The Power of Pain

Chapter 46

Severus was warm, his body felt like it had melted during the night, every muscle completely relaxed. His dreams had been nothing more than a haze of swirling lights and soft brown eyes. He shifted his head slowly, the morning light had poured in and pressed, without restraint, against the back of his eyelids. He took in a slow breath, his chest moving against familiar cotton as it expanded. A small spark ran through his brain and he cracked his eyes open.

Soft brown sun-kissed hair was the first to meet his eyes, the next to register was the feeling of her back and tailbone pressing against him. He flexed the fingers on the arm under her head feeling her fingers slip against his palm, their rings clinking softly as they touched. His other arm was wrapped completely around her smaller frame, tucked under the curve of her waist. He gave those fingers a slight test next, eliciting a small whine.

He felt her take a deep sighing breath before settling back down. He carefully adjusted, the blanket had been kicked down sometime during the night tangling around their legs. One of hers had managed to slip over, beginning at the knee, he traced the slope of her thigh to the hem of his shirt. His eyes continued their path over the sleep tussled material that bunched around where his arm rested. It twisted the collar exposing the soft swell of her chest and dip of her throat. His mind hazily recalled her final thought from the night before and he found himself conflicted. He could have easily stopped her, he had stopped her, but why had he waited so long to do so?

Hermione was floating in a most wonderful place, she felt warm and safe, a feeling she hadn't felt so completely in all the time she could recall. It was different but familiar all the same, like a small change of something that was there that hadn't been there before. She could feel the light of a new day reaching out to her and felt compelled to take on the day's new challenges.

She shifted her head slightly feeling the pillow under her shift. She wasn't alone. Her brain sluggishly provided her with memories of the night before and she could feel a heat rising from her stomach to light her face. She had undressed him. More so, he had allowed her to undress him.

She could feel the heat of his skin against her back through the shirt. How could he stand to wear all those layers and still have skin so warm? Her lashes brushed against the skin of her pillow as they fluttered open. This was real, it was really real. This was so different from the times before. What did you possibly say to the person you stripped and pulled into bed? He was still there but the fatigue of yesterday was gone, surely he was going to come to his senses and pull away from her again.

Severus had listened in to her waking thoughts and felt his face grow solemn. He could feel her guilt and surprise over last night and while it was possibly true that he must have simply been too tired to properly protest her manhandling; he found-most curiously, he held no regret over the situation. His head shifted, his lips lightly touching her ear as he adjusted, he all but jerked away before answering her other question in his deep baritone.

"Coffee?"

He felt all the tension that had built inside her wash away and didn't hide the smirk at the corner of his lip as her head turned to look at him with those sleepy brown eyes. They sparkled with a cosmic array of emotion before settling on happiness.

His lip twitched as his smirk threatened to grow, his breath ghosted over her soft lips but he controlled his movement carefully, she was so close. He waited for her to shift and release his arm so he could push himself up.

Hermione rolled onto her stomach watching as he slipped his legs over the edge. The morning light made his back glow, like stained-glass, it dipped and spilled over the ridges of his muscles and scars. When he stood, she rested her head back down taking him in without reservation.