A/N: Thanks for the support everyone! VenusInHerHair did a great job on this chapter. Go check out her profile for more Virginia and other awesome stories! Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Suspicions

To Virginia, it felt as if time had frozen. She watched as Lucius returned the Quidditch player's smile, and reached out to pat her hand across the table. The woman said something to him, her exact words indistinct in the busy café, but Virginia watched as he made his reply. The brunette tossed her long hair out of her face as she laughed, and Lucius took a sip of his drink, his light eyes dancing and fixed on his companion.

"Virginia?" Virginia was pulled back to her own table, and Cecily and Amelia, who were looking at her with some concern.

"Are you alright, V?" Amelia asked, setting aside her cigarette as she peered at her friend.

Virginia blinked at her, gathering her thoughts, trying to make sense of what she'd seen. Thankfully, neither of her friends seemed to have recognized the man sitting opposite Lacey Delaney, and they were focused again on their own table, on the other side of the café.

"I-" she stuttered, twisting her napkin in her lap, as she heard the unmistakable laugh of her lover from across the room. "Yes. Sorry. I just remembered something I have to do later." Amelia shrugged and turned to putting out her cigarette, and Cecily smiled at Virginia.

"It must be hard, adjusting to life here," she said sympathetically. "Do you know what you're ordering yet?" As easily as that, conversation turned to Cecily, and her internship at France's equivalent to the Daily Prophet, and, as the girls ate their lunch, Amelia's infuriating sister, and what she'd done this time.

Virginia nodded and laughed, and occasionally chimed in with noises of agreement or shared indignation on her friend's behalf, but her focus was unsurprisingly elsewhere. As Amelia and Cecily ordered, she had subtly repositioned her chair, so as to be better able to observe Lucius and Lacey, and when the waiter flirted with Cecily, she put a weak disillusionment charm around the table under her breath, hoping that Lucius wouldn't spot her. As curious as she was to know what Lucius would make of seeing her here, she needed time to get her facts together before jumping to any rash conclusions.

Besides, she thought bitterly half-way through the meal, Lucius certainly didn't look like he'd want to be interrupted. The Quidditch woman was talking animatedly, laughing often and more than once did she lightly touch Lucius' arm over the table. Lucius, in turn, looked to be enjoying his lunch, and Virginia was sure that even without the charm, he wouldn't have noticed her, or anyone else in the cafe, as long as Lacey was in front of him.

As the conversation went on, Virginia watched from the corner of her eye as more and more young fans sidled up to Lacey, asking for autographs, from what she could make out. Loath as she was to admit it, Delaney was perfectly lovely with them, smiling and joking. She even allowed the mother of particularly young fan to take a photo with her, holding the daughter on her lap.

She was also, Virginia had to admit, very pretty. Her messy brown hair was catching the light through the window, and Virginia noticed that it was naturally highlighted with slightly lighter, almost auburn shades. Her vivacious smile was captivating Lucius as much as it was her fans.

Maybe, Virginia tried to tell herself, this is a business meeting. In all fairness, she didn't know the half of what Lucius got up to at work or in his own private ventures, and she did know that he'd been invited to a big Quidditch match in the not so distant past. But the more she watched, barely even keeping up a pretense of listening to Amelia's outrageous stories anymore, the less convinced of this she was.

She recognized the way Lucius was looking at Lacey, and it wasn't the look he reserved for his clients or business associates. In fact, she'd have been slightly concerned if he'd bestowed that look upon her father. As Virginia watched, Lucius refilled Lacey's glass, murmuring something to her as he leant forward. Lacey folded her arms, and Lucius mirrored her action a few seconds later.

"...You would feel the same way, wouldn't you?". Cecily nudged Virginia's arm.

"Hmmm?"

Amelia sighed theatrically and crossed her legs, stubbing out her cigarette rather aggressively. "I told you she wasn't listening, Cecily!"

