persuasion
**NSFW WARNING – not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. You heard me!**
“Willow?” Professor Weasley said as she stared at me in the middle of class. I quickly shot up and sat straight, staring right at her as if nothing happened.
“Sorry Professor, I didn’t mean to doze off,” I said as I shrunk into myself. Professor Weasley looked at me with a concerned look in her eye. She knew I had been burning the candle at both ends, running with Sebastian to Feldcroft whenever I could to spend time with Anne. The past few weeks, I had collectively gotten a handful of sleep. My nerves increased when it came to an impending attack on myself which caused me to train harder than before with Sebastian and Ominis when I could, and, unfortunately, caused sleeping alone to be incredibly difficult. I rubbed my eyes as Professor Weasley continued on with her lesson.
I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned my head to see Sebastian eyeing me from across the classroom. His face was covered with concern that matched Professor Weasley’s. I gazed at him and shrugged as if to say that I was okay. The rest of class went by slowly, made even slower by the heaviness in my eyelids. As I stood up at the end of class, thankful to be able to move as that made it much easier to stay awake, I felt an arm take my books from my hands.
“Let me,” Sebastian said before offering his free arm to me.
“Thank you, Seb,” I said as we walked. The school day was finally over, and I felt like I severely needed rest, but homework was calling my name. Before I could really realize it, Sebastian had led us to the entrance of the Room of Requirement. I looked around confused.
“Before you say you have homework, I don’t think you will be able to do it if you’re dead.” Sebastian looked at me, seeing the obvious exhaustion in my face. The door revealed itself to us and I walked in. Deek immediately approached us warmly.
“Miss looks tired,” Deek observed. Sebastian looked at me smugly as I scoffed.
“I’m fine,” I whispered before Sebastian asked Deek to make me some tea as he led me over to the small, cozy bedroom that the room had created for me. I stopped complaining and fighting and instead plopped my bag down on the ground and collapsed on the bed. I kicked my shoes off and got cozy before I felt Sebastian lay down next to me. His hand ran down my back and moved back up in a nice and soothing rhythm. I hummed happily as his gentle touch lulled me to sleep before I could even drink the tea that Deek was bringing me.
I awoke a few hours later to feel Sebastian still there, his hand was now running through my hair, but at some point, he had gotten a book to read. My eyes flickered up to his as I moved to face him.
“Hi there, sleepyhead,” Sebastian said as his eyes met mine.
“Hi,” I answered shortly but sweetly with a smile on my face before I continued. “What are you reading?”
“Oh, nothing,” he answered, covering the book title. Something about the book looked familiar to me. That’s when it hit me, it was the book he had taken from me in the summer. He had been reading it, and from the looks of it, he also had been making notes.
“Hey! That’s my book.” I said as I sat up on the bed.
“Oh, I guess it is,” he said with a sly look on his face.
“Why do you still have it? I thought you would have certainly finished it by now.”
“I had finished it, but I wanted to go back and make some more notes… for you,” he softened at the end of his sentence.
“Why?”
“Well, because there were some things that made me think of you, even the first time I read it,” Sebastian admitted. “I wanted to share those things with you. I was going to give it back to you when I finished.”
“You thought of me when reading this book before this school year even started?” I asked.
“I have thought about you every time I read or see anything remotely beautiful since our third year.” Sebastian looked at me with red in his cheeks but burning in his eyes. His hand found my cheek and caressed it gently. My heart thrummed in my chest from the contact and from his words. My brain struggled to grasp that he could have been feeling these feelings for me that long.
“Since third year?” I asked.
“It was an unusually cold day in September and you had left the dormitory without a jacket when we all went to Hogsmeade. I remember not making a big deal of it, but I watched you shiver and I just gave you my jacket. That is when I noticed a shift within me. Later that day, we were looking through some books in a shop. You picked up this very book,” he said as he closed it, showing Persuasion by Jane Austen.
“I…” I tried to speak but he cut me off.
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you,” He quoted the novel. It was my favorite book and he knew that since I had often carried it with me everywhere I went before I allowed him to take it to read himself. My lips parted as I looked at him. The book seemed to mean even more to him than it had originally meant to me. He connects with it because of me. I realized the quote was not just to show me he loved the book, but that he loved me.
