Marrying Lucius Malfoy

"I can't believe...The second time something like this has...Doctor, will he be...Should I contact his...?"

A haze of questions cut through the crippling pain in his head and arms. He only caught bits of what the woman was asking, but she seemed very upset, and that made him listen harder.

"And I'll give him these pills for how long?...And then he'll be his old self again?"

The woman didn't appear to be very happy at the moment. He knew, of course, why she was so unhappy. He'd almost been killed in a foolish show of machismo, not for the first time in their marriage.

"...Lina?" Lucius garbled. His voice was dry though, and it wavered, so when he tried to say the name of his wife, it came out as a shortened version. She understood that he needed her, though.

"Shush, Lucius, and I'll explain later." Lucius couldn't open his eyes. He moaned, and a cool hand was placed on his brow. "Thank God that you're alright," she whispered.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Your horse took off. It dragged you around for a bit." Selina removed her hand from his brow. Now her voice was wavering. "You were hurt. Very badly." She sounded near tears. "It wasn't this terrible last time. I wasn't as scared last time." Selina paused to take a shaky breath. "You were so bruised and battered that I thought you were dead. And then your eyes! I thought you'd been blinded."

"What?"

Selina stroked Lucius's cheek soothingly. He must be badly hurt for her to be so tender with him. "You aren't. But you'll always have a faint scar over your right brow. I asked the doctor to heal that as best he could. I know how much you like that face of yours."

"I'm sorry, for frightening you so badly," Lucius said. He truly was. Selina must be some sort of woman, to make him apologize twice in twenty-four hours.

"I'm never allowing you to do any sort of sport ever again. It's a wonder you know how to play quidditch," Selina said. Her voice was stern, but Lucius could tell that her words were not ones of ridicule. Her voice soothed him.

"Will I be better soon?" he asked after she had been quiet long enough.

"Doctor said that you can get up tomorrow," Selina replied. "Magic really does work wonders. When I told him about what happened to me, he was horrified! Said that those quacks should be fired for keeping me in bed so long," she added.

"Carfunkell is alright, though," Lucius replied. "His father was my doctor when I was your age." He shuddered, which hurt a little. "I sound so old."

"You are," Selina teased.

Things were nice and easy between them. 'Perhaps,' Lucius thought smugly to himself, 'getting dragged by a horse has its perks.'

~*~

The day finally ended.

Selina left Lucius in his room and returned to her own. She slipped into bed almost immediately after changing her clothes, but she didn't fall asleep as quickly, as tired as she might have been. The day had been long and tedious. There was much to reflect on. Selina might not have been brilliant, but she knew that in most cases, it was better to go over a day's meaningful events then fall asleep and dream about them.

Of course, the most interesting aspect of the day was the change she'd seen in her husband. All day Lucius had been suave and well-mannered, even when it was obvious that he was annoyed. He'd been the man that the world thought he was, and not the hot tempered, inconsiderate bastard that she'd been married to for the past six months. The only characteristic thing he'd done all day was try to race his horse.

'Leave it to Lucius to risk his stupid neck just to win something,' Selina thought.

She remembered finding him in the woods, and she remembered seeing the gash around his right eye. Her screams had brought Daphne to the scene, and the older witch had managed to subdue her enough to levitate Lucius to the mansion. There had been a long period of waiting, then, while Daphne and her household summoned the nearest doctor. Several maids had tried to offer her hot mugs of coffee, but she'd declined on all counts. She hated coffee, really.

Finally the doctor had come. He'd been a portly man, with a dark bushy beard and dark eyes. Dr. Larazeo at your service, he'd told her in a heavy Italian accent. He'd added, "Your husband will live."

For the next three hours, all Selina could do was take the doctor's good word. For concentration purposes, she hadn't been allowed inside of Lucius's room while Dr. Larazeo performed the healing spells. Daphne had been allowed inside every half an hour, to check on Lucius's condition. Every time she'd returned with news of his approving condition.

At long last, Selina had been allowed to go in and tend to Lucius. When he'd called out her name, she'd felt a stab of anger, for all the trouble she'd caused him. And then he'd gone and apologized for frightening her so badly, and all her anger had evaporated. Selina had chastised herself, of course, for becoming so weak towards him, but then Lucius had began asking about his condition, and she'd been distracted.

But now she had time to think about everything. How well things were going with Lucius, how strange he was acting around her, how sure Daphne seemed that they would both end up together. Things were brewing, Selina was sure, that no one was telling her about. Everyone was keeping closely guarded secrets.

