Nursing a beer, Hermione continued watching from the side lines, fuming, as her work partner seduced her cousin.

Did he know they'd be here tonight and who Rhachel was to her? No, he couldn't possibly...

Yes, of course he did. There was absolutely no statistical probability in the universe for his appearing in the exact same club where she was, on this particular night, and having it be one, giant coincidence. First, no Arithmatical or Muggle mathematical formulae existed for such a happy twist of fate. Second, Malfoy was Slytherin, and absolutely nothing was accidental where that sort was concerned. And third, Draco never liked being told 'no' to anything, especially if it meant he was going to miss out on some fun. He was a spoiled git that way.

He'd followed her to Greece; had probably been waiting for this exact chance, even, to make his grand entrance and tweak her nose. He was always zinging her in one fashion or another back home, so why not when she went on holiday as well? Par for the course.

Fine, she'd let the arsehole have his fun doing the 'safe Lambada' with Rhachel in public tonight, but the moment they came off the dance floor, she was giving him what-for, and warning her gentle, kind cousin off the bastard.

A single man saddled up to her while she stewed in her anger. Hermione didn't even glance at him, her focus solely on Draco's hands on Rhachel's hips.

That ferret better not move them from that spot, she thought, or he'd be fingerless come tomorrow morning!

"How about a dance?" the interested stranger asked her. He'd had to lean down and press his mouth to her ear to be heard over the music. Unfortunately, due to the proximity, she could smell his halitosis.

Trying not to cringe, Hermione shook her head. "Not interested."

"Come on, baby! Let's give it a go!" he said in heavily-accented English.

She stepped to the side and glared up at him. "I said no," she firmly replied, meeting his eye. "Thank you."

Sure, she could have used the 'I'm waiting for my boyfriend' excuse to get the bloke gone, but her quota for pushy, disrespectful men had reached its limit for one lifetime. Seriously, she shouldn't have to lie to get an over-eager suitor to back off. 'No' meant 'no', and in her estimation, a man just needed to accept a rejection at face-value, and stop trying to bully a girl into giving in to his advances. Wearing a woman down by badgering her for her attention was not considered a 'win', no matter how much a guy's ego misled him into believing so.

Truthfully, that sort of ill-mannered behaviour, more than any other, disgusted her in a prospective date. Ron used to pull that crike on her all the time to get her to accept his sexual advances on nights when she just wasn't in the mood. It irritated the shit out of her, and was the main reason they weren't together anymore.

A wrinkle appeared in the stranger's brow, indicating his exasperation, as if he couldn't believe she'd had the audacity to turn him down. "Whatever, bitch. You're ugly anyway." He turned and walked away, seeking another target.

Hermione restrained her natural impulse to chuck her beer bottle at the foul-mouthed tosser.

It figured. A woman stands up for herself and lets her preferences to be left alone known, and she's called some nasty name. Real nice.

"Fish breath!" she yelled at his retreating back.

Someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned quickly to find a sweaty, slightly winded Rhachel at her side. Malfoy stood behind her red-cheeked cousin, one hand on the woman's waist, but his attention was all on Hermione. He dared to give her a snarky, 'gotcha' grin.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, giving Malfoy the silent, 'I'm going to beat you up later for this' vow.

His grin only widened as he accepted her silent challenge.

Rhachel shouted something to her, but it was lost over the repeating words of the song playing overhead. "What?" Hermione asked, trying to hear by tilting her head towards her cousin, and be heard by yelling.

The music shifted just then, and the tune was another trance number with no words and a slower beat, allowing for them to hear each other better.

"I bring someone to meet you," Rhachel reiterated in her broken English, apparently attempting to introduce Hermione to Draco.

Hermione snorted and put her lips over her cousin's ear. "I know him. Draco and I work together."

Rhachel pulled back, surprised by this revelation. "You know? Then this is good thing, yes?"

"No, not good. Very bad," she replied. "Malfoy, you see, is a complete cad."

Her cousin didn't recognise the archaic English word, and seemed confused by the amount of hostility in Hermione's voice, but Malfoy simply laughed at the insult. His silvery eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Oh-ho! So, you think me a rascal, do you, Granger?"

