Chapter Ten

Albus Dumbledore had mentioned that his associates had put wards on her shop, but she hadn't imagined the extent to which they had carried out their task. As she placed the key in the lock, she could feel the magic invading her mind, searching out her identity and her intentions. It was obvious, also, that if she hadn't measured up she would not have been able to place a toenail inside. 'Wow. Remind me to thank him for that.' Still, she wondered if it would be strong enough to stop Lucius Malfoy. Was anything?

Once inside, her eyes fell immediately on a scorched stain on the floor. It was a nasty reminder of what had happened here only the night before. A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach reminded her that dwelling on it was a very bad idea, and she quickly shifted her thoughts to Severus. He would be here in less than half an hour.

Like a bolt, she darted up the stairs to tidy up her room,. Once the bed was made, she fluffed the pillows on the sofa. 'Really, Alex! He's coming here to work.' Still, she turned and fluffed the pillow on the chair, as well. Now, she needed some sign of intellectual activity, something bookish. Still feeling completely ridiculous, she pulled several pieces of parchment from the drawer and placed the pile neatly on the desk with an enormous burgundy quill. Beside these, she placed two of her favorite books. Rare Magical Treasures and Their Common Market Value and Lethal Legends - A Guide To Ancient Cursed Objects. With satisfaction, she turned and surveyed the room. Everything seemed fairly inviting, not bad at all for only having moved in two days ago. Two days, she thought as she pulled off her boots and placed them beside the desk. Just two days and she had been followed, tortured, poisoned, and brought back from the brink of death by a surly wizard who somehow seemed as familiar as her own reflection. She had a knack for getting into trouble, but this was a personal record.

A surly wizard. Hmmm. Seemed so familiar.

And this room. This room seemed to know him.

Her eyes wandered, searching for something to connect with Severus. There was something here, something about him. Something important. Her eyes scanned from right to left. Sofa. Chair. Bed. Back to the chair.

In front of the hearth.

The Hearth!

That dream!

A tall, dark-haired wizard standing at the hearth, a bubbling cauldron -- a Potion brewing. Severus running his hands along the hearth. In the blink of an eye, she was across the room, her own hands running feverishly along the engravings around the hearth, eyes wide with excitement.

They were symbols representing the Greek gods. Her mind strained to remember what each one was. Ares, god of war, Hephaestus, god of the blacksmiths, Dionysus, god of wine. Ah, yes. Hermes, god of merchants and thieves at the very top and in the center. That would be the one. Drawing her beautiful new wand, she pressed it's tip to the symbol and muttered every opening and lock-picking spell she knew. It was a major undertaking. Even speaking one on top of the other, they ran together for several minutes. When she finally ran out of spells, she just stood there and stared, brows knitted in an uncharacteristic scowl. Hmmm. Hermes, Uncle Borgin, merchants, suppliers -- thieves. Ah.

Just as a hunch, she replaced her wand on the symbol and said, "There is no honor among thieves." Immediately, the symbols began to pull apart and the hearth itself split into two pieces. Behind it, in a tiny room, barely wide enough for her to stand up in, was a thin pedestal upon which she saw, at long last, a thick cylinder of parchment sealed with emerald green wax. She'd found the scroll.

Severus arrived at the door a few minutes later and Alex let him in quickly and quietly.

"Thank you, Miss Borgin."

"It's Alex, Severus, and you're welcome. You're also too late." At the wary look in his eyes she clarified her statement. "To find the scroll, I mean."

"You've found it?"

She broke into a wide grin. "I found it."

His head tilted slowly to the side, which she had learned was his silent method of communicating dismay. "How?"

"Trade secret?"

He crossed his arms like an emperor and glared down his proud nose before pronouncing, "Not good enough, Miss Borgin."

That name, again. What was that all about? "Fine, Professor, I'll show you." She put as much disdain as she could manage into his professional title, hoping that it annoyed him as much as 'Miss Borgin' disturbed her. Probably not, she thought, ruefully.

The hearth being split in half didn't seem to faze him as he stepped into the alcove to see the scroll. There he stood staring into the recess, seemingly lost in thought. After a full minute, he reached out a tentative hand.

