It was just before one am when we reached the building to my ground floor apartment.

"This is me," I said unnecessarily, knowing that Draco must have had some idea given that my invite had been sent directly to this address.

A silence followed, as though Draco were waiting for me to say something further.

"Alia, you've just spent the last half an hour telling me about our little girl," Draco said, placing his hands on his hips as the tip of his tongue swept across his lips, subconsciously moistening them. "Aren't you at least going to invite me in to meet her?"

"The thing is, she's not inside," I confessed, "I had no idea how long I was going to be tonight so I dropped Lulu off at the nanny's house for the night. Besides, she should be fast asleep by now."

The flash of disappointment on his face was quickly replaced by a smile twitching at his lips. "Lulu? That's what you call our daughter?"

I found myself blushing, suddenly feeling ridiculously embarrassed. "The first time I used it I was just being silly, but it made her laugh so much that it just sort of stuck. Besides, it's easier in a way, than calling her Luna."

Straight away, I felt that awful familiar ache at the mere mention of my beautiful friend's name.

Clocking this, Draco's face immediately fell, the concern in his eyes evident. "I'm so sorry for everything you lost, Alia. Sorry that it was at the hands of my father."

"Don't-" I choked, not being able to bear his pity. "You don't need to apologise for him, not when he wasn't sorry himself."

He reached out a hand and delicately brushed his fingers against my knuckles. "I'm nothing like him, please know that."

"Of course I know."

The warm smile that had begun to twitch at Draco's lips faltered and fell. "But our daughter, she's going to wake up on Christmas morning without you."

"I had no choice if I wanted to attend your surprise. Besides," I added, beckoning across the street to the townhouse where Magda conveniently lived with her husband, Nick. "She's only across the road, I can be with her first thing."

Draco whirled around and looked up at it yearningly. I could see the bob of his throat as he swallowed. "She's in there? My little girl?"

"Yes," I smiled, my heart giving a flutter at the love Draco clearly already had for her.

"Can I- can I stay?" He asked tentatively, almost shyly. "I'd like to be here when she comes home."

Home. He hadn't even stepped inside and he was already calling it that. Not that I minded. I didn't mind at all, in fact.

"Of course."

Turning towards the front door, I retrieved my apartment keys out of my pocket, silently cursing as they jangled in my trembling fingers.

A hand closed firmly over them, stilling the tremble. "Let me," Draco murmured as he stood so close behind me, his breath tickling the top of my ear and sending shivers down my spine.

Instead of taking my keys, however, he removed his wand from inside his overcoat, pointing it directly at the Yale lock on my door so that it simply clicked open.

I stared up at Draco as he swiftly repocketed his wand, smoothing out the lapels on his overcoat as though he hadn't just broken into my home.

"What?" He asked, his face a picture of innocence.

Shaking my head, I led the way inside, feeling ridiculously apprehensive about introducing Draco to my life.

He stepped in behind me, bringing with him his scent. I closed my eyes, inhaling it, never wanting to not smell it in here again.

A hand touched my waist, and, as we stood in my hallway, I twisted around and found myself quite suddenly pressed up against his broad chest, his arms going around me as he held me hard against him.

Automatically, I brought my arms up and clasped my fingers against his back as I blissfully nuzzled my face below his chin, desperate to feel more of him.

"Oh, Alia," he breathed, his voice a low murmur as he clung to me harder, kissing the top of my head, "I've missed you, I've missed you so fucking much."

Every part of me seemed to wake up and come alive after its long dormant sleep. I wanted to reach up and kiss his lips. I wanted to rip off his clothes and have him fuck me so hard right there in my hallway in the exact spot where Magda changes into her carpet slippers.

"I've missed you too," I whispered as I slowly tilted my face up so that our lips were tantalising close. I could see the lust darkening in his eyes as his breathing began to shallow, and I knew he was thinking along the same lines as me.

He had barely kicked the door shut behind him when we were furiously kissing, groaning into each other's mouths as he slammed my back into the wall, pinning me against it so roughly that I struggled to breathe.

Here we were, less than an hour after his father died, and we were about to fuck like animals in heat.

Breathless, we tore at each other's clothes, the need to be naked almost overwhelming. Coats fell heavily to the ground and fingers grappled at buttons, greedy to get what was promised underneath.

There was one snag, however.

"Draco," I panted as he urgently began to unbuckle his belt. "I don't have anything."

He stilled, disappointment flashing in his eyes. "Fuck. Neither do I."