“I love you too,” I whispered gently as his fingers ran down my hair. He pulled me in for a kiss that soon devoured the two of us. My whole body was quickly blazing with fires of passion. I felt his hands quickly move to my lower back, pulling me closer to him on the bed. He pushed the kiss deeper, his tongue asking for entry into my mouth. I obliged and our tongues danced together as the fire continued to burn. Eventually, he pulled away a bit, completely out of breath. My lips immediately felt the loss of his lips on mine.
“Willow,” he whispered through broken breaths. I didn’t know where he was going with this. His eyes searched mine. Just then, I realized what he was doing. His fingers were playing with the button on my shirt, just at the center of my waist. I nodded to him. With that, his fingers quickly undid the buttons all the way up my shirt. He pulled it open and looked me over with desire, but there was also something soft behind his eyes.
He placed a gentle kiss on my neck, his soft lips caressing the sensitive skin just below my ear. My neck exposed itself to him more as he moved slowly down toward my collarbone. I felt his fingers gently playing at the edge of my bra, just by my cleavage. He scooped his hand under the cup as he kept kissing me and slowly made his way over the soft flesh there, squeezing gently as he reached the center. I felt the skin harden under his grasp and gasped a little bit. He let out a low chuckle.
“So sensitive,” he whispered into my neck. My mind raced and my heart pounded so hard that I knew that he must have felt it.
“Seb,” I whispered.
“Hm?” he said as he pulled away from my neck and looked into my eyes. He saw the look in my eyes and removed his hand from under my bra.
“I have never done anything with… anyone before. Other than kissing, I haven't really done much. I know it isn’t new stuff for you, but…” I trailed off awkwardly, not wanting to finish my sentence.
“But… you want to take it slow,” he said with no judgment in his voice. I nodded in return.
“I do want to do all of these things with you, and this particular thing is fine… It makes me really want to keep going. I just don’t know if I am ready for more.”
“So, you’re saying I can touch you still?” he asked. I wanted more than that at this moment. I don’t know what came over me, but I reached behind my back in my open shirt. Before I could unhook my bra, he placed his hand over mine.
“What?” I asked.
“May I?” Something about that made me even more nervous. I nodded and then shut my eyes. “No,” he continued. “Look at me. I want you to see how beautiful I think you are.” I slowly opened my eyes to his.
His hand unbuckled the clasp in one movement, and he gently slid my shirt off my shoulders, removing it completely. He then moved to the straps. His fingers gently teased the skin on the edge of the strap. My breath was heavy in my chest as I kept my eyes on his, despite his eyes looking at what his hands were doing. His delicate touch pulled the straps down on either side and goosebumps rose all around his touch. My bra fell to the bed, and I watched as his eyes looked at his eyes as he viewed me for the first time. His deep golden-brown eyes gazed over the flesh before his eyes met mine.
"So beautiful," he said with a dark look in his eyes.
He looked at my chest once more and as he took it in, I watched as his bottom lip made its way between his teeth. His eyes looked a bit devilish along with the smile that crept up on his lips as his eyes flickered back to mine. His hand slowly grazed the skin and eventually cupped my breast as he leaned in to kiss me. He kissed me with such passion that I feared I might lose all resolve to go slow. I felt moisture building between my legs before long, my breath was coming out in short pants. I moved my body so it was flush against him, my left leg hooked over him as we lay on our sides facing each other now. I pushed my hips to meet his, bringing his need to mine through our clothes. A gasp escaped his lips and he pulled away.
“No… No, Willow,” he said. I felt like I had immediately been rejected despite being the one who wanted to take it slow in the first place. “I won’t let you go there yet. You are overwhelmed right now, I know. You will regret going there right now.”
I could not help but feel a bit embarrassed of myself. He recognized the new shade of pink in my cheeks and gently closed my shirt back over me to cover me up before placing his hand on the side of my face.
“Darling, I love you. I will wait as long as you want, and I know that is truly what you want. Know that I am right there with you.” My heart fluttered when he said that he loved me. My embarrassment washed away as we lay there, his hand still softly brushing the skin on my cheek as I leaned into it.
“I love you too,” I said in return. He leaned in and brushed his lips to mine before laying back and putting my head on his chest.