✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

47 | UITWAAIEN

The daunting trill of the music echoed throughout the hall, and Tessa felt her heart beat just a little bit faster. She didn't know how to slow dance — at least not until he'd taught her in the tiny space of their closet last year. And she most definitely didn't know how to dance the broken tango — but she'd begged her great aunt Leah to teach her.

And here she was — playing a dangerous game with fire as she let herself move to the rhythm, starting off with the boy who'd stood in front of her as the initial partner. He gripped her waist as they danced, his eyes skimming down her body as he murmured huskily, "And who do we have here? I don't believe we've met before."

Tessa paid attention to the beat of the music, recognizing it to be the moment they were to spin around for their second partner. Right before doing so, she slyly winked at the boy and said, "Not bad for a rabid dog, eh, Zabini?"

Shock and recognition flickered in his eyes just before Tessa spun around and found herself in the arms of a stranger. Perhaps it was a cousin of the Malfoy family — but he didn't really seem to care who she was, though he did raise an eyebrow in interest with what she was wearing.

     They held each other's hands, with their free ones on her waist as they danced across the hall to the beat. He took her hands and together they spun around until —

     Having calculated the pacing and steps with perfect precision, Tessa found herself spinning right into the arms of Draco Malfoy whose scent and warmth enveloped her immediately. "Tessa," he breathed out her name, sounding like a prayer in his lips. For a split second — the dance required of them to linger in the presence of their final partner. Their foreheads pressed and their noses touching, Draco's silver eyes brightened as they searched her hazel ones. "How — ?"

     Tessa tightened her arms around his neck, reaching on her tiptoes to bring her lips grazing his ear as she purred, "Happy Birthday, Draco."

     Something flickered in his eyes as they darkened considerably while a smirk broke across his devilishly handsome features. He took her hands in his as they danced to the beat echoing the hall, every touch between them igniting a fire they both felt in their bones.

     He held her when she did a swift dip backwards, his hand supporting the back of her head before she pulled herself up. She turned around as he came up behind her, letting her arms cross so he could take her hands. With Draco pressed up behind her, she could feel his warm breath on her neck as they took a couple of steps to the rhythm of the beat.

     "When'd you learn to dance, Braveheart?" his voice was so deep and sensual that it made Tessa's breath hitch in her throat when he dipped her and pulled her flushed against him.

     Her arms were around him, holding him tightly as though he were the only thing left in the world to support her. "I took lessons for you," she crooned in his ear.

     He raised an eyebrow as he took in the intricate gold mask and the upturn of her lips. "With another boy?"

     She winked at him. "Finish this dance, and maybe you'll find out."

     He brought her away from him to lift her up in the air before pulling her back again, but this time closer so he could murmur into her ear, "You cruel thing. Who knew you could be such a tease."

     Tessa didn't even bother to force the blush away from her cheeks as she shifted around to stand side by side with Draco, their arms entwined around the other. The music grew to a crescendo as they stepped backwards to the beat, their eyes burning as they stared into one another as though nobody else in the room existed. The tension between them was palpable, and it made Tessa yearn for him like never before.