'Let's see how long they last,' Selina thought, before turning to the pressing matter of pulling back the covers.

~*~

Whatever secrets were being hidden within the walls of the Italian villa, Selina had little time to ponder them in the following five days. When she wasn't watching over her husband's health, she was tending to some little chore or another. Daphne was horrified that a house guest was doing more work than she herself, but Selina always insisted that she contribute to the household in some sort of way.

"My mother wouldn't have me being a freeloader," she always protested.

One of the greatest things about the weeks, though, was that she got to know Lucius on a new level. The suave, gentlemanly behavior that had unnerved her at first became thnorm. Slowly, but finally, she came to accept that even a cold bastard like Lucius Malfoy could change, if he chose to.

One evening, when Lucius was permitted to walk about again, they began to talk of their childhoods. Lucius said little, and admitted, quite reservedly, that his younger years were unpleasant ones. "I was not the man I am today," he told his young wife. "I had many ideas of my own; ideas that have sprouted into entire belief systems."

Selina could only guess what he meant by that. She was glad when he asked of her younger years, for she knew many stories that would bring a glad smile to his face. Indeed, tales of Serendipity's alone were enough to strike his fancy.

"You say you met Ms. Bryce on the boat there," he murmured. "But surely she wasn't the only one you could have made friends with."

Selina gave a soft, cheery smile. "There were four other girls in our class. In some classes there were only three. It was the sort of school that was very exclusive. My father's family has attended it since the beginning, though, so getting in is a givens."

"And what of these other four girls? You've never made mention of them."

"Well, there was Georgiana Soonray. She was a loner, but only by choice. She was a sweet kid; I think she lives in California now. There was a pair of cousins, Ilona and Sonia Gresham, and lastly, the only other one I was remotely close to, Sheila Mardone." Selina rotated her arms. "She does archaeological work, or maybe anthropological. Something decidedly boring where you dig up old things. She travels the world, though, so that counts for something."

"Interesting. Lucifer used to have ambitions of becoming an archeologist. Then he found out that not many women fancy archaeologists, and he decided to settle for being my rich, playboy little brother." Then, more sensitively, "What did your sister do for a living?"

Selina sighed. "She bought artwork for this major gallery in San Francisco. The owner was some really, really rich warlock. Syd never gave us too many details, though. I don't think she wanted any of us showing up in San Francisco and hunting her down." Selina shrugged. "Sydney was never into family. She wouldn't even bring her boyfriend home. I only met him once when I when she came to this alumni brunch at Serendipity's."

"If it makes you feel any better, Lucifer has never introduced me to any of his girlfriends."

Lucius laid his hand on Selina's shoulder then. His fingers tightened slightly, giving off the impression that he was about to give her a comforting squeeze, but then he pulled her closer, for an "around-the-shoulders" hug. The gesture surprised Selina, but she didn't object or pull away. She was learning how to enjoy her husband's affections. It wasn't so much that he showered her with his affections-no, he knew that she'd hate that-but that he gave her a respectfully sweet sprinkle.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"You're welcome," he replied.

And so it came to be that Selina and Lucius Malfoy--she'd resigned herself to going by her married name, with the exception that she added a J. to her signature--came to be something more than friends but less than significant others. Selina had a daunting feeling of hovering just past the brink of normal friendship, but being totally unprepared to progress forward into the territory of true matrimonial bliss. Being caught in a limbo was never very much fun, but Selina had no idea how she and Lucius could ever move forward. Her uneasy feelings were only worsened when, while dining in his room one evening, Lucius mentioned that he wanted to take her for a small stroll after they were finished eating.

"What? Where to?" Selina asked.

"To that large building behind the villa. Do you know the one?"

Selina started. "You don't mean that rundown wooden thing, do you? It's a fire hazard!"

Lucius set down his glass of wine. It rather impressed Selina that her husband drank wine. All of her previous boyfriends had been proud beer hounds. "Would you trust me on this one?" he asked solemnly.

Selina decided to go on her husband's judgment. "If you really want to," she mumbled. "Let me go fetch my cloak."

Lucius rose with her. Grabbing his own cloak he said, "No, use mine. I'll grab another one from my bedroom, and we can be off in a few minutes."

Selina nodded and clasped Lucius's cloak around her neck. On impulse she lifted a piece of the expensive fabric to her nose and inhaled. It smelled faintly of pinewood, probably from the ornate wardrobe that furnished his bedroom. Selina had an inexplicable desire to smell the actual man, to see if he too smelled like pine. Luckily she was able to retrain the desire when her husband strolled in the next minute.

