Chapter 5: Guilty Conscience

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A/N: Thank you from both of us for all the support! We hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Lacey had the most bizarre dreams the entire night and when she opened her eyes the next morning to find Lucius Malfoy sleeping soundly besides her, it suddenly became clear why her brain was a mess.

She ran a hand over her face to push some locks of her unruly, wavy hair out of her eyes and looked around for a clock, finding it to be just after six in the morning. It was a relief to Lacey that she hadn't overslept and wasn't late to practice, but the extra time made her mind wander, especially as she noticed Lucius had stopped lightly snoring and seemed to nearly be awake.

Her first instinct was to run-fast and far- from the man besides her in bed, but a tiny voice in the back of her mind urged her to stay for once, to try and momentarily break her cycle of one-night stands; after all, she had already seen him one more time than she thought she ever would have. Lying back down next to him, she moved closer to his chest and rested her hand on his not overly muscular, yet nicely defined bicep, as she set about studying him.

Conventionally, Lucius, or any Malfoy for that matter, wasn't her type. Ginny had been right about that. And she usually didn't date older men, let alone shag them, with one other exception she wasn't keen on thinking about. But there was something about Lucius that intrigued her and she assumed it was the heady combination of their verbal sparring and intense physical chemistry that made staying in that bed a little easier.

She reminded herself that even though he wasn't her type physically, he was every single one of her guilty pleasures tied up in a neat, blonde, handsome, and dominant package. He surpassed every single one of her previous lovers in the bedroom, and it had only been one time so far; he was charming to the point of rendering her usually non-stop mouth mute, and he acted like she was actually worth his time, which hadn't happened to her in a long while. Lacey had no commitments to anyone, and she figured, as she curled her body closer to his, that she was entitled to some fun.

Lucius' breath on her neck became a touch lighter and he rustled a bit under the duvet, so Lacey ran her hand down his naked chest and stomach, testing the waters of how far she could go before waking him when her hand felt the beginning of a morning erection stirring under his boxers. With her heart fluttering in excitement and a devious little smile on her face, Lacey lifted the duvet up and dove beneath it until it was just the lower half of his anatomy and her under the darkness of the sheets. She ran a tentative hand over the stiffening bulge and heard a muffled noise from him, but after a beat she kept on, gently taking him out of his boxers and stroking his shaft with a light touch until she was afraid he was almost awake. When he was almost fully hard, she took the tip of his cock into her mouth, slowly taking him in until she felt him hit the back of her throat as his hips suddenly bucked up. Lacey coughed a little, but kept on even though she knew she had been found out, especially if the sudden absence of darkness around her was any indication.

"La…cey….fuck…" she heard him groan above her, and she darted her eyes over to the sides of his thighs where his hands were clutching at the sheets, giving away his fading self-control. Her nails lightly scratched his inner thighs and then her hands moved to cup his balls as she bobbed up and down on him with her mouth.

There was no question that Lucius was now wide awake and in shock as he stared down at Lacey eagerly licking and sucking him. His eyes trailed down her bare back, now exposed from under the duvet, and to her round arse in her red panties from the night before. Her hair seemed to be everywhere, tickling his thighs and clinging to her face. She looked a right mess, but to him it couldn't have been sexier. He reached down and put his hand in her shiny, tousled locks, thinking about tugging her sharply off of him. He hated to admit it but he always felt a bit guilty whenever a woman gave him head, and it hadn't happened for years. Narcissa had been too much of a prude to, and even some of the women he had had on the side were so turned off by it that he had eventually stopped asking. Truthfully, he wasn't even sure if Virginia would do it with how embarrassed she was at simply touching herself, as erotic as that embarrassment was.

Despite all of this, he just couldn't bring himself to stop Lacey, especially when she chanced a glance up at him and he could see the vexatious smirk on her lips around him before she began sucking more vigorously than before. A louder moan escaped his mouth and he gave up trying to fight it, instead using his hand insinuated in her hair to push her down more onto him, which only seemed to further encourage her. It had been so long since he had felt the warm mouth of a woman on him in that way and he let himself revel in the sensation of it, grunting as he came pathetically early in her mouth.

