual awareness. She was achingly conscience of her need for physical gratification, and the hard maleness of Severus made her aware of his.
The trailing fire of his lips burned over eyes, cheek and throat, branding her as his possession, and she didn't deny it. Her hands were around his neck, fingers winding into the sleek blackness of his hair.
His hard mouth closed again over hers, uniting their flames into a roaring fire of passion that sang in her ears.
Like a drowning person, Aletta made one last attempt to be saved when his mouth blazed a path to the hollow of her throat.
"I can't-"
Her thoughts were too chaotic. What couldn't she do? She couldn't stop. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't exist without the wildfire of his touch.
"I'm insane," she ended with a sighing groan.
His head lifted briefly, fingers sliding to her throat. "That's the way I want you to be," Snape muttered harshly. "Driven to madness until you can think of nothing else but me." He spoke against her lips, his mouth moving mobilely over them in a caress that was designed to make her ache for his kiss. "I want your wings to be singed so you can't fly away until sundown."
Aletta breathed in sharply, knowing she didn't every want to fly away yet realizing how dangerous it would be to give in to her emotions so completely.
"The . . . tent," she offered in a protest.
Snape's mouth shut off her words until she stopped caring about the tent. Only then did he answer.
"It'll be enjoying the privacy. It won't miss you. I doubt if it even expected me back today."
Weakly Aletta shook her head, but unable to deny the silly truth of what he said. Lowering her head, she felt his lips against her hair, their moistness tangling in the silken gold.
"Severus, I-"
The support of his hard masculine body was taken away from her and she swayed toward him. Her movement was checked as an arm slid under her knees and she was lifted into the air, cradled against his chest. Automatically her hands circled his neck.
As he turned toward a small brush of feathery plants, a shaft of the gleaming sun glittered over his face. The strength of purpose stamped in the forceful, handsome lines caught at Aletta's throat. Nothing could stop him. The same primitive mood had her in its spell and she knew she didn't want to try to prevent what seemed so inevitable and paradoxically so right.
Sitting on the side of the brush, Severus held her on his lap. His face was in the shadows of the trees, but she knew those onyx eyes were studying her. This was her last chance to protest. Instead her fingers began exploring the blunt angles of his features, feather soft and caressing.
He seemed to be prolonging the moment when he claimed her as if to make the possession sweeter. Feeling wantonly bold, Aletta leaned forward and pressed her lips against his mouth. It curved briefly under her touch into a complacent smile.
"It seems this pile of plants isn't made for two," Severus murmured huskily, the grooves around his mouth deepening in satisfaction, "but today I don't think either one of us will care."
An almost inaudible moan of complete surrender slipped from her throat as Severus bent her backward onto the soft ground. His hand slid intimately from her thigh to her hip and along to the curve of her breast. The pressing weight of his male body followed her down, his mouth unerringly and possessively finding hers. Aletta was lost in an erotic dreamworld of sensations that she never wanted to end. She succumbed with rapturous delight to each new touch.
Suddenly a rustle came from a bush nearby and Aletta's head moved in protest to its disturbance. The rustle became louder as it seemed to be coming closer to their entangled bodies. Reason and sanity came back with shocking swiftness as Aletta tried to twist from beneath Snape's weight. He checked the movement easily.
"No," his low voice commanded near her ear. "You know you don't really want to stop."
"Yes . . . no." The conflicting answers were crazily the truth as Aletta was torn in two by her emotions.
Aletta's hands pushed frantically against the stone wall of his chest. "What is it?" she whispered desperately.
His warm breath moved over her cheek in silent laughter. "It's probably just a snake, though you know it maybe mine," he mocked, his mouth following the curve of her throat to the tantalizing hollow between her breasts.
"N-n-no!" Her protest was shaken by the violent surge of desire brought on by his intimate touch.
The rustling in the dirt died away as the creature moved away from the couple.
"I went away," Snape murmured against her skin.
"B-but it'll come back," Aletta moaned softly, her hands still straining against him. "Please let me go."
"No," his fingers closed over her chin, holding it motionless as his mouth closed over hers in a drugging kiss that sent her floating nearly all the way back to her dreamworld.
The snap of a hoof splintered through her. The alert tensing of Severus' muscles told her he had heard it too, but he didn't lift his mouth from hers nor allow her protesting lips to twist away.
"Severus, let her go," a deep voice said from beside them.