"You don't seem quite yourself, Virginia," Cecily said, sounding far more sympathetic than Amelia looked. "Are you sure everything's alright?"

Virginia thought about telling them the truth, but at that moment she caught the whiff of an all too familiar scent. Looking up, past Cecily's shoulder, she watched as Lucius held the door for Lacey, and followed her out, sweeping past her own table without a backwards glance.

"Ma mie!" Cecily snapped, waving her hand in front of Virginia's face. "Seriously, what is it?"

"Nothing!" Virginia replied, her tone regrettably irritable. Amelia raised an eyebrow at her, and Cecily looked shocked. Virginia sighed. "I'm sorry. I am. I just - I have to go now. I'll be in touch, oui?"

She stood up from the table, leaving enough Galleons, (the Galleons Lucius himself had given her), to cover everyone's meal, and left the café. When she reached the street, however, Lucius and Lacey were gone.

*.*.*.*.*

When Lucius entered the Dining Room in Malfoy Manor that evening, he found a distinctly disgruntled looking Virginia waiting for him. He sighed inwardly. Her face always had been as easy to read as a child's, but he could also tell when she was trying to put on a brave face. This was not one of those times. She didn't even turn her cheek towards him went he went to kiss her good evening.

"Good day, my dear?" he asked conversationally, ignoring her cold stare. She really was looking rather too petulant for his liking.

Virginia nodded but picked up her silver fork without elaborating, or even asking how his own day had been. In fact, Lucius had had a spectacularly pleasant day. He had received an unexpected visitor just before lunchtime in the form of none other than Lacey Delaney, and had been able to easily shuffle his standing appointments and take her out to lunch in Wiltshire.

Despite the constant stream of interruptions from adoring fans, (Lacey's reactions to which, Lucius had to admit, only endeared him more to the young woman), they had enjoyed a lively discussion, which most certainly rivaled their first date together.

He had prolonged his time with Lacey by taking her to visit an intimate wine-bar in the village after their lunch, determined, as he was, to improve her taste in liqueur. While she was looking the other way, he had even ordered a bottle of the shop-keeper's most expensive champagne to be delivered to her flat that evening.

Lucius had returned to the office in high spirits, and was now looking forward, having pushed the growing feelings of guilt aside, to an evening with his sweet, beautiful, charming young mistress - who was, currently, scowling at him, her pretty features screwed up as she stabbed into a potato with her knife. Lucius could hardly tell if she was on the brink of tears or murder from the look she was bestowing upon him.

"How was your day?" she asked, before violently spearing a piece of asparagus. Lucius didn't miss how she forwent on addressing him as sir or another term of endearment. It was most unlike her. Still, he swallowed his food and ignored her tone.

"I had a most satisfactory day at the Ministry, darling." Her nostrils flared slightly as she regarded him. "How was lunch with your friends?"

"It left me feeling rather...unsatisfied, Sir," she replied cooly. Virginia, as a younger teenager, had developed quite a flare for being passive-aggressive, on which she had managed to overcome in recent years. She could feel notes of it edging back into her tone, and she wished she could quell it again, but found herself unable to do so.

Virginia, unlike Lucius, had not enjoyed her day. After abandoning her friends, which she now looked back on with regret, and finding no trace of either Lucius or Lacey in the quiet village, she had taken herself to the Ministry, assuming that Lucius would be back in his office by then. He was not.

His secretary, Charlotte, who also happened to be too pretty for Virginia's liking in her present state of mind, had told her hurriedly that her boss had asked her to rearrange his afternoon meetings, as Lacey Delaney, ('you know, the Quidditch player!'), had turned up out of the blue and wanted to see Lucius.

When will he be back? Virginia had enquired calmly, but Charlotte couldn't tell her. The secretary seemed far more interested in whether Lacey would be returning to the office with him, and had pulled out an oversized, and frankly ghastly, Harpies badge, which she was presumably hoping to ask Lacey to sign.

