It had been exactly three years now since Draco Malfoy had joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as an Auror.

It had been two years, eleven months and twenty-nine days since he had been assigned to partner Hermione Granger in said department.

It had been two years, eleven months, and twenty-eight days since he had fallen irrevocably in love with her.

Falling in love had certainly not been a part of his plan - especially not with his working partner - and particularly not with Granger. Yet, there had been little he could do to stop it happening. Still, even if he had wished to do anything about it, work romances were strictly forbidden by their department head - and one thing was for sure, if Robards had disallowed it… well, Draco was no stranger to the whispers that continued to follow him about his past or his family. When his superiors drew lines, he had no desire to cross them. He intended to keep his job, thank you very much.

All the same, it did make things particularly difficult when he was meant to be utterly focused on whatever task was at hand… and all that filled his senses was the dusty cinnamon hue of Granger's skin, the chocolate of her eyes, and the overwhelming scent that was distinctly her every time she came into their office in the morning with her curls still wet from the shower.

In the mornings, he would arrive at their office between 8:35 and 8:40, and each day, he would bring her a coffee (black, but with three sugars) and leave it on her desk. She would arrive between 8:45 and 8:50 each day, see it waiting for her there, thank him, and he would say, "Honestly, Granger, you're a nightmare without coffee. I'm only doing myself a favor." Smiling her secret smile, she would thank him again anyway, take her seat, and they would say no more about it.

Their schoolyard animosities had quickly been abolished as a thing of the past, to both their relief. Sometimes, he caught her looking at him. She would always look away the moment she thought she had been spotted doing it - but it was a nice feeling, all the same. Almost like a fraction of his feelings were reciprocated on some level; like maybe she fancied being enveloped into his arms as well… but he did not have any expectations on that front.

Though often his emotions tended toward romance, especially early in the morning, there were also times that the things he wished to do to her were downright filthy. When she did any filing, for example, it was torture. Watching her bend over the cabinets to slip a folder into place would give him a view of her exquisite backside, and often reminded him that he would love nothing more than to tear off her skirt and bury his cock into her cunt, right there in the filing room. He would be sure to bring her such pleasure, there would be no way she would be able to remain silent. They would be caught, of course, but it would not matter.

A fantasy, for sure.

On occasion, their jobs required undercover work. These were his favorite moments with Granger, when they were sent away from the office as a pair.

"Remember," Robards lectured them one morning before they were sent off on one such occasion, "this is top secret. The two of you are to arrive in Munich and go straight to the hotel room the department has reserved, then await orders."

"Understood, sir," Granger agreed with a single nod. Her eyes were set with determination; it was another look Draco loved on her.

"You got that, too, Malfoy?"

"Understood, sir," he echoed.

"We should have intelligence in shortly about the smuggling ring's next move. In the meantime-" Robards handed over two brown paper envelopes, "-the two of you will be adopting the personas of Benjamin and Harriet Smith, a married couple on holiday from Britain. Your instructions are in the envelopes. Questions?"

Draco's heart leapt into his mouth. Married to Granger? Even if it was only pretend, the idea still very much appealed to him. Oh, the things he would do to her…

There were, however, appearances to keep up.

"Why have we got to be married?" he demanded. "Why couldn't we go as siblings, or some such arrangement?"

"If you recall, Malfoy," Granger spoke up, an amused smile playing about her lips like she could see right through him, "the last time we tried to use that cover, the hotel staff assumed we were actually boss and assistant having an illicit affair."

He could feel the tops of his ears tingeing pink at the recollection. It had been a good memory, that at least someone believed he had been shagging Granger - even if it was not true.

"And if you also recall," she added, her eyes sparkling, "you were pouty for weeks at being assumed to be my assistant."

He had not really been pouting, of course - he had just not wanted to stop reliving the idea that someone had believed him to belong to her, on any level.

Robards, too, chuckled at the memory. "No can do, Mr. Smith. I'm afraid you're a happily married man."

"It keeps away unwanted attention, as well," Granger pointed out sensibly. Her dark eyes laughed at him.

