Author's notes: :D First of all, let me say, you all just rock! The response to this story has been overwhelming, to say the least. I'm thrilled that you like it so well! You all have had me grinning like a cat for the past four days. :D << See?
To HarrynHermione4eva: Thank you! I was so glad that you picked this one, because I was really hoping you would! :lol: I love it! Thanks again!
Okay, so I've picked on you all for so long, I owe you some relief. I hope you like it.
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Hermione pulled the robe on and paced back and forth across the room. She could hear the shower running and knew Harry was standing in the other room, wet and naked, looking gorgeous. After what had just happened, all her resolve was gone. She wanted more, a lot more.
Without a second thought, she opened the bathroom door and stepped inside, shutting it quietly behind her. She let the robe fall to the floor, then approached the single shower stall opposite the tub. She could see Harry through the glass, and she had to stop a moment and just stare.
He had his back to her, one hand resting against the tiles, the other running through his soaked raven hair. She could see his butt clearly, so perfect and sculpted, and she wanted nothing more than to touch it.
Then, Harry did something that surprised the hell out of her. He slid his hand down his side and touched himself. She knew what he was doing even if she couldn't see it. She wasn't that naïve.
He let out a grunt as his hand pumped harder and harder, and he leaned more heavily on his other hand, bracing himself against the wall. It was so erotic, listening to the noises he made. She wanted to be the one getting those noises out of him. She stepped forward and pulled the door open.
He swung around to face her, looking only moderately surprised to see her. His hand, she noticed, stopped what it was doing. He didn't say anything, which she considered a good sign. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her, never taking her eyes off of him. Then, she moved past him, bent and put her hands on the bench seat at the back of the shower and glanced at him over her shoulder.
His eyes trailed over her. He wasn't saying or do anything, just looking at her, but it was still enough to make her ache for him. He moved, but it wasn't to do what she expected. Instead he took hold of her arms and pulled her until she was standing up, facing him. His eyes were hard on hers as he took her hand and moved it until it was resting on his erection.
She felt her heart skip, but slowly started to move her hand, gripping and stroking him as best she could. She'd never really done this before. She'd touched him the last time they were together, but it hadn't been long before he'd had to pull away from her, before he'd needed to be inside her. She hoped he wouldn't need much this time either, because she knew she was doing extremely poorly at it.
After a minute of her erratic motions, he reached down and put his hand over hers. "Like this," he said, the first words he'd spoken since she'd come in. He wrapped his fingers over hers, showing her just how hard to squeeze it, how fast to stroke, how to run her thumb over the top of it with each stroke.
When she had the hang of it, he let go of her hand and leaned against the side of the shower, just watching her. It made her nervous, the intensity in his eyes, and she felt she had to say something to break the tension. "Am I doing this right?"
He nodded, still not taking his eyes off of her. "You're doing wonderfully. A little harder."
His tone was still so calm. She was in the shower with him, stroking him off and he was still calm. How was that even possible?
She wanted to get a reaction, any reaction, out of him. She let go of him suddenly, hoping to at least get a gasp out him. "Why'd you stop?" he asked, still calm.
"I just didn't think you were liking it."
"Why would you think that?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"You're not making any noise, you aren't grinding into me, you're just standing there."
"I just said you were doing wonderfully. Do I have to have my eyes rolling back in my head before you'll believe me?"
"Well-why aren't they?" she asked, frustrated. "You act like you're bored out of your mind."
"I'm not," he laughed, reaching out to take her hand again. "Honestly, Hermione. It's great. I don't want you to stop." When she didn't protest, he moved her hand back to his erection. She started to stroke him again, knowing she needed to do something else, completely unsure what it was. She leaned toward him, wanting to feel his lips on hers. It was the biggest shock so far when he pulled his head back, a slight smirk on his face.
He was teasing her again. He thought it was funny to make her suffer. Fine, she thought angrily. You want to play, we'll play. On the next stroke, she scraped her fingernails over him. He jerked, letting out a strangled moan. She did it again, harder this time and he pushed his hips toward her, his eyes sliding shut. It was wonderful to watch his control crack.
Since he wouldn't let her kiss him, she took to kissing his chest, sucking hard on the tight, wet skin and he moaned again. She ran her tongue over his nipple, then bit at it gently. He let himself lean back against the wall, sucking a breath in between his teeth.
It was time to move in for the kill. She'd never done it before, but she imagined it couldn't be too hard. She dropped to her knees, grasped him with one hand and let her tongue flick out to taste him.
"Ah," he cried, slamming his fist against the wall. "God, Hermione!"
"Yes?"
He let out a pained laugh. "You're loving this, aren't you?" He moaned yet again as she let her tongue slide over the underside of him. "It's pay back, right?"
