May – Labour Day (Romanian)
There was just ten days between Easter and Labour Day. I found myself counting down the hours of every one of them. It was ridiculously hard to concentrate at work and I was grateful my time off had been approved. If I had to work through another one of Charlie's stays, I might implode.
Of course, just a half hour before I was due to leave and go get ready to meet Charlie, a patient came in. His story was a bit too familiar for comfort. He came across an unhatched dragon egg and thought he could handle it. Things were apparently going well until the small creature learned to bite and caused the owner an infection. Due to the illegal nature of his pet, he avoided coming in until it was full blown and the infection was threatening his arm.
Getting his injury under control took nearly two hours and I had no time to let Charlie know I'd be late. When I was confident the patient was stable and in capable hands, I nearly ran out of the hospital.
I arrived home to Charlie napping on my couch. He looked so peaceful and handsome. Finding him there brought warmth to my heart. The feeling was utterly overwhelming. It was right then that I realized I had very quickly fallen in love with the man.
Hanging up my healer's robes and casting a quick spell to freshen up from the hard day, I climbed next to Charlie and snuggled up. He stirred a bit. "You're home?"
The way he said home only made me swoon further. "I'm home. Sorry I got caught up with a patient."
"Just glad you're here." He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in closer.
We woke together several hours later. Apparently, we both needed the sleep. Together, we cooked dinner and settled in to watch a movie. While we wanted to be able to go out and about, it just didn't feel right at this point. Charlie's family didn't know that he was home and if someone spotted us there would be more explaining than it was worth.
Quite honestly, I was happy hanging out at home. I spent long hours at work and when I did have down time it seemed a lot of it was filled with social obligations. Those hadn't been so bad lately because Charlie was at most of them, still, it was nice to have a few days of uninterrupted time for just the two of us.
As we watched the movie, I was aware of just how close Charlie and I were. It was becoming hard to focus on the movie as his fingertips drew circles on my shoulder. I looked up to find him staring at me instead of the movie.
"Hi." I said with a small smile.
"Hi." That was all that needed to be said. He felt the tension building between us as much as I did and he leaned in to kiss me.
Like all the times our mouths met, tingles shot through me. But this time it was slightly different. Charlie's hand came around the back of my neck and his fingers threaded into my hair. The position we were in wasn't the most comfortable to get closer. And I needed to get closer.
Sitting up a bit, I swung my leg over Charlie's lap. He made a low groan in his throat as I ground into him. Our lips were everywhere. I wanted to kiss every part of him and he seemed to want the same. As his mouth moved lower, he took a second to suck on a spot on my neck that caused my stomach to clench and my hips moved harder into his.
"Be careful Mione."
"Mmmm. I know what I'm doing."
That caught his attention. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "I've never been more. Please."
Heat flared in his eyes and I swear I could see his pupils dilating. "Not here. Your room?"
Instead of answering, I climbed off him and led him towards my bed. Our hands were everywhere. Charlie's strong fingers dipped below my shirt and the contact of skin on skin caused me to gasp in pleasure. His hands rode up, taking my shirt with it.
Goosebumps broke out over my skin as Charlie's eyes raked hungrily over me.
"It seems that you're a bit over dressed." Charlie smirked as I took my turn removing his shirt.
His abs were toned to perfection and I couldn't help but notice the tattoo on his pec. It was a small dragon and my fingers reached out to trace over it. As I did so, the small creature let out a puff of smoke from its nostrils. I recoiled my hand in surprise.
"Got it from a friend who specializes in magical tattoos."
"It's adorable!"
He grabbed my hand and placed it over the creature. It tickled to touch it, but this time I didn't back away. Instead, when he let go of my hand, I dragged my hands further down. His sharp intake of breath told me he was just as affected as I was.
My hands reached his belt and I began to undo it. He stopped me. "I've got to ask one more time. Are you sure? I know this hasn't been going on long. I don't want to rush it."
That caused a laugh to bubble over. "Char, we've been dancing around this since New Year's. Every encounter has been like foreplay. If I don't have a release soon, I'm going to explode. If you don't take care of me tonight, I'll have to do it myself."
