Who: Emmeline Vance, Caradoc Dearborn, and Alice Longbottom for a few seconds
What: Escaping Frank Smash?
Where: Longbottom Estate, during the rehearsal dinner
Note: Spot the dazzle!
The rehearsal dinner had gone brilliantly, or at least, no one had stumbled or dropped anything, and Emmeline really
was excited about the ceremony tomorrow. She had no problem in forgetting the fact that Frank and Alice had been married a year already (a
year, wow--), and was actually quite pleased with Augusta Longbottom for 'suggesting' they renew their vows. But at the moment, tomorrow's impending ceremony was the last thing on Emmeline's mind because she'd just been accosted by Alice Longbottom and literally yanked out of her seat. The other woman was tugging her out of the dining room, acting as if she was on a super secret auror mission. They moved a bit away from the door, and the bride-to-be-again put her hand up to keep Emmeline from talking (sometimes she forgot how well Alice did actually know her).
"The cake's coming out, Frank'll be distracted for a good twenty minutes," Alice and Emmeline shared a snicker, but she continued, "This place is a maze, so---take the first left, go through the garden, and then down the stone steps, it's the apparation point."
"Why are you telling me this?" Emmeline asked, eyebrows rising high in confusion at how secretive the other woman was being.
Alice's eyes left Emmeline's to look behind the girl, and she grinned. "Well---" her chin jerked up slightly and Emmeline turned to look over her shoulder, and her confused expression turned into a strange mixture of shock and joy at the sight of Caradoc---how the
hell had he---ohhhh, Alice was in
trouble. Before she could say anything, Emmeline was tugged into a hug by Alice, "Frank's going to kill me!"
"He'll never find out," Emmeline whispered back with a laugh, not waiting for Alice to disappear back into the dining room before turning to meet Caradoc.
He had to admit, this whole scheme of Alice's had made Caradoc like her a lot more (and not just because she was directly helping him undermine Franklin Longbottom on his own property). Actually, she had achieved the unthinkable and impressed him; instead of sneaking in on his own, all he had to do was apparate right onto the Longbottom Estate, and wait outside for her and Emmeline to step outside. Somewhat of a let down from his plan that he had been thinking of going through with earlier (which really would have been something, to say the least), but he wasn't going complain. Just explain it to Emmeline in full, breath-taking detail later to have her be fully astonished.
A small smile crept onto Caradoc's face as he slid away from the covering shadow of a nearby bush just a few moments after Alice opened the door. Staying silent, Caradoc held back the chuckle growing in his throat and stuck his hands into his pockets. Had Emmeline honestly thought he would go and let Frank control her like he was trying to do? Tsk, tsk--- she knew him better than that. Caradoc's eyes followed Alice as she went back inside, and then quickly redirecting back to Emmeline to watch her quietly. And possibly take her in again, even though he
had just seen her a few hours earlier, but that had been different; everything had been rushed and she looked different.
"Really," he purred, his lips now contorting openly into a smug smirk, barely hearing what she had said. He stood still, with his hands in his pockets, simply waiting for her to come to him. "Because that takes all the fun out of the whole point of this." Caradoc's smirk turned into a wolfish-grin, and he leaned back on his heels to stick his chin out at her.
That smirk of his made her want to jump him quite badly. Oh--oh Emmeline was far past speaking like a proper lady or being shy about snogging and sex and all that. No, no. She hadn't seen her boyfriend (was that the term she should use? She would use it to annoy him, if anything) in over a month, had missed the only free time she
could have had with him last week, and had been led to believe that her insanely protective older cousin would make sure there was no way she would see Caradoc tonight; it was only right that she was very excited at the sight of him.
"Come on!" she whispered with a brilliant smile (oh, yes, she hadn't felt this elated in a long while) before grabbing Caradoc's hand and pulling him down the hallway. While all she physically wanted to do was kiss him and pull him close,
mentally Emmeline knew that Frank was a good five seconds away from coming out here and spotting them and probably blowing something (or some
one) up. No, she wanted Caradoc in one piece, so they needed to escape right now. Alice was most likely doing some sort of distraction (Merlin, she owed that woman---something, a big something), and it only made sense that other people would have noticed her disappearing act.
But her attempt at an escape was halted before they even made it to the first turn, and Emmeline was jerked back, her hand still tightly wrapped around Caradoc's wrist. She whirled to face him, "What? We've got to go!"
Had she not heard him? There was nothing wrong with
this gigantic house that was right
here and they were practically in already. Maybe she just didn't understand. Or really, she had chosen to ignore him, which he could work with. So, Caradoc let Emmeline tug him for a bit; he couldn't completely stop her, she just looked so genuinely thrilled to see him it would just be mean to. Eventually, he finally dug his feet into the ground to come to a halting stop.
"Mmmmh," he disagreed slowly as she turned to him, pretending to take the time to think. After a few seconds, Caradoc took the opportunity to pull Emmeline closer to him, his wrist now wrapped tightly around hers to match. With a small smile he leaned over her, head tilting just slightly. If he was going to get Emmeline to do this, then he needed to dazzle her completely.
"Really?" Caradoc stated innocently, his other hand now moving to hold on to the back of her other elbow to get a real grip. He didn't listen for an answer, focusing more on the gaze he had locked with her than anything that would come out of her mouth in the form of words.
