Author's Notes: Smutty lemony rough and tumble roll between the sheets. What more can I say. Not sweet cuddly lovemaking by any means. Read at your own risk. In the afterglow, we get more closely acquainted with the professor's exquisite body.

Okay, please review if you like it, and review if you don't. I need some feedback here. Good, bad, indifferent, just let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: None of the characters from the books and movies are mine. Sigh. but maybe a certain potions professor could just be loaned to me for a little while.. Maybe?

Chapter 22: Tensions Ignite

Mira led him by the hand to her bedroom suite.

"I know just the thing to loosen you up. Have you ever had a backrub?"

Snape looked at her with an intrigued look on his face. "No, I can't say I ever have."

"Well now, you're in for quite a treat."

She stepped into the bathroom, handed him a towel, and motioned towards the door. "Why don't you go get out of your wizarding clothes and wrap this around yourself. You can fold your clothes up and leave them on the chair in there."

He stepped into the door of the bathroom, and found it to be pretty much the same as the one in his suite of rooms back at Hogwarts. The bathtub was not quite as large, and there was a fancy dressing table, being a woman's room and all. But nonetheless, it was spacious, well appointed and familiar enough.

As the professor changed clothes, Mira busied herself setting the mood in the room. She lit some fragrant candles, pulled the window shades down, and loaded the CD changer on the small stereo in the corner of her room with relaxing classical music. She removed the fancy coverlet from the bed, fluffed the pillows, and reached onto the bottom shelf of her nightstand and took the phone off the hook.

She looked up as he was exiting the bathroom, arms crossed over his chest, an irritated and self-conscious look on his face.

"Come on, it's okay. Lie down here on the middle of the bed, on your stomach."

She giggled at his modesty and fetched a bottle of scented oil from the bathroom cabinet.

"Now, just relax. Try and let your mind drift."

He looked over his shoulder and shot her a nasty look before settling down. Mira smirked and knelt down on the bed, next to his side. She pushed his hair over and out of the way, and uncorked the bottle of oil. She poured some into her left hand, rested the bottle between her knees, and re-corked it with her right. She reached over his back and set the bottle on the nightstand, careful not to spill any of the oil. She transferred the oil from hand to hand, warming it to body temperature before smoothing it into her palms. She leaned over and ran her hands across his shoulders and upper back, distributing the oil.

"Damn, you really are tense. Come on. Relax. Your entire back is knotted up."

He let out a sigh that ended in a snarl. "Gee, I wonder bloody why?"

"Shhh! Quiet. Let your mind drift. Concentrate on the music."

He shifted on his stomach, and she reached over and began to knead the knotted muscles in his shoulders.

"This isn't gonna work, you're just too tensed up. Here, let me change position." She braced with her hands, and swung her leg over him, straddling his waist. "There, much better. Now I can put some strength behind it."

She continued to work the muscles of his shoulders and upper back. "Don't tense up even more, don't fight it, let your body relax." After a few minutes, he got used to her touch, and started to relax and release his tensions. "Good, you're loosening up some, let your mind drift, and let your body relax." He made a contented purring noise and let out a deep sigh. Mira smiled and started working her way down towards the small of his back. "See, doesn't that feel nice?"

"Quite."

She chuckled under her breath as she felt the tension in his back melt away under her touch. His back was broad and strong, smooth with some faint scarring across it. The marks looked almost as if he had once been lashed with a whip. She furrowed her brows and tried to put the thought out of her mind. But he had been involved in some very dangerous things, and she hoped that the marks weren't what she feared they were. She continued on to the small of his back, finishing up with a series of feather light strokes the length of his back that made him sigh and shift his body underneath her.

Finished with the massage, she leaned over his back, lifted his hair away from his ear and whispered to him: "Now, didn't I tell you that I'd relax you?"

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Finished already?"

She kissed him just below his ear and dragged her lips lightly across the back of his neck. He made a deep throaty rumbling noise and rolled his head to the side. She slid off of his back, onto her hands and knees, and leaned in close to his other ear.

"Oh no, we're just getting started."

He let out a wicked throaty laugh, rose up onto his knees, and grabbed her by the waist. Caught off guard, she cried out as he flipped her down onto her back and pounced on her, straddling her hips and pinning her wrists with his hands.