"Are you bundled up?" she asked.

"I'll be warm enough," he replied, and they were off.

~*~

The cold outside was nipping but far from a bite. It was chilly enough to make Selina draw the cloak tightly around her body, but not cold enough to make her not enjoy the scenery. "It's glorious out here," she said.

Frost had painted intricate designs on the back lawn of the villa. As she and Lucius made her way to the rundown wooden building, she tried not to step on any of them. When Lucius noticed what she was doing he copied her footsteps, and they made their way towards the building a little slower. It allowed them time for conversation, though.

"It is quite lovely," Lucius agreed. "I don't often take the time to look at nature, though."

"That doesn't surprise me," Selina laughed. "You're a very serious man, Lucius."

"Like winter itself," the accused replied.

"If you say so," Selina said. "I'd rather like to think myself a summer."

"No," Lucius disagreed. "Your hair reminds me too much of the leaves in fall; you are a true autumn." By that time they had reached the building. Lucius produced a key from his pocket and stuck it in the lock that had together two weathered, rotting doors. He pushed them open and said, "Here we are."

Selina wanted to gasp, but she was too shocked to do so. She wanted to speak, but she didn't know what she could say. All she could do was stare at the scene in front of her.

It wasn't so much what was in the room; in fact, as furniture went, things were pretty sparse. There was a long, banquet style table against one wall, but nothing on it. Two doors, which presumably led to two separate changing rooms, stood on the other side. In the middle of the whole room though, the crowning addition, Selina was sure, was a gigantic, oblong pool. It was lit from underwater enchantments, and two sets of steps on opposite ends of the pool descended into the shallower areas.

What got to Selina was the Romanesque style in which the room had been decorated. In each corner there was a thick, marble column and on two windowless wall hung tapestries depicting the woeful story of Romulus and Remus. The pool floor was tiled much like a Roman mosaic, and the ceiling bore a painting of the mighty Jupiter and his queen, Juno. The lesser gods and goddesses, like Mars and Venus and their son, Eros, flitted about the corners.

When did Selina find something to say, it was, "But you can't swim."

Lucius stared. "That's all you have to say?" he asked. "That I can't swim?"

Selina nodded. She felt quite stupid now, having heard the words spill from her mouth and finding them far from her liking. In an attempt to save herself she answered, "Well, what else would we do in here but swim? It's reasonable deduction that you don't want to sit around and stare at the art."

"Actually, yes, that's exactly what I had in mind."

Selina felt utterly moronic. Here she was, babbling on about him not being able to swim, and all he wanted to do was look at the artwork. "Well, I guess, if you want-I mean, I could teach you to swim."

The offer surprised the both of them, but Lucius decidedly more. His gray eyes went wide, and even after the surprise wore away, they staid wide. The look didn't suit him at all. "Do you mean it?" he asked.

"Are you accepting?" she countered.

"If you're willing. We have, what, three more days here? I'm a quick learner. Even teaching me to doggy-paddle would be an improvement." Lucius raised a fair eyebrow. "Would you be up for it? I'm sure we can find bathing suits in the changing rooms. And, before you go protesting that Andrea would mind us borrowing her clothes like this, she wouldn't; I asked her before coming out."

"Then you were planning this." Selina had meant it as a question, but it came out as a statement.

"Rather, something along the lines of swimming. There's a sauna and a Jacuzzi in the back room; we could have relaxed in those places." Lucius motioned to the rooms. "If you would...?"

Selina wanted to groan. Like or not, she was going to teach her husband how to swim. As much as Lucius assured her that he was a quick learner, she knew him well enough to know that he'd be a temperamental learner too. If she hadn't been so worried about jeopardizing their blooming "friendship" Selina would have called him on it. Instead she told him, "Fine. Let me go change."

"I will too," Lucius replied. He strutted off to one of the changing room doors, and Selina slunk towards the other.

Once inside, and having seen her new bathing suit, Selina did groan. "Unbelievable," she muttered. "That woman,"--clearly she meant Daphne--"is fucking unbelievable." She glared at the bikini her hostess had laid out for her and tried to count the number of ways it displeased her.

It was black.

The tiny triangles held together didn't fool her; they weren't about to cover any of the necessary places.

And, after observing the bottom half with more shrewdness: Is that a thong??

