Exercise in Stress Relief
by Forever Optimistic

Rating: NC17
Ship: Lily & James
Canon: Books 1 - 5
Genre: Romance
Status: Complete
Length: 2,684 words in 1 chapter
Published: 11 May 2006
Last updated: 11 May 2006

[One-Shot] A trip to the prefect's bath was exactly where Lily knew she could relieve her stress and perhaps find
something more along the way.

From the Unofficial Portkey Archive: https://portkey-archive.org/story/6029/

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1. Exercise in Stress Relief

Exercise in Stress Relief

The fifth floor corridor was deserted; most of the students were either in their dormitories, or were already in the
Great Hall for dinner. When Lily Evans spoke the password that would allow her entrance into the prefect's bathroom on
the fifth floor, she wasn't too concerned about getting caught with only a thin negligee under her school robes. She was
more interested in getting inside before she froze her arse off.

She opened the door gently, walked in and bolted it behind her. There was a faint sloshing sound coming from the far
side of the room and she stopped so that her eyes could adjust to the dim light. Placing her hands against the wall so
as not to trip over anything, she removed her robe and hung it on the rack by the storage closet near the door. Two more
tentative steps and she found herself looking right at James Potter where she knew he would be sitting - in the bath.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed with wide eyes, inadvertently sending a splash of water in her direction.

Neither spoke for several seconds; Lily was too busy taking in his exposed appearance while he was staring at her with
utter disbelief. James was the first to recover, forgoing any questions relating as to why she was there when he was
obviously occupying the bath and went directly for what he knew would make her squirm.

“Are you gawking at my chest?” he asked, raising both arms and clasping his hands behind his head.

Lily gaped at him for five more seconds before bringing her eyes up to a place right off the side of his face.

“I'm not gawking… I'm… acknowledging,” she answered, swallowing hard as she was drawn to the muscles on his abdomen that
shook with laughter.

“You're gawking,” he simply stated, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Her eyes shot up to look at him and she couldn't keep a soft moan from escaping her. He was looking at her as if he
wanted nothing more than to make her clothes disappear on the spot; if he had his wand with him, she's sure he would
have done just that. She was suddenly reminded of the thin material of her nightdress, aware but not fully prepared for
what was undoubtedly crossing his mind. His tongue stuck out and ran across his bottom lip, causing her body temperature
to rise and her legs to clamp closed where she stood. She bit the inside of her cheek when he reached out to pick up his
towel and she practically swooned as he began getting out of the water.

He was perfect.

His body wasn't bulging at the seams with muscles nor did he look like something out of a bad war movie; he was simply
very well defined in all the right places. Firm, tanned muscles from hours of playing Quidditch outdoors decorated his
trim body, accentuating his shoulders, his chest, his abdomen, oh God, his legs and everywhere else in between. He was
wet and slick and so achingly hard that it was making her legs shake in anticipation.

As he wrapped the towel around his waist, the white material tenting impressively in front, she stifled a moan, willing
herself to look away. When that failed, she urged her legs to walk back and away from him before she did something rash,
but they too betrayed her and she was left looking like a fish out of water, opening and closing her mouth at the sight
before her. By the time he looked up at her, he smiled seductively, knowing full well what he was doing to her. As he
took a few steps forward, all sense of reality came rushing back to her and she closed her mouth where she had been
mopping the floor with her jaw.

When he stood just inches in front of where she stood, her heart fluttered and she held her breath. She wanted him. She
craved him. His chest touched the front of her nightdress with one more step, the water enough to make the thin material
see-through, and she finally became coherent enough to put two excusatory sentences together.

“Potter, why the bloody hell would you leave that door unbolted?” she ranted. “It's obscene…it's negligent…it's
inconsiderate, it's…it's…” she trailed off as he got even closer, his lips practically taking her ear in his mouth.

“Enough to make you want to rip this towel off my waist?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.

