Chapter 17
“So, how was it?” Evelyn whispered excitedly. Hermione and her had decided to go to the local kasbah in honor of Evelyn’s last night as a single woman. It was filled with men and the occasional prostitute and it was clearly not either of their scenes.
“I’m not entirely sure that my experience is the most encouraging,” Hermione said honestly while sipping her wine.
“It wasn’t that bad was it?” Evelyn continued curiously.
“It was just,” Hermione struggled to find words that convey the whole ordeal without freaking Evelyn out. “Ronald was the MOST selfish person I have ever known… And to put it simply, he conveyed that fact in EVERY area of his life. He was very wham, bam, thank you ma’am; and then had the audacity to ask why you weren’t interested in giving him a blow job or having sex multiple times a day. It was all a mess and little to no enjoyment for me. And THEN,” Hermione continued. “...Ronald would get frustrated and complain to his mother.”
“No?” Evelyn was cringing in horror.
“Yes! He would tell his mother that he didn’t understand WHY I was never available for his needs. And while his Mother was perfectly loving and caring… She did NOT know how to mind her own business,” Hermione said emphatically. “I am actually grateful that we did have sex before marriage OTHERWISE I know that Ronald would have pushed and pushed for marriage simply so he could get laid. THEN, I would have been stuck.”
“Why were you with him in the first place, Hermione? He doesn’t sound like someone that you would necessarily like being with.” Hermione frowned. It was true. She was never really in love with Ronald. But, he was a friend. Safe up to a point.
“Because I didn’t know what to do,” Hermione said honestly. “I was so lost and everyone just assumed we’d be together. And, because I had no idea what I was going to do or ANYTHING, I trusted them to tell me. And having sex with him, everyone told me it was normal. I took the job that would have me. I took the man that would have me. I worked there, and so did Ronald. And it just occurred to me one day that Ronald was never going to put me first. Not ever. Anytime that I was ever in danger… he took care of himself and if it was not an inconvenience; then me. And it just… broke what was left of the shits I had to give. Left him, eventually changed jobs, and now I am here.”
“That… really surprises me,” Evelyn admitted.
“Which part?” Hermione drained the rest of her glass impulsively and began coughing.
“You… Just… Doing things to please people. I mean, Isn’t that why you did it?”
“Not really. I was just a rule follower. It felt like some sort of rule that I was going to be with Ronald. I guess.” Hermione and Evelyn were silent for a few minutes as the waiter brought Hermione another glass of wine. She would have to sneak a sobering potion at some point. “Do you have any questions?”
“About what?” Evelyn said with puzzlement until Hermione gave her a telling toothy grin.
“Sex.”
“Well….” Evelyn blushed brightly. “Yes.” Evelyn asked any and all innocent questions Hermione could have considered possible. And she got braver and braver the longer she drank. “You have to tell me what a blowjob is now that I’ve had enough to drink.” Hermione snorted wine up her nose.
“You…” Hermione coughed and tilted her head back in order to dislodge the liquid. “You don’t know what a blowjob is?” Hermione gave a warning look to a man near them clearly listening into their conversation and he shifted uncomfortably for a minute before retreating to the bar.
“Hermione, sex may have been common fodder where you went to school; but none of the girls I had contact were ever so candid with me. Maybe with each other, but as you know; we didn’t get along.” Hermione swished the wine around in her glass.
“I didn’t talk with my classmates either. They simply pretended I wasn’t there or did it because they knew it would annoy me. They also were under the impression that I was an incurable prude,” Hermione snorted before taking another sip. “And… A blowjob is a woman performing oral sex on a man.”
“Oral…sex?!” Evelyn blushed madly as she said it a bit too loud and several men grinned in their direction. An American man gave Hermione a wink and she flipped him the bird back causing his companions to laugh uproariously.
“Want some tips?” Hermione said with a delicately raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” Evelyn mumbled. They continued to drink and talk and Evelyn loosened up fairly quickly; most definitely because of the wine. Evelyn was clearly drunk after not very long drinking and Hermione ordered two waters while subtly pouring the sober up potion in it. When Evelyn had drunk all of it, she was back to mildly tipsy. “I must be better at drinking than I thought,” Evelyn said wonderingly. “I barely feel anything.”