For a just moment, her more distrustful side took over and Alex stepped toward the potions master, hand moving for her wand, but then her more rational mind reminded her that Severus wanted the scroll destroyed. Or, did he? What had been that look in his eyes as he had stepped into the niche behind her hearth? It looked, for all the world, like desire.

"Severus?" The hand flinched a few inches shy of it's goal, pale fingers clinching before he dropped his arm entirely. She was beside him when he stepped back. "I thought we could just leave it there for now, Severus," her hand resting lightly on the sleeve of his robe, "until your headmaster arrives."

He turned his head to her, then, and she realized that she was wrong. That hadn't been desire in his eyes. It had been pure lust. The same look, she was certain, that had been in her eyes as she'd pulled a shaking hand from Lucius Malfoy's gossamer hair. "You want it, don't you?"

"Pardon me?"

"The potion on that scroll. I can't believe I didn't see it before. I mean, you are the potions god, after all."

"My desire for potions is not an issue here, Miss Borgin, nor--"

"Alright, that's enough." She spoke the works softly enough, but her uncommonly serious tone made him stop short. "Severus, what's going on? Why are you talking to me like I'm a stranger?"

"We are strangers, Miss Borgin. And, we are here for no other reason than to locate and destroy a threat to our cause."

"It's not our cause, Severus Snape. It's yours. I want no part of your war." She took a very deep breath before looking him directly in the eye. "But, I do want you."

He returned her gaze with equal intensity. "I fear I have given you the wrong idea."

"No, I have the right idea. You're the one who seems confused." Her eyes broke the contact and swept the room in frustration.

"I assure you, I am not." He cupped her face in one thin hand and held her eyes with his own. "We cannot have this, Alex. Lucius would kill us both rather than take the risk."

"Well," she began, placing her hands on his sides and fixing him with a look of complete wickedness, "Lucius isn't here right now."

"I cannot--"

"Oh, I'll bet you can," she purred, eyes tracing the line of buttons on the front of his coat suggestively. His resolve seem to waver as she ran her hands slowly along his sides, then moved to caress his arms.

A slender hand slipped around her waist to rest on the small of her back allowing her to feel the rapid heartbeat hidden beneath that controlled façade as he gave her a look of warning. "I can offer you nothing beyond this."

Alex's smiled iniquitously in victory. "Then, you have nothing to lose."

Desirous as she was of him, she was not fully prepared for the intense ferocity with which he descended upon her, pulling her body so tightly against his own that she could feel his arousal. His kiss was possessive, almost angry, as he bit at her bottom lip demanding entry. Not wanting to discourage him, she yielded without hesitation, seeking to explore him as well. When his tongue met her own, she released a moan of desire into his mouth, her hands tightening on his thick black coat.

It was then that she realized how overdressed he was for such warm weather. She had never been faced with this much clothing, but she worked with feverish determination and notoriously quick fingers to divest him of it as he alternately bit, kissed, and caressed her lips and throat. She was down to the last few buttons on his starched white shirt three layers below before he began to strip her from her own clothing. This goal he pursued with no more delicacy than he had anything else. He managed the first few buttons on her vest before he lost all patience with it and wrenched the fabric with such force that the button scattered to the corners of the room. The shredded piece of fabric that remained he dropped behind her as long, cool fingers slid deftly under her green blouse causing her to draw in a sharp breath and he pulled away from her, eyes questioning.

She took the brief retreat as an opportunity to step back from him and, very slowly, keeping her eyes locked on his, divest herself of the rest of the clothing above her waist. He watched with barely-contained lust, eyes greedily drinking in the sight, fingers twitching at his sides. She had barely finished shrugging the fabric from her shoulders when he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to him with such force that she was nearly thrown from her feet. He crushed her lips in another rough kiss, pulling her tongue into his mouth as he maneuvered them to the bed and shoved her gracelessly down atop the cool black satin.