Quickly, not really caring if he cut her off in mid-sentence or not, Caradoc eased his face further to her, brushing his lips against hers for a few moments. "I don't know about that," he murmured, forming his lips around the words and her mouth.
"Yes, Frank's got
spies, I know---it---" But her words faded and Emmeline couldn't be sure if she'd actually muttered anything at all. Ahhaa--she hadn't kissed him in--over. A. Month. A month. More than a month, and she would blame her sudden swooning on that, because Emmeline couldn't find a word other than...oh, it was pitiful, but she felt like she'd just
melted into his arms.
Pitiful, it was, absolutely pathetic, but her mind couldn't function well enough to care. Maybe he was just that irresistible...though Emmeline was sure that the romantic atmosphere of the ceremony walk through and all the nice speeches by Alice and Frank's---
Her hands gripped the back of his neck tightly and Emmeline pulled back, gaping---oh, hell, when had he pushed her up onto this--table, there was a--
console table? As her back pressed against the wall, her hands dropped and knocked over a picture frame, and oh
hell. Fortunately for her, her dress didn't allow for much flexibility with her legs (she was
such a tart--), and Emmeline twisted her body to try and push away from Caradoc.
"Are you--
mad?" she let out breathlessly, "If someone catches us we're
both going to be murdered."
Though,
honestly. Frank should trust her judgment more. It wasn't as if her track record of boyfriends was
horrid. Of course, he'd been wary about Remus'...'little problem,' and she knew Frank hadn't liked Brad at
all, but
his perfect match for her, Ben, had broken her heart in too many ways to count, so--
so.
No, ah---she really couldn't do this here, it went against various rules of nature, "We have to
go," she hissed, trying to shimmy back to the floor.
Caradoc loosened his grip, but didn't exactly move to make Emmeline's new mission any easier. In fact, once she began to get dangerously close to touching down to the ground, he slid back into place, firmly stopping her by pushing his legs against hers. A small smile now played on his lips, and Caradoc dipped his chin low to look at her. Only for a second did his eyes jump to look down the hall to make sure it was still empty. Which, it was.
"Emmeline," he breathed, turning back to her and sticking his chin out again. Because honestly, what could Longbottom and his little Gryffindor friends
really do? Really. At his own rehearsal wedding where a dozen or so people would be watching every second of it. Caradoc decided to forget the fact that Longbottom was widely known as being absolutely crazy when it came to public situations. It simply did not matter to him.
"You're worrying too much," Caradoc sighed, not giving up just yet. This was what he wanted, and she had been starving him for weeks---
months. Months. Multiple months. That at least meant he was allowed to push her a little bit.
Again, he curled his hands around her waist and moved back to lean close to her. "Honestly," Caradoc mused, as if incapable of being serious completely.
And they were kissing again, no, no he needed to--stop---this---Emmeline really,
really hated that Caradoc was such a good kisser. Made her feel like some idiot girl,
honestly...but it
did feel rather good, it
was more than intoxicating, and if she
was an idiot girl, she would have fallen into temptations and they would be having a
really good time on this table. But, Emmeline was far from an idiot girl, and when she was sure that Caradoc was just as involved as she was so close to allowing herself to be, she grabbed the collar of his robes with both hands and twisted the fabric, creating a good hold on him as she pulled away.
"Listen to me," she said, trying to regain some sort of sense even though his hot breath was dizzying, "I want to have sex, I want to have a
lot of sex," Emmeline tried to keep a straight face, but the heat rushing up her neck wasn't letting her, and she broke out into a grin. One year ago she couldn't imagine herself even uttering that word out loud, and here she was, demanding it from her boyfriend. She tugged on his collar again, shaking her head, "But I am
not having sex in Frank's house, and---"
Her knee between his legs put some gentle pressure against him, and Emmeline couldn't help but kiss him again, "And I know
you want to have
sex---do you see how I'm enunciating? It is
very important that you understand how much I want this." She pulled back, "Are we going to your flat, or
not?"
If it had been within him, Caradoc would have pouted. Deeply. Emmeline was not making it easy for him to manipulate her (and when he said manipulate, he meant generally sway in the correct direction), or do anything really except breathe heavily on her. Actually, he was finding it very hard to focus on what she was saying at all. He just couldn't. Wouldn't? Couldn't. Either way, she had lost him at the point of wanting all the sex. It didn't matter what Emmeline had said after that, Caradoc quickly found himself not caring so much about staying here than before. A lot of sex most definitely trumped
some sex.
A funny grin broke out on his face every time she pulled at his collar, and Caradoc didn't hide the amusement on his face as he vaguely registered some of her words. Emmeline was beyond amusing him, it was almost of a
giddy feeling coursing through him because of her. A dangerous giddy feeling that he knew he shouldn't feel thrilled about, but--- that was for later. There were much better things to focus on right
now.
And what kind of last question-ultimatum was that? Alright, he knew he was used to getting what he wanted, but this wasn't that great of a conflict of interests. "I get it," he responded finally, pressing it through their lips. As he kissed her, Caradoc moved his legs to leave her feet room to touch the floor. "Yes."
Even as she touched down, he remained close to her, continuing to mumble into her neck. "But we're coming back here eventually."