She hummed softly against him, causing him to twitch again as she slowly, teasingly, licked him. "I don't know what-you mean, Harry."
"I'm not above begging," he said, fisting his fingers in her hair. "I don't have that much pride."
"Really?" she asked, blinking up at him. Another lick from her, another moan from him. "You'd beg?"
"Please, God, Hermione," he said, his voice low and sultry. "Please do it."
"Do what?"
"Take me in your mouth," he rasped, letting go with one hand to grab the wall behind him. "Suck me off."
It turned her on more than she ever would have admitted, and she leaned forward to slide her mouth over him. He let out a grunt, his head falling back against the wall. She had to do this right, she knew. She had to make him howl.
She sucked, pulling her cheeks in as she pulled back and he groaned again. She swirled her tongue around the head and felt his hips tense under her hand. He was fighting the urge to thrust into her. Good sign.
It was all trial and error. Whatever made him groan loudest, she did again. Eventually, using a combination of everything he seemed to like, she had him panting and moaning and twitching. Suddenly, the hand that was tangled in her hair gave a moved to her shoulder, and he pulled her back to her feet. She leaned in to kiss him as they came face to face again, but he pulled back again, holding onto her neck and staring hard into her face.
He moved her hand away as she reached for him again, and finished it himself and she watched with a burning arousal as his eyes finally rolled back and slid shut and he bit hard on his lip as he came into his hand. He went limp, slumping forward until his head was resting on her shoulder. She put her arms around him, holding him and stroking his hair. She hadn't even remembered until then that they were in the shower. The hot water was still pounding over them and it made her a little sleepy.
After a few minutes, Harry's breathing slowed a bit, and he lifted his head to look at her. "Damn," he muttered. "That was-damn."
She smiled. "Is that good?"
"Oh yeah," he said, shutting his eyes and leaning back against the wall again. "It's very good."
"Want me to wash you?" she asked, wanting to have her hands on him again.
"That's all right, Hermione. You go ahead and get dried off and I'll be out in a minute."
He was brushing her off. After what had just happened, he was asking her to go away. She could barely contain her anger as she stepped out of the shower and snatched up his towel. How could he act like this? They were friends, weren't they? And he was treating her like this. She dried off quickly and pulled her robe back on, then stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Harry scooted his food around on his plate, staring out the window. Hermione hadn't bothered to ask him what was up with him. She didn't care. In fact, she hadn't spoken to him at all since the incident in the shower, except to tell him which plate was his. She hadn't touched her food either, despite the fact that she was starving.
Harry glanced at her, noticing that she hadn't even bothered to uncover her plate. "What's wrong? Did you find out they staff house elves in the kitchen?"
She glared at him. He looked back out the window, shaking his head.
"This is why all that never should have happened," he said after a few minutes.
"What?" she asked, stunned.
"I should have told you no when you asked me."
"Then why didn't you?" she snapped. "If it was such a bad idea, and you weren't interested anyway, then why didn't you just tell me no?"
His eyes widened, his fingers twiddling with the fringe on the place mat. "Who said I wasn't interested?"
"Oh, come on, Harry! You haven't made a move to touch me on your own in years. I had to beg you to put your hands on me. You wouldn't even kiss me in the shower. Obviously, you don't want me!"
He stared at her for a long moment, then laughed.
"What the hell is so funny?" she screeched, furious.
"You," he said, "Thinking that I don't want you."
"You certainly haven't given me any reason to think otherwise!"
His eyes narrowed and he frowned. "Oh, I get it," he said, his voice suddenly rough. "Because I would gladly let some girl that I have absolutely no interest in go down on me in the shower. I'm just a slag, after all, right? I'll fuck whatever comes along."
She froze, feeling her blood run cold. "Harry, I--."
"If I hadn't wanted you, I would have told you no, Hermione. I do have a little more control over myself than that, believe it or not." He glared at her. "Or has Ron managed to convince you that I'm not worth any more than that?"
"Harry, I-I didn't mean that!"
He shook his head, turning his eyes back to the window. "Forget it."
"Harry, please, I really-I really didn't think that. I just-well, what was I supposed to think? I had to beg you to touch me, even though I was lying there naked. I had to be the one to go in the shower and initiate all that. You wouldn't let me kiss you, you didn't want me in the shower after you were done--."
"That's not true," he said softly. "Yes, you had to ask me to touch you, but that didn't mean I didn't want to. If I had touched you and you didn't want it, you'd have killed me."
"You couldn't tell that I was turned on?"
He shrugged, then nodded. "I could. That still doesn't mean that I can put my hands wherever I like, does it? I told you that you could leave the shower because I was putting you off, you're right about that. It's the same reason I didn't kiss you."
