~Harry~

As soon as Cassidy disappeared inside the changeroom, I turned to the rest of the boys, fighting to keep in a sigh. I realised that going over to her house a few days ago may not have been the best move. Why had I even told her that I didn’t want to be her boyfriend?

That was the biggest fucking lie I’d ever told.

I looked over at the lads, only to find that they were all smirking at me, wearing knowing looks on their faces. Louis was wriggling his eyebrows at me.

“What?” I asked, crouching down and making my way over to the edge of the pool, determined to slip back into the water.

“Mate,” Niall said slowly, before breaking into a wide grin and laughing at me, “You totally fancy her!”

That took me a bit by surprise. It was that obvious? God, I really needed to work on masking my emotions.

Nonetheless, I gave Niall a weird look—gave them all a weird look, and shook my head; sitting on the edge of the pool deck and slipping my legs into the water, letting the current move them in circles.

“What?” I asked, crinkling my eyebrows, “No I don’t, Ni.”

“So you wouldn’t mind if I had a go at her then?” Louis smiled mischievously and cocked an eyebrow.

My head snapped in his direction and I gave him a firm look, “Hell no.”

In response, all of the lads chuckled, and I rolled my eyes, sweeping my right hand up and down my left bicep where all of my tattoos were. “Louis is right though,” Liam noted, staring off at the changeroom door that Cassidy had exited from, “She’s quite fit.”

I made an exasperated noise, “I know she’s fit, alright?” Liam shrugged, holding his hands up and surrendering, “I was just telling it as it is.”

“Is something going on between you two, Harry?” Zayn questioned; a worried look in his eyes. That surprised me a bit; the rest of the boys were grinning like idiots, excited that I was finally ‘getting some’, yet Zayn looked genuinely nervous about the whole situation.

“Barely,” I blurted, and then hastened to make amends, “I mean, well—I think she knows I like her—”

“Aha!” Louis cried out, pointing dramatically at me, and Liam and Niall simply smirked, as though they had me caught. I rolled my eyes and continued on, “—and I think she might like me too. But we haven’t done anything…like that.”

Biggest fucking lie ever.

I don’t know why I wasn’t telling them we had kissed. Granted, it wasn’t some huge secret but I already felt uncomfortable enough with their questioning about who I may or may not like. I didn’t want to add anything else into the conversation and make an even bigger mess of myself, as I usually did.

“Look,” I just wanted this conversation to be over, “There’s nothing going on between us, alright?”

Liam, Louis and Niall all nodded but shot each other looks, probably knowing that I was lying.

Zayn still looked worried, but a small part of his face had relaxed, the first sign of relief, “Good,” he said, “Because who knows what would happen if this ever got out. You’re her pupil Harry. If the board finds out that you were involved with her in more ways than one, they won’t let her swim in the Olympics, because they’ll think you gave her a good review only because she might be good in the sack.”

“We haven’t done that!” I exclaimed, my eyes growing wide at how nonchalantly Zayn spoke about that. I would never think of simply giving her a good review only because I thought she was beautiful. In the short while and handful of lessons we’d had, I knew that Cassidy was actually a pretty decent teacher. Granted, most of the time she barely spoke to me, but in the few times she had, it had been advice on how to make my strokes quicker or more powerful.

She was a good instructor.

“I’m just saying,” Zayn said, pushing wet hair away from his forehead, “Don’t let that happen.”

“I won’t,” I assured him quickly, but even as I said it, it was no use. I knew it was bound to happen. I was already attracted to this girl. Her body, her scent, her personality; it was all too intoxicating, and I knew that I was in too deep to begin climbing out. I couldn’t stop the feelings from growing, so there was no way in hell that I could wipe them out completely. It just wasn’t happening anymore.

“Well,” Niall mused, and he grinned before shouting, “What are we waiting for? Back into the water, Harry, it’s time to play chicken!”

~*~

The next day, I padded up the steps of Cassidy’s porch.

I’d given a lot of thought to what Zayn had said yesterday, but I knew that in the end, staying away from her and not letting whatever this was blossom wouldn’t work. Cassidy was too beautiful, too amazingly stubborn and attractive for me not to try something. I was determined to make up for my mistakes.

My hair was wet, thanks to the rain pouring outside, a product of the gray clouds, and I pushed it away from my face.

A few seconds after I’d rang the doorbell, the door swung open, only to reveal a slightly breathless Cassidy. I let my gaze rake down her body shamelessly.