Virginia's immediate reaction upon leaving the Ministry had been anger - who did this Lacey think she was? - but this had quickly turned to denial. Lucius loved her - she was convinced of it; he wouldn't cheat on her, would he?

She decided to investigate further before allowing herself to become too distraught. After all, all she had to go on were her observations of Lucius at lunch, from across a crowded café, no less, and what the simpering secretary Charlotte had told her.

Virginia had started off by making subtle enquiries, but it was Lucius' house-elf Lexi who had proved the most informative, telling her (before realizing her error and disapparting to punish herself most severely), that Lacey Delaney had been in the Manor earlier that very week to see Lucius, although Lexi couldn't recall what the meeting had been about.

Lucius took a moment in light of Virginia's comment to wipe his mouth with his napkin, before setting his cutlery down and folding his arms. "Would you care, Virginia, to tell me what exactly has upset you, or am I to assume that your day spent indulging yourself with my bank card has not been entertaining enough for you?" he asked icily, his jaw setting into

a hard line when he had finished speaking.

Virginia gulped, but was far too angry to succumb to his tone and apologize. "I saw Lacey Delaney today," she replied, letting her passive-aggressive streak shine through. Lucius' cold stare never faltered, although inwardly he cursed. Where is she going with this?

"How exciting for you," he said condescendingly, his voice clipped with annoyance and hidden worry.

"She seems to be rather popular."

"Many Quidditch players of her ranking develop a following, Virginia - do you have a point to this fascinating anecdote?"

"It must be irritating to not even be able to go out for lunch without being seen." At this, Lucius set down his glass abruptly.

"Virginia you are testing my patience to its limit. Kindly tell me what has upset you, or leave my table. I want to eat my dinner in peace."

There was a heavy silence as Virginia made her decision. She knew that she was treading a thin and dangerous line with Lucius, but was determined to find out the truth, or at the very least whether or not Lucius would be honest with her. She cleared her throat before she spoke, finding that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Do you know Lacey Delaney, Sir?" she asked, trying her best to keep her voice even.

There was another silence.

"Why do you ask?" he snapped.

"Only that I...I thought I saw you with her today." Virginia's words had lost their conviction, and she found herself beginning to whither under Lucius' glare. He noticed this.

"That sounded remarkably like an accusation, my dear," he commented lightly, lifting his wine glass and swirling the contents gently. "As I thought you were aware, I've been very, very busy as of late - I'm not sure when or where you think I would have met the young woman."

"I just-I wondered if..."

"Think carefully before you speak, Virginia," Lucius warned, picking up his fork and resuming his eating, watching her intently all the while. In the end, she remained silent, realizing that pushing the matter now was not worth risking her relationship. Still, she was deeply affronted that Lucius had lied to her, and her previously cemented faith in his feelings for her began to waver.

They finished eating in a tense silence, the only sound that of Lexi hurrying in and out. Lucius cleared his plate, but barely tasted a mouthful. She knows something. He racked his memories of lunchtime, trying to work out if Virginia could possibly have been there. He hadn't seen her, but he couldn't deny that he'd been utterly bewitched by Lacey the whole time.

He felt guilty. The trouble was, it was becoming all too easy to compare Virginia and Lacey, and every time he looked at Virginia, along with the guilt came a pang of annoyance at her accusations. He was angry that she'd found out, and even more angry that she had refused to come out and say it to him directly. Lacey, he found himself thinking, wouldn't play games with me. But Lacey, he reminded himself, wouldn't even have consented to a second date had she known the truth about Virginia. This thought, bizarrely, only served to increase his irritation with Virginia.

And yet, Virginia wasn't just some girl who happened to be getting in the way of a current relationship. In fact, that happened to be Lacey, unbeknownst to her. Virginia, however petulant and querulous she may have been that evening, was his darling. She was his rose without a thorn, his rock and his cherished mistress, and as soon as this thought struck Lucius, he was once again overwhelmed with the desire to make it up to her.