We looked at one another, both half undressed and both completely horny.

And then our kissing resumed, the animals in us just wanting to fuck as we continued to tear off each other's clothes.

"We can always be creative," Draco improvised as he broke the kiss to pull his tie over his head, a flash of a smirk at his lips before his mouth went to my throat, nibbling at the sensitive spot below my ear.

By this point, I was practically clawing at him, tugging at his hair, and pulling at his collar. He lifted me off the floor and my legs snaked around him like instinct.

"Your bedroom," he said, sucking in a sharp hiss between his teeth as I rolled my hips up against his straining boxers, making him harder than ever. "Now."

With me giving crap directions between heated kisses, Draco somehow managed to carry me along the hallway and crash through the door of my room.

He threw me down on the bed before crawling over me, kissing and nipping every part of my skin as his lips trailed up my body, removing the last of my clothes. I felt as though I were on fire, his kisses making me tingle deliciously with desire.

I had never wanted someone more, the need to feel him inside me making me almost violent. I had to bite my lip and claw the sheets to stop myself from screaming. I just wanted him to quit with the foreplay and fuck me. Hard.

Didn't he realise that he didn't need to seduce me? He already had me the moment his eyes locked onto mine. He would always have me.

So, when he finally pushed into me, lights exploded my vision and my whole body trembled like a ball of energy, the sensation of him sliding into me making me shudder and gasp beneath him.

He matched my groans as he filled me up, his pupils dilating and his eyelids fluttering.

"Fuck-" he moaned, sucking in a breath through his teeth, his entire body shuddering as I ran my hands down his back, gently scraping my nails against his damp skin.

Arching my back off the mattress, I lifted my hips and squeezed my legs around his torso so that I could take him deeper. His eyes widened as they looked into mine, and he began to pound into me with reckless abandon, veins popping and muscles bulging beneath his taut skin as he held his weight above me, trying his damndest to keep his control.

At one point, he dipped his head to graze his mouth over my chest, making me whimper and moan as tongue teased nipple and lips sucked the sensitive underside of my breast.

And then I found myself being flipped, and suddenly I was straddling him, his hands gripping my hips tight as they guided me down on his lap.

This position made me nervous as I wasn't entirely sure of what his 'creative' plan was. He hadn't even met the child we'd already created, and here we were on the verge of making another.

But that was soon quickly forgotten about as this new position caused my muscles to tense up and a steady burn to mount in my core. Getting close, I dug my fingers into Draco's shoulders as I curved back my spine and threw back my head, softly moaning in ecstasy.

The room was filled with frantic, breathless grunts and the slapping of skin as our movements became more frenzied. My fingers and toes curled, and my blood rushed south, leaving me lightheaded, so much so that I barely heard him when he growled, "Look at me, Alia."

A hand left my hip as he reached up and clasped the back of my head, bunching my hair in his fingers as he forced me to look into his eyes.

"I want you to look at me when you cum."

And so I did, his words tipping me over the edge, my orgasm pulsating through me as I came undone right there on his lap.

A drawn out and shaky moan was still leaving my lips when he hurriedly lifted me up so he could pull out from beneath me, jerking a fountain of hot wet liquid all over my stomach which spilled down onto my thigh.

"Fuck-" he panted, his breathing laboured and strained as he continued to empty every last drop, his strokes gradually becoming slower as his orgasm subsided. "Fuuuck."

Letting go of himself, he pulled me back down onto his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around me as he rested his damp forehead against mine, our heartbeats hammering loudly in our chests.

It was a full minute until the silence between us was broken, when we both had recovered enough to be able to speak.

"I adore you, Alia," Draco murmured, reaching up to tuck my hair behind my ears as he stared solemnly into my eyes. "I fucking adore you so much."

"I just still can't believe you're really here," I whispered, my voice trembling, "I'm terrified I'm going to wake up and find out this is all a dream."

Cool lips pressed against my forehead, and I closed my eyes and released a content sigh.

"I'm here," he murmured, his lips moving against my skin, "it's real, I promise you."

That night, he cocooned me in his arms, holding me tightly as the sound of our hearts beat contentedly side by side. I was almost too afraid to close my eyes in case I would never see him again.

But, despite my best efforts, my eyes grew heavy and it was soon all too impossible to resist the temptation of sleep.

However, when morning came, he was still there, a sleepy twinkle in his silver eyes as he looked down at me with such tenderness, fingertips lightly tracing random patterns on my arm.

And finally, I knew: he was real. The very real deal indeed.

******