Another snap, louder than before, made his hold relax slightly as he raised his head, his gaze glittering, holding Aletta's pleading gray eyes. Hot waves of shame licked through her veins. Instead of looking for the ingredients for Ron, they were laying there snogging.
"Get out of here, Chiron," Snape ordered smoothly.
Tearing her eyes away from his face, Aletta twisted her head toward the brooding centaur, his tall horse form outlined by the light streaming through the trees. Her throat worked convulsively, but nothing came out. Part of her didn't want to be rescued.
"You can't do it, Snape," Chiron sighed, but with firm conviction.
"Can't I?" he jeered arrogantly. "The lady is more than willing," he added with sarcastic emphasis.
"Let her go."
He smiled coolly down at Aletta. "She's free to leave," he rolled away from her, only a hand remaining spread on her stomach as a wicked black light held her gaze captive, "if she really wants to leave."
Perhaps if he hadn't been so confident she would stay or if he had asked her not to leave him, Aletta would have remained where she was. Instead, with a frightened sob at what a fool she had nearly made of herself, she scrambled to her feet.
Two wavering steps toward the path were all she had taken before the soft flesh of her upper arms was seized in a biting grip. Weakly she allowed herself to be pulled back against his chest, her head lolling against his shoulder, unable to deny the disturbance his touch caused.
"Severus," Chiron warned swiftly.
"No, she can go," he interrupted in an ominously low voice laced with contempt. "She and I both know that I wasn't seducing her. She was letting me seduce her. Almost since the day she came, she's been inviting me to make love to her, deliberately holding back so she could twist me around her finger. She knew I found her as physically and mentally attractive as any man would and she intended to used that attraction to get what she wanted. Isn't that right, Aletta?" he demanded savagely.
She didn't have the strength to argue with his lies, so she did the only thing she could do. "Yes, yes, that's right," she lied in a breathy whisper.
"But I'm not twisted around your finger." The derisive jeer slashed at her pride. "I take what I want and when I'm through with it, I throw it away." He released her with a slight push toward the path and Chiron. "You can go. But I'm not quite through with you yet."
With that half-threat and half-promise ringing in the air, Aletta stumbled forward. Chiron wrapped a supporting arm around her shoulders and led her from the river. Drained of all emotion except the cold feeling of dread, Aletta was barely aware of the centaur's presence.
"I'll take you to the tent," said Chiron.
Aletta was suddenly conscience of how disheveled she must look. Her clothes were in a revealing state of disarray and her lips swollen from his passionate kisses. She knew she had the look of a woman who had been made love to. A sob strangled her throat. She very nearly had!
She cast a surreptitious glace at the centaur, wondering what this proud creature thought of her. The only part of Snape's accusation that had been correct was when he said she had been inviting him to make love to her, though holding back to have fun with him. Though she had never planned to make Severus want her so badly he would do anything.
When they reached the tent, Aletta caught the look of gentle compassion in Chiron's dark eyes. In shame and humiliation, she knew guiltily that she didn't deserve his understanding.
"I'm all right," Aletta asserted forcefully, averting her face from the centaur's concerned gaze. Her legs now strong enough to deny the need for a supporting arm, Aletta stepped forward. "Would you tell Severus that . . . that I have a headache and need to be alone?"
"I'll see that you're not disturbed," Chiron nodded perceptively, "by anyone."
By anyone, who else would there be? She thought. And she didn't doubt that the centaur would figuratively stand guard at her door. When Chiron left, Aletta buried her face in her hands, but she didn't cry.
Hysterical laughter sobbed in her throat. She barely smothered it with her hand. The irony of the situation struck her forcibly. All along she had believed Severus was chasing her. Instead, he had thought that she had been chasing him.
Never once in her profession had she ever seriously, undoubtedly, considered the possibility that she might fall in love with Severus. Yet that was exactly what she had done. She knew it was clearly and as certainly as she knew her own name.
Tonight had not been the result of a sudden desire for physical experience or the arousing attention of an experienced lover. They were a potent combination but not an explanation for her complete abandonment of reason. Love was the answer, no matter how foolish and painful the emotion might be.
A/N- Is that long enough? I wrote from 9:00 PM till midnight. Hope you liked it! It's my first attempt at . . . shall I say. . . intimate writing.
The lotus flower is troubled
At the sun's dazzling light;
With sunken head and sadly
She dreamily waits for the night.