"Off with you." Robards made a motion of dismissal with his hands. "I want you both in Germany by this evening, so you can get a fresh start tomorrow morning. Oh, and Malfoy?"

"Sir?"

"Do something about your hair, will you? Makes you stick out like a sore thumb."

.

.

Draco had had to charm his hair so that it took on an unremarkable brownish hue. It certainly did the trick in disguising who he was, though he could not say that such illusions were to his taste. He liked his natural hair.

Under the cover of darkness, they checked into their hotel room to await orders, as instructed. The door shut behind them, and suddenly, Granger was right in his personal space.

"Let's get your hair back to rights, shall we?" she murmured, running her wand over his head.

The suddenness of her being so close took him aback, but he could not help the spike of pride that came right after, that perhaps she preferred his hair blond as well.

Once the deed had been done, her hands dropped back to her sides, and she seemed to become hyper-aware of how close she was standing. She did not apologize, but her step backward indicated how she felt about it. Draco could not help being a little disappointed; after all, he had been repressing feelings about this witch for three years, and just the briefest of her touches was perfection.

Just now, however, her mind was certainly occupied differently from his, though it took him a few moments to discover it. Granger was surveying the room, looking distressed. It was another moment for Draco to realize why.

"There is only one bed," she observed blankly.

Draco's heart was racing. He could not help the image that sprang to mind of his partner completely naked and spread out before him, while he opened her glorious legs and began to steadily bring her to nirvana with his mouth. He would ensure that she reached her completion at least twice before finally allowing himself to bury his…

Stop. Focus, he chided himself. She's your co-worker.

"They probably reserved a single bed because we're meant to be a married couple," he reminded her. "To reserve two, would have looked suspicious."

She was nibbling on her lower lip now in that delectable way. "Right. You're right."

Sensing her discomfort and hating himself a little for being the cause of it, he offered, "I can sleep on the chair. At least until we get Robards' owl… and we should get some rest. You know as well as I do that we could be up for a good while once we start."

She seemed almost surprised that he would suggest such a thing. "Don't be silly, Malfoy. There's plenty of room for both of us here… we can just create a wall between us with some pillows and it won't even be weird… probably."

Arching an eyebrow, he only looked at her frankly for a moment.

Her cheeks took on a rosy hue. "We shouldn't be using unnecessary magic while we're undercover, so using a spell to turn the chair into a couch is out. You'll be uncomfortable there. Besides, it's cold, and I don't see any spare sheets."

Draco did not point out the neatly folded blanket he could see plainly sitting on the shelf in the open, and otherwise empty, closet. Instead, he shucked off his shoes and sank onto the edge of the bed they were apparently going to share. He was already thinking up ways he could somehow contrive to make her proposed pillow-wall fall away. To have her wake up with his arms around her… even just once… that would be a balm.

At the very least, perhaps it would get him partway through the next three years of pining for her in secret.

.

.

The Great Wall of Pillows had been a simple thing to obliterate, once he was sure Granger had fallen asleep. What had not been so simple to rid himself of, was the hard-on he'd had for about three hours now.

He kept thinking back to those ads in the Daily Prophet for potions that were meant to help with erectile dysfunction. If erection lasts for more than three hours, seek a healer's help immediately…

But Draco had not taken any potions. Truly, he hardly needed it when his drug of choice was softly breathing in the bed beside him, her chestnut curls spread out like a fan behind her head and emitting the most enticing scent.

Granger had chosen some modest sleepwear, but he could still not help but be drawn to her. The oversized T-shirt had slid down her shoulder as she slept. Due to the darkness, it was impossible to make out details, but he had been silently obsessing over the exact shade of tawny he expected that expanse of skin would be, and whether or not she would have freckles there. It seemed to be tantalizing him from where he lay, about a foot away. If it had been his plan to slowly sidle up behind her - come what may in the morning - he was prevented from doing it now, for fear of spearing her with his uncomfortably hard, weeping cock.

Life was so unfair sometimes.

