Chapter Ten
About ten minutes later Abby had changed into a spaghetti strap shirt and shorts and sat on her bed, when she heard her front door open again.
Her heart racing she jumped to her feet only to end up on the floor. She ran towards the stairs and as she reached the last step she saw him standing just inside the door, he was looked determined yet slightly confused. She could tell that he was still fighting with himself on what he was doing.
Before his mind could win over his body, she closed the space between them without taking her eyes from his. As she leaned into his body she gasped as he lifted her off the ground and the door slammed behind him as he made his way to the stairs.
He didn't want to wait. He had to touch her. She was already kissing him as he laid her on top of her bed and settled down on her. He ran his hand up her thighs. They were firm and smooth, most of it was bare but she still had on to many clothes. He slowly ran his hand over her shorts clad hips and lingered his fingers where they met the soft skin of her stomach.
All the while she was working at his mouth; she rolled her tongue over his, then sucked his into her mouth and nibbled on his lips. Her breath came in gasps, breathing in and out of his mouth.
Then she was running her hands over his neck, down his back and then back up chest. She felt the lean muscles that no one would know he had if they were not in her position now. He was hard and soft in just the right places.
But he was wearing too many clothes.
She started at his buttons but his hands pushed hers out of the way. He dropped quick hot sexy kisses across her jaw to her ear lob, which he swirled his tongue around and bit on gently.
Abby gasped and attempted again to get under his clothes. Again he stopped her.
"Tell me to stop." He gasped into her ear.
"I don't want you to stop."
He was frozen on top of her his body hard against her thigh yet his eyes clamped shut fighting as something in him fought against him. "We can't, we shouldn't. I can't stop though, I'm not that strong."
He said as if he were failing at something. He sounded repulsed at the notion that he couldn't control himself.
"Don't fight it." she tried to shift her head so that she could kiss him again.
"No!" he pushed away from her, off of the bed and sat on his heels staring at her as someone would star at an enemy. Then his face softened and his breathing quickened. "You're so beautiful."
She smiled. "Thank you." she reached for him and when he didn't move to stop her she crawled to his side. "You are too."
He squeezed his eyes shut as if to block her words, "No, you know nothing of the things I've done."
"Then tell me," she hugged him closer to her and he stiffened but she refused to let go.
"No."
"Well if you refuse to elaborate then my opinion stands." She leaned her head away and smiled at him. His body seemed to relax and she kissed him on the forehead. "I'll respect your wises Professor Snape, for tonight. But I want you, and I will have you."
She saw the beginnings of a smile come to his eyes but his lips rejected the attempt. His face grew hard and his mouth opened and she knew something horrid would come so she pressed her fingers to his lips.
"Don't challenge me, Severus."
"Don't threaten me Miss Anderson. I have been everyone's enemy at one point or another, and I don't take likely to being challenged. I am not someone you want to provoke."
She suppressed a smile; he looked so silly saying his little speech through her fingers, looking so serious.
"On the contrary, that is exactly what I intend to do."
Snape left Abigail's house two minutes later. She had tried to kiss him again and like a school boy he had pushed her away. He looked down at his hands; he could feel her thighs on them.
Suddenly he was overwhelmed with the feeling of being watched. He turned his head towards the forest just in time to see a figure of a man disappear.
He had no idea who it could have been; all he could tell was that the man was a wizard and that he was now sure that Abby would be in danger.
The next morning Abby sat in her kitchen eating cereal when she remembered the letter her great-aunts lawyer had given her. She ran upstairs after washing out her dish.
He had said that he had received it the day before and it was addressed to the relation of Cynthia, who was her great-aunt.
Abby opened the letter, the letter was written in an elegant handwriting that she envied.
Dear Abigail,
You probably have no idea who I am, but that is alright. I am a cousin and my name is Annabel Dowding. Your mother and my own were sister's but I'm sure that you have never heard of us, but we have heard of you. I'm sorry to say that the only way I could have ever gotten in touch of you would have been through our Great-aunts death.
I have a great many things to tell you, wonderful things and terribly strange things. I write with hopes that you would come and meet with me someday soon. I would have come to you but that might pose a problem. I hope to hear from you soon.
Your loving cousin,
Annabel
Abby was shocked. She reread the letter and looked over the address from which it had come.
She had to go to work that day but she was definitely going to meet this cousin of hers. Other than this great-aunt she had had never heard of anyone from her mother's side of the family they had never talked about them.
Abigail was relived when she had gotten the news that the old folk's home had gotten more staff. They had thanked her for all her help and she had promised many people that she would come back to visit. On her way home she had checked the train station to see if there were any departures heading towards her cousin's home up north. Luckily there was at eight-thirty. Then she asked how long away it was and was devastated to hear that it was almost a seven hour train ride.
She had had just brought her suitcase downstairs when there was a knock at her door.
It was Severus.
Snape looked down at the suitcase in her hand and at her bright face. "Going somewhere?" he asked.
"Actually yes. I got a letter yesterday from a cousin and decided to go see her."