The moon appears as her wooer,
She wakes at his fond embrace;
For him she kindly uncovers
Her sweetly flowering face.
She blooms and glows and glistens,
And mutely gazed above;
She weeps and exhales and trembles
With love and the sorrows of love.
-Heinrich Heine
Aletta roused from her restive slumber that night, her mentality uptight about something. She involuntarily whipped her head around to view Severus' sleeping bag and saw him absent from its comfy environment. She was certain that she had heard him come in, momentarily after her, and settle down inside his divan. Aletta also swore that she had distinctly heard him mumble a 'good night' to her. Suddenly fearful that he might have left her, she stood up and pulled on her black negligee to go look for him. After Aletta slipped on her flip-flops she made her way out of the tent, along with her flashlight.
As she explored the nearest grounds, they seemed entirely foreign to her. Absurd ideas of how they had gotten to such an alien place intruded her customarily serene mind. The noise of a rapid waterfall sounded ahead of her, and Aletta became even more bemused.
On and on she hiked, no sign of Severus to calm her frustrated, anxious demeanor. The forest became more cheerful the farther she walked, though she felt in danger of becoming lost if she wandered any further. But her mental pictures of Severus being strangled by enchanted vines, and bitten by a swarm of poisonous snakes pressed her onward. It felt like hours before she finally reached the waterfall she had begun to hear a short time back.
She approached a cliff that overlooked the aquatic scene and was taken aback by what she saw. Down by the small river, which was being replenished by the waterfall, was a horde of fruitful plants and trees, tropical plant life and wildlife. Aletta giggled at the solitary flamingo that stood blissfully in the shallow waters located at the side of the river. Her spirits lifted even more when she heard his voice behind her.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said with silky content.
Aletta turned to him and smiled brightly, "Yes, it certainly is!" She was breath-taken at his sight. He was clad in wet black boxers and a tight chemise with no sleeves, his hair sopping wet. Aletta assumed that he had taken a bath in the river judging by his appearance and the soap he held in his hand.
"I feel refreshed," he said, the first light starting to shimmer over his features.
Aletta smiled again. "Apparently, though I am curious to know why you come to bathe so early?"
Snape smirked as he stopped in front of her. "Well, I suppose it was because I didn't want an audience. And if you knew, I'm sure you would have come and watched me," he watched Aletta roll her eyes and added, "I had just finished pulling my boxers on when I spotted you."
Aletta blushed and stared at him for a moment before she said, "I thought you had left me."
Severus chuckled deeply, which seemed to ignite a fire deep down in Aletta's stomach, "A gentleman would never abandon a lady in the middle of the Forbidden Forest."
"Who says you're a gentleman?" she asked playfully as he ran his slender fingers through his silky, inklike hair.
Snape gave her a look of contemplation until he answered, "You."
Aletta shook her head and said, "I never did."
Snape shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, as I said, a gentleman would never abandon a lady, and I never did abandon you." He smirked at her and added, "Therefore I am, indeed, a gentleman. And a good one, at that."
Aletta shook her head in amazement at his fast intellect and wit. "Well, I guess I'll take a bath since I'm here."
Snape handed her the soap and she took it gratefully. She had not had a shower in Merlin only knows how long. She glanced over the cliff and then around her with a look of curiosity.
"There is a path I cleared over here," he said as he walked to the left.
Aletta followed him down a steep hill on the side of the cliff that gradually turned to an end at the riverbank. She slipped off her sandals and poked the tip of her right foot into the water. It was fairly warm, so she stripped herself of her robe and threw it aside. Her nightgown was pretty revealing, what with her ample bosom peaking out of the V-neck and the sleeves being mere spaghetti straps. Aletta had forgotten Severus was behind her as she started to lift it off. When she had the bottom of her gown to her belly, her black panties and sunbathed legs discovered by his hungry eyes, she heard him clear his throat behind her. Aletta swiftly dropped her gown and turned to him, very red in the face.
"Would you prefer me to stay?" he asked throatily with a smirk, his eyes aglitter with desire.
Aletta gazed at her surroundings. Even though it was beautiful, she couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about the wildlife that lived within the trees and brush. She looked back to his pale face and answered seriously, "Could you?"
Severus evidently gulped, his Adams apple bobbing. He had meant his question to be a tease.
Noticing his discomfort, Aletta added quickly, "With you facing the other way, of course."
