Fic Exchange reveal!
Since reveals are up at wizard_love, I can now post my fic here and at AO3. :)
Original post was here."
Title: Sneaking Around With You
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Katie Bell/Marcus Flint.
Disclaimer: I'm borrowing JKR's characters without her permission.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-series. Written for prompt #32 at wizard_love: Two characters who have heaps of chemistry but a reputation for hating each other are trying to keep their friends from finding out about the attraction.
Summary: Katie Bell and Marcus Flint are supposed to be rivals, which is probably why their chemistry is so good together. But sneaking around is fun only up to a point...
I wanna meet you in the sunlight,
Not in a secret rendezvouz
Because I'm so tired of sneaking around with you
"Sneaking Around" by BB King
Katie Bell was the lead artifact investigator on staff at Divine Antiquities, a prestigious antiques firm. She researched and validated almost all artifacts in the collections they acquired, often registering them and providing documentation prior to auction at Sotheby's. This put her in direct opposition to Marcus Flint, who all but ran the Wizarding division of the famed auction house. Since leaving Hogwarts, he had learned a lot about Muggles and Wizards alike, which softened the prejudices he had been raised with. His looks had improved once he was no longer on the receiving end of hexes, curses and bludgers. He was still tall and stocky, with wide shoulders, dark hair and eyes. He had a square jaw that often was set into a deep scowl.
Or perhaps that was just for Katie's benefit. Given that she argued with him about whether or not artifacts were truly magical or antique, they were often at odds. Coworkers at Divine Antiquities had initially been concerned for the brunette. She had a slim build, though she was by no means petite. Marcus was a full seven inches taller than her, and as much as she smiled at him, Katie's coworkers were concerned for her safety. Her china doll features and blue eyes gave her an almost innocent look, even if they knew she was no such thing. Though Katie had worked at Divine Antiquities for years, they all were still fooled by her appearance.
The latest collection being evaluated by Katie was a lot of odds and ends from Augusta Longbottom's attic. Neville was slowly cleaning out th estate following her death, and Divine Antiquities was overjoyed to be receiving the goods.
Katie loved going through this part of the Longbottom collection. August had been an avid collector of Victorian and Edwardian plates, silverware and objets d'art. The first batch of goods had kept her busy for months as she painstakingly restored, analyzed and then documented her findings. Of course Marcus wanted to refute some of her results; if her documentation went unchallenged, there would be no excuse for them to interact or argue.
"I've got my afternoon clear," Katie told him sweetly, holding her portfolio loosely by her side. "I've brought the results for a portion of the collection, Mr. Flint."
"Ms. Bell," Marcus returned coolly, gesturing toward his office. "I will of course have to verify what you bring me. The reputation of Sotheby's is on the line, you understand," he said as he closed the door after her. There was an extra bit of swagger in her hips as she entered the room, but he dutifully ignored it.
"Oh, mine as well," Katie replied, eyes twinkling with mischief as she put her portfolio down on the desk. She turned and took off her suit jacket, revealing the white silk shell blouse beneath it. She wore no bra beneath the blouse and smirked as Marcus' eyes were drawn to the front of the blouse. A chill had set her nipples pebbling, making it that much more obvious what she wasn't wearing. "You like?"
"Are you wearing knickers?" Marcus asked, voice growing even more gravelly with desire.
"Why don't you check?" she asked, grinning openly at him.
Their mouths crashed together, tongues tangling and hands wandering everywhere. Marcus backed her up against his desk, pushing her skirt up to the waist. She wasn't wearing knickers, and his fingers found her growing damp for him already. He worked her roughly, trusting the layers of silencing spells and privacy wards to keep her cries from being heard by wandering coworkers. She pulled off her top when he broke their kiss to breathe, and Marcus took this as a sign to take a breast into his mouth as he pushed a finger inside her. He sucked hard, just as she liked it. She grasped his shoulder tightly, blunt nails digging in deep as she struggled to quiet herself. He rolled his tongue around the nipple, but Katie couldn't keep quiet when he swiped his thumb across her clit with his fingers still pumping into her.
Her body shook when she came, and she sagged against him. Marcus opened the front of his trousers then pushed into her after casting a contraceptive spell. He moved hard and fast, his hands tight on her hips. She would likely bruise, but Katie loved that. She sometimes whispered to him how much she loved seeing the marks on her pale skin, reminding her of the encounters between visits.
When Marcus came with a grunt, Katie pressed kisses onto his cheek. She cast cleaning charms when he pulled out of her, then worked to set her appearance to rights. Katie smirked as she smoothed his hair down and straightened his tie. "Fantastic, you are," she murmured. "But then, you know that."
"Katie," Marcus growled. "You know what I think..."
"Oh, Marcus..."
He gave her a rough kiss when she would have made a sarcastic reply. When she was left breathless, Marcus looked at her solemnly. "You know what I want."
She frowned at him and plopped down into a seat gracelessly. "Not this again, Marcus."
"This isn't what I want," he rumbled.
"You weren't protesting five minutes ago!"
Marcus scowled at her. "This isn't about shagging, Katie."
"You know I don't have time for more than this," she told him in a huffy tone of voice. "I'm always in the lab or at my desk. If not for this, we'd never see each other."
"And if we were open about this, I could visit you. Or we could move in together."