Her body shivered as his hot breath moved over her ear and the back of her neck. She heard him lick his lips one more
time and she couldn't hold back the image of what that tongue could be doing to her if he simply got closer.

As if reading her mind, he said: “Tell me you didn't know I would be here,” in that sensual husky voice he used before.

If she was completely honest with him, she would have to admit that she did know he would be there. That information
became available to her in their sixth year at Hogwarts when he became Quidditch captain and gained access to the
prefect's bathroom. He went up to her early in the year and told her that if she ever needed to relieve some stress, she
could find him in the same place at the same time after every practice. For reasons she was unwilling to divulge to him,
she had held on to that bit of information for when she felt confident enough to rise to the occasion.

And that Tuesday, one hour after Charms, and a half an hour before dinner, she knew the time had come to take him up on
that offer.

She had had a hellish month. Revising for NEWTS was beginning to take its toll on her, and although she had several
weeks before the end of year exams, Lily Evans was not one to leave her studies for the last minute. To make things
worse, her boyfriend of four months had broken up with her two weeks prior, citing irreconcilable differences, although
what he really meant was that he wanted the freedom to bang anything and everything with two legs without feeling guilty
about it. It was fine by her; he was nothing special in bed anyway.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” she answered as she pressed her breasts fully against his chest.

He closed his eyes and groaned, his head rolling back, but he remained poised. His hands didn't seek out her body, and
he didn't say a word. James Potter was clearly composed enough to reign in his impulses, but she knew he wanted her; it
couldn't have been more evident. She felt his erection twitch against her stomach when she pressed up against him, she
felt and heard his groan reverberate through his body and she saw the way his whole body tensed, the muscles flexing
underneath his wet skin.

“Lily,” he practically pleaded when she didn't move away.

“James,” she moaned at the sound of his voice.

His eyes shot open, but before he could say anything, Lily reached up and pulled his head down to her, devouring his
lips with her own. It didn't take long for him to respond to the assault and slide his tongue into her mouth, both
fighting for the upper hand. Her hands snaked through his hair as his hands reached down to cop a feel of her arse. She
in turn lifted one leg and wrapped it around his waist, her hands massaging his shoulders, her fingernails digging into
his skin each time his erection hit just the right spot.

She began rocking her hips against him, reaching for what she wanted and helping herself to what she needed. With a
grunt, he picked her up and walked forward until her back was firmly against a column. She wrapped her legs tightly
around his waist, and as he attacked her neck with sweet, wet kisses, she began to get impatient, her body moving up and
down on his erection in rhythm with the onset of his tongue, the white towel around his waist the only barrier between
her and her goal. Her breathing was coming out in short little pants, the sounds she was making succeeding in driving
him up the wall.

“Fuck Lily, do you even need me?” he asked, mesmerized by her rocking and loving every minute of it.

“James,” she moaned when his hand reached under her nightdress and cupped her breast.

When he caught her hard, tight nipple between his fingers and began to rub and pinch and pull, she began to whimper and
her rocking became erratic. She cried out when he ripped the nightdress from her body and without warning, replaced his
hand with his mouth, taking her hardened nipple in between his teeth and biting down gently. She jerked hard against him
one more time, her nails digging a hole in his shoulder, her body shaking with the powerful orgasm that shook her entire
body. He continued his caresses until her legs went limp around his waist and her breathing slowed down.

Lily hadn't expected to go so fast with James, but one look at him in the bathtub was all it took to get her wet and
wanting. He certainly didn't seem to have any objections to the speed they were going, and judging by the size of his
erection, he was more than ready to move on. With trembling fingers, she reached in between their bodies, and yanked on
the towel that up to that point had been covering what she sought. He bit back a groan when the towel fell to the ground
and finally, there was absolutely nothing in their way.

“Lily,” he panted, placing his forehead against hers. “I…I…can't do this…if…” he began.

“James, please” she pleaded when she sensed hesitation on his part.

“I don't want…I don't want this to be some fling,” he whispered. “I…really…I really care about you, Lily.”

