Morgan frowned right back at him, “you’ve been gone for a week and that’s all you can ask me?”
“Yes, I have been gone for a week. A week in which I have put my life on the line while spying on the Dark Lord. Answer my question.”
Morgan bristled at his tone. But she merely crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at her husband.
Severus sighed, “is there a reason why you felt in necessary to paw through my clothes.”
Morgan mumbled an answer as she turned away.
“I missed that.”
“Your shirts all smell like you, and I was lonely…”
“You certainly know how to disarm a man.”
Morgan smiled softly, “Viviane’s asleep in the next room. Molly’s been spoiling her to death.”
“It appears that you’ve not only been lonely, but also lacking attention.”
Morgan blushed.
Severus started working at the buttons on his shirt, the one he was wearing, not the one his wife was wearing. “As much as I would love to oblige you it has been a very trying and tiring week, and I’m not as young as I once was.”
Morgan tried to cover his disappointment as she pulled the blankets up and leaned against the pile of pillows at her back. “Well then, it’s your loss,” she couldn’t quite keep the hurt tone out of her voice.
“Stop pouting.”
Morgan snorted in disgust, and turned away from her husband.
“Morgan…” he climbed into bed with her, “your sulking is not the best way to get the sort of attention you are after. You are being unreasonable.”
“Why? Is it because you’re the only one who gets to be unreasonable? Whenever you come home in a temper I put out for you whether I’m in the mood or not.”
Severus sighed as he massaged his temples. “And I am very grateful for your usually solicitous mood…” he suddenly had a very un-Snape-like thought. If his wife could tease him out of his bad moods, why couldn’t he do the same to her? He reached out and lightly trailed his fingers down her side.
Morgan turned to face him, “what are you trying to do?” She tilted her head to the side as she examined her husband’s blank expression. “Were you trying to tickle me?” She grinned, “I’m not ticklish.”
Severus glared at her and snatched his hand away.
Morgan’s eyes rounded, “are you ticklish?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Morgan tried to hide her smile behind her hand. She reached out to test her theory. She was immensely satisfied with her efforts when her husband squirmed away from her with a withering glare. “I believe I have just found your weakness Severus Snape, and I have every intention of exploiting it.”
“Don’t you dare,” he hissed at her. “You’ll end up getting far more than you bargained for,” he warned as her hand came out again.
“If you had acquiesced to my earlier request you wouldn’t be in this position now,” Morgan reminded him.
“If you do, I’ll spank you,” he threatened.
Morgan hesitated, her hand hovering in mid air. She looked her husband in the eye, trying to discern how serious he was.
“Come now, where is you Gryffindor bravery? Are you really going to turn down a dare?”
In hindsight, Morgan realized that her husband trying to goad her into something meant that the consequences for her probably wouldn’t be much to her liking. As soon as her fingers made contact with her husband’s sensitive side she found herself plucked from the blankets and deposited face down over her husband’s lap.
“I did warn you,” he reminded her before proceeding to carry out his promise.
It took Morgan several seconds to fully comprehend the position that she was in. And once she did no amount of struggling or cursing got her out of it. She vaguely recalled a time when she had feared that her husband might strike her. This certainly wasn’t the sort of beating she had feared. It was more humiliating than anything.
“Do you think you can manage to behave yourself now?” Severus asked.
Morgan muttered something rather vulgar under her breath, but yelped when her husband’s hand gave a particularly stinging slap to her now tender backside.
“Would you care to repeat that?” he asked. When she didn’t respond he raised his hand again, “I asked if you were ready to behave.”
“Yes!” Morgan exclaimed desperately.
“Yes what?”
“Merlin’s balls, Severus, just let me up!”
Severus chuckled at his wife’s use of one his favorite profanities as he repositioned her so that she was sitting, if a bit uncomfortably, in his lap. He couldn’t help but smirk at her dark expression, “if looks could kill I would send you after the Dark Lord. You’d finish him off in no time.”
“You spanked me,” Morgan accused.
“I told you that I would.”
“But you can’t do that!” she protested.
“I’ve told you time and again, if you insist on acting like a child I will treat you like one. Besides, I rather enjoyed myself, didn’t you?”
Morgan glared at him in response.
He couldn’t help himself, he kissed her. He was surprised at how quickly she parted her willing lips for him. He paused, to examine his wife’s face, “why are you blushing?”
Morgan’s color deepened, “I’d rather not say.”
“Then I shall have to insist that you tell me.” He lay back, taking Morgan with him so that she lay sprawled across his chest.
She averted his eyes from his as she continued to blush, “it’s just… I feel like I should be angry with you right now, and I’m not. Especially when you make me feel so… oh… gods… Severus! I can’t think coherently when you do that!”
“This would be much better if you removed my shirt,” his fingers moved to the buttons of the shirt that his wife still wore.
“But I like wearing your shirts,” she protested. “It’s comforting…”
“But I’m here now,” he kissed her neck, nipping at it lightly as his hands roamed over her body. He rolled them over so that she was under him.
She arched up against him, desperately seeking as much contact with his body as she could get. “Can I wear your shirts when you’re gone?” she asked between the soft kisses that she gave him in return for his ministrations.
“Thieving wench,” he responded, “if you must I will not disallow it.” He nudged her legs apart with his knee.
Suddenly Morgan giggled, “it looks like I’m about to get what I wanted to begin with.”
She squealed as Severus growled in response. But, she was more than satisfied by the time she finally fell asleep, held tightly in his arms.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Do you have to go away again right away?” Morgan asked. She never had retrieved the shirt that had been stripped off her the night before. However, she found that she didn’t miss it very much at the moment.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Severus?”
“Yes?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Severus couldn’t help but smirk. “You certainly do keep a man busy.”
Morgan snorted, “I’d say that the short time period between pregnancies means that you’re the one keeping me busy.”
“You were the one that seduced me last night, not the other way around.”
“Promise me you’ll be careful. You mean more to me than Dumbledore does. I don’t want you getting killed because of some fool promise you made to him.”
“I’m a man of my word, Morgan. I cannot refuse Dumbledore now. However, I will do everything in my power to make sure that I come home to you.”