bloody do? The cornered animal look she was sporting was making that damnable tightness in his chest return again.
Draco was suddenly angry. Very angry. The thrill of the chase was only fun as long as he caught up with his target in the end, and Draco always did. Always. What was so wrong with him that she couldn't even contemplate engaging in a bit of harmless sex? He wasn't hideous, he didn't smell, he was well-off, he could hold his own in the brains department.
He was the son of a murderous Death Eater.
Try washing that off. That taint isn't going to come off in the bathwater.
It was not self doubt, but rather her shudder that finally got to him. She actually cringed when he tried to touch her, as if she was suddenly disgusted by him.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's nasty to tease?" he hissed, in more scathing a tone that he intended. It was just that his voice felt like it hadn't been used in a week. Neither was he in a mood to soothe an uptight, frigid girl who had uncanny power to make him jump through all sorts of hoops.
To make matters worse, his shoulder was hurting all over again and his cock was in an extremely uncomfortable state. She watched him with an annoying amount of patience. He'd have preferred indignation.
"My mum taught me about the importance being a moral person," Hermione responded quietly. "I think your mother must have skipped those particular lessons with you." She wasn't trying to be unkind.
It was necessary to be jarring with Malfoy, sometimes. She had to make him understand that they couldn't go through with what they had almost done. Disaster.
And it had been so very close.
She would have been a nervous wreck, after. Call her selfish, but Hermione felt that her sanity ought to be her number one priority.
"Oh, I learned enough," Draco sneered. "Narcissa had plenty of useful things to teach me." He made it quite clear that moral lessons were not deemed to be of any great use in the Malfoy household.
"I'm surprised she managed to find the time to raise you, let alone teach you anything. Your mum seemed quite happy to jump ship with a trunk full of loose change and the Malfoy silverware at the first sign of trouble. Hardly what I would call a model parent." Hermione knew she was being cruel now, but to Draco's credit, he didn't falter for a second.
"Granger, I do believe I'm starting to rub off on you," he told her, with too much gentleness. It was eerie. "Now apologise sorry for that."
Hermione curled her lip at him. "Screw you! You say sorry first."
"Ah. Now we're getting somewhere." Quick as lightning, Malfoy took hold of her by the upper arms and spun her around so that her back was against the edge of the tub. Water sloshed up over the rim and onto the floor.
"Think I'm bad-mannered do you? Think I'm brutish? Think you're too good for me?" he whispered to her.
She tried to knee him in the groin, but he caught her legs in between his own and kept them there. Her struggles were as pointless as they had been on that morning in the motel room. They were on familiar ground again. Hermione thought that it was truly a mystery why she was capable of making him so furious. He wasn't particularly known for losing his cool. He was more of an insidious plotter.
"Actions speak louder than words," she informed, looking calm despite the tremor in her voice. The dragon on her hip felt like it was burning into her. Perhaps the ink was like some sort of slow releasing poison, corrupting her mind and taking away her ability to reason. She wanted to slap the superior look right off her face.
"They do," he agreed. "I believe a demonstration is in order."
Oh dear. Hermione sent a longing glace at the bathroom door.
A muscle was twitching in his jaw. "My mother always told me that it was important to finish what I start. I was a very precocious child and always had my hands in one thing or another. Much like you, I imagine." He braced his right arm between her back and the tub, to cushion her as he pinned her. "You, Miss Granger, are going to finish what you started."
What she started? Honestly! Malfoy was in denial. Unless he meant what she had started on the night of the graduation party