Katie took up her portfolio as she sighed. "This works."
"It's not good enough," he replied tiredly, sitting on the edge of his desk. "I want more."
"This is all I can do."
They were at the same impasse they always ended in, though Marcus had started the argument sooner in the visit than he usually did. He wouldn't be content with this forever, they both knew that.
"I really did clear my entire afternoon," Katie told him when he remained silent. "What do you want?"
Marcus looked at her steadily with a pained expression. "You."
Katie put her portfolio aside and rose. She wound her arms around his broad torso and pressed her head against his chest. "I do love you, Marcus. I do."
"You love your freedom more," he sighed.
She pulled him down for a kiss. "It's not that. I'm happy with what we have. Why can't you be?"
"I want to take you to dinner. I want you to meet my Mum. I want to talk to you out in the open, no pretenses, no pretend hatred. Your bloody coworkers think I'd actually do something to hurt you!"
"They do not!" she protested.
"They always stare at me and watch everything I do."
"You're imagining that. It's just a silly professional rivalry, rather like Puddlemere against the Falcons."
"This is rather a lot more important than Quidditch."
"Don't be silly..."
Marcus grasped her and kissed her roughly, pushing her backward until he had her back pressed up against the wall. He held her and she wrapped her legs around his waist for balance. Katie's arms wound around him and she returned his kiss with fervor. The deeper the kiss got, the more their libidos rose as well.
Katie pressed her sex against the crotch of Marcus' trousers, rubbing against him slightly. He hissed at the sensation, then let go of one leg to open his trousers again. His length was half hard, sliding against the coarse curls between her thighs. Rubbing against each other, breathing ragged and harsh, they moved to kiss again. Katie grew frantic with need first, rubbing harder against his length. "I need you," she groaned against his mouth. "Merlin, please, please..."
He growled and pulled her up a little higher so that he could slide into her. She made a soft keening noise and buried her face in the crook of his neck as he pumped into her. She bit down as she came, hard enough to mark his shoulder but not hard enough to break the skin. Katie was boneless in his arms until he finished, chest heaving with the effort to breathe.
Curled in each others' arms, Marcus sighed. "I want this all the time, Katie. Not just when you can clear your calendar for an afternoon and sneak me in. I'm sick of sneaking around with you."
Katie sighed and began moving to disentangle herself from Marcus. "This works." Her stubborn insistence was complimented by the thrust of her chin and lower jaw; there was no changing her mind when she got that way. Trying would only make her get her back up and she got even more stubborn as a result. In that frame of mind, she would cut off her nose to spite her face.
Well, she wasn't the only one.
"No, it doesn't," Marcus said, voice firm. He used his favored cleaning spells and looked at her evenly. His chest was tight, but he was good at doing what needed to be done, no matter the personal consequences. "This doesn't work, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of hiding, of pretending I don't know you as well as I do."
"Marcus..." she began in a wheedling tone.
"I'm done." Katie froze, eyes wide and almost frightened. "I'm through, Katie. I can't do this anymore. If you want to be with me, then everyone has got to know. If not, you have to let me get over whatever this is and start over with someone that can do that."
"You can't mean that!" she cried, pushing at his chest in frustration. "You love me!"
"Yes, I do," he agreed, gently pulling her hands from his chest. "But relationships require more than just love to work. I'm tired of being the convenient fuck you go for." Marcus picked up her portfolio from his desk and moved to his office door. Katie tried to pull his hand away from the knob, but he was determined at this point. "You know what I want, Katie. You know where I live, where I work, who my friends are. You know everything about me, yet you insist just fucking around is enough. It's not." He opened the door and gestured for her to step out into the hallway. "If that's all, then I have actual work to do."
Katie blinked back tears that threatened to form. It was not all, but he had taken the coward's way out and opened the door to forestall any further complaints. Bastard.
She snatched up her portfolio from his large hands and tried to ignore the wail threatening to bubble up out of her throat. "You've made your point," she said, voice cracking slightly at the end.
Marcus didn't say anything, and simply watched her walk as fast as she could down the hall. He slowly shut his office door and leaned his forehead against it, trying to push away the feeling that he had just made a horrible mistake.
***
Staff at Divine Antiquities noticed that Katie seemed a bit more down than usual, but thought that something had happened with one of the artifacts she was restoring. She was the kind to take her work seriously, after all. Why else would she insist on verifying every last bit of documentation with Sotheby's? She was a prefectionist, and that sort of thing would drag down anyone's spirits after a time. They took her out to lunch and tried to get her to talk about anything else -- the upcoming Weasley/Malfoy wedding, whether or not new legislation would pass regarding muggleborn technology being integrated into the Wizarding World, a new addition being made to St. Mungo's to accommodate the surging population in the wake of the Second Wizarding War. When news didn't seem to help, they started discussing Quidditch. Katie was a huge Quidditch fan, and everyone knew that she rooted for Puddlemere United every chance she got. If not for an injury at the Battle of Hogwarts keeping her out of the spring tryouts, Katie might have tried out to be on their reserve team. That didn't seem to help either, and one of the girls in Records tried to talk about the romantic lives of Wireless stars.
Katie promptly burst into tears over her chicken salad sandwich, covering her face in both hands.
"Was it something I said?" the poor girl asked her. Katie was too broken up to reply.