"At such short notice?" he asked.
"Well, she said that she had so many things to tell me -" Snape listened as she told him she had no idea that she had family from her mothers side and what the letter had said and then told him where she was going. But his mind was on the man he had seen last night and the possible danger she could be in, and he also wondered at why she told him everything so easily.
Before he knew he was about to say it he asked, "Would it be alright if I join you?" he was outraged.
"What?" she shrieked as she dropped her suitcase on her foot and was now jumping on one leg trying to ease the pain in the other. After a second she straightened and looked at him. He was grinning.
"Wow, I've never seen you smile before." She said. It was a beautiful look on him; it lightened his features and made him look younger. But as soon as it had come it was gone.
"I am capable of it." he said and waited.
She watched his eyes which hadn't moved from hers. "Before I stupidly say that you can, why in the hell do you even want to come?"
Snape thought for a minute, "Well as I have said, I haven't left my school in over ten years, I'd love to see the country side again." he lied.
"I know your lying." He just looked at her, "But if you want to, then yes." She smiled.
Two hours later they both sat in a train compartment and stared at each other as the train started to move. Snape had quietly hexed their compartment to be avoided by everyone, muggle and wizard.
"So, tell me Severus." Abby broke the silence, "Do you have a lot of family?"
"No."
"Come on, if we are stuck in here together for the next seven hours, you might as well answer with a bit more depth."
"Fine." He said, a little annoyed, but only because of the subject. "My father had died when I was fourteen and my mother died when I was sixteen and I had no other family."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Death is inevitable."
"And other than them, you had no one else."
No family or friends.
"No. My father was an orphan and my mother's family had nothing else to do with her when she married my father."
"That's so sad."
Snape scoffed, "No, if they hadn't have hated him for his-" he thought for an alternative for muggle, "- status, they would have hated him for the demon he was."
"So your mother came from high status?" she asked.
"You can say that, yes."
"And your father…?" she didn't know how to ask.
"He was a very bad man, Abigail." He offered her.
"Oh,"
When he knew she wasn't going to ask more he asked, "What about your family?"
She still looked hurt for him and he hated that, but she shook her head and answered him.
"Well my father was a great man." she said rather nervously, as if by saying it, it would hurt him even more.
He nodded to encourage her.
"He was a lawyer and my mother a librarian. He had told her often that she didn't need to work but she had loved it. He had died when I was eighteen from cancer, but he died with a strong face even though it had eaten him alive."
Snape noted that she didn't say it with sadness; she had said it was admiration. What she told him next she said with sadness.
"My mother had always suffered from depression, that had eaten at her for many years, after my father had died it had gotten worse." She paused; her voice was a whisper as she said the last word and he knew that she had left out a big part. "She died when I was nineteen."
Because she had offered it to him he said, "I'm sorry."
She smiled a sad smile and said, "Thanks. She wasn't as strong as my father but she had her great days."
Quiet, and awkward from the exchange they sat for a while just staring outside into the dark forests which they were traveling through.
What felt like an hour later Abigail broke the silence.
"You said that you didn't have a girlfriend. Why not?"
Snape thought he would have become angry again, so did she but to their surprise he didn't.
"You might not understand because you know nothing of me, but where I come from," he paused, "I'm not the most sought after man. I have done many things that have earned people's negative thoughts towards me."
"I really want to know what you've done." She asked shyly.
"I know you do. But I can't quite tell you now."
She nodded.
He was quiet again and she smiled, "Don't you want to know if I have a boyfriend or even a husband?"
"I was just waiting for you to go ahead and tell me without me having to ask."
She laughed, "Well you forced me into it. No I don't'."
And then she was quiet.
Snape narrowed his eyes. "You force me to put more depth into my responses and that is all you would offer me?"
Her beautiful smile brightened, "Well I haven't really been looking for a boyfriend since I got here. I don't know if you've noticed but all the men in our town are either married or over the ages of seventy."
Snape thought of the man that drove him to his house just last week.
"I was dating this one guy in L.A., he kept saying we were going to get married but then he went and ruined his chances and cheated on me."
Un-required anger rose in Snape.
"Have you ever been close to getting married?"
Images rose in Snape's mind of a dream he had once wanted but he pushed them back. "No."
Abigail looked Snape up and down. He was a good looking man and it baffled her that no one had ever tried to snatch him up. She was suddenly consumed with the need to know of the bad things he had done to gain him such a bad record that no one would spare him a second glance.
To stop herself she focused on his lips – bad idea.
Snape watched Abigail's gaze heaten as she stared at his lips. He watched as she stuck out her tongue to moisten her lips and his body responded. He tried to look away but her eyes quickly raised to meet his smoldering gaze.
Abigail sucked in a breath as she saw the desire in Snape's eyes. Desire for her and she wasn't going to let him run this time.
A/N: Rated M, haven't yet finished next chapter, hope you guys don't get squeamish about some loving.
Don't forget to ...review!! You can criticize, point something out, yell at me, praise me (pfft unlikely) J, curse me and even boss me around. I'll take it!