Thanks for all the faves, reviews and follows!
So...let's start the consummation :D. This'll be in 2 parts. It'll be a naughtier M tomorrow. Yes, I'm being evil and making you wait...
Sumi stood waiting in the large, brightly lit kitchen with a floating silver serving tray on which sat two flutes of elf-made champagne. Her grin split her small face. "Married." She gave an excited squeak and clapped her hands. "My family!"
Severus offered Hermione her glass and they toasted each other with a clink of crystal.
He lifted an eyebrow. "I was promised cake?"
Sumi's grin slipped into something more like one of her master's smirks. "A heavy stomach, not right for now." She flipped her hands and the tray vanished. "Away with you both."
With a sharp crack, she vanished leaving them alone in the sunlit kitchen.
Hermione's face was hot at the little elf's implication, the heat deepening as Severus took the flute from her suddenly damp hand. He placed the glasses on the low, teak counter and threaded his fingers through hers. His wedding ring pressed to her skin and her heart skipped.
"Come with me, please, Madam Snape." His soft voice caught her senses and for a moment she was almost dizzy.
"You know…" She bit her lip and the brief prick of pain cleared her thoughts. "I'm not experienced, Severus."
He stroked a fingertip over her reddened bottom lip. "My dear wife, when would you have found the time between saving your friends and the world?"
She half-laughed, her throat suddenly tight. She wrinkled her nose. "Others managed."
"Hermione…" He cupped her cheek, her jaw with his large, callused palm. His thumb brushed across her lips, causing them to burn deliciously. Dark eyes held her with sure warmth. "It honestly doesn't matter to me." His gaze dipped to her mouth and a line appeared across his forehead. He was struggling with his need to be honest again. To expose his inner self to her. "My concern is that I will disappoint you."
Hermione kissed the tip of his thumb and it pushed a smile across his mouth. It was time to admit another secret. "We're overthinking. I want you. I have for a while."
He wet his lips, his touch of nervousness almost endearing. "And if we are confessing…interest, I have to say that my gaze may have strayed to you more than necessary. Since your parting from Mr Weasley, that is." Something sparked in his gaze. "Whilst you were with him. Possibly…"
Her chest lifted. The idea of a properly mutual interest, beyond the vagaries of amortentia and before the law forced them into action, was simply…lovely.
Severus pressed a light kiss to her lips before he stepped away, and towards the open door. "I made you a promise. Every bed and every room." He smirked at her, his endlessly black eyes so very wicked. "And I always keep my promises."
Her belly flip-flopped and she followed him up the softly carpeted stairs. Severus led her into a large bedroom, dominated by a dark wood, four poster bed. Swags of damask hung from each post and the cover of the bed was sprinkled with an arrangement of orange blossom, white rose petals and gardenias.
Severus chuckled. "Sumi is such a romantic." With a sweep of his wand, he collected the flowers, shrank them, and pressed them into a shining crystal sphere. He offered it to her.
"And you're not?" she murmured, turning the softly illuminated sphere with its shining petals and buds, the light scent of the flowers changing as her fingertips touched the crystal. "It's beautiful. Thank you."
He eased it from her fingers and set it on the tall cabinet beside the bed. "Your wand please?" She offered it and it joined his on the cabinet. Her belly tightened. Something about that was so…intimate. He drew her to him, breaking the strange spell weaving through her at the sight of their wands nestled together. "I believe we have more experimentation to pursue."
Hermione's heart pounded. She wanted this. With him. If she was honest with herself, she'd wanted it all summer…but she'd fallen in with the expectation of others and agreed to go out with Ron. She was happy to see sense. "We have. Which theory should be prove this time?"
His fingers played along the shoulder of her transfigured sundress. "That by simply kissing you, I can drive you to orgasm."
His smile was dark and sure…and she so wanted to believe that he could do just that. Her mouth parted, her lips dry. She swallowed. "Yes, that would be something I would like to investigate."
A whispered spell and the buttons at the back of her dress slipped through, the material suddenly loosening around her chest. He winked and that single, so-unexpected gesture broke a gasp from her as slow fingers teased her dress away.
"As a man of many buttons, this is a needed charm."
She breathed through her nervousness. Not even Ron's blundering attempts had achieved anywhere near this level of nakedness. The material pooled around her feet, warm and soft. Her hands twitched wanting to cover the silk fripperies Sumi had insisted upon, too aware, in that moment, of crossing the line from young woman to wife.
A long finger lifted her chin and Severus' sure gaze held her. "You are fierce and compassionate. And so beautiful." He tucked an escaping strand of her hair behind her hair and she curled into his light touch. "It'll be my honour, my pleasure to stand with you as you become a great witch."
Hermione closed her eyes, desperate to find some control before his words toppled her over into sobbing on him, just like Sumi. With this Severus beside her, she felt almost…invincible.
Her courage flared. She traced her fingers down each of the familiar buttons of his frock coat. The forbidden feeling that came with it was delicious. "I think both of us will get a lot from this partnership." Her mouth ticked up at the corner and she looked at him under her lashes. "What would you like, Severus?"
