Anyone But Me

Chapter Seventy-One

Hermione refused to be the one to break the long quiet. Afraid that her instincts had picked up on some clue that her conscious mind was too clouded to appreciate. A silent warning to be careful... and she had chosen to tear down the meticulously laid bricks of subtlety and outright denial.

"I need another drink." His sighed words were heavy with the confession.

"You don't have to answer." She reminded him.

Her bottom lip stung with the pain of her bite when she felt the shiver of magic in the space between them. She heard him unscrew the top of the bottle and continued to pick at the defective denim at her feet. Ignoring his offer of the foul intoxicant.

"Your loss." The edge that she wasn't ready to see was still there in his voice, so she kept staring at the chunk of rock as he took a shot.

"You couldn't pay me a hundred galleons to take another drink of that shit." She said bluntly, not caring if it was crass.

He chuckled darkly at her assertion and she heard the sounds of glass against stone as he set the bottle down next to him. Apparently, under the notion that he would be needing another swing of the stuff soon. "Noted."

"I mean it, Draco. You don't have to answer..." Her reiteration was followed by a quick glance over shoulder at him. Just long enough for her to gauge the cold smirk that had settled on his lips.

"Good, because I wasn't planning to."

Without warning she turned in the confines of the cage his legs made, sitting on her knees so the soles of her feet were tucked up underneath her. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap, she stared up at him through her eyelashes as she asked a much different question. "Last week... Why did... Do you find... Gratification in that kind of thing with me?"

"I told you, pet. The very first time we were together..." He leaned forward so his face was in hers. The smell of the spicy liquor made her nose twitch again. "I like being in control. That means I enjoy being the one to decide how, when or if you get to cum."

Her breathing hitched, betraying what his words did to her but she shook her head, intent on getting this very important answer, "That's not what I meant... Why do you like doing it to me?"

"Hmmm... That is a good question. Would you believe me if I said that I think it boils down to the trust you place in me during those moments. Even though you shouldn't, you still find some way to let your guard down so completely..." He reached up and brushed an errant curl from her face before continuing. "Or maybe, I am simply a pervert... Who knows for certain?"

Hermione felt her shoulders sag with her relief, "So it doesn't have anything to do with my parentage?"

"Gods, is that the scenario you've spun inside your pretty little head?"

She wanted to deny the accusation but the truth of the matter was plain. She had been spending way too much of her limited freetime worrying over the reasons he seemed keen to inflict pain on her. The most rational conclusion was he wanted to punish her for her status. Whether it was a repressed predilection or not had remained to be seen. And there he was, in front of her, disturbed by the thought of her ruminating over such topics.

"How badly did I break you before anyone else did, Kitten?" He wondered aloud.

"You are giving yourself too much credit, Draco. It was a concentrated group effort."

Her acknowledgement sent his shamed gaze to the floor, while his hands worked into tight fists that rested on his knees. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the way the muscles in his arms flexed at the physical expression of his pent up rage. For the second time that night, her survival instincts were triggered and she had to fight to stay put. The prey drive screaming about the immediate danger she was in.