Chapter 14: Explanations… and Understandings

"I-" he swallowed the lump which had formed in his throat, "I thought I had told you last night?"

She snivelled, "Does it look like you had told me?" she paused and looked at him seeing his face fall ever so slightly. "How could you think that would be my reaction to a thing like that?" she shook her head turning towards the fireplace.

"I... It just seemed as if you had coped," He ran his hand through his hair, realising she must have been in the bathroom when he told her, and it was a coincident that she had dropped something. "I didn't want to have to tell you, I wanted the coward to do so himself, the honourable thing for once in his life. But oh no, Weasel couldn't do that could he?" Draco sneered.

"He wouldn't even tell me he was having an affair... what part of that thick brain of yours assumed he'd therefore tell me that he knocked the woman up?" Draco knew she was lashing out at the only thing she could- him. But he felt slightly hurt by her words, and his next actions dictated that.

He stood to his full height stalking over to where she stood, "You asked and asked whether he was having an affair, and yet every single time he said he wasn't, and so you took his word for it. I would have thought someone as smart as you always were back in school would have twigged something was wrong. Did he never come home smelling of some other woman's cheap perfume? Did he never put off having sex with you? Did he ever come back late? Say he'd been working? Did you never find a letter, or another indication of his infidelity? Don't you ever say I assumed too much, you're the person he had been doing it under the nose of for many years, before I even came into the picture! I thought Gryffindor's were the honourable ones?" he ranted. Breathing heavily through his nose he turned away from the brunette, leaning his weight onto his forearms palms against the corner of the desk.

A quiet sob had him turning back around to face Hermione who had slumped to the floor. "It's all, my fault" she muttered to herself.

"Don't say that-"

"You said it yourself Malfoy, I missed the clear signs, yes he did come home smelling of that cheap perfume, yes he did come back late... and yes if you must know our sex life has been down the pan since way before we got married." A sob escaped her throat, "The last time we had sex, was... was the night Rose was conceived."

Draco's eyes widened, he hadn't expected her to make that much of a confession to him, and he felt even guiltier, for in a way forcing it out of her.

"Listen..." he started slowly, and softly. "He really doesn't deserve you." She gave a snort, "I mean it, your attractive, and intelligent, Merlin, any man would kill to have you by his side." 'Writhing underneath him' "To run his hands through those curls as he kissed your plump lips into submission, to hold those womanly hips-" he cut himself off before he finished, standing in front of Hermione he bent down to lift her from the ground.

When he pulled her to her full height she tilted her head so that she was looking into his steel grey irises from her shortened height, after a few holding of breath minutes, she carefully lifted her hand to his cheek, but on the contact he turned his head away from her- taking it as a rebuff she lowered her hand.

"But who would want me? I'm as plain as they come. What can I offer someone that someone younger couldn't?" She stated finally. When he snapped his attention back to her, she turned away, looking out of the window in his office. "Who would want me?" she finally said.

"I would" was Draco's immediate reaction, "Who wouldn't?" he countered. Hermione gave an undignified snort, before Draco continued, "I'd take you upstairs, right about now, and ravish you if I didn't think you'd do something to me." A small smile appeared on Hermione's face.

"As tempting as that sounds I should really go and check on Rose" her smile grew as she glanced back at Draco.

"Good point, I'm not exactly a three minute man, I like to put in a very satisfactory performance" his eyes lit up with a hint of mischief. "May be I'll show you some time" he purred, leaning over to whisper into the shell of her ear.

'Is Draco Malfoy flirting with me?' Hermione thought as she eyed him curiously, seeing that hint of mischief in his eyes, she couldn't control the words as they came out of her mouth.

Licking her lips, before she gently bit on her lip pulling it through her teeth she spoke "Perhaps that can be arranged" a finger ran across the width of his shirt covered chest.

He growled low in his chest, as he took as step towards her catching her finger as it retreated, he brought it slowly to his mouth watching her for her reaction all the way, as he licked the tip of her finger before kissing each of the digits knuckles.

A shiver of electricity jolted through both of them, as they gazed at one another, gaining control of her senses, Hermione slowly almost reluctantly pulled her hand away from Draco's grasp, eying him curiously as she did so.

He simply smirked at her, he was glad she was seemingly no longer upset about finding out the truth, and he was beginning to suspect she may well have heard him last night on some sort of level but was either in denial or she thought she had misheard.

"I really do, need to go and pick Rose up, she needs everything explaining to her, and I need to get in touch with the Minister for Marriages as soon as possible to sort everything out." To Draco she seemed as if she had more to say but just stood there, not wanting to go.

"I'm sorry that this has happened, the way it has" he offered her a toned down smirk, a kind of sad smile, but not quite reaching that potential. "If you need anything, you know how to get in touch with me."

She nodded her head forlornly, "So do I" she smiled a half smile, "May be it was better that it happened, I..." she furrowed her eyebrows, "The last few days have been stressful to say the least, so thank you for being here for me." She reached her hand up to his cheek, carefully running a thumb along the jaw line of his left cheek before she stood onto her tiptoes to place a chaste kiss on his right cheek.

When she pulled away there was a stray emotion showing through her chocolate orbs, he was tempted to capture her lips in another kiss, but knew he would be unable to hold himself back, he'd had too many tempting tastes, now he need to devour her, to sedate himself- and that wouldn't do unless she came to him first. She was after all still married, as much as that gnawed somewhere in his head to get with her anyway, he respected the vows of marriage, even if they weren't his.

Not to mention, Draco Malfoy had waited too long for the Ginger git to mess up, and he didn't want to ruin any of his chances.

"You should go" he whispered, "Rose will want her mum" he smirked when he saw her eyes close slowly before she opened them to look him squarely in the eye. He simply stood stalk still, waiting to see if she found what she was looking for, even though he shut down the barriers to his emotions.

Having satisfied her curiosity, Hermione nodded her head before walking to the exit, glancing back to the blond she said "Thanks again Draco" before she vacated the room, and Draco let out the breath he had been holding in.

He knew he was inches away from claiming her, and that niggled at him. Their relationship was moving too fast, he needed to slow it down, before he did something rash.

A/N: Well there it is Chapter 14, I know it's short but I thought I'd update and let you guys know how everything is going. I have decided to finish this story, before I upload the next chapter, so that I have clear cut finish.

I hope that you will stay with me, while I get this done, and thank you for all the support you have given me throughout this story. I enjoy reading your thoughts, and look forward to reading more of them. Please let me know what you think. And should you have the time, try my other stories that are on here.

Thank you again;

Scopio219 -x-