***
There were no public displays at Sotheby's, though Marcus Flint's staff gave him an extra wide berth in the weeks that followed Katie Bell's last visit to his office. He was usually gruff and stoic, but this time he was snarly and more difficult to please than usual. More collections were added to the Sotheby's catalogue under his watch, and he went over every aspect of them with a fine toothed comb. His staff felt more tense than usual as a result, though Marcus' superiors praised the increased efficiency and output.
One of the braver souls in the office approached Marcus with another set of catalogue proofs. "Flint. What's gotten your knickers in a twist about this collection in particular? Everyone knows Augusta Longbottom only collected the genuine article."
If anything, his glower deepened. The subordinate didn't falter, which actually earned him points in the back of Marcus' mind. He was irritated at being questioned; on some level he knew it made no sense, but it felt as if everything he had ever wanted or believed was in question. That made him feel even more like taking his hands around the stupid subordinate's neck and choking the life out of him, or of setting something on fire. He had never expected Katie to stay away this long, to stay silent and really stay broken up. He had thought he was proving a point, that she would see how much he had actually meant to her and accept that he needed more than an occasional hookup.
The empty feeling he was left with was worse than he thought it would be. It ached like an open wound, and he wanted the rest of the world around him to hurt as well.
The subordinate put the proofs onto Marcus' desk, frowning at his glower. "Look, Flint. We're all doing really well for the division. I get it if you're a perfectionist, but you don't have to ride us all so hard to get it."
"I'll take that under advisement," Marcus replied in a stony voice, expression hard and unflinching.
Even after the subordinate left, Marcus made no move to touch the proofs. Katie's name was there, as well as a short blurb about her work and a photograph of her most pleased smile. If he saw it one more time, he would throw something across the room.
He left early that day for the first time since his hire at Sotheby's. He had to get the hell out of his office and all the reminders of what he had lost.
***
The day of the auction for the current batch of objects from Augusta Longbottom's collections dawned bright and clear. It flet like a slap in the face to Marcus, who would have preferred something gloomy and overcast to match his mood. He would have to see Katie at the auction. Technically he didn't have to, as it could have been any staff member from Divine Antiquities serving as their representative. Katie tended to go to these personally, however, and it always used to be another excuse to meet up between bids and have hurried sex in a broom closet or unused office. Marcus felt his gut clench in foreboding as the auction time approached. He didn't want to see how happy she was without him, how much she valued her freedom from being in a relationship. He was acting like a moonstruck calf but didn't care. He felt awful without her, though he didn't want to cave and owl her to concede defeat. If he did that, she wouldn't value him at all. He would rather be miserable than thought of as a worthless shagging partner.
Except that she didn't look particularly happy when he saw her sitting in her usual seat. She looked just as miserable as he felt, though he doubted that most people could tell. There was no bounce to her step and that effusive smile was absent. She talked to all the right people and had the appropriate social smile pasted in place, but she listlessly poked at the catalogue pages when not engaged in conversation. She was distant, which wasn't like her at all. Katie also seemed as though she wasn't sleeping very well, though she covered up the undereye circles very well with makeup.
"Oh, Katie," he murmured to himself. "What have we done?"
She was with a coworker that he vaguely recognized. She had been involved with a different collection that had gone to auction months ago. Marcus couldn't remember her name or the particulars of their interaction before; she was as forgettable as her ordinary appearance and bland clothing. He strode over to them before he was even consciously aware that he was going to do so, startling both women. "Marcus," Katie murmured in surprise, her blue eyes impossibly wide. She looked even more miserable that way, and Marcus wanted nothing more than to take her home and tuck her into his bed for safekeeping. She would never thank him for it, but the impulse was there.
"The auction doesn't start yet," the bland coworker protested, taking in Marcus' towering posture and intense gaze. "You don't need to try intimidating her already..."
Marcus swung his gaze toward her, expression stony. "Back. Off."
"She's just worried about me," Katie murmured.
"Is there reason to be?" he asked, turning his gaze back to her. His voice was softer, more personal, and Katie couldn't meet his eyes. "Katie?"
"Mr. Flint..." the coworker began again.
"Mary," Katie said firmly, turning toward her coworker. "My boyfriend's just concerned about me. He's not intimidating me, all right?"
Marcus was shocked to silence right along with Mary. Had she just said...?
Katie put her catalogue down and stood up, jaw set. "I made a mistake," she whispered, looking up at him. She laid a hand gently on his chest, eyes almost pleading with him not to walk away from her. "It wasn't working, was it?"
He closed a hand over hers and bent his head slightly. "No. Neither was being apart."
"The auction's going to start soon, and you need to watch over the crowd," she murmured softly. "Sit next to me?"
A public display of affection, labeling him her boyfriend to a coworker and now all but announcing publicly that they were more than adversaries? Whatever parallel universe this was, Marcus didn't want to leave it.
He smiled at her, fondness etched into every feature. It softened the forbidding look he otherwise had, and he nodded at her. "I'd love to."