She scowled at him. "More like a blackguard. Why are you here? I expressly told you not to bother me while on holiday."

His amusement slipped from his features in a microsecond, his mercurial nature striking again. "Who says I'm here for you?" he blandly pointed out. His arm snaked around Rhachel's waist and he pulled her rather possessively into his side. "If you'll recall, I stated that I was in the mood for an exotic brunette to enjoy during my holiday." He tilted her cousin's chin up to stare her in the eye. "Well, I've found one."

"Oh, no you don't!" Hermione pointed the tip of her finger right in Draco's face. "We're both well aware of what you do to women, Malfoy. You leave my cousin alone or so help me-!" She left the threat hanging, but was fully prepared to back it up with violence, if need be.

At just that moment, Nick the Second (Nick the Fourth's older brother) showed up, slipping his arms around her and pulling her back from the edge. He began speaking to Rhachel in Greek, his words too fast for Hermione to catch, and far too advanced for her to interpret with her very rudimentary knowledge of the language.

Rhachel replied, her hand waving back and forth between Hermione and Malfoy and the dance floor.

"Ah," Nick said in comprehension. The next thing Hermione knew, he was leading her away by the hand. "Come, Hermione, we go."

She sunk her heels in, but Nick kept tugging her onward, ignoring her protests. They were heading for the exit.

When she finally scratched him to get him to let up, he turned on her. "Rhachel likes this man," her cousin explained to her in exasperation. "She wishes to dance with him. You stay with me. I take you to hotel."

"She doesn't know him!" Hermione tried to get him to desperately understand. "I do! I work with him, and let me tell you, he's got a bad record with women!"

Nick stared at her with a gaze that could have easily plumbed the secrets from her heart if given enough time. "Hermione, Rhachel knows this man. She tells me they are… How you say? Lovers."

Hermione's jaw hit the floor again.

"What? But that's… that's ridiculous! They just met!"

He shook his head rather firmly "They were together, Hermione, years ago. Lovers. She says so. You understand?"

Yeah, she understood. She understood in spades.

Somehow, some way, her cousin had once upon a time been involved with Draco Malfoy, and it seemed that he'd now come to Greece for his two-week holiday to rekindle the affair while enjoying a little bit of the Aegean surf and sun.

He hadn't followed her here at all. He'd been after her cousin all along.

Her cousin.

Talk about improbable coincidences.

"Shit."

X~~~~~X

Back at the hotel, Hermione bid Nick the Second goodnight and shut the door in his face, too deflated and upset to invite him in. Stalking into the adjoining bathroom, she stripped off her clothes and jewellery, and kicked her shoes into the corner. With a wave of her wand, she had her face and teeth cleansed, and then she proceeded to floss.

Fuming when one had a piece of waxed string lodged between their teeth was a difficult thing to accomplish, but she'd managed it nonetheless.

Malfoy was here... with Rhachel. Had he just arrived? Where was he staying? Was Rhachel coming back to their room tonight or not?

Why did she even care?

"I don't," she firmly informed her reflection in the small mirror over the basin.

As she turned off the lights and crawled into bed, she stared up at the blank, white ceiling above and wondered if she should call this holiday short and just return to England or not. With Malfoy around to distract Rhachel, her primary reason for coming to Greece –to get away from him and to hang around with her favourite cousin after so many years- was as good as done.

She shut her eyes, determined to sleep, but all she could see behind her lids was the way Rhachel was looking up at Draco with hunger, and how he'd been as equally absorbed in her cousin. It took her another hour and using relaxation techniques to finally shut the visions off and to fall into an exhausted slumber.

TO BE CONTINUED...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

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Preview of Chapter 6...

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She'd gotten back to her Aunt's house a little after twelve that afternoon with her lies fully practised in her head and ready to be delivered, only to find Draco and Rhachel sitting down to lunch with the Terezsis. Rather than feeling defeated by his presence, his relaxed, smiling, carefree expression had only fuelled her determination to go through with her false story and get out while she still could. No way was she spending the next week listening to her cousin gush in private about how wonderful a lover Draco was, or watching him touch her cousin in small, intimate ways.

She just couldn't do it. Not anymore. Something had shifted and broken last night when she'd seen him with Rhachel, and now there was no going back.