Snape nodded, afraid that if he said something, it would come out as an awkward growl or croak. He turned with his sight on the cliff, but his mind still lingered on the woman that was now stripping behind him. He heard her sigh and walk toward him, he was about to turn around but she stopped him, "No, don't turn around! I was just wondering if you would hold my garments. The ground is quite dirty and I would rather my clothes be kept unsoiled."
Severus coughed and said, "Very well."
He held his hand out in front of him and saw her bare arm reach around him and set a bundle of garments in his hand. He grabbed hold of them and she whispered her thanks.
Her gown was wrapped around her undergarments to his perverted disappointment, and he was not going to unwrap it with her bathing just behind him. He heard a splash of water as she jumped in, but then heard her curse.
"Is anything wrong?" he asked, somewhat hoping she would say 'Yes' so he could jump in and rescue her gorgeous, nude self.
"No, it's okay," she said as she drew in a sharp breath. "I just cut my foot on something."
He nodded and started to rock back and forth on his heels as he heard her swimming about. After what seemed a half and hour, he heard the sounds of her withdrawing from the waters. The patters of water splashing the ground made his heart beat even faster, and the bulge in his shorts was growing more uncomfortable by the second. She approached him and reached around to get the clothes. When she had finished dressing, she told him it was okay for him to turn around. Oh, what a sight he had. Apparently she was not aware that her gown was see through when it was wet, and he could see the hard, light brown pebbles poking through her gown as it clung to her form. He could see her black panties as well, and to Severus' horror, he allowed a soft moan to escape his lips. She looked up at him from her action wringing of her wet hair. Her sheen eyes widened as they rested on the lump in his boxers. As she drew her head level with his, she held her breath, flinching when his hand moved. But it didn't reach out for her. Instead it snapped the soap out of her hand, dropping it to the ground. Stopped by the unexpectedness of his action and her own momentary shock, Aletta wasn't able to move. The suggestive intimacy of their appearances and the romantic environment, isolated from civilization, washed over like shockwaves.
"Once you trap a butterfly-" his low voice was closer, a soft and seductive weapon, and she gasped as his hands gripped her shoulders "-you must take it by the wings."
"Let me go!" she cried breathlessly, frightened by her sudden desire to lean submissively against his taut chest. She tried to wrench free of his grip, but Severus used her twisting motion to pivot her around, easily drawing her unbalanced body against his.
His dark head bent and he brushed his mouth against the sensitive skin below her right ear. Aletta couldn't control the shudder of delight. The heady male scent of him enveloped her, earthy and clean. Tilting her head to one side, she tried to elude his provocative caress, but only succeeded in exposing more of her neck to his exploring mouth.
"No," she pleaded, shaking back the feathery length of her wet, gold hair and increasing the pressure of her hands that strained against his chest.
Snape laughed softly, a deep delicious sound that shivered down her spine. His mouth lifted to the averted line of her jaw.
"Isn't this the way you planned it, Aletta?" he taunted. His warm breath fanned across the already hot skin of her cheek.
"I didn't plan this," she protested in a desperate whisper. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the softness of the bright sun streaming through the trees.
"You didn't plan to make me want you?" Snape jeered. Aletta breathed sharply. "I know you did. The idea has been in the back of your mind since the first time we met. Everything you've done has been calculated to blind me with desire for you so you could twist me around your finger, take what you wanted and fly away."
"No," Aletta gulped.
She bent her head backward, trying again to escape the disturbing nearness of his mouth. Strong fingers spread across the small of her back, molding her arching body more fully against the male vigor of his. A dizzying weakness spread through her limbs. Her tightly closed lashes fluttered open, focusing her gaze on his rugged features. Half-closed eyes studied her upturned face with a black fire that stole her breath.
"You look like some simulacrum goddess," Snape murmured deeply, "with those zealous lips and those eyes dazzling with starfire."
"Please!" she begged to be released, despite the growing desire between her legs.
A hand curled its fingers in the long sodden hair at the back of her neck. Aletta knew his mouth would tantalize her lips no longer and she started to struggle against the inevitable. But the hand on her neck wouldn't allow her to avoid his kiss. Her hammering fists glance harmlessly off his chest and shoulders.
At last his conquering mouth had her fingers curling into the thin material of his thin shirt, clinging to him weakly in surrender. Snape wasn't content with submission as he parted her lips with persuasive mastery, exploring her mouth until Aletta responded with demanding hunger.