Severus had given up on being subtle with this woman. If she wanted him half as much as he wanted her and was prepared to accept the lack of commitment or even outward signs of affection, then he would be damned if he'd let the opportunity pass him by. He had expected her to be put off by his customary roughness, but it seemed quite the contrary. Not only had she not been disturbed, she had matched his intensity and seemed to enthusiastically surrender to her own primal nature. Now, she moaned in pleasure beneath him as he teased her nipple between his teeth, her nails drawing thin lines of blood from his arms and shoulders. The pain was exquisite! It fueled his intensity, driving him into a frenzy as he hastily pushed her trousers down shapely legs, careful to avoid the bandage still adhered to her thigh. When he could reach no further, he reluctantly pulled his mouth from her breast, but his willful lover grabbed a handful of black hair and brought his lips back to her own as she kicked the cloth from her legs and used her bare feet to remove his shoes. He chuckled faintly into her mouth. Even her feet were resourceful.

Her fingers gradually unwound from his hair and began to explore elsewhere while strong legs entangled his own. Her hands seemed everywhere at once, roughly kneading his shoulders, back, arms, and hips; occasionally pulling fistfuls of hair to draw his greedy mouth from her own so she could bite and kiss his delicate white throat. Unfastening his trousers with one hand, she used the leverage from the other to roll them both over as she quickly rid him of the rest of his clothing and began to trace kisses down his chest. Taking small bites of his abdomen and thighs, she discovered, caused his breath to come in gasps, licking the wounds extracted moans. And the closer she brought her mouth to his arousal, the more frustrated those moans became. When she finally touched her tongue to the tip, he called her name as if pleading for mercy. She swallowed him in one smooth motion as he balled the blanket into his fists, fighting the desire to begin thrusting into that hot and silken aperture.

Alex, not wanting to end this exquisite pleasure too soon, moved dreadfully slowly now, pausing when his breath became too rapid to caress his swollen member with soft, slow kisses. She wanted to spend all day and night like this; exploring, testing, teasing. His soft moans were intoxicating as were his tiny pleading whispers. It was obvious that he hated how much he wanted her and the knowledge that she was making him more and more desperate was pure ecstasy. She had brought him to the edge now several times and stopped. Too much teasing, though and she feared he would take control again.

Severus was indeed contemplating simply pinning the woman to the bed and taking her. He knew she wouldn't have objected for long, yet something caused him to hesitate. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself and though his frustration was mounting, every time she whispered his name he renewed his resolve to let her have her way. But, now he had reached the end of his patience. She couldn't possibly expect him to endure this much longer.

Both hands reached down and tangled in her hair to drag her back to his waiting lips. She didn't resist, but returned rather willingly and kissed him deeply as she spanned his hips with slender thighs. "Severus?" she whispered, pulling away to gaze deeply into eyes as black as night.

"Yes?" he answered in what would have been a mocking tone had it not been so breathless.

"Do you want me?" she asked with a smirk that she must have picked up from him.

The shock in her golden eyes was unmistakable as he answered simply, "No."

Nevertheless, he seized her hips in an iron grip and positioned himself directly against her tight, slick opening. Her breath quickened as he held her there and stared predatorily into her eyes.

"Do you want me?" he asked. When she didn't answer right away, he pushed the head of his shaft only slightly inside causing her to gasp and dig her nails into his already scraped flesh. "Alex?"

"Yes, please, don't stop. Take me, now. Please." That was the answer he had wanted and he released her, sliding completely inside her warmth with a sigh of pleasure.

Head thrown back, moaning, cursing and whimpering his name all in turn, Alex was captivating to watch as she rocked on top of him matching the movement of her hips with his rhythmic thrusts. Soon they were moving perfectly together, as if they had long been lovers. It was a euphoric dance, punctuated by the rhythm of their breathing.

Severus was coming closer to the edge now and he slowed his thrusts so that he could better please his lover. When he found the right spot, that tiny crucial point of flesh, her fingers dug into his chest and she leaned into his hand, her hair spilling around his face. "Oh, Sev, yes. Right there. Harder, harder." Her pleading continued for only a few moments then she grew quiet as her eyes grew wide and her breathing came in short gasps. Her body went completely ridged a second before she cried out in ecstasy. It was almost enough to drive him over the edge, but not enough. Her body was still convulsing around him as she leaned back, hands on his thighs and began moving with him again, faster this time. It was only a matter of seconds before he shuddered in rapture himself, and she fell forward, collapsing on his chest in blissful contentment. After a few moments, she spoke.

"Severus?"

"Hmm?"

"I think I like you." She turned her head to face him with a sweet smile which he met with a grim look of disapproval.

His response was quiet, but intense. "You're going to get us killed."