After this one, we're back at longer waits, I'm afraid. Just thought these chapters were better not kept too far apart. ;)

I had minor surgery today. So don't tell me I'm not dedicated. ;P


Draco prayed for fortitude. He was going out of his mind here. He'd never experienced anything quite as sexy as a naked Hermione squirming and moaning in his arms, and he really doubted she was aware of the way she squeezed his hand tight with her thighs, or the way she hung onto him, softly moaning in his ear. She certainly wouldn't be aware of how she flushed when she was about to come and her eyes became more and more feverish until—

He wouldn't last.

He had suspected that he wouldn't and that was half the reason he'd wanted to get her off first, but now he knew. There was no way in hell he was lasting very long after this. His entire body was trembling with holding back and he just wanted to let go, but he couldn't. Not yet.

Hermione's body relaxed somewhat and he finally managed to free his hand. Not that he particularly wanted to; he just sort of had to. He leaned away from her a bit to look her over.

"What are you doing?" she muttered.

Wank material.

Probably not what she wanted to hear.

"You look beautiful." He wasn't lying. Normally, he wouldn't have said it, but everything considered, he figured it wasn't such a bad thing to say.

She did get that annoyed look on her face, though. The expression that clearly told him that she thought everything he said was a lie. "Right."

"Stop it," he murmured, leaning down to kiss her again because he had to do something or die from Rampant Erection Syndrome. "I'm allowed to think you're beautiful right now," he added.

Her face softened. "I'm sorry," she quietly said. "It's pretty obvious that you're in a bad way." She pulled him in for another kiss, pressing all of her naked glory against him.

He wanted to ask her how long she'd need to recover, but he didn't want it to come across the wrong way, so he decided to simply suffer until she took the initiative instead. If he even survived that long.

"Weren't these supposed to go?" she asked, referring to his underwear.

He'd kept it on on purpose, actually, in order not to get too excited and do something stupid like, say, come on her thigh.

He tried very hard to block the mental image of his come on her thighs and the response that image sparked in him. It really didn't take much right now, did it?

"Yeah, they were," he muttered, trying very hard to think of something else as she removed the last piece of clothing from him.

"How close are you?" she asked, tentatively touching him.

"M-maybe too...." He closed his eyes. She would call him on his inexperience now. 'Are you sure you've done this before?' But as long as she'd touch him like that a little longer, he supposed it didn't matter all that much.

"What are you waiting for, then?" she whispered.

His eyes shot open and he stared at her. What?

She patiently repeated the question.

"Are you sure?" he asked, feeling a little bit stupid the second the words were out. They were naked, for crying out loud. How much more sure did any sane person need the other one to be?

"Soon I'm going to think that you don't want to. Again...." Fortunately she didn't look annoyed. Good. He hadn't offended her. Yet.

He knew there were supposed to be thoughts in his head, but his mind was a perfect blank. He couldn't think of a single thing to fill the void where his thoughts were supposed to be.

She gave him a look and he forced himself out of the blank state. "I do want you." Ok, maybe not entirely out, but it was a marginal improvement.

He was still trying to come up with better words to form better sentences when the evil little witch made all the words flee again by intimately caressing him. Before he could tell her that it probably wasn't such a good idea, however, she'd grabbed hold of him and positioned him exactly where he wanted to be.

"This goes there," she whispered in his ear, hardly trying to hide her amusement. "Think you can take it from here or do you need more help?"

At least, he noted with some satisfaction, she was breathless too. She was eager in her own right for this to happen. That helped his insecurities tremendously.

"Feel free to help me all you like," he muttered and pushed forward.

Then there was bliss and not much else.

He was vaguely aware that she gasped as he entered her and that she was again squirming and feverish. Only vaguely, though, because all of his attention was directed towards how amazing this was feeling and how to make it last longer than thirty seconds.

"Please... don't... move..." he choked out, trying very hard to keep himself in check.