Reason was banished completely under the molding caress of his hands. There was only the whirling, mindless ecstasy of his embrace urging her to new heights of sensual awareness. She was achingly conscience of her need for physical gratification, and the hard maleness of Severus made her aware of his.
The trailing fire of his lips burned over eyes, cheek and throat, branding her as his possession, and she didn't deny it. Her hands were around his neck, fingers winding into the sleek blackness of his hair.
His hard mouth closed again over hers, uniting their flames into a roaring fire of passion that sang in her ears.
Like a drowning person, Aletta made one last attempt to be saved when his mouth blazed a path to the hollow of her throat.
"I can't-"
Her thoughts were too chaotic. What couldn't she do? She couldn't stop. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't exist without the wildfire of his touch.
"I'm insane," she ended with a sighing groan.
His head lifted briefly, fingers sliding to her throat. "That's the way I want you to be," Snape muttered harshly. "Driven to madness until you can think of nothing else but me." He spoke against her lips, his mouth moving mobilely over them in a caress that was designed to make her ache for his kiss. "I want your wings to be singed so you can't fly away until sundown."
Aletta breathed in sharply, knowing she didn't every want to fly away yet realizing how dangerous it would be to give in to her emotions so completely.
"The . . . tent," she offered in a protest.
Snape's mouth shut off her words until she stopped caring about the tent. Only then did he answer.
"It'll be enjoying the privacy. It won't miss you. I doubt if it even expected me back today."
Weakly Aletta shook her head, but unable to deny the silly truth of what he said. Lowering her head, she felt his lips against her hair, their moistness tangling in the silken gold.
"Severus, I-"
The support of his hard masculine body was taken away from her and she swayed toward him. Her movement was checked as an arm slid under her knees and she was lifted into the air, cradled against his chest. Automatically her hands circled his neck.
As he turned toward a small brush of feathery plants, a shaft of the gleaming sun glittered over his face. The strength of purpose stamped in the forceful, handsome lines caught at Aletta's throat. Nothing could stop him. The same primitive mood had her in its spell and she knew she didn't want to try to prevent what seemed so inevitable and paradoxically so right.
Sitting on the side of the brush, Severus held her on his lap. His face was in the shadows of the trees, but she knew those onyx eyes were studying her. This was her last chance to protest. Instead her fingers began exploring the blunt angles of his features, feather soft and caressing.
He seemed to be prolonging the moment when he claimed her as if to make the possession sweeter. Feeling wantonly bold, Aletta leaned forward and pressed her lips against his mouth. It curved briefly under her touch into a complacent smile.
"It seems this pile of plants isn't made for two," Severus murmured huskily, the grooves around his mouth deepening in satisfaction, "but today I don't think either one of us will care."
An almost inaudible moan of complete surrender slipped from her throat as Severus bent her backward onto the soft ground. His hand slid intimately from her thigh to her hip and along to the curve of her breast. The pressing weight of his male body followed her down, his mouth unerringly and possessively finding hers. Aletta was lost in an erotic dreamworld of sensations that she never wanted to end. She succumbed with rapturous delight to each new touch.
Suddenly a rustle came from a bush nearby and Aletta's head moved in protest to its disturbance. The rustle became louder as it seemed to be coming closer to their entangled bodies. Reason and sanity came back with shocking swiftness as Aletta tried to twist from beneath Snape's weight. He checked the movement easily.
"No," his low voice commanded near her ear. "You know you don't really want to stop."
"Yes . . . no." The conflicting answers were crazily the truth as Aletta was torn in two by her emotions.
Aletta's hands pushed frantically against the stone wall of his chest. "What is it?" she whispered desperately.
His warm breath moved over her cheek in silent laughter. "It's probably just a snake, though you know it maybe mine," he mocked, his mouth following the curve of her throat to the tantalizing hollow between her breasts.
"N-n-no!" Her protest was shaken by the violent surge of desire brought on by his intimate touch.
The rustling in the dirt died away as the creature moved away from the couple.
"I went away," Snape murmured against her skin.
"B-but it'll come back," Aletta moaned softly, her hands still straining against him. "Please let me go."
"No," his fingers closed over her chin, holding it motionless as his mouth closed over hers in a drugging kiss that sent her floating nearly all the way back to her dreamworld.
The snap of a hoof splintered through her. The alert tensing of Severus' muscles told her he had heard it too, but he didn't lift his mouth from hers nor allow her protesting lips to twist away.