Time ticked audibly by from the clock on the wall: the only sound he could hear other than her breathing. He was just starting to finally soften, his eyes starting to droop with the inevitability that this was the most action he would be getting tonight, when he heard it.

"Draco," Granger murmured in her sleep.

He froze, his eyes rooted to the ugly, generic pattern he could just make out on the armchair beside the bed. He must have dozed; he must have misheard. Because there was no way Granger had actually said his given name in her sleep.

It came again, this time more drawn out. "Draco…"

If he had been dozing before, he was certainly awake now. Eyes flickering back to the exposed shoulder, he followed the curve of her silhouette down her arm, her side, her…

Merlin's dessicated bollocks.

He sat up, completely alert, to carefully lean over the top of her and peer down, just to confirm that he was actually seeing what he was seeing. But it was true: Granger's hand was in her pyjama bottoms.

Sinking back onto his side of the bed, Draco deliberated what he should do. Yes, he'd had it bad for the witch for years now, but he had always respected the line of being, not just coworkers, but partners, with her. On the flip side, here she was, in bed next to him, moaning his name in her sleep with her hand down her knickers.

He supposed it was time to go back to Plan A. Who could resist such temptation?

Sidling up behind her, he attempted to keep his hips further back to avoid poking her in the bum with his cock. After all, he really did not have any expectations that trended in that direction; this would be about finally getting to hold her like she belonged to him, rather than about sex. Moving slowly to ensure he did his best not to wake her, he gently wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in. His face was almost immediately buried in curls; he had to use his free hand to pull them away from his mouth.

"Mmm," she murmured, snuggling her back further into his chest. Draco's heart soared; his cock twitched.

They lay like that for another ten minutes at least, if the ticking of the infernal clock on the wall was anything to go by. Granger's breathing had tempered back into something light once more, though her hand remained down her pyjamas.

In an attempt to get more comfortable, Draco shifted slightly - something Granger apparently did not like, because with a whine, she pressed herself solidly up against him. Suddenly, his manhood was nestled between her legs, right where he wanted it to be (sans the pyjama bottoms), and he froze in place, unsure what to do. Snuggling was one thing, but having his hard-on between her legs while she slept seemed to be crossing a line, even to his sex-starved mind.

"Mm, Draco." She moved her bum backward even further, pressing it against his pelvis. The head of his cock bumped against her fingers, where they still were inside her clothes, pressed against her most intimate place.

That was it. Much as he wanted this to happen, it just did not feel right having it happen while she was asleep. If she was going to get any pleasure from him, he wanted it to be while she was awake.

With regret, he slowly peeled himself off of her and attempted to retreat to the other side of the bed. It was colder there. Turning onto his other side, he faced away from her so as not to be further tempted.

Time to actually get some sleep, I guess, he thought with exasperation. He wondered what time it was, and how long it would be before they heard from Robards.

"I'm awake, you know."

He froze. Was this a dream?

The other half of the bed shifted.

"I've been awake."

Turning back onto his other side, he came face to face with Granger, whose hands were now both visibly in front of her. Her ocher eyes were even darker in the barely-lit room, but Draco could still tell she was looking directly at him.

His mouth went dry; what to say to that?

"I was kind of hoping," she began, "that maybe if I gave you the encouragement, you'd finally realize how I felt."

He was certain that she somehow would be able to heart the thud-thud of his heart, loud as it seemed to him.

"How is it you feel, Granger?"

Sliding herself toward him across the neutral, white sheets, she reached out her hand to tuck a stray bit of platinum hair behind his ear. "I see the way you look at me sometimes… and you should know that I've felt the same for a long time now. I thought that maybe… maybe tonight, since we were sharing this bed… maybe you'd stop trying to hold back."

As far as he could tell, Draco had two options. The first was denial - he could tell her that he had no idea what she was talking about, that his feelings were strictly professional, and that any admiration he had for her was borne of work-related esteem. True, his hard-on would be difficult to explain away, and of course, it would also be a lie... but it would put a stop to this awful game of pretend, for good.

Or…

"Why would you want that?" he queried softly. "Me to stop holding back?"

With purpose, she slithered toward him on the bed until he could feel her breath on his cheek. "Kiss me."