"Oh, oh, oh!" Selina knew full well how Lucius would leer at her when she stepped out of the dressing room. She knew full well that she didn't want to deal with that. Her mind humored the possibility of swimming in her robes, but decided against it, because Lucius would probably want some explanation as to why. And hell, it wasn't as if she had anything to hide...

Selina looked at her presently clothed body in the mirror. 'They say that if you've got it, flaunt it,' her inner voice, which sounded very much like Riley, purred, 'and honey, have you ever got it.'

So, with her mind made up, Selina shed her robe and undergarments, then slipped into the black bikini. Without pausing to look in the mirror--seeing herself in such a skimpy getup surely would have made her change her mind--Selina flung open the door and flung herself out. Coincidently, Lucius had just finished changing as well, though he stepped out with a bit more reserve. When the couple saw each other, they both stared.

Lucius's bathing suit was some European form of a Speedo. The material fit him like a second skin--it was, of course, colored Slytherin green--and it looked as though Lucius had stuffed himself into it. The high-cut bathing suit looked tight to the point of painfulness. Selina couldn't help but notice that her husband's look of shame turned to one of aroused interest when he saw her getup.

'Remember,' Selina told herself reassuringly, 'no matter what, you're only friends. He's just a man; he can't help it if he's a little aroused...Friends can be turned on by other friends.'

Even as she thought it, Selina knew it sounded stupid. Friends didn't give each other once-overs. Friends didn't lick their lips if they were only anticipating a swimming lesson. She decided to ignore Lucius's odd behavior and just jump into the lesson, and also, the pool.

"Come on! Let's get in!" Selina ran and dove into the pool before any further embarrassment could be caused to either parties. She torpedoed underwater for a good five yards, then surfaced a third of the way down the pool. "Join me!" she beckoned to the reluctant Malfoy patriarch.

"If you insist," Lucius muttered. Forcing himself to stick one strong, pale leg out in front of the other, he made it to the pool's steps. With the air of someone very against getting themselves wet, he eased into the calm, still waters. He walked onward until the bottom half of his body was underwater, and he lean torso was covered in droplets of water. It was his turn to beckon his spouse, all the while saying, "It's bloody freezing in this pool."

"Stop your whining," Selina ordered as she glided up to her husband. Due to their height differences, while the water only reached Lucius's naval, it came all the way up to Selina's breasts. The two globes bounced like buoys in the water, and another look of manly interest crossed Lucius's face. Rather uncomfortable with the way things were going, Selina began to mutter about how swimming was like a hidden instinct coded into everyone. "It's how people know how to do the doggy-paddle and how you never forget how to ride a bike; things this second-nature are fairly easy to learn."

Lucius nodded and shifted his gaze from breasts to moving mouth. After listening to Selina's instructions and watching her movements, he felt ready to give the whole doggy-paddle thing (however undignified he might find it) a try. Much to his embarrassment, instead of his second nature instinct kicking in, he floundered about helplessly. A combination of humiliation and unfulfilled desires and a general contempt inspired him to slam his fist into the water several times, further humiliating him and covering Selina in a shower of spray.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Selina only said, "I didn't say it was going to be easy." She kicked off from the bottom of the pool and swam gracefully through the water towards Lucius. With the decision to screw the whole "friends don't touch each other" worries in mind she wrapped her rounded arms around Lucius's waist and told him, "You're getting too tense, putting too much thought into a simple thing."

"Simple for you," Lucius snapped, though his temper was softened by the creamy arms around his waist, and the firm breasts pressed into his back. He could feel two hard nubbins making circular motions as Selina demonstrated the proper way to move his arms.

"Now you try," Selina said, and after kicking and paddling his way two yards down the pool, Lucius turned around to see that Selina's nipples were indeed hard. They showed through her bikini's thin fabric, and suddenly Lucius realized that watching his young, pretty, pert-bodied wife prance around in a skimpy bathing suit was not the way to go.

"Do you think that we've covered enough?" he asked hopefully.

Selina, quite surprised by her own body's reactions to intimate contact with Lucius, nodded. "I'm staying behind for a few minutes," she said, but Lucius might not have heard her, because as soon as he had received her nod of agreement, he was out of the pool and towards the changing room, the muscles of his back rolling smoothly. Only seconds later he dashed out the door, imploring her to send news to him when she returned to the villa.

'That man...' Selina thought, but she could not finish the phrase, for she too was beginning to act strangely.

~*~

'No man my age,' Lucius thought angrily, 'should be able to get this aroused. Not even about his own young, lithe, pert, bouncy,'--oh, and did she ever bounce in certain areas--'wife.'

