Chapter 23:
After he saw her leave the stadium post the lunch break, Oliver's peace was short lived. He kept thinking of everything that had transpired between him and his wife since their first meet and he finally figured out where he'd come up short! He'd spoken to her with his actions and waited to hear the words from her, knowing that words meant more to her. And it was then that he realized his folly. Words meant more to her! While he had always shown her his love, he'd never expressed it in his words and she'd never understood the true motivation behind his actions. He laughed mirthlessly in his mind thinking she'd probably explained away all his attentions as care and friendship, huh, as if! She'd been plenty vocal about her doubts and insecurities right from the start and he'd only ever assuaged them with actions, never words. But he promised to change that as soon as he got home. It would probably burn him from the inside out, but he'd speak to her when he got home, before taking things any further tonight. I will never put that off from now on. Ever! He absolutely did not need a repeat performance of the greatest tragedy of his life! At all!
!
Unfortunately, his epiphany had cost him his attention and he took one too many bludgers to his arms and head and he almost stumbled out broken from the floo.
Hermione ran to him, supporting him and got him to sit on the couch as she fetched the first aid kit and dressed his wounds, all the while ranting on yet again about him being careless to the exclusion of all else while playing that bloody game of his.
He smiled his soft crinkled smile at that. "See, this what I mean." And she just threw a look of pure anger his way and got back to work.
"Hermione, this is what I mean when I say you're the best thing to ever happen to me. You understand my passion for the game and though you hate it with vengeance, you are the one to dress my wounds. You come to massage my crinks out when I'm sore. You find innovative ways to motivate me to exercise on the weekends." She gave a half smile at that, as if remembering him kissing her while he did his pushups. "It was just for you that I did 500 that day. I usually just stop at 150. Your laughter and our kisses intoxicated me." She looked down, blushing, lavishing way too much attention on a tiny cut on his arm.
"The first time I saw you, when you came down to the stadium with Ginny, I stood by the door, taking the sight in. I thought your hair was glorious. I still do." He pulled at a stray strand and tucked it behind her ear. "I itch to have my hands in it. I love the way it spreads on the pillows and the bed when I take you." He paused for a bit there, as if seeing just that in his mind, before he continued, "I thoroughly checked out your legs that day and they became a permanent fixture to my dreams then on. And then I laughed inside for liking anything of a girl I hadn't even seen the face of in 4 years!" He smiled fondly at that memory.
"On our first date when you said you wouldn't be sleeping that night, I knew neither would I, but it would be thoughts of you, not the coffee in me that would keep me awake. And since the next day I've carried muggle money with me, hoping you'd ask me out for coffee again someday." She looked at him all intrigued now.
"You know, I've been studying your eyes since our first date. They speak to me like no else. I can name most colors and tell you what emotion that symbolizes. Your eyes told me about your grief on your parent's anniversary." She thought back to that day and remembered him asking about her parents immediately, before she'd even gotten a word out and looked up to see him then. "Just like I know now you're wondering about when and how I did it all," he smiled.
"The first time I held you in my arms at the ministry ball, I thought you were custom made for me. Just me. Made to fit perfectly against me, in my arms, and I chided myself in my head all night long for my sappy thoughts."
"The day you told me about your little chat with Kingsley, I wanted to punch holes through a wall, I was so consumed with jealousy at the thought of you with some other man. I soon had similar thoughts about Charlie by the way, and had to fist my hands in my pockets to keep from punching him for attending his own family gettogether."
"Since the day you walked in this house, you've made it a home and instilled yourself in it. I couldn't bear to stand in any room here, the first day you went for your mission. Everywhere I looked I saw you. I saw us. I had to take myself out to be able to hold on to sanity. Fat lot of good that me too! I went to Wood Manor to see my parents and kept throwing fugitive glances at your empty chair all night long."
"The one day that you were awake before leaving again I begged in my head for you to not leave me again. The day we got back from Ginny's, and you laughed in my arms, I knew there was finally life back in the house."
"These last few weeks were hell for me Hermione. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. I couldn't even cry. I had dreamed of captaining the national team since I was four, and yet when it was finally official, I was unhappy because I didn't have you with me to share in that joy. Because I knew…" he took in deep breath at that, "because I knew that day wouldn't hold a candle to my joy when you'd finally agree to bless me with a child. To the day when you'd tell me the happy news. And to the one when I'd finally hold the little bundle of joy in my arms, with you sitting beside me on your bed."
"Hermione, I…. I am that guy… the one who woke up beside you one fine morning to realize you're the one for me. There would be no going back. Ever. On that Saturday morning, having you melting, wanton and willing in my arms with your eyes speaking volumes… I'll never be able to express myself on that one. I knew, I just knew then that you were the one for me. Since then I've only ever been grateful to the ministry for getting us together."