The look of shock on his face was worth my brave words. I've never done something like that before, but I knew I needed to say something that would tell him I needed this one way or another.
"What kind of gentleman would I be to deny you what you so desperately need?"
"Now he understands!" I said exasperatedly.
It was his turn to laugh. Seconds later though, he was serious once again. We picked up where we left off. Our clothes quickly disappeared as we moved to the bed.
Charlie hovered over me. Our hands roamed as we were finally able to fully explore each other's bodies. There was a moment of panic as my hand closed around him.
Charlie was much larger than I had ever seen and I wondered exactly how he was going to fit. He must have sensed my apprehension.
"Don't worry love. We'll take it slow. If at any point you want to stop, you just say the word."
"I want this, Char."
"Me too."
And then there wasn't extra breath for words. He began to kiss down my body taking time to lavish my breasts before continuing his journey south. Even breathing became difficult as he kissed my belly button and down to the inside of my thighs.
"Char, please." My back was arching as I sought some form of pressure to provide even a fraction of the relief I craved.
He must have sensed the desperation in my voice, because he stopped teasing and finally gave me what I so desperately needed. He took his time with me, giving long licks and suckling just right. But when he added two fingers and crooked them just so, it wasn't long before I was falling over the delightful edge of orgasm.
When the aftershocks had subsided, he finally lifted his face to look at me. Words failed me as I took in his smug smile.
"Enjoy that, did you?"
I pushed his shoulder playfully. Feeling was slowly returning to my body as I tried to get him to roll over so I could return the favor. He resisted and I looked at him questioningly.
"You're not the only one who has been waiting for this. If you put your mouth on me, it's all over. Let me make love to you."
"As if I can say no to that."
And make love to me he did. Charlie took great care to be careful, entering me ever so slowly as I stretched and pulsed around him. Normally I prefer the dark and close my eyes when I'm intimate with someone, but I couldn't look away from Charlie's face. I could see the amount of control it was taking him to make sure I was comfortable along with pure adoration.
He continued at an agonizingly slow but beyond pleasurable pace. His eyes kept locked on mine, and this time when I fell, I took him with me. The whole thing was like an out of body experience. I had never felt so much pleasure and intimacy. My past experiences had been mostly rushed and quite frankly not that great. This was on a different planet.
Several minutes after we finished, I was still breathing hard and my body was still thrumming with aftershocks.
"I had no idea sex could be like that." I said when I finally had caught my breath.
Charlie was holding me close to him. "Me either. That was incredible."
"Really?"
"Really. Not that I've ever been overly promiscuous, despite my reputation, but that was..." His voice trailed off. "I can't even describe it. Just that you've completely ruined me."
"You and me both." I laughed.
We laid there, quietly talking until we both fell into a peaceful slumber.
The next two days were much the same. We shared delightful meals together, watched movies, played card games and spent plenty of time getting to know each other in every way possible. I was in utter bliss. Having Charlie all to myself was everything I wished for and I was already dreading him having to return to the reserve.
He did a good job of distracting me from those thoughts though. Around lunch time on his third day home, we abandoned our food making efforts and ended up sleeping together on the couch. We had just finished giving each other black out inducing orgasms when the floo flared to life. Charlie was still inside me and there was no way for him to disappear before whoever it was came through. As it was, there was barely enough time to gather the throw from the back of the couch over our naked bodies before the visitor made themselves known.
The long, bright red hair of Ginny Weasley was unmistakable. She took in our position and her hands flew to her face.
"Merlin, Hermione, I had no idea!"
Charlie had his face buried between my neck and the couch so I have no idea if she realized who it was. I could feel the bastard chuckling on top of me.
"Um, do you think you could give me a minute to get dressed before you explain what this is about?"
She turned around, but didn't leave the room and I wondered if she was trying to get a glimpse of who I was with.
Charlie eased out of me and I had to hold back the gasp that threatened to escape. He could have easily gone again and I was all for it before our interruption.
I cast a quick cleaning spell on us both and tossed Charlie his lounge pants before hurrying to dress myself.