Marcus didn't even run his gimlet eye over the crowd as he usually did, leaving it up to security. He was amazingly relaxed as a result, Katie's hand tucked firmly in his through most of the auction. Though she had put forth the invitation to sit next to her, initially she sat stiffly and uncomfortably. Over time she relaxed and seemed more and more like herself. She commented here and there on the results of the auction, tsking in disappointment if an item didn't fetch as much as she would have expected it to. Marcus had always found that quirk of hers amusing; it wasn't as if either of them received more or less payment for their services if items did exceptionally well at auction, but Katie liked being able to say she could predict the final value of items at auction. Neville Longbottom would be pleased either way, as his home was being cleared out and he would still recieve a hefty settlement once Sotheby's took out its percentage in fees.
Mary wasn't exactly pleased to be sent back to Divine Antiquities so that Katie could talk with Marcus after the auction concluded, and stayed several feet away to observe them. "You have a bodyguard," Marcus commented, amused.
Katie smiled, a fraction more tremulous than he was used to seeing on her face. "This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, sitting together. I always thought people would think less of me somehow, like I couldn't make it on my own." She paused, weighing her words carefully. "That perhaps the only reason why I did so well was because you favored my collections."
"Well, that's utter bollocks," Marcus told her blandly. "You've a keen eye for restoration and the paperwork is flawless. You had that reputation even before we met."
"People forget that."
"Sod them all," he replied, taking her hand and squeezing tightly. "But that wasn't the real reason why you were afraid to continue things, was it?"
She shook her head slightly. "If it was always quick and exciting, you wouldn't get a chance to grow tired of me," she admitted in a small voice. She looked at him then, that same pleading expression in her eyes. "I didn't want to lose what we had, Marcus. You're too important to me."
"So what do you want?" he asked her quietly.
"Can we start over?" she asked quietly. "Not as a convenience thing or a hidden thing. But doing it up properly, whatever that is."
Marcus took in the sight of her, knowing full well that he could never refuse her this. "Let's send Mary off and then we talk properly, yeah?"
She smiled at him, almost approaching her former teasing grin. "Sounds good to me."
Whatever Katie told Mary sent her on her way without more than an assessing glance in Marcus' direction. Katie was more like her old self, relief in every fluid motion as she walked back to Marcus' side. "I'm sure the entire office will be gossiping about this by the time I get back."
"Do you care?" he challenged gently.
Katie took a moment to think about it and give him a serious answer. "No," she said after a moment. "I really don't."
"Well, good," Marcus replied, giving her a pleased grin. While the gallery was emptying, there were still plenty of bidders and Sotheby's staff around. He didn't care, and gathered her up into his arms for a sensual kiss. "Come with me?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Now?"
"You have other plans today?"
"None I can't break," she replied with a slight smirk.
That was just the sort of thing that Marcus needed to hear. He ignored the whispers and stares from Sotheby's staff and brought her through a maze of corridors before pulling her into a broom closet. He snogged her breathless before she could even ask where they were, and lifted her onto a stack of boxes to make it easier. "I thought... you didn't like this," she panted in confusion when he broke the kiss to breathe. There was that vulnerable look on her face again.
"That's not what I said," he disagreed, palming a breast through her blouse. "I didn't want this to be all we're about." He slid his other hand along one leg. "This is good. I just think we can be even better.
"Oh." Comprehension was starting to dawn on Katie's features. She spread her legs wider for him and brought her hands to his trousers. "Everyone here is going to know. They'll think I'm a horrible slag, probably."
"Or that I've been a roaring bastard because of an argument."
There was something soft and understanding in her gaze as she tugged down his trousers. "Were you?"
"Utterly lost," he replied, pulling her knickers down past her knees. She shifted a leg so that they hung off of one ankle, and hooked it around his waist to pull him in closer. "You looked the way I felt when I saw you this morning."
"Lost is a good word for it," Katie agreed, nodding before pulling his head down to kiss him. "We've all sorts of lost time to make up for."
The sex was rough and fast, lacking whatever finesse Marcus would have wanted to have. It had been only weeks without her, but it felt like agonizing years. This couldn't have been comfortable for her either, with the boxes beneath her, another digging into her back and the scent of cleansers and antiseptics all around them. But she felt like home when he slid inside her, she pulled him closer and had to bite her lip to keep from shouting at the sensation of it all. It was over far too fast, and Marcus held her tightly enough to bruise through her clothes. He probably could have found an unused office, but he hadn't been able to wait that long.
"Just think, Katie... We'll finally have sex in a bed," he quipped. "No more awkward places for a quick shag unless we're really wanting it that way."
Katie laughed a little breathlessly. "We've never actually done it a bed before."
"Or a floor. Or a shower. Or stairs. Or a kitchen counter." He shot her a filthy grin when she lifted her head in surprise. "I may have had visions of how we'd get together if you ever came over to my flat. It's a duplex, after all. Lots of rooms to christen."
"Sounds good. My flat's tiny. You and your ego would never fit in it," she teased, squeezing his rear playfully.
Marcus chuckled and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "So it's not as scary as you thought it would be."
"No, it isn't," she agreed. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "And we'd still have to sneak around if we wanted some private time here."
"Start thinking of places at your office," Marcus warned with a smile. "Now that the secret's out, I get to visit you at work, too."
Katie looked almost thoughtful at that comment. "Oh. I hadn't thought of that." She reached up and cupped his face. "I might like that, actually." She gave him a bashful smile. "My office is a mess of papers and books and artifacts I'm working on. Yours is much nicer."
"Then we'll have to find a different office. Or apparate home for lunch."
She giggled like a schoolgirl and pulled him down for a kiss. "Looking forward to it."
