The game was going on longer than anticipated.

Lunch and tea had come and gone, and now they were enjoying dinner, complete with a very expensive wine, all on Malfoy's munificence. Normally, Hermione would protest a date spending so much upon her, but he had asked her to come to Norway with him and she was having so much fun…

…And the wine had gone entirely to her head if she thought this was a 'date', so much as two old acquaintances reconnecting over outrageous memories and boredom with a scrimmage game that seemed never ending.

They were each turned towards the other to talk, having lost interest in who was doing what outside the window, caught up in funny stories about their days at school.

"Did he really?" Hermione asked after Draco had relayed a hilarious attempt by Blaise Zabini to sneak into the Gryffindor common room during their sixth year, after one of Slughorn's disastrous dinner parties. "He never gave any indication that he'd liked Gin! We all thought he'd hated her, in fact."

Her companion scoffed. "He's been cock-over for Little Red since her fourth year, when she went with Longbottom to the Yule Ball. Too bloody proud and stubborn to admit it, though."

Hermione considered that. "Well, she's perfectly available now, if he wants to try again."

"What about Potter? Aren't they on-again, off-again every five minutes?"

She sputtered and nearly lost her drink all over the seat as she giggled over his presumption. "Er, no. There's no chance there of a reconciliation. Harry's found someone else. Ginny's as free as a bird, last I'd heard from her a few weeks ago." She finished off her wine in one go and handed her glass off to him. Draco took it and set it and his own glass aside on a tray nearby, as she sat back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. "Always bridesmaids, never brides, the both of us."

"So…you're not interested in reconciliation with the Weasel King?"

She chuckled. "No, most definitely not. Ron and I haven't been together since I was nineteen."

There was a thump as a Bludger hit the front window and bounced off, thanks to the warding upon it. She glanced over to absently note a winter storm was coming in, as the wind gave a shriek and a heavy snow began to fall. As usual, the game carried on despite the inclement weather, and the competition seemed too fierce to break off anytime soon, anyway.

It seemed it would be a long game again.

Not that she minded. She was in good company, after all.

"Potter then?" Draco pressed the issue, seemingly determined to reveal her dateless existence. "You always seemed close-"

She laughed again. "Nope. Never."

"Then how did you get a seat in the private box? Usually, only family or romantic partners get them. I mean, I got mine through the Black-family connections, but I just I assumed… I mean, Potter and Weasley are your-"

Turning her head, she grinned at him. "Not even close. If you must know, Mr. Nosy Slytherin, I demanded it for helping them get together!"

It took a minute for Draco to catch on.

"No!" he shouted in surprised denial, and then his face cracked and he began cackling like a mad wizard on a bad mushroom trip. He even bounced around in his seat as if he'd just won the lottery. "Holy shit! Are you telling me those two clowns are-?"

"In love and quite happy," she said very seriously and gave him a baleful eye to keep him from joking about it. "And not ready to come out to the rest of the world yet, despite having told the family, so if you tell anyone else, I'll castrate you with a well-cast curse I'll invent for the occasion."

He sobered, but his lips twitched with amusement.

"Alright, what will you give me to keep quiet, Granger? Convince me to shut my mouth and keep the juiciest secret in the world."

She gaped at him and sat up.

"I just told you I'd curse your-"

"You will not."

"I will," she promised.

"You like me too much to jeopardize the family jewels, love."

If it was possible for her jaw to fall to her feet, it would have in that moment.

"I…I don't like you."

Draco leaned towards her until their noses bumped. "You do."

"You're funny and you ply me with snacks as no other man ever has, but… I mean… Me like you? As in a sexual or romantic fashion?"

He hummed and his mouth buzzed along hers in a way that was enticing.

"You do. And I like you in exactly the same way," he admitted.

Oh, god, his breath smelled like the wine they'd been drinking and the delicious cinnamon-apple turnovers they'd enjoyed earlier for dessert! How good would he actually taste, she wondered.

"Oh?" she asked, staring him in the eye as their lips rubbed together. "How much do you…like me, then?"

He smiled against her mouth.

"Enough to buy up all of the remaining V.I.P. box seat tickets on Puddlemere's home turf once I knew the center seat was yours."

"You-?" Her eyes went wide and her heart began pumping so hard she was sure it could be used to power the entire city of London for a century. "Why would you-?"

"I told you: ever since that night at the Yule Ball, you've been my most tempting treat of all," he said right before he turned his head and claimed her lips briefly, teasing her as he always did into giving in to his desires for her. "I never could resist sweet things."

Me, either, she thought, as she fell into his kiss with full enthusiasm.

It was only when she came up for air sometime later that she realized Draco had been right from the start: some tastes were sinful.

~.~.~.~.~

She couldn't believe they'd-

In front of the window.

Where everyone could see.

Granted, there'd been a snowstorm that had practically caused a white-out, and aside from a few stragglers, there weren't many fans in the stadium left, and the Quidditch players…well, they'd been rather engrossed in their game.

Still.

She sighed with pleasure as Draco pressed back inside her, sliding deep and true until the heavy length of him bottomed out and she was deliciously stretched and aching for more.

"Mmm," he agreed with her unspoken sentiment and moved at a lazy pace.

She was splayed out under him on her chair, naked and sweaty from their previous exertions, and it was going on two o'clock in the morning, and all she could think about was how good he felt inside her…and how in a few hours they'd be having cappuccino and morning pastries together—the soft, fluffy kind with the raspberry and cream cheese filling.

Her nails tightened on his shoulders and she pulled him closer.

"You are so beautiful," he whispered as he kissed a path down her throat and gripped her hips. "I love these curves, Granger. I fucking adore them." His mouth took possession of hers as he thrust harder into her, his arousal peaking again. "Keep them for me, yes?"

She agreed as she gasped his name and shattered again for him, her thighs shaking and her mind reeling, every sense breathing him in and deciding right then he'd be the one temptation she would forever crave, too.

TO BE CONCLUDED...

Author's Note:

One final Epilogue to go!