Well, there was only one way to deal with this problem. Lucius unzipped his pants and allowed his hands to dip downward...

~*~

Thirty minutes later, when Selina slunk into the room to alert her husband to her return, she was none the wiser to the acts that had been carried out in his bedroom just moments before. After scribbling down a quick note-Lucius, got back half-an-hour later, you were asleep, see you in the morning, Selina-the young redhead returned to her own room. Her eyes were no sooner closed than a stirring in the realm beyond took place. A slight frown crossed the pretty face as something ghosted over her dream-state mind, and a whispering phrase rolled in one ear and out the other.

'Hide in Britain...Hide in Italy...I'll find you anywhere you run...'

~*~

Swimming lessons continued without any more great excitement. The next night Lucius--the man was, indeed, as he had promised, a quick learner--progressed to a sloppy freestyle, and the night after that, he learned to do the opposite: the backstroke. Each night the bathing suits got tighter and tighter, too. One night, the night Lucius was slated to learn the backstroke, and the last night that they were to stay at the villa, the Malfoys stepped into the changing rooms to find that there were no bathing suits at all.

Lucius was the first to work up the courage to venture out of the changing room, buck naked. After it, it wasn't as though he had anything to hide; and those tight bathing suits had been rather too confining! Selina stepped out moments later. She too had opted to go swimming in the buff. When they saw each other they did their best not to stare. Lucius nodded quickly to his wife, and then watched as she dove in gracefully.

"Come on," Selina said. Her cheeks were flush; her eyes were still able to meet his, but it was with a forced dignity that she did so. "Let's work on the breaststroke. You remember that, don't you?"

"I do."

Lucius made the position in the water, pressing his legs together and then using the muscles in them to launch himself forward through the water. At the same time he put his hands together, and then pushed them away from one another, scooping the water out of the way. He repeated the motions all the way down to the other side of the pool with ease; Selina knew that the breaststroke was Lucius's strong suit, most likely because it was so graceful. She felt only slightly chagrined because when Lucius moved like that, it was harder to look at his posture than it was other, more obvious things.

Her husband was a handsome man. She'd resigned herself to admitting that. By admitting that he was handsome, Selina had reasoned the night before, she allowed herself not to confuse his handsomeness and the feelings it thusly provoked for anything stronger than a light, natural attraction. Natural attraction was to be expected; they were married after all, and now that their relationship was on better grounds, she spent less time picking out his bad attributes and more time picking up on his good ones.

It would do no good to their friendship any good to try and place these feelings as any more, Selina always told herself. Why would she ever want to, anyways? Things were going just fine, as long as she was concerned. Perhaps it was only the Italian air affecting her thoughts...Or maybe the shrinking bathing suits.

Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't love!

"Something on your mind, Selina?"

Her husband's call came from across the pool. He was standing directly across from her, his lean arms crossed against his chest to emphasize his ropelike muscles. The water blurred everything below his waistline, and Selina hoped the same could be said of everything below her neck.

"No. Nothing," Selina lied.

Lucius kept his arms at his chest. "What should we try next? I am sure that I still have a few sloppy ends."

Selina nodded. "Try the backstroke. You keep going under when you try that one. Try keeping your stomach upwards."

Lucius fell on his back without another question. He moved his arms back and forth in propeller motions, and within a minute his body had glided up to Selina's. Now the water made their privates all too clear. Selina had a brief moment's glance down her husband's streamline body before he stood up in the water and had a good look down at her own.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much," she confirmed.

"I am glad. Now maybe we could...relax a bit?"

Selina noticed the pause in his choice of words and wondered if he did so out of caution not to offend her or to find the word that would carry the most innuendo. To make it appear as though she didn't care either way, she said, "Of course. Have at it."

Lucius didn't dive in--he wasn't that confident in the water yet--but he did make a good show of splashing around. He went so far as to let his long hair out of its ponytail. The silver-blonde strands clung to his shoulders and the top of his back.

"Damn sexy, aren't I?" he called fifteen minutes later. "Don't know how you can resist me."

Selina edged slowly backwards until her body hit the edge of the pool. She gave him a strained grin and replied, "I'm managing just fine."

Lucius crouched down in the water so that he was level with her. "Are you sure about that one?" he asked. It was a playful, bantering question, but it made Selina's skin prickle.

"I am," she said. Then she pulled herself out of the pool, careful to turn around and face her husband as soon as possible. With her hands over her breasts and lower regions, she told him, "I'm changing. Got to finish packing, and all that."

