And now there were two weeks left of the one month time frame. The two so far had been disconcertingly hard for her, between his favours and his stolen touches and kisses pressed to her forehead when she was least expecting it. At night, when she retreated to her room, she immediately stripped off her shirt and trousers, more slowly taking off her bra and knickers, and slid under the covers of her bed to touch her body and think about his callused hands sliding over her.
The only thing that kept her sane was knowing that when he held out her coat for her, or brushed her hair out of her face while she was cooking, or whispered something so bloody romantic in her ear just before bed, that he didn't really mean any of it. She knew that, but her brain couldn't stop her heart from pounding in her chest when he was near her, and the problem only seemed to be getting worse.
She thanked the gods that it was only two more weeks.
Severus hadn't expected this to snowball out of control in the way it had. He'd at first only meant to provoke her, thinking that the only two outcomes were that she'd become amusingly flustered, or that she'd actually put out. The latter was obviously very unlikely, but it was worth a shot.
He had not expected for him to enjoy their little game so much. He would find himself sitting on the sofa by the fireplace, waiting for her to return from whatever visit she was off making, just so he could touch her or kiss her and feel how much she wanted him.
It was all a game, of course, he didn't want her for any emotional reason, but it was an incredibly intoxicating game at that, and he felt as though he were addicted to some sort of drug, so desperate was his need to be near her, to taunt and tease her, to brush too close against her in the doorway. He craved her body more desperately than he'd craved any woman before. He knew from Legilimency that at night she touched herself and thought about him, and he had begun to sit outside her doorway every night, listening to her soft moans and gasps and occasional almost inaudible shriek into her pillow. After, he would lie in his bed and think about her hands touching herself, her fingers sliding along the folds that he was desperate to feel himself, and he would reach under the blankets and pretend that his hands were hers.