She didn't obey, but pressed against him in a way that made him enter her even more fully. He felt himself breaking into a sweat as he fought to stay in control. He wanted so badly to just move. To have the orgasm of his life. But he needed to hold back because... because.... He wasn't really sure why he needed to hold back anymore, his brain was sort of fuzzy, but he knew it was important.

"Let go," Hermione whispered in his ear. "It's all right." She moved against him, making him see stars, and someone that couldn't be him actually whimpered.

Then his self-control broke and he blindly began moving. She was running her hands over his back and kissing his throat, neck, shoulders, lips, anything she could reach.

It was driving him nuts.

He never wanted her to stop.

His movements became rougher, faster and more erratic, but he couldn't slow it down. He couldn't force himself to show more finesse. She didn't even seem to want him to. She urged him on and he was helpless to resist her.

Only with her could it be like this. She may not want to be his last, but she'd always be his first. Nothing could ever change that now.

The orgasm blindsided him. Suddenly, his world was consumed and for a moment there was only them. She was still pressing her body against him, kissing him, probably not even knowing that those kisses meant more to him than any amount of sex could.

He wanted it to last forever.

But of course it didn't.

He collapsed, breathing heavily and deciding that he was a clueless git for the decisions he'd made regarding her. While money could buy him sex, if that was what he wanted, he was sure it couldn't buy him anything remotely like this. And he wanted this. Badly. He wanted her. He wanted to make her realize how he felt and make her feel some of the same. She had to feel something already or she wouldn't have slept with him. She wasn't that kind of person.

He raised his head with some effort and sought her mouth in a kiss, hoping she wasn't averse to it now they were in the after stage. Somewhat to his surprise, she accepted the kiss and even returned it with some enthusiasm. As the haze finally began to lift from his brain, he began registering little signs. Her breathing was erratic. Her skin was flushed. The way she still touched him, although restrained and softer now, had nothing to do with wanting to cuddle.

He buried his face in her neck, breathing her in and trying to not realize the obvious.

As predicted, he had been inadequate for her. The moment had been his alone.


Hermione tried to get her breathing under control. Oh, my! If that wasn't the most intensely erotic experience of her life, she didn't know what was. Once Draco had been coaxed to let go, he'd really let go and... oh, my!

She should probably be having regrets but she couldn't find it within herself. Maybe later.

He seemed unwilling to move and for a while she let him stay, but then she began needing more oxygen to function, so she slowly began disentangling her legs from his as a gentle reminder that they couldn't stay like this.

He immediately tensed up. "Wait!"

She froze, more with puzzlement than anything else. "For what?"

"Not done."

She frowned in confusion. "You feel done to me?"

He flushed and clenched his jaw. "Just give me a minute."

Hermione felt she was missing something. Not an uncommon occurrence when it came to Draco, of course, but it was still unsettling. Especially considering that they had just had sex. "What's the matter?"

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "It didn't count."

She blinked. "Um... why didn't it count?" As far as she'd been able to tell he'd had a very intense and satisfying orgasm, so she couldn't quite grasp why it wouldn't count.

His flush deepened. "Just shut up and I'll make it count!"

She frowned slightly, giving up on understanding him. Besides, she had no problem at all with continuing, although once she left this bed, it was probably better if she didn't return to it. It was just a little strange. As if he needed to prove something.

"Stop thinking," he murmured. "Just feel, ok?"

She could do that, she supposed. She closed her eyes and felt. He was touching her again and kissing her neck, murmuring some rather meaningless nonsense about how pretty she was and how good this felt. She decided to believe it—just for now, tomorrow would come soon enough—and was quite surprised just how good a few casual lust-induced compliments made her feel.

He began slowly moving again and hissed as if he were tender. It didn't keep his eyes from closing on a subsequent groan, though. So, he enjoyed it but they probably had to go slower this time. Pity. She had liked the pure need of the first time. When he'd come, she'd literally held her breath, shuddering with him at the sheer impact of it all.

