A/N: I decided to give Draco lots and lots of sex before I make him realize the magnitude of his dilemma. Silly boys, they're so easily distracted. But I'm putting him through a lot in this and wanted to throw the poor kid a bone. Please review! Chapters gotta go up like mad!
… … …
He stared at the obvious source of her discomfort, then down to her grimacing face. Draco started to feel… well, he wasn't quite sure, but he was stirred up to act.
He ripped apart the tape and was going to pull it right off her, but saw that it had rubbed against her with such friction that it broke the surface of her skin, forcing him to peel it slowly, minding what must be stinging abrasions. Hermione was silent, but back to biting that poor bottom lip. Why did he have to tie her up so tightly, or so high above her head? Or even rock the headboard so much. This was entirely his fault.
"Did I have any Essence of Murtlap?" he asked hurriedly.
"It broke in the sink," answered Hermione at last, exhaling deeply. "Besides, it's not my wrists I can't handle, it's my should-" but Hermione groaned out loud as Draco tried to sit her up and let her put her arms down. "Ow, ow, ow," she muttered while freezing in a still position, holding her arms straight up above her head.
"Your shoulders?" he queried.
"… I think I strained something…" she said quietly, "Oh… I can barley move… Do you know any potion remedies for pulled muscles?"
Draco furrowed his brow in thought, "No," he replied harshly, "I'd make one but I don't have any Milkweed…" He didn't know why he sounded so irritated; he just wanted the situation resolved. He wanted to fix her so he wouldn't have to feel…bad… about it anymore.
Hermione was moving very slowly—apparently every kind of movement hurt—as she pulled her tank top down. Draco couldn't stand it.
"Your hands were freezing," he commented worriedly.
"Really?" she said, "I can't feel them. I think they're asleep, my circulation was cut off," she tried to make a fist but didn't even come close to curling her fingers before groaning and giving up. Her wrists were still red and fat, swollen from all the binding and pulling. Then she tried to shrug her shoulders, as if maybe stretching would stop the cramping, but she just winced. "I'm going to be so stiff," she complained.
Draco had put his pants back on hastily and climbed out of the bed. He ran off into the bathroom to check his cabinet even though he knew he didn't have anything useful in there.
"Do you have any Ibuprofen?" he heard Hermione call out from his room, "Or Tylenol?"
Draco poked his head around the door frame, "What's that?"
Hermione sighed, "Never mind… muggle stuff," she added when Draco's expression looked unsatisfied. Then suddenly Draco's eyes lit up.
"Here," he said, summoning a robe from the living room with his wand. "C'mon, I know what we can do."
Hermione groaned and tried to protest but Draco was pulling her up and pushing her down the hall.
"Ouch," she cried whenever he touched her shoulders.
"Sorry," Draco muttered, anxious and in a hurry to rid himself of these strange feelings of responsibility and apparently, guilt.
"Where are we going?" she questioned, baffled as Draco did what was necessary to open the door and scoot her out into the hallway. Next thing Draco was guiding her across the quiet, empty city street in front of his building with the palm of his hand pressed against the small of her back, after her repeated refusal to let him take her by the hand, as he kept forgetting how tender she was.
He was running her up to the storefront of some business among the various shops across the street.
"It's the middle of the night Malfoy," Hermione commented in confusion, "What are we doing at… "Jim's Gym?"" she read the shabby blue lighted sign bewilderedly.
"It's ok," he answered, "I know the guy. He runs a pretty small clientele. The secret is he never locks the door in case anyone wants a midnight workout."
"How nice of him," Hermione said in annoyance, "But I don't feel much like bench pressing at the moment!"
"No, no," Draco said distractedly, "There's, like, some muggle stuff here," he explained, "Jim gave it to some guy after he dropped a dumbbell and ripped a tricep."
Hermione, somewhat intrigued, followed him into the little gym. It was empty except for the two of them. Draco flicked on the lights.
"Wait just a second," he said as he went towards the back, passed all the equipment and weight racks and punching bags to the row of lockers on the back wall.
"Here," he said returning to Hermione who had been looking around with interest and handing her a tube of goo.
"IcyHot?" she said with a laugh.
"It will help right?" he asked pleadingly.
"Yeah, this will be great," she said, and Draco finally relaxed a little. "But first I'm getting in there," she said with a point.