He rubbed his thumb to her cheeks, the gesture so familiar to her that she could only smile at it. "Hermione I think you're gorgeous! On our first night, while you were bent over the stove, willing the teapot to work slow, I was aching with need to rid you off your clothes. I'd worked myself into a state. Every kiss before that, I had to school my hands to keep them away from you, to just take what you gave and not demand more. And that's why I lost control that night. I'll never be able to forgive myself for what I did b…" she placed her finger on his lips, "How many times do I need to tell you that I wouldn't change a thing about it. I loved every touch of yours Oliver. Will you please let that guilt of yours go? I'll even fly quietly with you if you promise me you will not think of our first night together with guilt or remorse ever again."
His smile was a little strained at that. "You've always been like this, you know. Caring about me and my feelings, right since our first flight together you've ensured I'd be safe and happy too."
"When you came to me in the shower on that first Monday morning after our wedding and called me yours, I've been a goner since. I really did become yours Hermione. I really did."
"You have no idea about the magic you work on me. Your eyes speak. Your kisses," he kissed her at that, "they drive me crazy, rising me to fever pitch." He shrugged her out of her t-shirt, her bra following its course immediately. "Your skin feels so supple and soft against mine," he said running his hands and lips all over her exposed front and back. "I must have gone through three hundred different pashminas before I chose that one for you. It was the closest thing that they had to the texture of your skin and I only ever wanted the best to be touching you."
He then moved to her breasts, cupping them in his big hands and rubbing his thumbs against their erect peaks. "These feel as if they were mapped to fit my hands. The first time I saw them, I knew I'd never get enough of them. There's a reason why I always tug at your t-shirt first. I just want to.." and he dipped his head on her chest and showed her exactly what he wanted to do with them, to them. And he slowly kissed his way down, making space on the couch to accommodate her legs on it, to have her lie down under him. While kissing her chest and stomach, he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down along with her underwear, chucking them both carelessly over his head.
"Your moans," he said biting on her navel, eliciting a loud moan from her, "drive all my blood down, making me ache so bad for you that once I'm at that point, I wouldn't stop even if the house came down crashing all around us."
"Did you know, you are by far the sweetest woman I've ever tasted? I would any day happily just have you for dessert." And he stretched her legs apart, hooking one on the couch's backrest and one over his shoulder as he bent his head down to her core and did just that, till she was panting and moaning in his arms, gathering her breath from her first crash.
He shrugged out of his clothes while she did that and came back to the couch placing himself between her legs. "This, Hermione, is how I like it," he whispered seductively, embedding three of his fingers deep in her and working their magic on her as he kissed and nipped at her all over again, all the while looking deep in her eyes.
He smiled triumphantly when she came again and her eyes changed their color to his favorite shade. "That's the color that drives me over the edge. Makes me want to do this all over again, all day long. That's the one that's my undoing, and will always be." He kissed her soundly at that.
"And this, Hermione, is how it is meant to be," he said a little gruffly and entered her in one swift motion, raising her to fever pitch, stroke by slow stroke, coiling the tension tightly in her till she was slithering under him, begging him to increase their pace.
He smirked, "This, is my wanton woman, the one who keeps me coming on to her, the one I fall for every night, all over again," and he increased the pace to a demanding rhythm and she met him all the way crashing once more before he finally let himself go, falling on her chest, just like he always did.
"This is us Hermione. And I'll take great pleasure in demonstrating this to you every single day, for the rest of my life." He kissed her then, putting all his love for her in that one kiss. "I love you Hermione. I have for quite some time now. I was stupid enough to wait to say it to you, convincing myself that you may get uncomfortable if I expressed my love so soon, so I thought I'd show you instead. I let my actions speak to you, hoping you'd understand. But I won't make the same mistake twice."
He looked deep in her eyes saying, "From now on, my dear darling love, I'll give you both, my actions and my words. I won't let any doubts about us touch you ever again, I promise." Saying this, he bent his head for a kiss again and she responded to it immediately, hugging him crushingly into her, as if she could not have enough of him. He smiled at that. All was finally well.
"I love you Oliver. I have been falling for you since our first kiss. It killed me to do all that but I thought that's what.." and she trailed away as Oliver kissed her again.
"It doesn't matter love. We're new in this relationship. There are bound to be misunderstandings. Let's just work towards solving them and I'm sure we'll get through just fine," he said, showing all his love for her in his eyes, his words, his kisses and his touches all over again.
"I love you lass. I always will."
"And I love you Oliver. I always will."
He heaved in a deep breath at that, as they both lay there, content in each other's arms, happy to be back there….. Finally!