When Lacey sat up onto her knees, she looked him straight in the eye and swallowed what he had given her, with a little flick of the back of her hand to her mouth to clean up. Lucius was sure that if there was anything left, he would have spilled himself again right at that moment.

"Good morning," she smiled at him and it was a moment before he replied similarly, being a little too busy admiring the way she wasn't afraid of being naked in front of him at all, even in the light of day.

"I have to say," Lucius began, beckoning her to move into his arms and she did, straddling her legs around his waist as he held her, "I don't think I have ever enjoyed waking up so much in my life." Lacey smiled, suddenly shyer as his fingers caressed the smooth skin of her back lazily and he moved to kiss her neck. With a slight blush, she pulled away, was off of him in an instant, and getting off of the bed.

He watched her go for her clothes, studying her tall, fit frame and the enticing swell of her breasts and arse before he spoke again, a little confused, "Lacey, come back to bed and let me say good morning to you properly."

"I have practice," she shrugged, "Really, I liked doing it, alright?" she added, which caused him to pause, afraid that she had somehow read his mind, if that were even possible. Her words had spoken to him on a primal level as well. She had liked it. She wanted to do it without anything in return.

"Can I see you soon, then?" he asked as he watched her slip on her tight red dress from the night before and tie her hair up into a messy bun.

"Maybe…" she winked, "Honestly, I was kinda hoping you might invite me to breakfast with your French ward, what was her name again? Vivienne?"

"Virginia," he corrected, a little more harshly than he intended, mostly from the fact that he was immediately drawn out of his blissful state by the mention of his mistresses' name, "And no, I really don't think the two of you would get along."

In Lucius mind, Lacey and Virginia getting along was the most far-fetched thing he could ever imagine.

"Shame, I was only joking though," Lacey sighed playfully, moving back over to the bed and crawling onto it to give Lucius a goodbye kiss. She thankfully missed his sigh of relief from her words. "You know, I think you are right. I definitely have a thing for ex-cons."

Although Lucius' eyes darkened at her mention of their previous conversation at dinner, he was, once again, completely drawn in by her flirtation and pulled her close to him, turning her chaste kiss into one that left Lacey uncomfortably flustered as she crawled off of him once again.

"Lacey. When can I see you again?"

Lucius tried to hide the desperation and desire for her in his voice, trying to ignore how much his body craved hers and his mind yearned for her sarcasm and teasing. With a hand on her hip, Lacey gave him a once over, letting her light eyes rake over his naked body, with only half of his right leg covered by the silky sheets. "This next weekend. And who knows, I may be in touch sooner."

"I am not sure I can wait that long," he told her, angry that she could see him already starting to become hard again. The triumphant gleam to her eyes made him want to do all sorts of depraved things to her.

"We'll see. Now, can I apparate from here or are you going to force me to do a walk of shame through this great big house?"

At the second mention of reality, Lucius' stomach plummeted and he reached for his bedside table, pulling out his wand from the drawer. The last thing he needed was Virginia catching Lacey traipsing through the manor looking thoroughly shagged. He momentarily took down his wards and she winked at him, before disapparating with a 'pop'.

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"Ah, Virginia, there you are," Lucius smiled, walking into the dining room where his mistress was eating breakfast alone and taking a seat across from her. It was late…later than he usually took breakfast but he just couldn't bring himself to face her any sooner.

Her lack of answer told him everything he needed to know, and he watched her beautiful, but drawn face as she kept her eyes on her plate and didn't look up at him.

"I think we might need to talk, pet," he suggested and she finally put down her fork, folded her hands in her lap, and her grey eyes met his blue ones. "Yes, sir?"

"I am sorry if you are upset that we could not sleep together last night. I was up far later working than I planned and it only would have disturbed your sleep. I meant nothing by it, and I truly hope you do not think my absence was due to that conversation…" he began, his heart surging with guilt at how easily he managed to lie to her once again. Regardless of the feelings he was developing for Lacey, if they were anything more than lust, Virginia had been his rock for months now and she did not deserve his lack of attention.

"Could we possibly continue that conversation?" Virginia asked, which was not at all what Lucius had planned on her saying. He nodded despite his feelings as he began to eat his own breakfast that one of the elves had placed before him, watching how his mistress nervously tried to start the conversation several times before actually beginning.