Draco looked over and saw her referring to the jacuzzi. He gazed back at her with a smile like she was joking, but realized she wasn't. "No, Granger," he said, "There's no time for that."
But Hermione was shaking her head and headed over to the controls. "It says right there on the side, "Ultimate Athletic Physical Therapy Spa"," and she turned on the jets. "Turn around," she said, untying the neck of her robe. She was not given any time to put any bottoms on, though neither seemed to find the ludicrousness of her request due to what they had just got done doing less than fifteen minutes ago. Draco himself, however, had run across the street shirtless in his rush.
With a moaning whine he turned around and back again, giving up attempts to talk her out of an idea with which she was obviously very pleased and set upon, and rightly so as she was already in the water sinking down up to her chin. Positioning her shoulders in front of jets she said, "I can't relax with you standing out there all awkward."
Draco just sighed and, realizing that he too had some pretty sore loins, slipped off his jeans and hopped into his own built-in groove designed for lounging.
The hot, hot water did feel very nice. And the jets were very helpful. He felt the effects of the whiskey he had been sipping on all day for the first time, not too mention general fatigue. He had to be careful or he'd fall asleep.
He looked over at Hermione. She was trying to relax, taking deep breathes, but she kept slipping a little, each time shuddering with pain as her shoulder blades shifted. This frustrated him to witness, it kept that stupid guilty feeling lingering around.
He lifted his hands out of the water to rub the drunkenness out of his eyes. Hoping he had sobered his vision he looked back at Hermione, but she was transfixed on his arm. Self-consciously he dunked his left forearm back underneath the foamy bubbles.
"Lupin reckons he can remove those," she said matter-of-factly.
Draco smirked, "Remove the Dark Mark?" he questioned with a scoff. What a feeble joke.
But Hermione's face remained serious.
"Nothing removes the Dark Mark," Draco asserted in a tone that clearly showed he was not amused. But Hermione said nothing, she just slipped down a little bit again, grimacing as she caught herself. She struggled to position herself in front of the jets again.
"Come over here," he directed, "the seats are deeper.
Again Hermione said nothing but took his advice and sat in the groove next to him.
"Where does it hurt?" he questioned.
"Right here," she gestured, "No matter which way I swing my arm or try to lift it."
"That's your rotary cuff," Draco explained as he reached behind her, "It's a bad thing to injure," he added as he tried to knead her shoulder joints with his thumbs.
Hermione's neck seemed to go limp with relief from the back rub but she gave a sneering laugh, "Is it?" she said sarcastically, "Well gee, maybe I should've thought of that before I so foolishly granted you permission to climb all over me and practically dislocate my wrists, not to mention my shoulders!" Draco stopped moving his thumbs but hung stiff onto her shoulders as she continued animatedly, "Silly me, inviting myself into these situations… but wait, oh yes, that's right, I didn't."
Draco stumbled over his words at first, taken aback by her accusing tone. Granted he had known he was forcing it on her and he had been okay with it at the time… But would he still continue to be now that it was all said and done…
"Well it's not like I knew I tied you so tight!" he finally rebutted, taking his hands away, "Your wrists have gone down already anyway, and, and…didn't hear any problems at the time," he jeered, implying snidely to her screaming orgasm, "Why didn't you just say something if it was going to hurt you?"
"What? You mean like "Untie me"? Yes, I'm sure that would've worked marvelously!"
Again Draco just about sputtered, "What…? You mean to say…" he looked at her with confusion, "that earlier, you really fancied a shag?"
"No!" cried Hermione, almost too firmly, shaking her head, "No, not at all… It's just that… that you were… you were rubbing yourself on me."
After carefully deliberating Draco broke into a smug smirk, feeling delightfully vindicated, "So you wanted to get your little muggle hands on a real magic wand did you?"
Hermione gave a scoff of a laugh and rolled her eyes at the ridiculous line, "You are drunk," she concluded in a huff.
But Draco did not stop looking at her in self-satisfied fashion. She just stared right back defiantly, obviously trying to hide her anger yet still blushing brightly with embarrassment.
Despite Draco's gloating, they both must have been visualizing that scenario in their minds, as the air became palpable with aroused tension.