Marcus had to admit, he was, too.
Original post was here."
Title: Sneaking Around With You
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Katie Bell/Marcus Flint.
Disclaimer: I'm borrowing JKR's characters without her permission.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-series. Written for prompt #32 at wizard_love: Two characters who have heaps of chemistry but a reputation for hating each other are trying to keep their friends from finding out about the attraction.
Summary: Katie Bell and Marcus Flint are supposed to be rivals, which is probably why their chemistry is so good together. But sneaking around is fun only up to a point...
I wanna meet you in the sunlight,
Not in a secret rendezvouz
Because I'm so tired of sneaking around with you
"Sneaking Around" by BB King
Katie Bell was the lead artifact investigator on staff at Divine Antiquities, a prestigious antiques firm. She researched and validated almost all artifacts in the collections they acquired, often registering them and providing documentation prior to auction at Sotheby's. This put her in direct opposition to Marcus Flint, who all but ran the Wizarding division of the famed auction house. Since leaving Hogwarts, he had learned a lot about Muggles and Wizards alike, which softened the prejudices he had been raised with. His looks had improved once he was no longer on the receiving end of hexes, curses and bludgers. He was still tall and stocky, with wide shoulders, dark hair and eyes. He had a square jaw that often was set into a deep scowl.
Or perhaps that was just for Katie's benefit. Given that she argued with him about whether or not artifacts were truly magical or antique, they were often at odds. Coworkers at Divine Antiquities had initially been concerned for the brunette. She had a slim build, though she was by no means petite. Marcus was a full seven inches taller than her, and as much as she smiled at him, Katie's coworkers were concerned for her safety. Her china doll features and blue eyes gave her an almost innocent look, even if they knew she was no such thing. Though Katie had worked at Divine Antiquities for years, they all were still fooled by her appearance.
The latest collection being evaluated by Katie was a lot of odds and ends from Augusta Longbottom's attic. Neville was slowly cleaning out th estate following her death, and Divine Antiquities was overjoyed to be receiving the goods.
Katie loved going through this part of the Longbottom collection. August had been an avid collector of Victorian and Edwardian plates, silverware and objets d'art. The first batch of goods had kept her busy for months as she painstakingly restored, analyzed and then documented her findings. Of course Marcus wanted to refute some of her results; if her documentation went unchallenged, there would be no excuse for them to interact or argue.
"I've got my afternoon clear," Katie told him sweetly, holding her portfolio loosely by her side. "I've brought the results for a portion of the collection, Mr. Flint."
"Ms. Bell," Marcus returned coolly, gesturing toward his office. "I will of course have to verify what you bring me. The reputation of Sotheby's is on the line, you understand," he said as he closed the door after her. There was an extra bit of swagger in her hips as she entered the room, but he dutifully ignored it.
"Oh, mine as well," Katie replied, eyes twinkling with mischief as she put her portfolio down on the desk. She turned and took off her suit jacket, revealing the white silk shell blouse beneath it. She wore no bra beneath the blouse and smirked as Marcus' eyes were drawn to the front of the blouse. A chill had set her nipples pebbling, making it that much more obvious what she wasn't wearing. "You like?"
"Are you wearing knickers?" Marcus asked, voice growing even more gravelly with desire.
"Why don't you check?" she asked, grinning openly at him.
Their mouths crashed together, tongues tangling and hands wandering everywhere. Marcus backed her up against his desk, pushing her skirt up to the waist. She wasn't wearing knickers, and his fingers found her growing damp for him already. He worked her roughly, trusting the layers of silencing spells and privacy wards to keep her cries from being heard by wandering coworkers. She pulled off her top when he broke their kiss to breathe, and Marcus took this as a sign to take a breast into his mouth as he pushed a finger inside her. He sucked hard, just as she liked it. She grasped his shoulder tightly, blunt nails digging in deep as she struggled to quiet herself. He rolled his tongue around the nipple, but Katie couldn't keep quiet when he swiped his thumb across her clit with his fingers still pumping into her.
Her body shook when she came, and she sagged against him. Marcus opened the front of his trousers then pushed into her after casting a contraceptive spell. He moved hard and fast, his hands tight on her hips. She would likely bruise, but Katie loved that. She sometimes whispered to him how much she loved seeing the marks on her pale skin, reminding her of the encounters between visits.
When Marcus came with a grunt, Katie pressed kisses onto his cheek. She cast cleaning charms when he pulled out of her, then worked to set her appearance to rights. Katie smirked as she smoothed his hair down and straightened his tie. "Fantastic, you are," she murmured. "But then, you know that."
"Katie," Marcus growled. "You know what I think..."
"Oh, Marcus..."
He gave her a rough kiss when she would have made a sarcastic reply. When she was left breathless, Marcus looked at her solemnly. "You know what I want."
She frowned at him and plopped down into a seat gracelessly. "Not this again, Marcus."
"This isn't what I want," he rumbled.
"You weren't protesting five minutes ago!"
Marcus scowled at her. "This isn't about shagging, Katie."
"You know I don't have time for more than this," she told him in a huffy tone of voice. "I'm always in the lab or at my desk. If not for this, we'd never see each other."
"And if we were open about this, I could visit you. Or we could move in together."
Katie took up her portfolio as she sighed. "This works."