She avoided directly looking at him when she said it, but the words came out with more than a hint of sadness, "Were the plans for marriage really a complete lie? I know you said you wanted us to start slow and get to know each other, but I thought…one day…" her voice trailed off and he watched a few tears gather near her lower eyelashes.

Marriage. The thought scared Lucius more than most things. It had scared him the first time around and thinking about a second marriage was nearly unfathomable for him. It was easy for him to forget that he had said things all to get Virginia to live with him, to get her parents to accept the arrangement, and to stave off unseemly rumors from society. But it was now apparent that Virginia had forgotten none of what he had said, "Darling, you know it is too soon to talk of marriage."

"The average pureblood courtship is a month. It has been just over five weeks now…"

Lucius snapped, "And what makes you the expert on pureblood courtship?"

Virgina's face inflamed and she bit her lip, fighting back emotion before answering, "That is what Mama said. I thought things were getting serious between us."

As he watched her speak, and mumble out a little apology in the sweet, refined voice he adored so much, he was taken aback by just how beautiful she was. He would go as far as to say she was the most classic beauty he had ever seen, and knew he was a lucky man to have her. He also knew that if marriage was in the cards for him a second time, Virginia could be the one, but as of now, the word had simply been a means to the end of her staying with him. Another rush of guilt filled him, which he managed to suppress with anger, telling her, "Do you not think I am serious about you? Virginia, if you did not mean anything to me, I would not be taking care of you, letting you live in this manor, or sleep in my bed. You are an extraordinarily important part of my life, but I think you are getting ahead of yourself and testing your place and my patience by asking too much from me."

"I am sorry, sir," Virginia nodded, trying to be the good mistress she knew he wanted her to be, even though her heart was aching. She excused herself and stood up from the table, but Lucius grabbed her hand gently and pulled her over to where he was sitting. He reached up and stroked her porcelain cheek, "My darling girl, my good girl. I don't want to hear that word again until I bring it up. Understood?"

All Virginia could manage was the smallest of inclines of her chin before she rushed off to her room, fighting back tears. Had she been living in a fantasy thinking she was going to marry him? She asked herself variations of this question over and over until she reached the bedroom she had slept in for the first time the night before. Even when she knew Lucius was out of the house for work, she stayed in her room, passing the time with a long bath, half a dozen chapters of a book, and an hour staring out the window to the gardens. She was already in love with him. Her heart was his completely and even though she loved his many endearments for her, her favorite was when he called her 'mine'. That was all Virginia really wanted—to be his-and it only further cemented her desire to marry him, no matter how long it took.

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"Good practice everyone! We are going to kick Wimbourne's arses this week! Now get some rest ladies, see you bright and early on the pitch tomorrow!" Ginny called through the locker room as the team piled in it, exhausted but proud of the work they had put in for the day. Lacey immediately went to her locker to grab her toilet kit before heading for the showers. She stripped naked and turned on the water, her muscles instantly relaxing under the hot stream and she let her head fall back so the water could cover her face.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Ginny's surprised voice shocked Lacey back into reality and she moved out of the water stream, wiping her eyes so that she could see her best friend clearly. The smaller girl was already soaping up, but staring at Lacey's body as she did so.

"What?" Lacey knit her eyebrow and followed Ginny's stare to her hips, "Oh…I can explain that…" she flushed. It was the first time she had really looked at the aftermath of her sex with Lucius, and she was pretty sure her hips weren't the only evidence of her night.

"You better start," Ginny warned her, taking her eyes off of the finger-shaped bruises and one large love bite on the fleshy part of skin between her hip and ribs. There were two more large love bites on Lacey's neck, but Ginny only saw them when the brunette scrubbed through her hair with shampoo.

"Malfoy and I got a little intense last night…"

"So that is where you disappeared to? All of us girls were worried about you! You can't just take off from the Leaky mid-drinks. We did notice. You can't get lost in the shuffle that easily, Lace," Ginny scolded her, not sure if she was thrilled about this sudden turn of events, "I thought you were done with that wanker after that farce of a dinner?"