Somehow, Draco knew to expect it just a second before it happened. As Hermione made to get up he helped her over, straddling him in his built-in seat. The blood must have returned to her hands, because Hermione could move her fingers again as she ran them through Draco's blonde locks, kissing him sensually. Draco welcomed any of her movements openly, savagely kissing her back.
"Get this off of me," she demanded hastily, referring to her wet tank top.
Draco, guessing it must still be difficult to lift her arms up over her head, kindly ripped it down the middle. Hermione just smiled as he slipped it off over her shoulders, "Now your boxers," she said, resting her forearms on his shoulders where the must have been most comfortable to her.
Draco obeyed without question, looking at her like Christmas had come so unbelievingly early. She ignored his eager eyes and returned to kissing his mouth.
Hermione's shoulders either felt better, or she didn't care about any discomfort just then, because she wrapped her arms around his neck. Draco, following her lead, strongly embraced her.
Their chests were pressed together and Draco shivered from the touch of so much of her skin against his. She moved down to kiss his neck, then as much of his chest that she could before she met the level of the water. She returned to his face, took his hands and placed them on her breasts as she rose up a bit to reposition herself over his jutting member. She was stroking her fingertips up and down his pectorals, making his entire body shake and quiver. Then she sat down onto him, filling herself with his cock.
The shock was so amazing that he was momentarily paralyzed. Her, the hot bubbly water… he was woozy. But she had already started lifting herself up a bit, only to slide back down on him, moaning softly to herself.
He was relieved he needn't do much. She was busy doing what was necessary to please herself.
He was still very much sore and tired from exerting himself earlier and now, what with his last bender having had enough time to sink into his blood stream, he was very tipsy and would likely be a very sloppy lay if left to his own devices. He didn't mind at all Hermione taking charge, only having to sit back and enjoy. And he did so immensely as he watched her stunning form rock up and down against him over and over again, moaning and humming.
All he really had to do was focus on not blowing off before she did; something that wasn't ever really a problem for him, yet on this occasion proving to be a tad worrisome. She was rolling her hips against his in a most erotic way, taking her own initiative to maneuver him inside her to press on just the right spots. Her murmurs were murder, and the expression on her face enough to make any hot blooded male loose it. Her enthusiasm while riding him felt beyond good. The fact that she received so much pleasure from him and his essential body parts was dangerous in the hands of someone with his ego.
But there was a bit of hope for him, her face was bright red again and she was already starting to shiver. For a brief moment Draco feared she was going to slow herself down, prolonging the inevitable. Giving her breasts that he had been roughly massaging one last squeeze he clamped his hands onto her waist instead and started guiding her speed.
This time it was him who threw his head back, eyes screwed closed tightly. They were both moaning and crying out with pleasure. Droplets of water splashed up occasionally, and the area was filled with sound of their bodies slapping together. When she was sitting on him fully her weight felt amazing resting on his pelvis and caused him to groan deeply. But and when she slid up to his tip, tightening around his highly sensitive head, he would whimper like a sleeping puppy, electricity shooting through his rest of his body. His chest, face, fingertips, all tingled.
He had to guide her up and down faster now, knowing she had set herself up to be rammed at exactly the right angle.
And sure enough she was soon choking his dick again tightly as she shook violently on top of him screaming out "Oh yes!" as she climaxed. He came into her forcefully just shortly after, roaring loudly. He was thankful, relieved and utterly happy.
Hermione went limp on him as all her muscles relaxed. He felt her rise and fall on his shoulder as she strained for air and her hair was tickling his chest and arms. He wanted to play with it, to stroke her softly as she laid on him, but he hesitated.
He couldn't be sure why, but he was sure he had sensed a slight change in Hermione. Something about her body language…
After one last attempt to catch her breath she pushed herself up, keeping her face turned away from his. She returned to where she had been sitting. Draco watched her with strange curiosity. She was trying to tuck her now wild curls behind her ears as if nothing had just happened at all. He couldn't explain what was so awkward about it, but suddenly she seemed so distant. As if she disliked him.
But what was so sudden about that? He was most familiar with her pretending whatever seat he was in at school was empty, ignoring anything he did or said most adamantly. Her determination to act as though he wasn't sitting right next to her in the hot tub was a return to normalcy. Except whom was she just making love to then if he was invisible?