In a quick, languid motion Lucius launched himself across the pool. It surprised Selina how fast he could move, and it surprised her even more that he'd stepped out of the pool to grab her arm gently. "It was not my intention to make you uncomfortable," he said softly.

"I know." Selina dropped her arms, if only to prove that she wasn't rigid with tension.

"Then do not leave on my account," he implored. "If you are really so uncomfortable, then I'll be the one to depart."

"No," Selina said. "To be honest, I'd hate to be alone in this place. It'd give me the willies."

"I see. Then why do either of us have to leave?"

"Because," Selina replied, ever the voice of reason. "we're both naked, and it's getting rather embarrassing. Because it's almost ten in the night, and we leave tomorrow at seven in the morning. Because," she added, "we're only friends. Nothing more, and nothing less."

Her tone sent the same message that her words did: that nothing was about to happen-not now, not ever. Maybe she was reading too much into the situation, but she could have sworn that Lucius had suddenly looked abashed.

'This is for the best,' she thought as she scuffled off to the changing room. 'Too much too fast would be too big of a mistake. And Gods, these things I'm feeling-they aren't anything more than a series of light attractions.'

Selina repeated that over and over again, as she shuffled into the changing room and slipped into the magically summoned clothing. When she stepped out of the changing room, Lucius was nowhere to be seen. Gladly, she didn't run into him as she made the trek up the snowy lawn and back to the villa.

'It's for the best,' Selina told herself. 'And not because I'm too afraid to take a risk.'

~*~

Lucius wondered why having his heart broken wasn't as painful as he'd thought it would be. Perhaps because he had known that he had never had a chance in the first place. But still, the throbbing in his chest had become surprisingly dull during the past few moments. So had the biting cold, which swirled around his bare legs with surprising alacrity. Such had been Lucius's state of mind that he had completely forgotten to put on trousers under his stylish black robe. His socks were missing in action, too, and it was a wonder that he'd managed to slip into his shoes.

After wandering in a haphazard pattern back to the villa, Lucius collapsed in the doorway. What reason did he have to go inside, if Selina was always going to see him as a friend? It was better when they were at each others neck, he thought; at least then he hadn't had to pretend that being on platonic terms was alright.

Before he had the chance to catch frostbite, though, a short maid poked her head out and asked him something in Italian. Making no effort to encourage the young filly, Lucius staid where he was. The girl, obviously afraid for the rich guest's sanity, had rushed to fetch an English speaking member of the household. A plump woman, from a country Lucius could not identify, was the answer.

"Sir Malfoy? Please, come inside. Your wife's been asking for you; she says you need to get your things packed."

Lucius looked up. "Well, if Selina so wishes it," he muttered, then stumbled inside. The plump woman backed away from the Englishman, staying in his presence only long enough to determine that he wasn't drunk of suicidal. Moments later, after Lucius had made it up the stairs, Miss Daphne appeared.

"Was he quite alright?" she asked.

"The woman came in half-an-hour ago. She was as troubled as he," came the reply.

Daphne buffed her nails on the front of her dress and then produced an apple from her sleeve. "Love is a tricky game, is it not? Let's hope I've played it well for those two. Whatever the case, this is all partially my fault. I've got to go set things straight, then." And she pranced off to Selina's room.

~*~

Selina was folding the last of her robes when Daphne entered the room. Selina wasn't that surprised; she and Lucius were leaving early the next morning, and it would be best to get the formal pleasantries out of the way so that Daphne didn't rouse herself at the crack of dawn. When Daphne settled herself on the bed, shoving Selina's bag out of the way in the process, Selina began to suspect that Daphne's intentions were much more personal.

"Lucius stumbled in about ten minutes ago," Daphne began, but Selina cut her off as quickly as possible.

"I'm glad that he's in, but I really must get pack-"

"Selina? Please, just listen." Daphne took Selina's pale hands in her own. "I'm going to try to say this with as little sugar glazing as possible, but my message is rather sickly sweet, so bear with me...My husband, in the beginning, was everything that Lucius must have been to you in your beginning. Smarmy, forceful, boorish! I hated him."

"Lucius and I are doing better now, so-"

"Eventually Dante and I got better at the marriage deal, too. He became more understanding of my needs, and I became more understanding of his gruff mannerisms. We got to the point where...Where we were about to fall in love." Daphne put a hand to her cheek, smiled warmly, and continued. "But I was afraid that falling in love with him would just be giving in. I thought that if I finally consented to being his wife fully, I'd cease to become the person I had been when I first married him. Does this make sense to you? Does it sound familiar?"