"Clearly I'm not," Lacey kept her voice even. Although Ginny was her best friend, she hardly felt like explaining her attraction to a man they were both supposed to fundamentally hate, "It's nothing serious. Just a little slap and tickle and I'm on my way, promise."

Ginny eyed her, almost as if she knew Lacey was lying, but chose to ignore it, "Do you want me to keep it a secret?"

"Please."

"Fine, but you can't harp on me about Harry anymore then, alright?" Ginny turned off her water and wrapped a towel around her body. Lacey did the same and stuck out her hand with her pinkie out to Ginny. The girls had been making promises that way ever since they had met. Ginny curled her pinkie around Lacey's and with a wary look, began to walk off.

"You better not go Slytherin on me, alright?" Ginny called back to her best friend, who just laughed.

"Promise."

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A few days later, Virginia was completely fed-up with the Manor, the elves, and the boredom of being alone for most of the day with nothing to keep her company but thoughts of her lover. Although she had rescheduled lunch with Cecily and Amelia for the following day, she simply couldn't be content with confining herself to the library for another second, especially in her overly anxious state.

Lucius had been especially doting to her over the last few days, noticeably more in the bedroom, but whenever there was talk of her parents coming again for dinner, or of anything that even remotely touched upon the future, he grew distant and cold almost instantly. Before he had left that morning, Lucius had given her his Gringotts bank card and insisted that she take herself out shopping to pass the time. That had been Lucius' guilty conscience at odds with him once again, trying to make it right in one of the only ways he knew how-through money. Virginia herself wasn't entirely convinced the act was without motive, but she had gone to Diagon Alley anyway, happy to be out and about amongst people.

After a treat at Florean Fortescue's, she spent the afternoon browsing and trying on gorgeous and luxurious dress robes in Twilfitt and Tatting's, with a glass of white wine in her hand and no lack of attention from the salesgirls, once they found out who she was.

In pureblood Wizarding society, word traveled exceedingly fast. There was hardly an elite witch or wizard who didn't know Mademoiselle Renwick was living at Wiltshire with Lucius Malfoy, but very few of them had seen her in the flesh. The gorgeous, leggy salesgirls in the shop gossiped behind her back about how pretty she was, taking bets on when a large diamond would grace her tiny, soft hands. In the next breath, they were wondering to themselves how this girl had wrapped a Malfoy around those fingers. Virginia wasn't the type to lavish in such attention, although she was sure her mother would be thrilled if she could hear what they were saying, but every whispered mention of a wedding put her in an extremely cross state. She wasn't going to eschew the compliments, but the only person she really wanted them from was Lucius himself.

A few hours later when she had at least a dozen new dresses picked out, she felt it was high time to settle the bill and head back home so she could decide which one to wear to dinner with Lucius that night. Virginia handed the salesgirl Lucius' sleek black bank card and the witch tried it a few times, but ended up simply looking confused.

"Miss Renwick, it looks like an amount as high as this can't be authorized by anyone but the cardholder, I'm sorry," the girl simpered, "But I'm sure if you just run up to Gringotts it can all be explained away, or maybe you could contact Mr Malfoy. It's just a formality. You understand, don't you?"

Virginia tried to keep her composure even though she was frustrated at how these sweet women had turned on her on the drop of a knut, clearly far too interested in how she was going to handle this situation than making her feel comfortable. With a polite smile, Virginia left the shop and headed up the street towards Gringotts, passing Slug and Jigger's apothecary on her way, of which Lacey was just heading down the stairs on the side of the building from her little apartment situated at the top of the shop.

In Lacey's hand was an envelope that needed filling that she hoped she would be able to send off that evening with her owl, Nikki. She walked towards Gringotts, entered the bank, and waited behind a pair of elderly witches for a goblin to help her. As she waited, she looked around the busy bank and her eyes fell on a young woman vehemently arguing with a goblin only a few paces away from her.

She was a petite thing, and very pretty, from what Lacey could see. Her hair was a gorgeous chocolate sheet falling down her back and she was wearing a pretty lilac set of dress robes. She was handing her wand to the grouchy-looking goblin, and Lacey was even sure she heard some words in French. Lacey focused her attention back on waiting for her turn, but a moment later, the woman said something that Lacey just couldn't ignore.