"It's not good enough," he replied tiredly, sitting on the edge of his desk. "I want more."
"This is all I can do."
They were at the same impasse they always ended in, though Marcus had started the argument sooner in the visit than he usually did. He wouldn't be content with this forever, they both knew that.
"I really did clear my entire afternoon," Katie told him when he remained silent. "What do you want?"
Marcus looked at her steadily with a pained expression. "You."
Katie put her portfolio aside and rose. She wound her arms around his broad torso and pressed her head against his chest. "I do love you, Marcus. I do."
"You love your freedom more," he sighed.
She pulled him down for a kiss. "It's not that. I'm happy with what we have. Why can't you be?"
"I want to take you to dinner. I want you to meet my Mum. I want to talk to you out in the open, no pretenses, no pretend hatred. Your bloody coworkers think I'd actually do something to hurt you!"
"They do not!" she protested.
"They always stare at me and watch everything I do."
"You're imagining that. It's just a silly professional rivalry, rather like Puddlemere against the Falcons."
"This is rather a lot more important than Quidditch."
"Don't be silly..."
Marcus grasped her and kissed her roughly, pushing her backward until he had her back pressed up against the wall. He held her and she wrapped her legs around his waist for balance. Katie's arms wound around him and she returned his kiss with fervor. The deeper the kiss got, the more their libidos rose as well.
Katie pressed her sex against the crotch of Marcus' trousers, rubbing against him slightly. He hissed at the sensation, then let go of one leg to open his trousers again. His length was half hard, sliding against the coarse curls between her thighs. Rubbing against each other, breathing ragged and harsh, they moved to kiss again. Katie grew frantic with need first, rubbing harder against his length. "I need you," she groaned against his mouth. "Merlin, please, please..."
He growled and pulled her up a little higher so that he could slide into her. She made a soft keening noise and buried her face in the crook of his neck as he pumped into her. She bit down as she came, hard enough to mark his shoulder but not hard enough to break the skin. Katie was boneless in his arms until he finished, chest heaving with the effort to breathe.
Curled in each others' arms, Marcus sighed. "I want this all the time, Katie. Not just when you can clear your calendar for an afternoon and sneak me in. I'm sick of sneaking around with you."
Katie sighed and began moving to disentangle herself from Marcus. "This works." Her stubborn insistence was complimented by the thrust of her chin and lower jaw; there was no changing her mind when she got that way. Trying would only make her get her back up and she got even more stubborn as a result. In that frame of mind, she would cut off her nose to spite her face.
Well, she wasn't the only one.
"No, it doesn't," Marcus said, voice firm. He used his favored cleaning spells and looked at her evenly. His chest was tight, but he was good at doing what needed to be done, no matter the personal consequences. "This doesn't work, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of hiding, of pretending I don't know you as well as I do."
"Marcus..." she began in a wheedling tone.
"I'm done." Katie froze, eyes wide and almost frightened. "I'm through, Katie. I can't do this anymore. If you want to be with me, then everyone has got to know. If not, you have to let me get over whatever this is and start over with someone that can do that."
"You can't mean that!" she cried, pushing at his chest in frustration. "You love me!"
"Yes, I do," he agreed, gently pulling her hands from his chest. "But relationships require more than just love to work. I'm tired of being the convenient fuck you go for." Marcus picked up her portfolio from his desk and moved to his office door. Katie tried to pull his hand away from the knob, but he was determined at this point. "You know what I want, Katie. You know where I live, where I work, who my friends are. You know everything about me, yet you insist just fucking around is enough. It's not." He opened the door and gestured for her to step out into the hallway. "If that's all, then I have actual work to do."
Katie blinked back tears that threatened to form. It was not all, but he had taken the coward's way out and opened the door to forestall any further complaints. Bastard.
She snatched up her portfolio from his large hands and tried to ignore the wail threatening to bubble up out of her throat. "You've made your point," she said, voice cracking slightly at the end.
Marcus didn't say anything, and simply watched her walk as fast as she could down the hall. He slowly shut his office door and leaned his forehead against it, trying to push away the feeling that he had just made a horrible mistake.
***
Staff at Divine Antiquities noticed that Katie seemed a bit more down than usual, but thought that something had happened with one of the artifacts she was restoring. She was the kind to take her work seriously, after all. Why else would she insist on verifying every last bit of documentation with Sotheby's? She was a prefectionist, and that sort of thing would drag down anyone's spirits after a time. They took her out to lunch and tried to get her to talk about anything else -- the upcoming Weasley/Malfoy wedding, whether or not new legislation would pass regarding muggleborn technology being integrated into the Wizarding World, a new addition being made to St. Mungo's to accommodate the surging population in the wake of the Second Wizarding War. When news didn't seem to help, they started discussing Quidditch. Katie was a huge Quidditch fan, and everyone knew that she rooted for Puddlemere United every chance she got. If not for an injury at the Battle of Hogwarts keeping her out of the spring tryouts, Katie might have tried out to be on their reserve team. That didn't seem to help either, and one of the girls in Records tried to talk about the romantic lives of Wireless stars.
Katie promptly burst into tears over her chicken salad sandwich, covering her face in both hands.
"Was it something I said?" the poor girl asked her. Katie was too broken up to reply.