"Severus, let her go," a deep voice said from beside them.
Another snap, louder than before, made his hold relax slightly as he raised his head, his gaze glittering, holding Aletta's pleading gray eyes. Hot waves of shame licked through her veins. Instead of looking for the ingredients for Ron, they were laying there snogging.
"Get out of here, Chiron," Snape ordered smoothly.
Tearing her eyes away from his face, Aletta twisted her head toward the brooding centaur, his tall horse form outlined by the light streaming through the trees. Her throat worked convulsively, but nothing came out. Part of her didn't want to be rescued.
"You can't do it, Snape," Chiron sighed, but with firm conviction.
"Can't I?" he jeered arrogantly. "The lady is more than willing," he added with sarcastic emphasis.
"Let her go."
He smiled coolly down at Aletta. "She's free to leave," he rolled away from her, only a hand remaining spread on her stomach as a wicked black light held her gaze captive, "if she really wants to leave."
Perhaps if he hadn't been so confident she would stay or if he had asked her not to leave him, Aletta would have remained where she was. Instead, with a frightened sob at what a fool she had nearly made of herself, she scrambled to her feet.
Two wavering steps toward the path were all she had taken before the soft flesh of her upper arms was seized in a biting grip. Weakly she allowed herself to be pulled back against his chest, her head lolling against his shoulder, unable to deny the disturbance his touch caused.
"Severus," Chiron warned swiftly.
"No, she can go," he interrupted in an ominously low voice laced with contempt. "She and I both know that I wasn't seducing her. She was letting me seduce her. Almost since the day she came, she's been inviting me to make love to her, deliberately holding back so she could twist me around her finger. She knew I found her as physically and mentally attractive as any man would and she intended to used that attraction to get what she wanted. Isn't that right, Aletta?" he demanded savagely.
She didn't have the strength to argue with his lies, so she did the only thing she could do. "Yes, yes, that's right," she lied in a breathy whisper.
"But I'm not twisted around your finger." The derisive jeer slashed at her pride. "I take what I want and when I'm through with it, I throw it away." He released her with a slight push toward the path and Chiron. "You can go. But I'm not quite through with you yet."
With that half-threat and half-promise ringing in the air, Aletta stumbled forward. Chiron wrapped a supporting arm around her shoulders and led her from the river. Drained of all emotion except the cold feeling of dread, Aletta was barely aware of the centaur's presence.
"I'll take you to the tent," said Chiron.
Aletta was suddenly conscience of how disheveled she must look. Her clothes were in a revealing state of disarray and her lips swollen from his passionate kisses. She knew she had the look of a woman who had been made love to. A sob strangled her throat. She very nearly had!
She cast a surreptitious glace at the centaur, wondering what this proud creature thought of her. The only part of Snape's accusation that had been correct was when he said she had been inviting him to make love to her, though holding back to have fun with him. Though she had never planned to make Severus want her so badly he would do anything.
When they reached the tent, Aletta caught the look of gentle compassion in Chiron's dark eyes. In shame and humiliation, she knew guiltily that she didn't deserve his understanding.
"I'm all right," Aletta asserted forcefully, averting her face from the centaur's concerned gaze. Her legs now strong enough to deny the need for a supporting arm, Aletta stepped forward. "Would you tell Severus that . . . that I have a headache and need to be alone?"
"I'll see that you're not disturbed," Chiron nodded perceptively, "by anyone."
By anyone, who else would there be? She thought. And she didn't doubt that the centaur would figuratively stand guard at her door. When Chiron left, Aletta buried her face in her hands, but she didn't cry.
Hysterical laughter sobbed in her throat. She barely smothered it with her hand. The irony of the situation struck her forcibly. All along she had believed Severus was chasing her. Instead, he had thought that she had been chasing him.
Never once in her profession had she ever seriously, undoubtedly, considered the possibility that she might fall in love with Severus. Yet that was exactly what she had done. She knew it was clearly and as certainly as she knew her own name.
Tonight had not been the result of a sudden desire for physical experience or the arousing attention of an experienced lover. They were a potent combination but not an explanation for her complete abandonment of reason. Love was the answer, no matter how foolish and painful the emotion might be.
A/N- Is that long enough? I wrote from 9:00 PM till midnight. Hope you liked it! It's my first attempt at . . . shall I say. . . intimate writing.