His chest rose on a deepened breath and the look he gave her scorched. "You. On that bed. Now."
With a little smirk, she jumped up on the high bed, the turned-down sheets cool against her skin. Her heart thudded. This was real. This was happening. Not some fevered dream in the still-dingy room marked for her use in Grimmauld Place.
Severus murmured his charm and the buttons on his frock coat parted. He shrugged out of it, dropping it across a nearby chair. His fingers paused in unbuttoning his trousers and he fixed his gaze on her. His mouth curled into a deliciously wicked smile. "Are you adequately prepared for our experiment, Madam Snape?"
Her head was light from the rapid pulse of her blood. Tension strained her flesh. There'd never been such anticipation before. Ron's half-whined, "Come on, Hermione. You can do more than that!" hadn't prepared her for a wizard who played her body through her mind.
"I…"
He freed the first two buttons and tugged his shirt free. Another murmur and the white material slipped from his chest, arms, back and Hermione stared. He was carved from alabaster, lean, but defined and the only thought that ran through her head was that she needed to lick the sharp line of his collarbone. Taste his skin. Kiss him. Everywhere.
She blinked and he stood there in only the smooth blackness of his underwear. His very-much-tented underwear.
Her courage faltered. "Merlin, Severus, that'll never fit!"
His rich laughter wrapped around her and she blushed. "Oh, Hermione, my sweet girl." His amusement died away at her strained silence and he climbed into the bed beside her. The drapes fell in a whisper around the bed. A lamp high above the headboard cast a soft, golden light and dropped its gold into the depth of his eyes.
He propped himself up with his head on his hand, the sheets rumpled over his hip. His very casualness eased the almost panicked thud of her heart. "I will not push you, Hermione. We have a month to consummate our marriage—"
"I'm not waiting a month!"
She slapped her hand to her mouth and shut her eyes, mortified. What was she doing? One minute, she was the outraged maiden, the next, desperate for him. Could she be more obviously gauche?
"Hermione…"
Her name was spoken in a whisper, warm and offering something that made her want to cling to him. She risked one eye and found him with an arm out ready to hold her. She shuffled forward and slipped a nervous arm around his waist.
The first touch of his skin eased through her. Smooth, hot to the touch, with the faded lines of old scars there under her fingertips. She pressed her head to his chest and his hand stroked down her spine. The thin trail of hair drawing a line up his stomach tickled. And his erection, his erection pressed into her belly. Alien…but wanted.
"This is new to you." His voice rumbled against her ear, mixing with the solid thump of his heart. "You want it, but how have you prepared? You're Hermione Granger, bookworm, my little know-it-all," a smile took the sting out of that insult turned endearment, "but no book can truly make you ready. And you have read widely around the subject, haven't you?"
Her laugh was wry, embarrassed. "As you said, I thought I should prepare. It wasn't…" How could she talk about her few unedifying moments with Ron, when Severus, her husband, held her?
His fingers traced down the hollow of her spine, slow, steady and then up again. Her eyes closed and her breathing eased. It was bliss. "What is your experience? And I won't be offended by anything you share."
"I never did this with him. With…Ron. It was always so furtive. He'd pull me into a cupboard." She shuddered and Severus hummed, his fingertips deepening their stroke until she calmed again. What had she done to deserve him? She smiled against his chest and absently kissed him. His cock twitched against her belly and she blinked. Reluctantly, she pushed her mind back to Ron. "He'd touch me over my clothes. Mainly my…breasts. Oh and lacklustre kissing."
She pressed herself closer. "Everything about it –and him— was rushed and sloppy and wet."
"Have you ever brought yourself to orgasm, Hermione?"
She stilled and almost groaned. All right, how did she admit to this one?
"Hermione…?"
She winced. "Yes."
"And why is this embarrassing you?" His fingers paused against her spine and his cock seemed to push against her, growing harder, lengthening still further. His low, dark voice wound through her flesh. "Did thoughts of me aid you?"
She nodded against his chest and for a long moment he was silent. Tense. His mouth pressed to her hair and he let out a long breath. "So where would you like us to begin?"
"But, you, this…" She moved against his erection and he hissed. "See?"
He brushed her hair back form her face and held her gaze. "I am not a boy. I will survive. Now..." He lifted his eyebrow and the simple action skittered heat under her skin. Merlin, an eyebrow shouldn't be that…sexual. "We shall we begin where?"
Hermione looked down and let out a slow breath. The taut skin across his collarbone prickled under the brush of air. It pulled a smile from her. "Kissing." After all, when could she refuse an opportunity to learn? She met his dark gaze, her voice growing more sure. "I want you to kiss me, please."
He traced a light fingertip along her bottom lip, before his mouth dipped to hers. "As you wish."
And I have finished this - for all but the editing it gets when I first copy it across to . So after this chapter, there're another 2 full ones and a teensy epilogue.
Please review, I do love them! :D