He rose at the end of the meal, and walked over to where Virginia sat, staring into her lap and clearly assuming that he'd leave without her. He gently touched her chin and tilted it up to him. "Will you join me tonight, my love?" he asked her softly, and saw hope return to her face. Her eyes were glistening as she nodded her assent.

He took her hand and led her through the Manor and up the staircase, feeling her physically relax beside him. When they reached the landing, he stopped and turned to her, running a gentle hand up her arm to rest on her shoulder.

"I don't want us to grow apart over trivial matters, pet," he said softly, tracing the outline of her jaw with his forefinger. "Let us forget what transpired at dinner tonight."

Virginia could feel herself melting into his caresses, and although she was still hurt over why he was lying to her, and what was being hidden, she knew that she didn't want to be alone tonight. "I'm sorry..." she whispered.

"I know you are," he soothed, but couldn't quite bring himself to say it back. "Come," he said instead, and opened the doors to his bedroom. Virginia was surprised when he didn't stop, but took her through instead into his ensuite. She'd been in there before, of course, but never with Lucius.

"Let's take a bath," he suggested lowly, and turned to start the water running. The bath tub was huge and luxurious, carved out of the wall in white marble, with numerous taps lining the far side. The tub was deep as well, but a sort of bench lined the inside, which was quickly filling with deliciously sweet fragranced warm water.

Virginia slipped out of her sleeveless blouse and shimmied out of her skirt, as Lucius de-robed. He climbed into the tub and slid easily into the water with a contented sigh at the warmth, and held out a hand, which Virginia took and followed him into the bath.

He pulled her gently to him in the water, so that she her back was resting against his chest, their legs spread out in front of them and intertwined. Lucius' hands found her shoulders and began to massage, until Virginia was breathing slowly and deeply, and fully relaxed. Only then did his hands stray lower, cupping her breasts and rubbing in circles as his lips nibbled her neck. Her head lolled back and she gazed up at the high ceiling with unfocused eyes.

Lucius continued his ministrations, working his way lower and lower, across her slim stomach, ghosting over her hips, and lower still, smirking when she groaned as he skimmed over the place she wanted him most and began to stroke her thighs softly, letting his fingers glide over the smooth skin.

He was determined not to rush, and continued his restrained caresses for longer than Virginia could bear. She could feel him growing harder and harder against her lower back, and the sensation only made her even more desperate for him to stop teasing.

She lifted her arms and wrapped them around Lucius' neck, tilting her head back. Lucius took his cue and kissed her, slowly and tenderly, his hands gliding back up over her waist and breasts. He, too, had had enough of waiting, and grasped her by the hips firmly, re-angling her body in the water so that she was straddling him, poised inches above his straining erection.

"You," he told her, cupping her cheek and trailing a wet finger across her jawline, "Are the only one I ever want to come home to. Let's not argue, pet."

She nodded, a smile settling on her face for the first time that evening, and Lucius lined himself up with her entrance, before placing his hands back on her hips and guiding her down onto him. His breath hissed out from behind gritted teeth as she enveloped him, and he dropped his head to plant kiss after kiss upon her collarbone.

Virginia's head fell back, and she wrapped her hands around Lucius' neck for balance, although he took charge of moving her up and down on him. He worked his hips up to hers, setting a slow and steady rhythm that had her moaning and beginning to tentatively move her hips herself, pushing further down onto him.

"Virginia..." he groaned, and nipped at the creamy skin on her shoulder with his teeth, causing her to tense momentarily, and her muscles clenched deliciously around him.

Lucius gradually increased the pace, going deeper with each thrust, until water began to spill over the edges of the tub with their movement. He reached down between their bodies and found her clit, and Virginia bucked into his palm.

"That feels so good..." she told him breathlessly, her eyes screwed shut in pleasure. "Please don't stop..."