"Which is?"
"Once we cross that line, we can't go back."
"Don't-don't you think we've already crossed the line?"
"Do you?" he asked, looking back at her. "We haven't slept together. We've only touched, played around. It's farther than it should have went without us talking about it first, but we still haven't reached the point of no return."
She sighed, sitting down again and burying her face in her hands. "Okay, so now that we're talking about it, what do we do? Do you-really want me?"
"Would I have been in the bathroom wanking if I didn't?"
She had to laugh. "So then-I mean, obviously you know how I feel."
"Not really."
She gasped, staring at him in exasperation. "How could you not, Harry? I just let you--."
"You were already aroused, Hermione. And intoxicated. That doesn't tell me how you feel about the situation now that you're a bit more-level-headed."
She pursed her lips, wondering what to say. Finally, she gave into the side that had thrown caution to the wind. "The same. I still want you."
"Are you sure? Last time we were together, all hell broke loose. Are you ready for that if it happens again?"
She blew out a slow breath. That wasn't the problem, although there was no way he could have known that. She was delaying the inevitable by giving into him now. He wouldn't be around forever, and she knew that it would kill her when this was all over. She couldn't go back to wanting him as she had for so long after she'd had him again. He wanted her, though, and that was more than she could have hoped for. "I can handle it," she said softly. "What about you?"
He smiled at her, but it was a bit sad, as though he had hoped she would change her mind, and yet desperately hoped she wouldn't. "I'll manage."
"So-should we, then? Right now?"
He grinned, nodding to her plate. "You'd probably better eat first."
She had no idea how she was supposed to think of food at that moment, but she forced herself to take a few small bites, and chew them slowly. He wasn't eating, just watching her again, and she finally had to look back at him. "Harry?"
"Hmm?"
"I can understand why you wouldn't-why you didn't just-take me. In the shower, you know. But, why wouldn't you even kiss me?"
He smiled, almost shyly. "Because of that line. If I had kissed you, that would have been it for me. I can handle anything but that."
"How do you mean?" she asked, frowning.
"I could never kiss you and then stop. I couldn't do it."
She noticed that he had said "you", not just someone. He had meant her, in specific. He couldn't kiss her and be expected to stop. She thought about that as she was finishing up her lunch.
Now that she was almost done, she was starting to get nervous. They were going to-it was actually going to happen. He was going to be with her again.
He still hadn't eaten, but he'd at least stopped staring at her. Now, he was standing up and walking toward the door. He opened it and put the Do Not Disturb sign on the doorknob outside. "Just in case," he said when he had shut the door and turned to find her watching him. "We should probably put a silencing charm on the room," he said, grinning. "You're a bit loud."
She blushed, but nodded. "Yes, that's probably a good idea."
"I'll let you do the honors," he said, handing her wand to her. "You're better at them than I am."
She frowned, but performed the spell on every wall, the ceiling and the floor. "Better?"
"Much better," he said, flopping onto the bed. "I could use a nap," he muttered, taking his glasses off with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other.
Her heart dropped. "Oh. Okay," she said softly.
He rolled onto his side and squinted over at her, grinning. "I'm kidding, Hermione."
"Oh thank God," she muttered, running her hand through her hair. She was sure she looked a mess, and she wondered if she should take a minute to go in the bathroom and try to fix her hair, maybe put on some makeup.
"Are you done eating?"
She looked over at him and nodded. "Yes."
He gave her a smile that could have melted her into the chair cushions and crooked his finger at her. "Come here." She walked over and stretched out on her side on the bed, facing him. Her hands were shaking slightly, and she twisted the belt on her housecoat to trying to calm them. "You're sure about this?" he asked her, so quietly that it was almost a whisper. "I don't want you to regret it."
Her eyes met his and she felt her nerves settle almost immediately. "Never, Harry. I will never regret it."
He reached up and touched her cheek, and she turned her face into his palm, her eyes sliding shut. "Are you protected?"
Her eyes flew open and she blushed. "Oh, uh-no." She hadn't done those charms in years. She wasn't even sure she could remember them. "Just let me--." She grabbed her wand again and, with a little coaching from Harry, did that spell as well.
"All set?" he asked.
She nodded, wanting to be kissing him. She didn't want to make the first move, though. She wanted him to kiss her. He looked at her carefully, not making any move to touch her. She finally reached up and ran her hand behind his neck, lacing her fingers through his hair. She made sure not to pull him towards her, waiting for him to do it himself.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he leaned toward her.
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When I said I owed you some relief, you didn't think you were going to get it now, did you? *grins wickedly* Now, come on. You know me better than that.