He did not need telling twice.

Their mouths met with such need on both ends that their teeth clacked together and Granger emitted a nervous giggle. Unwilling to let that be her final impression of kissing him, Draco rolled so that his torso was on top of her, caging her in with his arms, and pressed his lips to hers. She responded by opening her mouth and sliding her tongue into his, and he could not help the groan that escaped him.

Her hands were everywhere at once, touching his skin, caressing his neck, pressing against his pectorals, and threading through his hair. Finally, they travelled downward, and hooked under the waistband of his pyjama bottoms.

He pulled away to look at her. A sliver of light from the world beyond had crept through the blinds and fallen across her face. From that light, he could see that her eyes were ablaze and looking directly at him, alight with permission. With want.

Swallowing heavily, his gaze traveled downward, to the place where her small hand had begun to toy with the elastic of his hem, then back up at her. She appeared to sense his reservations, because in the next heartbeat, she said, "We don't have to report this to Robards, you know."

He swallowed a second time. "And afterward… what? We pretend like it never happened?"

Tilting her head to the side, her curls waterfalled down the side of the pillow she lay on. "Do we need a plan now?"

It was so reckless - such a very Gryffindor thing to say - yet, for once in his life, he, Draco Malfoy, was feeling utterly reckless himself.

"I suppose we don't."

A smile settled into place on her lips just before he captured them again. The taste of desire was heady and made him near-dizzy with want.

Granger seemed to be just as needy as him, because she grabbed his hand and placed it directly on her breast. The softness of it, even through her shirt, caused him to groan, and he began to tug at the garment to pull it off, eager now to fulfill his fantasy of having her naked and spread out before him like a feast.

The oversized night shirt was so big, it came off easily… and there she was in all of her topless beauty. Her breasts were small, but perfect in his estimation, topped with pink rosettes already puckered in the cool, night air.

With a growl, Draco latched his mouth onto one nipple before seizing the other and rolling it between his fingers. The mewling noise this action elicited was going to make him detonate before he even got a chance to proceed, if he was not careful.

"Oh, gods, yes," she breathed out, carding her fingers through his hair as he lathed his tongue across her breast.

"I am going to make you see stars," he promised her throatily, his voice coming out husky with the desire that was coursing through him. Draco even believed himself, desirous as he was to make it so. He was on top of the world; nothing was going to tear him down - at least, not yet.

Impatiently, she pulled at his shirt, trying to yank it over his head, but as it was a tighter fit than hers had been, he had to cease his onslaught in order to accommodate her wishes. His shirt soon joined hers on the floor and was immediately forgotten.

She ran her hands across his bare chest, twirling her fingers through his sparse chest hair, then following the line of it down his stomach to where it disappeared into his pyjama bottoms. In a soft, almost reverent whisper, she admitted, "I knew you'd look like this."

Kissing her again, he started at her mouth, then moved to the side of it. Continuing down her jawline, he peppered open-mouthed kisses along the pressure points in her neck, slowly driving her wild. He kissed her collarbone, then down her breast, taking a moment to again nibble at her hardened nipples. Presented with the soft expanse of her stomach, he gave this equal attention, traveling over her bellybutton, and licking along the hem of her nightwear.

With a near-frantic tug, he pulled the unwelcome clothing down, sitting up to slide them off the ends of her feet, then tossing them onto the floor, where they landed with a soft thwump in a heap. Picking up her foot, he kissed her ankle bone, all while focusing on her exquisite nakedness.

Granger seemed completely unabashed by her nudity, though he noticed her body was vibrating, he hoped with anticipation. She had reached up to toy with her own nipples and was watching him kiss slowly up her leg with hunger in her gaze. Kissing at the crook of her knee, he bent down again to lie nearly flat on his stomach as he gently spread her legs apart to continue up her thigh.

Her head fell back, a moan escaping her and appeasing his masculine pride. With a playful lick and a nip at the sensitive skin on her inner thigh, he found a pressure point that appeared to drive her wild and sucked on it.

"Don't tease, Malfoy," she breathed out.