Selina remained sullenly quiet. "It might," she admitted finally.

"Good. But after a while, it became blaringly apparent the toll that my fears were having on my husband. We weren't madly in love at the time, but we were getting that, and me digging in my heels wasn't helping us a bit. Because I denied my feelings, Dante thought that his didn't matter at all.

"I'm not telling this story like it deserves to be told; if I thought we had time, I would have called upon Andrea to better explain it to your. The point came where it was unbearable to my husband to be in the same room as me, because he was so confused about his feelings. Eventually I had to come to terms with myself, and the woman I'd evolved into, so that I could save both of us. Eventually I had to admit that maybe love was the best path for us, and eventually I had to give up my fears."

Selina looked down at her lap. "What you said...It wasn't said well, but I understood it all the same."

Daphne nodded. "I'm glad. Do you understand why I've come to tell the story to you?"

"Yes. I gather that you want me to go in there and fall madly in love with my husband."

"Give it a chance, love. You're too young to give up on love."

Selina bit her lip but stopped a moment before she would have drawn blood. "I cannot make myself love him. I cannot make myself feel."

"Would you really be forcing a feeling upon yourself?"

Selina shuddered. She wasn't sure anymore. She told Daphne this.

"Than what's the harm," her hostess asked, "of finding out?"

Selina stood. That was a challenge she couldn't let pass. Almost as a passing thought, one she received as she was walking out of the room, she asked, "Where is your husband?"

Daphne's reply came, "Dante never tells me where he goes on occasions like these. He's not frolicking with some twenty-something bimbo, I don't think, and he's not in peril, so I never ask. He'll return soon, and for a while he'll be content with me...But then he'll disappear again for a month or so. I think this is one of the things my withholding love did to him; he is never content to just be!"

~*~

Lucius lay on his bed, his long body prone to the ceiling. He was much warmer now; his senses were returning too. He realized the idiocy of wandering around in the cold, now. How would Selina have reacted if her husband had turned up dead on the morning of their return to their home? For that matter, what would anyone have said? Draco couldn't be led to believe that his father had lost his sanity.

There was a soft knock at the door, but the person stopped quickly, as if they regretted alerting him to their presence. Whoever it was, they couldn't have been to afraid of the snarling Englishman, because a second later they let themselves in. A slight fragrance hit Lucius's nose, and he rolled over to face his wife.

"I'll pack soon," he promised.

Selina sat on the bed. Her hands were fidgeting, and her tongue stumbled to find the right words. Her temporary awkwardness allowed Lucius to gain some confidence, and he sat up, careful not to display his still-bare legs.

"It isn't the packing I'm here about," Selina finally managed to say. By then her cheeks were tinted pink.

'Thank god she doesn't blush like a Weasley,' her husband thought.

"I wanted to see something," she added.

"That I made it back alive?" Lucius queried.

"No." Selina shook her head, perhaps a little too hard for the occasion. She shifted on the bed, so that she was closer to him.

"Then what the hell did you want to see?"

The question must have been the perfect opener for what Selina did next. "I wanted to see if I could do this."

And then she leaned over and kissed him.

~*~

Selina heard a surprised rumble resonate from Lucius. His eyes were wide open, and the crossed in an attempt to look down his nose at their locked lips. It wasn't long, though, until his primal instincts kicked in, and then Selina was the one being kissed. Minutes later, when the firs of them emerged for air, Lucius gave her a long, hard look.

"Friends," he told her, "don't kiss each other. Not like that."

Selina's chest was heaving, both from a lack of breath and a lack of reserve. The kiss, which she'd forced herself to perform, hadn't been anything like she'd thought it would be. Instead of the rough, impassionate kisses of their previous encounters, the kiss she'd just shared with Lucius had rocked her socks.

"Oh," she whispered. "Oh, god."

"If we're going to remain friends," her husband added, "we can't go fooling around like this."

Selina had the feeling that he was laughing at her. Or at least, laughing at her to save face. She murmured, "Maybe, just maybe, I'm falling in love with you."

That wiped the smirk off his long, pale face. His gray eyes lost their humor, and then they gained something much more...needy. "What's that?" he asked.

Selina stared at him. "I don't know if I can repeat it," she gasped.

He reached out and gripped her shoulders. He might have shaken her roughly, but surprise and shock held him back. "Do not joke with me!" he breathed. "Don't play games with me; the ones of this sort will do little to amuse me."

