A Terrible Temptation

A/N - this is the second of two chapter I am posting today, if you came here first go back a chapter. :D thanks agains to Kate the Unruly, for her excellent advice and beta\'ing.

Chapter 42 – Uncharted Territory

Severus looked into brown eyes that expressed every thought and emotion with an openness that he found both exhilarating and terrifying. Right now she was looking up at him with such trust and love that he felt frightened. He knew that at some point there would be at least a little pain for her and he was unwilling to break that fragile confidence.

He cupped her face in his hands, long fingers tender and gentle on her skin. He lowered his mouth and kissed her softly. He wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, how he had come alive again since he had known her. He wanted to talk about his own dreams of the future and to tell her that he had learned to hope again because she had smiled at him. Instead he kissed her, his lips teaching her these things more surely in action then they ever could in speech.

She melted against him, her body warm and soft and curved in all the right places. He forgot her age and his past and every objection that had risen in his mind as the sheer rightness of the moment took his breath away. He had kissed a few women in his life but none had felt like hearth and home, like a safe harbor and a siren all in one. She was sexy and she was sweet, safe and dangerous, tender and demanding. She would keep him on his toes for all the days of his life and he would die loving her, he knew that.

He gently nudged her lips apart with his own and she followed his lead. With exquisite care he slowly tutored her in the art of kissing, expanding upon previous lessons while keeping the pace slow and paying very close attention to her reactions. If she balked at anything he would withdraw but so far she seemed as eager to learn this as anything he had taught her in the classroom.

“Tilt your head a little.” He murmured and began to nibble lightly on her earlobe and then trail kisses down her neck. “Perfect.” He complimented as she obeyed.

“Will there be a test at the end of the class?” She asked with a mischievous tone.

“Indeed, so you had best pay attention.” He drawled in his best teacher’s voice and she shivered against him. He catalogued that fact for future use with a wicked grin before he continued with his task.

His hands were finally given permission to touch and linger in places he had forbidden them from going before. He found every curve enticing; the little noises she began making were stimulating and he felt her breathing go ragged as he ran his hands down her body and cupped her arse, pulling her tightly against him. Her soft heat was pressed against his hardness and she gasped, making a little whimper of desire that made him dizzy with wanting.

He took a deep breath and thought of Antarctica before he kissed her again. Damn it but he wanted her first time to be special and that meant he had to last long enough to work past her inexperience. Despite the urge to toss her on a bed and pound into her with every ounc his his desperate passion, he held himself firmly in check. She’s a virgin, he repeated to himself as Hermione did her best to convince him otherwise, wriggling against him, panting and moaning.

He decided this would work much better if they were horizontal. He stepped away from her reluctantly and her startled expression turned to one of comprehension as he tugged her gently towards the bedroom.

He had decorated it as well with floating candles but instead of the fairy dust enchantment, he had used the shrouding charm to make everything darker and more sensuous. Tendrils of dark mist made the bed into an island in a sea of darkness with only pinpricks of light around them.

He led her in and began to slowly take her clothes off, one piece at a time, moving in gentle stages, letting her eyes and reactions set the pace. He kissed his way along her shoulder as he pushed the Muggle oxford shirt off of her. She shivered as the garment slid down her arms and dropped to the floor. He ran his hands down the bare flesh of her arms and felt the heat coming from her.

Her eyes were smoky and she was watching him hungrily, her desire flushing her skin and making her tremble. She was tense as a strung bow, her hands were clenched at her sides and he could see her fighting some internal battle.

He took the fists in his hands and placed them on his chest.

“If I should do something wrongly, you push; I will stop.” He promised her and she gave him an exasperated look.

“Severus if you don’t take off your clothes and get in that bed soon I will not be responsible for any damage your coat suffers.” She said all this with pink cheeks but a deadly serious tone. Reminding himself of who he was dealing with, Severus complied speedily with her request as she shucked her own clothes in equal haste.

She slipped into the bed beside him and there was an incredible sensation of naked skin against naked skin that made him breathe out with a sense of deep satisfaction. Yes, this is what he needed. It was indescribable, feeling her warm body pressed all along his length, her bare toes against his calves and her breasts pressed against the sparse hair of his chest. It was the last piece of some puzzle in his soul, that soft connection. She moved then, grasping his head and pulling him down for a kiss and he was afire with wanting again.

He ran his hands across her breasts and then moved his mouth to follow. Her gasping cries encouraged him to continue and he was eager to do so, but scared of going too fast for her, doing too much.

“Hermione…?” He began and she grabbed his face between her hands and stared at him with bng eng eyes.

“Damn it Severus, I have been waiting six bloody months for this -- get to it!” With that romantic exhortation, Severus chuckled and his last doubts fell away. He got to it.

Hermione was certain she would die from what he was doing. His hands were moving over her and his mouth was covering one nipple, his tongue making lazy circles that sent her pulse racing and made her breath hitch in her throat. His fingers were tracing lower and she was taut with need, waiting impatiently for his questing hands to get to the center of her desire.