***
There were no public displays at Sotheby's, though Marcus Flint's staff gave him an extra wide berth in the weeks that followed Katie Bell's last visit to his office. He was usually gruff and stoic, but this time he was snarly and more difficult to please than usual. More collections were added to the Sotheby's catalogue under his watch, and he went over every aspect of them with a fine toothed comb. His staff felt more tense than usual as a result, though Marcus' superiors praised the increased efficiency and output.
One of the braver souls in the office approached Marcus with another set of catalogue proofs. "Flint. What's gotten your knickers in a twist about this collection in particular? Everyone knows Augusta Longbottom only collected the genuine article."
If anything, his glower deepened. The subordinate didn't falter, which actually earned him points in the back of Marcus' mind. He was irritated at being questioned; on some level he knew it made no sense, but it felt as if everything he had ever wanted or believed was in question. That made him feel even more like taking his hands around the stupid subordinate's neck and choking the life out of him, or of setting something on fire. He had never expected Katie to stay away this long, to stay silent and really stay broken up. He had thought he was proving a point, that she would see how much he had actually meant to her and accept that he needed more than an occasional hookup.
The empty feeling he was left with was worse than he thought it would be. It ached like an open wound, and he wanted the rest of the world around him to hurt as well.
The subordinate put the proofs onto Marcus' desk, frowning at his glower. "Look, Flint. We're all doing really well for the division. I get it if you're a perfectionist, but you don't have to ride us all so hard to get it."
"I'll take that under advisement," Marcus replied in a stony voice, expression hard and unflinching.
Even after the subordinate left, Marcus made no move to touch the proofs. Katie's name was there, as well as a short blurb about her work and a photograph of her most pleased smile. If he saw it one more time, he would throw something across the room.
He left early that day for the first time since his hire at Sotheby's. He had to get the hell out of his office and all the reminders of what he had lost.
***
The day of the auction for the current batch of objects from Augusta Longbottom's collections dawned bright and clear. It flet like a slap in the face to Marcus, who would have preferred something gloomy and overcast to match his mood. He would have to see Katie at the auction. Technically he didn't have to, as it could have been any staff member from Divine Antiquities serving as their representative. Katie tended to go to these personally, however, and it always used to be another excuse to meet up between bids and have hurried sex in a broom closet or unused office. Marcus felt his gut clench in foreboding as the auction time approached. He didn't want to see how happy she was without him, how much she valued her freedom from being in a relationship. He was acting like a moonstruck calf but didn't care. He felt awful without her, though he didn't want to cave and owl her to concede defeat. If he did that, she wouldn't value him at all. He would rather be miserable than thought of as a worthless shagging partner.
Except that she didn't look particularly happy when he saw her sitting in her usual seat. She looked just as miserable as he felt, though he doubted that most people could tell. There was no bounce to her step and that effusive smile was absent. She talked to all the right people and had the appropriate social smile pasted in place, but she listlessly poked at the catalogue pages when not engaged in conversation. She was distant, which wasn't like her at all. Katie also seemed as though she wasn't sleeping very well, though she covered up the undereye circles very well with makeup.
"Oh, Katie," he murmured to himself. "What have we done?"
She was with a coworker that he vaguely recognized. She had been involved with a different collection that had gone to auction months ago. Marcus couldn't remember her name or the particulars of their interaction before; she was as forgettable as her ordinary appearance and bland clothing. He strode over to them before he was even consciously aware that he was going to do so, startling both women. "Marcus," Katie murmured in surprise, her blue eyes impossibly wide. She looked even more miserable that way, and Marcus wanted nothing more than to take her home and tuck her into his bed for safekeeping. She would never thank him for it, but the impulse was there.
"The auction doesn't start yet," the bland coworker protested, taking in Marcus' towering posture and intense gaze. "You don't need to try intimidating her already..."
Marcus swung his gaze toward her, expression stony. "Back. Off."
"She's just worried about me," Katie murmured.
"Is there reason to be?" he asked, turning his gaze back to her. His voice was softer, more personal, and Katie couldn't meet his eyes. "Katie?"
"Mr. Flint..." the coworker began again.
"Mary," Katie said firmly, turning toward her coworker. "My boyfriend's just concerned about me. He's not intimidating me, all right?"
Marcus was shocked to silence right along with Mary. Had she just said...?
Katie put her catalogue down and stood up, jaw set. "I made a mistake," she whispered, looking up at him. She laid a hand gently on his chest, eyes almost pleading with him not to walk away from her. "It wasn't working, was it?"
He closed a hand over hers and bent his head slightly. "No. Neither was being apart."
"The auction's going to start soon, and you need to watch over the crowd," she murmured softly. "Sit next to me?"
A public display of affection, labeling him her boyfriend to a coworker and now all but announcing publicly that they were more than adversaries? Whatever parallel universe this was, Marcus didn't want to leave it.
He smiled at her, fondness etched into every feature. It softened the forbidding look he otherwise had, and he nodded at her. "I'd love to."
Marcus didn't even run his gimlet eye over the crowd as he usually did, leaving it up to security. He was amazingly relaxed as a result, Katie's hand tucked firmly in his through most of the auction. Though she had put forth the invitation to sit next to her, initially she sat stiffly and uncomfortably. Over time she relaxed and seemed more and more like herself. She commented here and there on the results of the auction, tsking in disappointment if an item didn't fetch as much as she would have expected it to. Marcus had always found that quirk of hers amusing; it wasn't as if either of them received more or less payment for their services if items did exceptionally well at auction, but Katie liked being able to say she could predict the final value of items at auction. Neville Longbottom would be pleased either way, as his home was being cleared out and he would still recieve a hefty settlement once Sotheby's took out its percentage in fees.