"Mr Malfoy gave me this to go shopping with and I do not want to bother him at work but I hardly think it will be necessary to raise an issue about this," Virginia went on, speaking more softly and Lacey didn't hear any of the rest of her conversation, as she was summoned to the next goblin.

"What can I do for you?" he asked Lacey in a low, gravelly voice, with a sneer on his face. Lacey offered up her wand as identification, "I'd like to withdraw two hundred and fifty galleons from my vault, please."

"Right away, Miss Delaney," the goblin nodded after checking her identity. He left his high perch and hobbled off for her gold, giving Lacey another moment to watch the very flustered woman to her left take her wand and leave Gringotts. Lacey was sure she had to be Virginia Renwick, the girl Lucius said was living with him. She was clearly French, and clearly shopping on Lucius' money. It made Lacey smirk to think about Lucius trying to appease the daughter of a wealthy business partner with unlimited shopping funds, only to have it backfire.

Soon the goblin returned with Lacey's money and she thanked him, stuffing the shining gold Galleons into the large envelope and sealing it. Out of every paycheck from the Harpies, she sent money to her family back in Ireland. Her father farmed for a living, and hardly made much, and he was raising her baby sister Aislinn alone, as her mother had been dead for a few years. She didn't always have the time to visit, but she did what she could for them, and walked out of the bank thinking nothing more of the mysterious Renwick girl.

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"It's so good to see you ma mie!" Cecily embraced Virginia and Amelia was next. All three girls were beaming to be in the presence of one another again, as it had been a few months since they had last seen each other.

"You both look so beautiful! Oh, how I have missed you!" Virginia told them as they sat down in a charming little café in the wizarding section of downtown Wiltshire. Virgina couldn't have been happier to be with her friends again, and reached across the table to grasp one of each of their hands in hers, squeezing them with fondness.

"So, tell us everything! We've only heard rumors!" Cecily began, her French accent thicker than the other girls'. Her hair was dark blonde and she was statuesque with high cheekbones, all owed to being 1/16th Veela. Amelia had a short black bob and wore her eyeliner winged out and her lipstick dark. She was constantly smoking and was always the first to have the latest couture fashions from Paris.

"Well, let's see, where do I start?" Virginia clasped her hands together, excitedly. She had gotten over her minor embarrassment at Twilfitt and Tatting's from the day before after Lucius had admitted he had forgotten about the added security measures on his card and made sure to rectify the situation immediately, which led her to spending that entire morning shopping until she practically fainted at every other fine establishment in Diagon. Lucius had also been so sweet to her that morning, kissing her forehead before he left for work, and giving her that smile she knew was only meant for her.

"How did you meet him?" Amelia asked, and Virginia hastily began her story about the night he had come to her parents' house for dinner. Yet during her retelling, she noticed that the quaint restaurant seemed to be getting noisier by the moment.

All three girls had missed the entry of Lucius and Lacey, but even though the café was small, low walls inside the space sectioned off different areas and made it possible for the two parties to miss eye contact at first. It wasn't until the girl sitting at the table next to Virginia and her friends began getting excited did the threesome notice anything.

"Mama! That's Lacey Delaney! Do you think she will mind if I ask for her autograph?" the girl asked her mother with wide-eyes. She looked no older than twelve years old, and with the approval of her mom, grabbed a scrap of paper out of her bag and rushed over to the table where Lucius and Lacey were sitting.

"Who is that?" Virginia asked her friends, who had moved over to England months before Virginia had and seemed to have recognized the name.

"She's a rather famous Quidditch player, I wonder where she is sitting…" Cecily tilted her head up and tried to look around the restaurant, finally spotting the woman in question, as she followed Quidditch quite regularly and hated the Harpies for how badly they beat the French women's team a year prior.

Virginia followed her friends' gaze and saw the girl asking a smiling brunette for an autograph, which wasn't a shock in itself. A second later, Virginia dropped her fork and gaped when she saw the Quidditch player pat the girl on the shoulder and then turn back to her lunch date, who happened to be her lover, Lucius Malfoy.

A/N: We both want to thank you for reading and for leaving us reviews! Tell us what you think/hope will happen in the next chapter!