“Must be,” Hermione smirked slightly. The two women stood up and left without a single stagger between the two of them. Hermione saw several men eyeing them up and down, and she rushed to usher Evelyn out the door before anyone tried anything. Unfortunately, the minute they made it out the door, the man Hermione had insulted caught up to them.
“Hello there, sweetheart,” Hermione leveled him with a state of complete indifference and Evelyn gripped her purse nervously.
“I think you meant to refer to one of the working girls. They are inside. I would go find one,” Hermione said coldly and continued to steer Evelyn back towards Evelyn’s apartment.
“Don’t be like that!” The blond hair and blue eyed soldier grabbed onto Hermione’s arm. “I know you know a thing or two about pleasure. I’m sure we could have a good time.” He probably thought he was charming. He reeked of nasty smelling whiskey and Hermione was two seconds away from making him suffer.
“Either you let go or I will show you my actual idea of pleasure,” Hermione said with calm and deadly promise.
“Oh, really?” His grin widened and immediately turned into a gasping choke. Hermione had punched the little jerk wad… right in the throat. Then, she did a half turn and smashed the heel of her boot right into his crotch. He was clearly not much of a soldier. The man cried on the ground and Hermione jerked her arm out of his now loose hold and walked quickly until they were inside Evelyn’s apartment building. Evelyn just followed in quiet shock until she finally shook herself out of it when they reached her door.
“That… was AMAZING! You HAVE to teach me how to do that!” The gentlemen in the room heard the exclamation as they walked in.
“Teach you how to do what?” O’Connell asked curiously. O’Connell was drinking slowly, Jonathon was clearly slobbering drunk, and Ardeth sat on the couch drinking tea.
“I thought you would be out at your stag party?” Hermione completely ignored his question.
“O’Connell is boooooring!!!!” Jonathon whined drunkenly. “We should be out... enjoying your last day as a free man with LOTS of women!”
“I like the woman I’ve got now,” O’Connell winked at Evelyn and she giggled tipsily.
“What do you wish Miss Evans to teach you Miss Carnahan?” Ardeth said with a smile.
“Hermione!” Evelyn grinned excitedly and sat down cozily next to O’Connell. “This crass American (no offense darling) tried to proposition Hermione and even grabbed onto her arm.” Ardeth’s hand flexed tightly on his cup as Hermione sat in the only available seat next to him.
“And what did she do?” O’Connell said curiously.
“She punched him in the throat and jammed her heel into his family jewels! It was absolutely amazing!” Ardeth blinked in surprise and looked at Hermione.
“Poor chap. Must have been an ugly blighter,” Jonathon said.
“Oh no. He was attractive enough,” Evelyn said with a blush.
“He overheard our conversation,” Hermione said calmly. “....and made several inaccurate deductions. I corrected them fairly quickly.” Hermione could feel Ardeth’s dissecting stare and tried to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. “I’m going to make some tea.” Hermione quickly got up and made her way to the kitchen. Ardeth had been struggling with understanding if Miss Evans was loose since they had left. It was natural enough. Women who slept with men before marriage WERE generally loose, but clearly that was not the case with Miss Evans. And Ardeth had never even thought that a woman other than a prostitute would even consider laying with a man before marriage. So, she was clearly different. Ardeth had been waiting for her to come back so he could see how felt about her after digesting the information from earlier. Well Miss Evans was in front of him, and he still wanted her.
“What was your conversation?” O’Connell smiled widely as Evelyn turned bright red.
“Different forms of sex,” Evelyn mumbled and she straightened out her skirt. “...the best ways to do them. We were in the kasbah.”
“And you were discussing Hermione’s former lovers?” O’Connell said while side eyeing Ardeth who seemed suddenly very tense.
“Lover,” Evelyn corrected with a frown. Evelyn could see the effect the conversation was having on Ardeth as well. “She was not very complimentary. Hermione said he was incredibly selfish…. and I got the feeling arrogant as well.”
“Unbelievably arrogant,” Hermione interrupted as she handed Evelyn a cup of tea. “And a mama’s boy who kept wanting me to be like his mother,” Hermione sat down with her tea. “I won’t go into how disturbing I found that.”
“I still can’t believe you settled for that,” Evelyn said in disbelief. “There was no one else who was better to be with?” Ardeth let out the breath he was holding slowly. He felt… relief. Hermione was not still in love with this man.