"Never, my dear," he assured her, and a couple of particularly deep thrusts later, she was coming around him, her sweet mewls of pleasure drowned out by Lucius' cursing as he, too, found his release.

*.*.*.*.*

"Lace, there's an owl for you," Ginny called, tapping on the door of Lacey's bathroom. The girls were not quite sober, and had been enjoying a gossip over pre-drinks, getting ready to meet their team-mates for an evening out.

"Grab it for me-ouch," Lacey called out, her hand slipping and causing her to stab herself with a stick of mascara.

Ginny let the owl into Lacey's apartment, and her eyes widened at it's hefty load. The owl hovered, cooing impatiently, as Ginny cleared a space for it to land and set down the woven basket it was carrying.

"Someone's sent you a picnic basket, Lace!" Ginny laughed, sending the owl on its way with a biscuit as Lacey emerged, tugging the sleeves of her leather jacket down over her arms.

Lacey retrieved the note from where it was tied to the handle of the basket, and tore it open. Ginny watched as her eyes scanned the message, and her face broke into a smile.

"Rich bastard," she muttered through an ill-suppressed grin, tossing the note aside and reaching into the basket, pulling out a large bottle of Branstone's Own Ebulli, an extravagant brand of champagne neither of the girls had ever had the chance to sample.

"I'm guessing that's from your new friend?" Ginny asked, eying the bottle in some surprise, and looking into the basket, where a very fancy box of chocolates lay. "You only saw him earlier."

Lacey shrugged. "I must have made an impression," she winked at Ginny, putting the bottle down. "Are we going out or not then?"

The girls made their way to the Leaky, and found it completely packed. They inched their way towards the bar, and eventually found their teammates, who had been joined already at their table by a group of young wizards. Lacey rolled her eyes - they looked like the Ministry sort to her, with slicked back hair, ties askew over crisp shirts, and polished shoes which would soon be soiled with other people's drinks on a busy night like this.

"Lacey, Ginny, over here!" a tall, blonde woman called, and the pair pushed their way over to join one of the Harpies' beaters. As Lacey found a spot next to Ava, someone shoved into her from behind, and her beer slipped from her hand, smashing on the hard floor of the pub and sending sticky liquid in all directions.

"Fuck..." she growled, pulling out her wand, but before she could clean up the mess she heard someone else say the charm, and, looking up, locked eyes with a strangely-familiar dark-haired man. Having vanished the broken glass, he quickly cleaned away the beer, before pocketing his wand and holding out his hand.

"Robert Green," he said, shaking her hand firmly, and Lacey realized where she knew him from as soon as she heard his accent - this was the Robert Green, the Chaser for the American National team. She'd had his poster on her bedroom wall after the World Cup of 1990.

"Lacey Delaney," she replied with an almost star-struck smile, but he let out a short laugh and put a hand on her arm.

"I know."

"Oh," she breathed.

"May I buy you a new drink?" he asked, and before Lacey remembered herself she had assented, and was following him through the crowds, which was much easier when walking behind a tall and bulky man.

"So what are you doing in London?" she asked when she had found her voice again, and he told her that he was here being scouted for a new team.

Lacey took a sip of her new beer and, before she could stop herself, blurted out: "Won't your girlfriend mind you leaving the States?" There had been media attention in the previous year about Green's high-profile relationship with his team's Seeker, and all of a sudden, in her slightly drunken state, this seemed highly important to Lacey.

Robert looked mildly surprised, but merely laughed, tossing a salted peanut into his mouth. "I guess Witch Weekly haven't caught on yet - she's not my girlfriend anymore."

"Oh," Lacey said again, taking a longer sip of her drink as a vague blush spread across her cheeks. "I didn't mean to-"

"Shall we step outside?" Robert asked, again placing a hand on her arm. "It's hot in here."

A/N: What do you think will happen next? We would both love to get your feedback in a review! Just head on down to that little empty box! ;)