It was incredible, far beyond anything she had ever done to herself. Years of solitary play were instantly eclipsed by this moment in ways that neither Ron nor Viktor had been able to do. She pitied their future wives; in fact she pitied anyone who was not going to be touched, teasnd lnd loved by Severus.

His hands reached that place and she arched her back as the first waves of sensation hit her. It was amazing the way his fingers were stroking and then slipping inside of her, and she was wet, hot, and ever so ready. First one finger then a second were pleasuring her and she could feel herself spiraling up and away as he found the spot and began to stroke it lightly. She had always thought her clitoris was where all the action was but his fingers were hitting a place inside her sending a low throbbing through every nerve that pushed her into climax and left her shaking from the aftershocks.

“What was that?” She murmured in surprise and the smirk on his lips made her desperate for more.

“Lesson one, the g-spot.” He answered as though they were in the classroom and he was lecturing. There was mischief in his eyes and she could tell he was enjoying her reactions. She grinned.

“What’s lesson two?” He laughed aloud at her question

His curious lover eagerly reached for his cock with her small hands and he dodged her just in time. She pouted and he shook his head at her expression.

“Hermione, I am not ready for this to be over; hands off.” Puzzlement followed by comprehension flitted across her face and then she smiled as the implications hit her. The sight of her splayed across his bed, her hair fanned out across the pillow, her face flushed and her lips swollen, his marks across her throat was almost enough in itself to push him over the edge. He too had been waiting months for this and he was near the breaking point.

“So you think I am attractive, then?” He was about to say something cutting about how he wouldn’t be in bed with her if he didn’t, but he caught the small insecurity in her eyes and changed gears even as his mouth was opening on the former phrase.

“You are the most beautiful woman that has ever existed, Hermione.” It was straight from his heart and he was instantly embarrassed that it had slipped out. She gave him a look of such radiant love that he ducked his head and distracted her by the simple expedient of running his hands along her thighs.

She was spread open before him but he was the one feeling vulnerable and exposed. He had never been trusted as she trusted him, or loved as she loved him and it scared him a little. He lowered his mouth turned the conversation away from such frightening truths.

“Lesson two – cunnilingus.” He lapped his tongue along her folds and listened to the melody of her cries and moans. One hand held her hips still as she thrashed in pleasure, the other joined his tongue in pleasuring her.

“Severus, skip to the last lesson – now!” Hermione pleaded and he who prided himself in his iron self-control nearly came from her tone alone. No one had ever been so desperate for him before. He moved up her body, settling himself at her opening. She reached for him again and this time her let her guide him into her.

The pressure in his balls was overwhelming but he set his teeth and made himself go slowly. She was so tight and he could feel the hymen as he slid in further. There was a moment of panic and then he caught her nipple in his mouth and distracted her as he pushed past her barrier with a swift movement. She hardly noticed his action, his teeth and fingers keeping her focused on other areas and thenwas was in, moving slowly back and forth. It was amazing, incredible, heavenly; he quickly ran out of adjectives. He was lost in the sensations as he sank home again.

Hermione felt a slight pain but it was subsumed by the incredible feelings Severus was drawing out of her. His slow even strokes felt like nothing she had ever known and she was burning up inside and yet there was also this tenderness as she felt connected to him in ways she had never imagined possible.

The barriers behind his eyes were dropping one by one, she could see into his soul as he lost himself in her and it was quite simply awe-inspiring. There was so much in him that was fragile; she felt as though one incautious movement from her could shatter him to bits. He was moving inside of her and she was melting away, her mind slowly shutting down as her body took over.

Her hips were moving and she rose up to meet him with a glad cry, he buried his face in her neck and she held him, the long slow strokes doing something to her heart that she didn’t understand. She had always thought sex was physical; she hadn’t known that it was capable of being so emotional, so spiritual.

There was a slight shift in the energy and she knew she needed more. She indicated her desires by moving her hips a little faster and Severus groaned and matched her pace. There was a sweat breaking out across his back and she ran her hands along the smootsclescles and felt him tensing and thrusting, the movements beneath her fingers, the slide and play of muscles, tipped her over and she began to buck more forcefully.

“Harder!” She cried and she could almost feel something break loose in Severus. He began to move with wild, uncontrolled fierceness, pounding into her hard. It felt so good, so incredible, and at the same time it was frightening. The intensity, the passion that had had glimpsed so often under the surface had escaped his control and he was thrusting with an animal savageness that drove the last vestiges of thought from her.

She matched his ferocity with her own, wellsprings of savagery she hadn’t known that she possessed rose up in her and she was screaming as she came and biting his shoulder as he exploded inside of her, his hot seed filling her womb and his own cries both wild and hoarse.

They both lay stunned in the aftermath, taken aback by both the fierceness of their lovemaking and the incredible surge of emotions that had overtaken them. Hermione was shaking with reaction. No book could have prepared her for this reality and she clung hard to Severus, feeling as though some strange mystery had been revealed to her.

“I love you.” She whispered to him and he nodded against her. Hermione Granger tucked away in her mind a precious moment: she had rendered Severus Snape utterly speechless.

They fell asleep and dreamed.