“Not really,” Hermione shrugged. “It was a very very very small community. The only one who ever seemed interested in me made the man in the alley look like a true gentleman and the only one I ever liked…” Hermione paused and focused to seem as nonchalant as possible. “...was never going to be available to me.” Ardeth wanted to know more. Desperately wanted to know more, but it looked Evelyn was dropping the subject and HE couldn’t ask her. Ardeth couldn’t deny it. He was in love with Hermione Evans. Irreversibly in love with her. Ardeth had known he admired her and found her to be someone he liked immensely. But now, he couldn’t deny it. Ardeth wanted to erase these men from her mind and be the only one she ever looked at again. The men… didn’t matter. They were gone…. clearly. But, how was Ardeth going to woo a woman like her?
They were so different. Ardeth could not engage in a long term courtship. Not with his position in his tribe. He would have to convince her to leave everything behind and marry him. Ardeth couldn’t see her doing that. But he had to ask. Tomorrow. He would ask her tomorrow. She was worth the risk. Ardeth knew she was worth the risk. Hermione had no idea the struggle that was going on next to her. She looked over and Ardeth was looking at her while clearly thinking through something deep. Hermione shivered. She needed to avoid this man. He was dangerous.
Hermione had come to terms long ago that she would probably never get married. She was never really interested in any wizard other than Harry. And, Hermione couldn’t date a muggle. Not without lying to them. And, how would that be fair to either of them? In order to marry a muggle, Hermione was not able to tell them she was a witch until they were married to each other. And that was a recipe for disaster. Say, Hermione got to that point. Married the man of her dreams, and then he found out. The best case scenario is he was okay with it. But, the worst case scenario; Hermione’s heart would break when he realized how different she was in reality to what he thought she was. Hermione brewed potions and rode brooms and fought for house elf rights. She was NOT someone you wanted to deal with when she was angry. How could she ask anyone to deal with that?
Then, Hermione would have to erase the event from their mind, divorce them without a reason, and walk away broken like a wine glass with no possibility to repair. The man she married should have the ability to run away from her should he choose… with full knowledge of why. And Ardeth, Hermione could see that she liked him; and that was not a fact that she was comfortable accepting. Hermione was suddenly glad that Evelyn was leaving the country. It would be much easier to avoid being around him with her gone.
“I think the bride should get her beauty rest,” Hermione said quickly. Hermione gave Evelyn a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She didn’t give anyone a chance to talk or move as Hermione quickly walked out the door.
“Well, that was rude,” Jonathon snorted before falling off the chair and right onto the floor, ass first.
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“How was your time with the Carnahans?” Ardeth startled as his Father asked from the dinner table in his Uncle’s apartment.
“Eventful,” Ardeth said cryptically. Adham sipped his coffee as his son put his things down by the door. “Father…” Adham waited for Ardeth to speak. “I wish to ask Miss Evans to marry me.” Adham’s eyebrows flew up in surprise.
“Just yesterday, you were denying you even liked her,” Adham said skeptically. “That is a fast leap to marriage.”
“I am in love with her,” Ardeth blushed. “And… I can’t court her. Not from the desert.”
“I understand,” Adham reasoned. “But…. we can make it possible for you to court her. At least for a week or two.” Adham stood and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I want you to be successful. The tribe will understand. Stay here for a week or two after the wedding. Court her properly. Don’t just spring it on her.” Ardeth finally nodded
“Alright. I will. She goes to the library and to the cafe every day even when Miss Carnahan wasn’t here. I will just… be there.” Adham smiled at Ardeth encouragingly.
“I think that is a wonderful plan. Your Mother will be thrilled,” Adham ended teasingly and Ardeth groaned.
“Please ask Al’umu not to say anything tomorrow,” Ardeth begged. “I was already worried that the two of you would be listening and watching my every move with Miss Evans.”
“Yes, yes,” Adham laughed. “I will be perfectly well behaved.” Ardeth looked at his Father skeptically.
“And Al’umu?”
“Ah, Son!” Adham laughed. “You had better pray to Allah because that is the only way your mother is doing anything other than exactly what she wants to do.” Adham patted Ardeth’s back comfortingly as he continued to groan.