“I know, James. I know,” she reassured him, fully aware by then that he wouldn't do anything to harm her. “I need you,
please,” she begged again, tightening her hold on his waist, his erection positioned at the tip of her moisture.

He cursed under his breath, wanting every bit of what she was offering, but wanting to do things the right way. He had
stopped so much as glancing at other girls in the corridors since his sixth year. In his eyes, Lily Evans was the only
girl on the face of the planet. But the way she breathed against his neck, the bereft little sounds coming out of her
mouth, the hot moisture between her legs; it was all to much for him to handle.

With one more look into her eyes, he kissed her hard as she guided him inside of her. She hissed and threw her head back
in pleasure while he suckled her neck, trying to pull himself together and not end the evening early. She was so wet and
tight that he had to call on every ounce of restraint to keep from thrusting fast and hard into her. This was Lily, his
Lily, and he needed to let her know that he wasn't simply after her to get between her legs. She let him control their
movements at first as he set a slow and torturous pace. He held her firmly against the pillar with one hand, letting her
prop herself up on his waist with her legs, while his other hand left a sizzling trail from her breast all the way down
to where they were joined.

As if his thrusts weren't already making her crazy, one flick of his thumb on the tiny bundle of nerves between her legs
was all it took to break her again. She didn't hold back that time, screaming out his name as if her soul were being
ripped from her body. The spasms surrounding his cock were all coming too hard and too fast so that with three hard
thrusts, he followed her over the edge and spilled himself inside of her.

She continued to ride him, letting the waves of absolute pleasure wash over her. She had never felt so spent; she had
never felt more alive. What James had offered her as a flirtatious proposition the year before turned out to be the most
amazing experience of her life. Justin, her ex-boyfriend, had never filled her so completely; he had never so much as
made her come once in all the time they were together. James was still holding her plush against his body. His head was
resting on her shoulder, one hand cupping her bottom, the other resting on the wall, and the only reason they were still
standing. When she disentangled her legs from his waist and began righting herself, he looked up at her, a frown forming
on his handsome face. He pulled out of her and she stood awkwardly before him, her legs feeling like jelly and her head
still spinning. His hand still rested on the column when she reached up and kissed his chin. That single endearment
brought a smile to his face and he watched her as she walked towards her discarded nightdress.

“I'll go wash up and change into something decent before going down to dinner,” she said to him more out of feeling odd
than to give him any information. He nodded his head in assent and walked back towards the edge of the bathtub where his
glasses were sitting neatly on top of his robes.

“Sit with me at dinner,” he called to her. It was something between and question and a statement, James was too afraid
to turn around and look at her reaction but was hopeful that she might actually agree to join him.

She was silent for a while as she watched him fidget beside the bathtub with nothing but an uneasy expression his face.
Hadn't he showed her how much he cared? She had approached him earlier in the evening with one goal in mind: to relieve
some stress and find out once and for all if the butterflies in her stomach every time she saw him actually meant
something. What she found out that day was that she cared about the one guy she had been fighting against far more than
she let herself believe was remotely possible.

“I can't tonight. I have to sit with a few second years I'm tutoring right after dinner,” she responded. He nodded
again, and she noticed the way his shoulders slumped a little at her explanation. “I can meet you tomorrow if you want,”
she added right before she reached the door. “I hear you have another practice. Perhaps I'll see you before going down
to dinner.”

She didn't see his face light up as she walked out and he didn't see the flush creep up her neck at her last statement.
What they did see however, was how each had a glow to everything they did that hadn't been there before their meeting
and how neither could stop smiling all through dinner. James knew he had finally gotten through to Lily and Lily
realized for the first time that perhaps James would be in it for the long run. She would certainly have to look into it
further and what better place to start than in a bath?

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A/N: Special thanks to Jordan for the beta. Any punctuation or really bad grammar mistakes are my own fault.

Having said that, please read and review!!!