Grinning wickedly against her skin, he kissed the mark he had just sucked there before moving up her leg with deliberate slowness. When he pressed another kiss, higher than the last, he heard her take in a deep breath.

"Please… stop teasing," she groaned. "You're not playing fair."

It was exactly the sort of thing he had always wanted to hear coming from her lips, particularly when his head was between her legs. But insistent as his hardened member was, and as much as his body felt he was on fire, yearning for her - he was determined to take his bloody time. Tonight, he would coax every last gasp from her mouth that he could.

His eyes were transfixed by the sight of her hot cunt, pink and quivering, as if waiting for him to just bury himself into it. It was as perfect as he had always imagined it would be, and Draco experienced a very surreal moment that this was actually happening; that he was actually about to taste Hermione Granger.

Finally.

"I never promised to play fair. I told you I would make you see stars."

All the same, despite his bravado, his hand shook slightly as he reached out to caress her thigh, trailing slowly higher until he reached her soaked apex. Granger's intake of breath, followed by a whine of frustration, only drove his desperation further into madness.

His tongue darted out, flicking at her clit once and causing her entire body to twitch as if it had been hit by an electric shockwave. A strangled gasp escaped her throat before she spoke, somewhere between a gasp and a plea. "Please, Draco…"

Hearing his given name from her lips felt like ecstasy in a way he had not expected. Gripping her thighs, he held her quivering legs apart and finally - finally - leaned forward, licking a broad line all the way up her slit, through her folds, and circling around her throbbing clitoris.

With a groan, she reached down and fisted her hand through his hair. He hissed slightly at the yanking contact, but found that it simultaneously sent a shiver down the length of his spine and straight to his cock. A glance up at her confirmed that Hermione was continuing her attentions on her breasts, pinching and rolling a nipple between the fingers of her free hand. With relish, he turned back to his feast and continued.

She tasted even better than he could have imagined, a musky, feminine flavor. The blood rushed to his ears as he leaned forward to taste her again. Pushing a finger into her heat, he heard her gasp at the intrusion before he twisted in a second finger and curled them upward. He grinned against her flesh as she cried out again.

His cock was throbbing at the sounds she was making for him, the taste of her on his tongue, and her scent... his hips rolling of their own accord in time to the thrusts of his hand. He wanted her, badly. But he had to wait.

Not yet.

"I'm going to… oh, Merlin… fuck…" she was babbling incoherently. He had spent so long studying her from afar, watching her body's reactions to nearly everything, along with its tells - but this, this was a whole new arena for him. He had not expected her to curse, having never heard a filthy word pass her lips in his life; it only turned him on even more. Then there was the way her breath quickened and shallowed, how her eyes rolled back and fluttered closed, how her lips parted as she moaned his name into the darkness.

Reaching upward with his free arm, he batted away one of her hands, which still toyed with her nipples, and pinched it between his own fingers. She elicited a delectable gasp, so he tugged, hard.

There.

Her walls pulsated around his fingers as she came, calling his name breathlessly as he worked her through it, her legs trembling under his hands. His blood was boiling in his veins, his cock seeking her heat. Yet… in his fantasies about this moment, he had imagined bringing her at least twice before allowing himself that gratification.

"Now," she breathed out, lifting her head from the pillow to peer at him, hair fanned out around her like a lion's mane. Her eyes were glassy with want, and even in the semi-darkness, Draco could see on her face that she had just had a mind-blowing orgasm. His ego swelled enormously. "I need you now."

Damn the second orgasm, then. After all, who was he to deny her?

Crawling up her body, he captured her lips in a kiss. She nipped at his bottom lip, growling at him with a wicked smile. "Let's see what you're made of, Malfoy, hmm?"

Before he even registered her jibe, he was reaching toward the bedside table, casting a contraceptive charm on his lower abdomen, then throwing his wand back down. Pulling her hips upward to him, he grabbed first at one of her ankles, then the other, and deposited them onto his shoulders before sheathing himself in her to the hilt.