"Are we now? He said as he grasped both of her wrists with his left hand while reaching down and untying the sash of her kimono robe with the other. He pushed the robe open, and trailed the edge of his fingernails from her stomach to her throat, causing her to shudder. He twined his fingers in the hair on the nape of her neck and lifted her head to meet his kiss. He kissed her roughly, catching her bottom lip between his teeth. She made a soft little whimpering noise and he pulled away and brushed his hair across her chest. Mira gasped, arched her back, and twisted beneath him.

"Patience, Mira.There's no hurry this time."

She twisted her arms, trying to pull free from his grasp.

"I think not." He pulled the sash from beneath her, and deftly bound her wrists to the headboard as she struggled and twisted beneath him, trying to pull free. Her chest was rising and falling with heavy breaths, and she looked up at him with a slightly glazed look in her eyes. He stroked her cheek and leaned in close to her face. "Now, where was I?"

He continued to tease and toy with her until she was writhing and moaning and straining to meet his touch. In one fluid motion, he parted her thighs with his knee and forcefully entered her. She threw her head back and screamed, straining at the bonds on her wrists. He reached up, untied the sash, and started to make love to her, fiercely and intensely. With newly freed hands, she reached up and twined her fingers in his hair and pulled him down against her.

She stroked her face against his cheek, and whispered breathlessly into his ear: "Please. oh God please don't stop." He buried his face into the crook of her neck and bit down on the tender flesh. She gasped and arched her hips against him.

He felt her body starting to tense and her breaths growing shallower, as she was nearing climax. He raised himself up on one elbow and grabbed her throat with the other hand, causing her to gasp. "Not yet." Her body continued to tense, and he tightened his grip on her throat. "I said, not yet." She clenched her teeth and tried to hold back, her breaths restricted to short gasps, a vague look of panic in her eyes. As he finally caught up with her, he released his grip on her throat. "Now, Mira, Now!" She took a deep breath and cried out as they both exploded in waves of ecstasy.

Their passion spent, the couple lay together on Mira's fancy wrought iron bed, in a loose embrace catching their breath. Within minutes, she heard his breathing shift to a deep regular pattern. He had dozed off in the afterglow.

Mira smirked, thinking that at least wizarding and muggle men had one thing in common.

She pushed herself up onto her elbow and watched him sleep. The usual scowl he wore was wiped from his face. He looked quite peaceful actually, with a look of smug satisfaction playing across his face. His long stringy hair fanned out on the pillow. She ran her fingers through it, catching them on tangles. "With just a little shampoo and a good brushing, it would be beautiful" she thought. She brushed some stray locks of hair off of his damp forehead and examined his face more closely.

At first glance, his features were sharp and hawkish. But upon closer inspection, she noticed all the little flaws that were obscured in waking by expression. He had a fine scar running across his right cheek. And his brows had small creases from being furrowed with worry. His nose had been broken, more than once it looked like. And there were faint lines around his eyes and mouth. He had long black eyelashes; she had never noticed his eyelashes before. She brushed them with her fingertip and he stirred in his sleep. He actually had quite a noble face, a face that had weathered half a lifetime, and which had seen many things. In sleep, it was softened. Without the usual sneer or scowl he usually wore, he was a roguishly handsome man.

She stroked his cheek gently and pushed the rumpled sheet off of his torso. He certainly was not a heavily built man, but not frail or overly thin either. He had a powerful but lean physique. Streamlined was a word that came to mind when she thought of his build. She traced her fingers through the fine silky black hair on his chest, and down the path it led towards his stomach. She placed her head on his chest, and listened to his heart beating as his chest slowly rose and fell with each breath. Despite all his flaws, she loved this man. She hadn't fully realized it until the day she woke up from her injuries at Hogwarts and saw him there at her side.

She pulled the sheet to cover his chest, and saw a faint mark on his arm that appeared to be a tattoo. She looked more closely and it appeared more than anything to be a tattoo that had been partially removed. Only a faded residual image of what had once been there. She couldn't quite make it out, but it appeared to be a skull of some sort. She reached out to touch it and he jerked his arm away and flinched in his sleep.

Mira pulled her hand back, puzzled as to why he had reacted like that. She glanced at the bedside clock, realized that she wouldn't be able to get any sleep, and decided to get up and get ready to re-acquaint herself with her hometown.