Hermione turned within the circle of his arms, her deft fingers finding their way under robes, jacket and waistcoat and pushing them aside as Severus craned his neck to cover her mouth with his own.

Her lips parted, and she stretched her tongue to brush it against his, causing a frustrated moan that was cut off when the clothing that had impeded his arms fell to the floor with a thump. He grabbed her by her corseted waist and lifted her until her face was level with his.

Hermione wrapped her legs around his slender hips, without breaking the kiss.

---

One small hand twined in the hair at the base of his skull as if to draw him deeper into the kiss while her other tugged at the cravat encircling his throat. Hermione tried to follow as Severus drew his head back, but he twisted out of reach, nibbling along her jaw until his lips were at her ear.

"Desist, woman," he whispered as he leant forward until Hermione's back brushed his mattress. "Let me."

Hermione frowned as he stepped backward, but she let him go. He passed her wineglass to her with a knowing smirk and began to strip.

---

If Hermione had thought that Severus was about to throw his clothes aside as hastily as possible, she was in for a surprise, if not a disappointment.

His movements were unhurried, his eyes never leaving her face except when it was unavoidable. He toed his boots off as he unwound the cravat and let it fall to the floor.

"Tease," Hermione accused.

"Did you ever doubt it?" was his silken response. His fingers undid the bow at his shirt front with one tug, loosening the lacings before he drew the garment over his head.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat.

---

She reminded herself that she had seen him naked that long ago day when Alastair Cameron had died in his stead. She had seen him naked, yes, but cold and unmoving. Neither had she been given real leisure to look. His physical beauty had its foundation in his grace, in the smooth ripple of muscles under pale skin, in the thin trail of dark hair that began just under his navel and disappeared in the shadow of his open trouser front.

Hermione lifted her eyes to meet his, blinking away the tears that had unexpectedly gathered before they could fall.

---

"Hermione?" His voice was soft and full of concern where it wasn't edged with anxiety. "What is it?"

"You're beautiful."

His gentle smile returned. "You obviously can't hold your drink as well as I thought."

Hermione exhaled audibly, squirming forward until she could slide easily from the high bed. "You are beautiful," she insisted as she set her glass on the floor, bending at the knees. "Not pretty, never pretty." Her fingertips traced the lines of his chest, shoulders and arms. Then, she rose on tiptoe, and he dipped his head to meet her lips with his own. "Simply beautiful."

---

Her corset fell away with magical ease, as she pressed her body to his. "You had to pick a day we're both wearing a thousand layers?" she mewled as his lips trailed from her mouth down the column of her neck, and her body arched to accommodate him.

"I wanted to surprise you," Severus murmured as he pushed aside the straps of her petticoat. "You would have been as tense as a habitual over-achiever before her NEWTs if we waited for Halloween. The entire time, while your mind should be on other things, you would have been wondering... will we?"

---

"So this is all so that I don't endanger your secret mission?" Hermione teased.

"This is so you're not a nervous wreck," Severus amended before he pressed his lips to the swell of Hermione's breast. "I would be a poor excuse for a man, if I didn't do my best to ensure that your... experience is as pleasurable as possible. Though you may accuse me of opportunism, you can hardly accuse me of planning this when your comings and goings are as unpredictable as the wind. Besides, who knows when we'll steal three hours all to ourselves again?"

"Who indeed?"

---

Hermione's petticoats slid to the floor in a susurration of cotton that was almost subsumed by her sigh as Severus teased her nipple with the pad of his thumb.

Hermione's hands busied themselves with his buckle, but they got no further than that.

Severus backed her up to the edge of the mattress, lifting her and tossing her back. His fingertips skimmed down her outstretched right leg until they met the top of her calf-high boot and pulled loose the bow that secured the laces. Row by row, he flicked them free of their hooks and eased the boot off.

---

Her other boot was soon dealt with in a similar fashion, Hermione earning a near-growl as she rubbed her stockinged foot against the bulging placket of Severus's trousers as he worked. She watched entranced as Severus banished his socks and lowered both trousers and underpants.

She gasped her surprise as Severus grasped her hips, pulling her and the duvet towards him. For a second she thought he planned to take her with no further preamble, and she arched her hips upward as best she could in encouragement.

Severus used the motion, sliding her white broderie anglaise knickers off slowly, teasingly.

---

He bent over her, propping himself on one elbow whilst his other hand sought purchase in her ebony hair to guide her lips to his.

Hermione lifted her feet onto the mattress, pressing down on her heels as she ground her hips against his. She moaned in frustration as his kisses trailed from her mouth to her jaw, nibbling down the tendons of her neck to her breasts, and he shifted away again. "Severus!"

"Soon, dear one, soon!" Severus whispered against her nipple. "I've waited far too long to draw this out or to turn it into a desperate rut."

---

Her body trembled from head to toe as he sucked a current of molten heat from her core up through the centre of her body to her nipple. Her hands fisted into the duvet as if it were the only thing stopping her from falling off the earth, and she gave voice to something between a scream and a moan before he finally eased lower still and she could sigh his name again. Her relief was short-lived, a brief respite before her wizard sank to his knees at the edge of the bed.

From the first kiss, she was lost.

---

The creak of a floorboard brought her back as the tremors gradually stilled, and when she lifted heavy eyelids Severus was standing over her again. As his hands slipped under her bum, the reason for the mattress's height became gloriously apparent. Her eyes locked on his face as she felt his tip resting against her folds, and she answered the unspoken question in his midnight eyes with the tiniest of nods.

As he slid slowly, smoothly, inexorably into her, her eyes drifted closed and she held her breath. He came to rest fully-sheathed and their gazes locked, her lungs deflating.

---

As he began to move she couldn't look away, couldn't see anything beyond those deep dark eyes. There was him, and he was her world. His face, expression as loving and open as she had ever known. His hands, cradling and lifting her, kneading gently as they did. His heat, his strength, joining them as man and woman. Tension building as they found an ancient rhythm and danced to its accelerating beat.

In an instant Severus shifted his grip and cradled her to him. Hermione smashed her mouth to his, tasting herself on his tongue as they shuddered to completion.