There are seven freckles on Cormac’s right shoulderblade that form a crescent. Hermione traces the air above the pattern as she listens to his steady breathing. The sheet is gathered around his hips, dipping low enough to show the top of his bum, where she knows she’ll find a faint bite mark that she made earlier. Heat spreads through her face as she remembers how rough she got with him tonight, but she isn’t really embarrassed about it so much as surprised at how possessive she feels.
A couple of months ago, she would have probably been mortified by her behavior. Cormac brings something out in her, though. He makes her wild, gives her the chance to let go of her inhibitions by providing a safe place without judgment, and she knows that he enjoys seeing the scratches and bites she leaves because he tells her so in a teasing voice that’s always accompanied by an intense gaze that seems to look right into her soul. Despite the fact that she could count the amount of weeks they’ve been together intimately on both hands, he knows her so well already, and he’s helped her learn so much about herself that she never expected.
Tomorrow, it ends. Her summer internship ended yesterday, the weeks passing so quickly that she can hardly believe it’s been three months. She certainly never planned on running into Cormac within a week of arriving in Athens, and the relationship that’s developed between them is still surprising at times, especially considering their history back at school. It did develop, though, so fast and easy that it never really occurred to her to question it, which she knows is contradictory to her usual cautious nature. If anything, that just convinces her this isn’t a mistake.
Of course, it’s difficult to think that when this is their last night together. She can’t sleep because she doesn’t want to waste a single moment with Cormac, even if it’s just watching him sleep and listening to him breathe. She’s become used to his night noises, and she wonders how she’s going to go back to sleeping alone in her quiet flat. It would have been nice if she had more time, but she has to be at work on Monday, so it just isn’t possible. Anyway, he might be ready for her to leave. They’ve never discussed a future, since they both knew she’d be leaving at the end of the summer, and it’s possible that she feels more strongly than him.
Hermione makes a face when her thoughts drift in that direction. This is the last thing she needs on her mind when she’s trying to make some final memories to take home with her. With a sigh, she rolls onto her back and stares at the shadowed ceiling overhead. Instead of dwelling on things that can’t be changed, she thinks about the past weeks and everything she’s been able to do, both professionally and personally. She makes lists to help with her packing tomorrow and to make sure she hasn’t forgotten gifts for anyone back home. Cormac’s always there in her thoughts, but she focuses on positive things instead of leaving tomorrow.
When she hears him start snuffling into his pillow, she can’t help but smile while listening to him. The bed shifts, and she soon feels warm fingers brush against her cheek. “Beautiful,” he murmurs, his voice thick with sleep as he touches her skin. She turns her head towards him and kisses his fingertips. He groans lowly before stealing her breath with a passionate kiss. When he pulls back, he moves his fingers into her hair, brushing through the tangles as he shifts his body closer to hers.
“Go back to sleep.” She presses her forehead against his and inhales the scent of him.
“Can’t. You’re thinking too loud.” He traces her lips with his thumb before moving his hand back to her hair. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” It isn’t necessarily a lie since she finds it difficult to consider anything wrong when they’re like this. He makes a noise in his throat that indicates his disbelief, though, and she sighs. “What do you think, Cormac? You’re a clever man, so it isn’t as if you aren’t aware of what’s on my mind.”
He’s quiet for a moment, just brushing her hair while rubbing their noses together. “Damn it,” he mutters. He lets go of her and shoves the sheet down before rolling out of bed. “You’re impossible, you know?” He turns on the lamp and opens the top drawer of the bedside table. “I should have known you’d get to me. Hell, all it took was you accidentally dropping a bloody book on my head weeks ago to get me to fall head over heels for you, so why should it be a surprise?”
“Cormac, can we please not do this right now?” she asks, frowning at his back as he keeps muttering about her somehow getting to him.
“This is your fault,” he tells her, dragging his fingers through his hair and tugging before he turns to face her again. “I hadn’t planned to do this now, but you had to start thinking and getting that wibbling bottom lip and you look so vulnerable. It’d be cruel if I wait, which is what I was planning to do. I was going to surprise you tomorrow, though I don’t even know if you’ll be happy about this or not but, well, fuck it.” He drops a piece of parchment onto the bed beside her and gives her a stubborn look that would make her smile if she wasn’t upset and confused at the moment.
Hermione picks up the parchment and glances at it, looking back down quickly when the words begin to make sense to her. “What does this mean?” She knows, but she has to hear him say it. She looks at him and watches him duck his head, tightening her grip on the parchment to resist reaching for him.
“I’ve arranged a Portkey for tomorrow afternoon, to London. Same time as yours.” He clears his throat and looks up at her, blinking when fringe gets into his eyes. “If you intended for me to be some kind of summer fling, you should have picked someone else. I’m not going to just let you go like this can be forgotten.” So there is unspoken, but Hermione can practically hear it with the tilt of his chin and the way his eyes narrow when he finally gives her a chance to speak.
“I wasn’t looking for a summer romance,” she says, carefully folding the parchment again. She crawls across the bed to where he’s kneeling and kisses him. “I wasn’t looking for anything, but I found you anyway. And I’m not going to let you go, either. So there.”
End
A Summer Romance
Story Notes:
10/18/10