"Sweet Morgana," he breathed, watching his cock pulling out and pushing in a second, then a third time. This… was euphoria.

She drew his attention back to her face from where they were joined when she commanded, "Fuck me, Draco."

Fingers gripping her hips, he began to pump into her, working up to a punishing pace. Each movement felt like it was knocking the air from his lungs afresh, each snap of his hips felt like a bit of his heart was being knocked off to settle into the bottom of his chest cavity. Perhaps it was because he knew that, despite how much pleasure he was getting now, this was an encounter with an expiration.

For Hermione's part, she did her best to meet him stroke for stroke. She had grabbed his arse to have something to hold onto, and with each thrust, her fingernails dug into his skin. He was sure he was going to have a series of half-moons marked there for awhile after they had finished, but the thought certainly did not bother him.

Leaning over to kiss her ankle bone where it was tensed on his shoulder, he noted with satisfaction that her toes had curled. A smirk unfurled into existence on his mouth.

Without breaking his rhythm, Draco folded forward over her body, his arms bracketing hers as his teeth scraped over the side of her neck, wishing to leave a mark in order to show the world that she was his, that she belonged to him - but of course, it was not true, so he did not dare to do such a thing.

"You feel… so good…" she moaned into the skin of his neck. "I'm so… so close… please…"

With a long thrust, he felt her clench around him, her body tightening as if trying to pull him even further into her. Her back arched, and her mouth hung open in a silent scream as she came. The rhythmic feel of her contracting around him and the very sight of her, reeling in pleasure because of him, sent him over his own edge, holding his hips flush with hers as he shouted his release.

He took a moment to catch his breath. In that time, each of her legs fell to the side, off of him, to rest once more on the bed. Wrapping his arms around her, he fell off her and to the side as their erratic, heavy breathing echoed around the small, impersonal hotel room in the aftermath. As the haze of hormones and adrenaline lifted somewhat, he began to frown. It was over. Neither of them spoke a word.

As both of their panting abated, a few more of the early morning's rays of light had penetrated through the blinds to filter onto their crumpled bedspread.

Granger's eyes lifted to his. "Well, Malfoy… now what?"

It was agony to look at her, knowing how bloody good she tasted and how excellent she felt while he was inside of her, and… how forbidden she was to him. Still, he steadfastly held her gaze. "Now… I suppose we wait for Robards' owl. Just like before."

A small smile curled onto one corner of her mouth as she reached out to run her fingers through his hair. "Not what I meant."

He sat up, causing her hand to fall away, and buried his face into his hands. This was not happening to him… he simply could not believe that now he had finally had a taste of Hermione Granger, she was denied to him so long as he remained with the DMLE.

A pair of arms wrapped around his neck from behind. "Tell me what you're thinking."

He took his face from his hands and peered over his shoulder at Granger's worried expression. After a beat, he conceded that the truth was the best here - lest she should think it was something she had done, when it was quite the opposite.

Smoothing his hand across the sheets, his gaze slowly floated up to meet hers. "I don't think I can go about my life the way I have, now. Not… knowing you this way…"

"It's lucky then, that I've been planning to transfer to the Department of Magical Law in a month's time, isn't it?"

His gaze shot up and he turned to face her, searching for the truth in her expression. Her indulgent smile confirmed its validity.

"You know, I haven't always wanted to be an Auror. I've always preferred to try helping those without a voice," she reminded him. "The DMLE was always meant to be a starting point for me."

"So, this…" he trailed off, allowing his hand to run softly down her naked arm until it rested on the sheet beside her hand.

"This," she agreed, taking his hand and squeezing it. "Give it a month, and we can properly explore... this."

The sun finally rose, signalling the new day.

A month, he thought, turning the idea over in his head with gratification. Thirty days.

He could wait thirty days. But that did not mean he would be patient.

.

.

Author's Note: This smutty, little one-shot was written for sarenia - happy birthday, dear friend! I hope you enjoyed it.

I would be utterly remiss if I did not credit the editing talents of both I was BOTWP and LightofEvolution. Seriously, ladies, thank you bundles... this little ficlet is heaps better for your involvement.