Selina was trembling. "I'm might be falling in love with you," she whimpered.

Lucius held her back at arm's length, then pulled her close to him. Like a man with a true knowledge of how to charm a lady, he kissed her eyes and cheeks and her nose. "It's alright," he purred. "I understand. I know."

"What?" she managed to ask.

Lucius's hold on her failed to cease, and if anything, he held on to her more tightly as he began to rock her back and forth. "Be calm," he ordered. She stilled against his chest. "I said that I know. I know how it feels to fall in love, but to be reserved and afraid of your feelings."

Selina felt hopelessly confused. Lucius Malfoy, afraid of his feelings? Or even more absurd, afraid to be in love? She might have laughed, if only she could have found the breath to do so. It was impossible to find the breath to do anything when your husband was kissing your eyes as delicately as if you were made of china and twirling his fingers in your hair as if it were finer than strands of silk.

"You say you may be falling in love?" Lucius felt her nod against his chest. "Well, I've already gone and fallen for you." He paused, choosing his words carefully, so that he could say them in the most characteristic and convincing fashion. "Christmas Eve, when you kissed me, I fell in love with you. Madly in love, I might add. All your stubbornness, all your feminine pride, all your determination to go against my will...It wasn't so much that I fell in love with your good qualities and forgave you your bad ones but that I embraced your good qualities and fell in love with your bad ones."

Selina looked up at her husband only to find that his gray eyes were filled with a fierce love. She'd never believed that he was capable of such a selfless emotion, but the words that poured from his mouth were slowly beginning to convince her. "Go on," she pleaded. 'Go on so that I can gather myself enough to reply.'

Lucius complied. "The next night I fired Arielle DeSanders because I'd fallen in love with you. She figured it out, from several of my actions, and went so far as to ridicule me for it. In retaliation I said even crueler things to her. That's when you came along, and she found a way to have her revenge by saying all those terrible lies. The rest you know."

It was her turn to speak. Selina knew she couldn't hold off it any longer. But how could she explain how she felt when she was barely sure? Lucius knew that he loved her, and he'd worked up enough courage to tell her as much, so he deserved to have an honest answer. But she didn't want to hurt him! Oh, god, she didn't want to hurt him.

"You're still unsure," Lucius murmured. Her silence seemed to have jarred him into realization.

"I cannot make any promises of love, Lucius. I want to...I know that I want to love you. But Gods, it's so hard!" Selina let out a sob, but not a tear trickled from her eye. "If only I could be convinced of such a thing!"

Lucius's muscles stiffened. "Perhaps," he said slowly, "you could be." There. He had said it. The risk was out on the table; he couldn't go back now.

"How?" Selina asked. She felt his hand slide down to cup her right buttock.

"Like this!" her husband breathed into her ear.

Selina felt his fingers begin to work. They massaged her lightly, and, as a show of his respect, he didn't them any closer to her womanhood. Finally, after a long moment of consideration, she whispered, "Do it." Now she couldn't go back either!

Lucius gave her one last sane look, and then he plunged them both over the "just friends" edge into chaos. No more words were said, and, between the two of them, not a rational thought was formed. As he laid her back on the bed and pulled the top of her robe off her pale shoulders Selina felt as though she were drowning in something big and wonderful and perhaps just a little dangerous. Lucius's fingers began tweaking previously uncharted places on her body, and soon her voice was rising with every stroke.

"Say my name," he growled. "Say it!"

Selina obeyed. Anything to keep him touching her there...and there...and, oh, gods, there! "Lucius," she moaned.

"Louder!"

"Lucius!"

"Louder!"

Selina bucking and whimpering and barely coherent. "I can't remember!" she cried at last. "Can't remember you name! Can't! Can't! CAN'T!"

Lucius smirked and then decided that he could wait no longer to satisfy his own needs. He climbed atop her, wriggled out of his pants, and then exposed himself. He was bigger than Selina had remembered, but this time, when he slid into her, he fit perfectly.

Halfway through their coupling Lucius murmured, "Have I convinced you yet?"

Selina replied in a husky voice, "Yes."

Lucius's stomach clenched, and he asked, "So?"

"I'm not falling in love with you, Lucius," Selina purred.

His heart stopped for a moment and then began to beat again, very rapidly. "What?" he croaked. He felt like dying, but he kept repeating his thrusting motions.

"I'm not falling in love with you," Selina replied. "I'm already in love."

Selina kissed him. He kissed her. If a Malfoy could ever be in bliss, then that was so with Lucius Malfoy.