Mary wasn't exactly pleased to be sent back to Divine Antiquities so that Katie could talk with Marcus after the auction concluded, and stayed several feet away to observe them. "You have a bodyguard," Marcus commented, amused.
Katie smiled, a fraction more tremulous than he was used to seeing on her face. "This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, sitting together. I always thought people would think less of me somehow, like I couldn't make it on my own." She paused, weighing her words carefully. "That perhaps the only reason why I did so well was because you favored my collections."
"Well, that's utter bollocks," Marcus told her blandly. "You've a keen eye for restoration and the paperwork is flawless. You had that reputation even before we met."
"People forget that."
"Sod them all," he replied, taking her hand and squeezing tightly. "But that wasn't the real reason why you were afraid to continue things, was it?"
She shook her head slightly. "If it was always quick and exciting, you wouldn't get a chance to grow tired of me," she admitted in a small voice. She looked at him then, that same pleading expression in her eyes. "I didn't want to lose what we had, Marcus. You're too important to me."
"So what do you want?" he asked her quietly.
"Can we start over?" she asked quietly. "Not as a convenience thing or a hidden thing. But doing it up properly, whatever that is."
Marcus took in the sight of her, knowing full well that he could never refuse her this. "Let's send Mary off and then we talk properly, yeah?"
She smiled at him, almost approaching her former teasing grin. "Sounds good to me."
Whatever Katie told Mary sent her on her way without more than an assessing glance in Marcus' direction. Katie was more like her old self, relief in every fluid motion as she walked back to Marcus' side. "I'm sure the entire office will be gossiping about this by the time I get back."
"Do you care?" he challenged gently.
Katie took a moment to think about it and give him a serious answer. "No," she said after a moment. "I really don't."
"Well, good," Marcus replied, giving her a pleased grin. While the gallery was emptying, there were still plenty of bidders and Sotheby's staff around. He didn't care, and gathered her up into his arms for a sensual kiss. "Come with me?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Now?"
"You have other plans today?"
"None I can't break," she replied with a slight smirk.
That was just the sort of thing that Marcus needed to hear. He ignored the whispers and stares from Sotheby's staff and brought her through a maze of corridors before pulling her into a broom closet. He snogged her breathless before she could even ask where they were, and lifted her onto a stack of boxes to make it easier. "I thought... you didn't like this," she panted in confusion when he broke the kiss to breathe. There was that vulnerable look on her face again.
"That's not what I said," he disagreed, palming a breast through her blouse. "I didn't want this to be all we're about." He slid his other hand along one leg. "This is good. I just think we can be even better.
"Oh." Comprehension was starting to dawn on Katie's features. She spread her legs wider for him and brought her hands to his trousers. "Everyone here is going to know. They'll think I'm a horrible slag, probably."
"Or that I've been a roaring bastard because of an argument."
There was something soft and understanding in her gaze as she tugged down his trousers. "Were you?"
"Utterly lost," he replied, pulling her knickers down past her knees. She shifted a leg so that they hung off of one ankle, and hooked it around his waist to pull him in closer. "You looked the way I felt when I saw you this morning."
"Lost is a good word for it," Katie agreed, nodding before pulling his head down to kiss him. "We've all sorts of lost time to make up for."
The sex was rough and fast, lacking whatever finesse Marcus would have wanted to have. It had been only weeks without her, but it felt like agonizing years. This couldn't have been comfortable for her either, with the boxes beneath her, another digging into her back and the scent of cleansers and antiseptics all around them. But she felt like home when he slid inside her, she pulled him closer and had to bite her lip to keep from shouting at the sensation of it all. It was over far too fast, and Marcus held her tightly enough to bruise through her clothes. He probably could have found an unused office, but he hadn't been able to wait that long.
"Just think, Katie... We'll finally have sex in a bed," he quipped. "No more awkward places for a quick shag unless we're really wanting it that way."
Katie laughed a little breathlessly. "We've never actually done it a bed before."
"Or a floor. Or a shower. Or stairs. Or a kitchen counter." He shot her a filthy grin when she lifted her head in surprise. "I may have had visions of how we'd get together if you ever came over to my flat. It's a duplex, after all. Lots of rooms to christen."
"Sounds good. My flat's tiny. You and your ego would never fit in it," she teased, squeezing his rear playfully.
Marcus chuckled and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "So it's not as scary as you thought it would be."
"No, it isn't," she agreed. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "And we'd still have to sneak around if we wanted some private time here."
"Start thinking of places at your office," Marcus warned with a smile. "Now that the secret's out, I get to visit you at work, too."
Katie looked almost thoughtful at that comment. "Oh. I hadn't thought of that." She reached up and cupped his face. "I might like that, actually." She gave him a bashful smile. "My office is a mess of papers and books and artifacts I'm working on. Yours is much nicer."
"Then we'll have to find a different office. Or apparate home for lunch."
She giggled like a schoolgirl and pulled him down for a kiss. "Looking forward to it."
Marcus had to admit, he was, too.