Our eyes met and I tried to ask him without speaking what we should do, but he just shrugged it off. Clearly he wasn't that upset at his sister having just caught us. I suppose he was right though. Of all the people who could have discovered us, Ginny was the last one that was going to tell other people or freak out.
"We're decent."
Ginny turned around, a hand still clasped over her eyes. "Are you sure? Because I love you, but I don't need to see all your lady bits."
I laughed despite the situation. "I promise."
She removed her hand and her eyes darted back and forth between me and her brother. "Hermione, why is my brother sitting half naked on your couch?"
"Um, well, you see..." I found I was having trouble forming words. Not something I usually had issues with.
Charlie grabbed my hand in his. "Mione and I are seeing each other."
He stated it so matter of fact that I don't think Ginny registered it immediately. Turned out, she was just running over our past interactions in her mind.
"So that's where you kept disappearing to at Easter. How long has this been going on?"
I chewed my bottom lip. "Since New Year's I suppose." I looked to Charlie for confirmation.
"Sounds right. That was our first unofficial date and our first kiss."
Ginny plopped herself down in the chair that sat next to the couch as she began to process everything. "You've been seeing each other four months and didn't tell me?"
She looked hurt and that was the las thing I wanted. I got up and sat on the arm of the chair so I could pull her in for a side hug. "We weren't hiding it to hurt anyone. We started exchanging letters after that first night. It wasn't until March that we really decided to give it a shot. But being long distance, we didn't know how we would make it work so we decided to keep it between us until we know that we are in this for the long term. Long distance relationships are hard enough without input from others."
She looked at me then. "Mum, you mean. Relationships are hard enough without mum breathing down your neck and mentioning marriage every five minutes."
"Exactly." Charlie chimed in. "And if mum found out that everyone else knew but her, she would be heart broken. So we decided we would keep it to ourselves for now."
Ginny agreed heartily and we were quiet for a few moments until my curiosity got the best of me.
"What made you stop by? Not that I'm upset or anything, just you know I'd normally be working."
"Exactly. I had the day off so I stopped by St. Mungos to see if you were free for lunch. I was told that you were on holiday and thought it was odd since you hadn't mentioned anything. I was stopping by to make sure you were ok. I had no idea it was a legit holiday to shack up with my brother!"
My face heated as I buried it in Charlie's shoulder.
"Yes, and if you don't mind sweet little sister of mine, I'd really like to get back to our previous activities."
"Charlie!" I chastised, thoroughly embarrassed.
Ginny just laughed, but got up anyways. "I can see where I'm not wanted."
She was getting ready to go, but Charlie seemed to have an idea. "Hey, Gin, do you think you could do us a favor?"
"Yes, I promise to keep it a secret. Not from Harry though. Finances don't count. Besides, he has super security clearance. He won't say anything."
"That's great and I appreciate it, but that's not what I was talking about. Mione and I only get a very short amount of time when I'm here, and some of that is while we are with family."
Understanding dawned on her face. "You want me to run interference?"
"Exactly."
Ginny looked between the two of us once again. "You two are clearly smitten with each other. I'd be happy to help create a bit of a distraction when you need it."
Sometimes, I really loved my best friend. "That means a lot to us, Gin."
"You're my best friend. It's practically my job. We're definitely getting together after that one leaves though." She pointed a finger in Charlie's direction as she grabbed some floo powder and disappeared.
After she left, Charlie and I talked it over. We were glad that there was someone on our side and he was glad I had someone to talk to. I agreed and we went back to soaking up as much time with each other as we could get before having to say goodbye.
When that time did come, I was surprised to find a few tears slip passed my lashes. Charlie swiped at them with his thumbs and kissed the tracks.
"Don't cry, love. You make me so incredibly happy and I am cherishing every second we have together. Just trust me that this will all work out. Ok?"
I nodded and closed the distance between us. It wasn't shocking to me to find that though our physical time was together, I had grown extremely close to the man in my arms. I trusted him with every fiber of my being and if he saw a way to make this work, I was willing to deal with the time apart.