But slow could probably be nice too.

"I want you so much," he whispered in her ear.

More nonsense. Boys really did say anything when you were having sex with them, didn't they? But it was sort of sweet, and so she kissed him. Softly.

He froze for a second as if surprised, but then he gained a determined look. "I know what you want," he murmured against her lips, catching her hands and entwining his fingers with hers, keeping them at each side of her head. "And I'll give it to you."

She wanted to know what he thought she wanted, but the way he kissed and nibbled at her lips was distracting her.

Then, carefully, he began gradually going faster. She wanted to tell him not to if he were sore, but when she opened her mouth, all that escaped was a shaky groan that made him go harder. Faster.

She wanted to touch him and had a brief struggle to free her hands, but he just squeezed them tighter in place.

"Please..." she begged.

He made a slightly choked sound and did release one of her hands, grabbing her thigh and hoisting it up a bit for deeper penetration. She took the chance to run her hand up his arm to his back and to the front to touch his chest. He was damp from the effort. But what he was doing felt so good.

"I love your skin," he murmured, leaning slightly forward to kiss her neck. "Soft and tasty."

She wanted to make a clever comeback, but she couldn't quite manage it. Instead she just moaned his name.

He tensed a bit. "Do that again."

She did.

With some frustrated-sounding obscenities, he grabbed a hold of her hand again and his motions intensified. "Not again," she thought she heard him mutter. "I can't do that twice. God, Hermione, please don't do this to me."

Do what? Oh, this felt good. Very good. Almost... her eyes widened in surprise. She was a realist. She knew the odds of certain things happening, so she hadn't paid that much attention to the sensations building inside of her. The odds of orgasming from vaginal stimulation alone were—

"Draco!" She tensed.

"Now you let go," he murmured. "Please, please, please, please...."

He kissed her deeply and she tensed more and more until it was unbearable and she short-circuited in a strangely new yet familiar way.


Thank God!!!

At least if this was what he thought it was. He wasn't completely certain, but quite frankly, he was as certain as he was going to be, because he couldn't hold back much longer.

He slowed down a bit. He was getting winded and she seemed like maybe it was getting a little too intense for her. Besides, he didn't know if she'd ever let him make love to her again and he wanted to go slow for just a minute before it was over.

She was so wonderful. More than he deserved.

He was... She was... He didn't quite know how to put words to these feelings.

He let her hands go, shifting his weight a bit so there was more skin against skin without him crushing her. He was so close, but he didn't want to stop. She caressed his back and offered him kisses. Soft kisses, just like he sometimes dreamed.

And then he did know.

Nuzzling her ear, he whispered, "I love you."

She froze, eyes wide. He'd shocked her. Then she opened her mouth as if to say something, and he hurriedly covered it with his own. He knew that whatever she would have to say, it wouldn't be 'I love you too', but he allowed himself the fantasy that she'd said just that.

Unable to hold back anymore, he let go, trying and failing not to moan into her mouth as he came. He'd never felt like this before. Ever.

Afterwards, when he was fighting hard to get his thoughts and feelings back in order, he prevented her from speaking again with more kisses. He couldn't bear to have her shatter the fantasy just yet.

"Whatever it is, it can wait," he murmured against her lips. "Let's just... sleep for a bit, ok?" He only allowed for her to answer with a reluctant nod.

Satisfied that she was staying, he laid down to go to sleep with her in his arms. It felt so right. Since she was staying, maybe it didn't feel entirely wrong to her, either? They probably did need to talk in the morning to figure out where they stood and maybe… maybe she'd give him a chance.

He could always hope.

When he woke up the next morning, she was gone.


"W-what about what you said then?"

"What I said?" His lip curled derisively. "You mean that I love you?"

Hermione winced. The words were bad enough, but the way he said it, as if it was beyond ridiculous to believe in such a thing... it made her feel silly. And small.