She wore tight, short yoga shorts. They clung to her upper thighs, and I desperately wished that she was turned around right now so I could see the wonders they did to her ass. A simple, bright blue muscle tank was adorning her torso, very baggy, with large armholes. When she lifted her arm to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, I saw the side of a black bra, and swallowed harshly, trying to control the blood rushing to my crotch.

Her face was slightly red, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her forehead, small hairs sticking to it. She was barefoot.

When she saw me, there, her relaxed expression immediately faltered, replaced with a bitten lip and a creased brow. “What are you doing here?”

“I want you,” I blurted, and then flinched, realising what it sounded like, “I mean—I want you to be my girlfriend. I know that I said that I was fine not being your boyfriend, but I’m not, and you’re just so beautiful and amazing and it’s killing me, because I’m so stupid for saying that, and I know I sound desperate but I can’t help myself and I just—”

“Harry!” she said loudly, having to raise her voice over my rambling and the sound of the rain. I stopped immediately, looking at her. Her facial features looked confused, but her eyes seemed to hold a certain glint to them.

“I think we should do this inside,” she said quietly, averting her eyes, going back to the same distant persona that I wish I could crack.

“Okay,” I nodded, embarrassed now. Why had I just gone off like that? I should’ve been slower; I sounded way too desperate now.

Cassidy led me inside, closing the door behind me, and I turned around, only to find that she was leaning against the wood tiredly.

“Say that again,” she told me, “Slower.”

I hesitated before opening my mouth, “I know that I told you I wasn’t your boyfriend, but I want to be—really badly. I want to take you out, and hold your hand and kiss you and do all of that couple-y shit with you. I’m sorry for everything, I’m an idiot, I know—,” I bit my lip, “But I want you to be mine.”

There were a few moments of silence. Cassidy’s face revelled in different emotions: shock, skepticism, nervousness, anger.

Finally, she sighed, “I want that too Harry,” she began, and I smiled, but she just frowned, making me worried, “But I know your type, okay? The cool guy, always sleeping around with girls. For God’s sake, you had a fucking one-night stand not even a month ago!” She was yelling now. Why was she always yelling?

“I know that!” I shouted back at her—the only way to get her attention—and grabbed a fistful of my damp hair, tugging on it, pained, “God, I know that, alright? And I told you, I’m a fucking idiot, because all I wanted was you! Fuck, I saw you, while we were having sex, okay? You! And I’m sorry for being so stupid, for annoying you, but that’s only because I like you so much, it’s unhealthy!”

She was taken aback now, her eyes wide and her lips parted in a small ‘o’. God, I wanted to kiss her, but I needed to hear what she had to say first.

I could almost hear the gears in her head clicking and whirring, trying to make sense of this whole situation. I know that she was thinking about how I’d said that I’d seen her the night of my one-night stand.

Her; not that girl, but her.

“I don’t know, Harry,” she told me brokenly, staring up at me, her eyes sad, and continued, “I can’t process things right now. I mean—how do I know you won’t cheat? And Matt…fuck, what if Matt finds out? God, he’ll be so angry—I just can’t—”

“You’re looking for more reasons to walk away,” I pointed out, taking a step closer to her, “I’m not going to cheat on you, okay? I love y—spending time with you. As for Matt, we’ll just keep it a secret. He doesn’t have to know, okay?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, looking like she was internally debating with herself. But I was done thinking. Screw Matt, screw Zayn, I wanted this—I wanted this girl, I wanted to kiss her, to hug her, to laugh with her, to sleep in the same bed as her.

Had I almost said what I think? I didn’t love her; I’d only known her for a month and three quarters—not that I was keeping tabs—and it was too soon. It was just a slip-up, as it always was.

She was still silent, and I took another step towards her, pinning her in between my body and the door. I heard her breath hitch in her throat, and her eyes snapped open, glaring at me, “I fucking hate it when you do that.”

We were back to this. I smirked, my serious mood suddenly gone, teasing her. She made me go through so many mood swings; I couldn’t keep track of them all. “Hate when I do what?” I teased, knowing exactly well what I was doing.

“This,” she exclaimed, “You get all close to me, and I can’t—fuck—I can’t think! I love it and I hate it at the exact same time! You can’t just do that every time we have a fight! It’s—it’s not…” she trailed off as she watched me smile slightly and slowly inch closer to her.

I cautiously brought both of my hands up so that my fingertips were ghosting over her hips.

When she didn’t resist, and set my hands on her waist comfortably.

“Don’t do that, please,” she almost whimpered, but I knew that she wanted me to continue.
Her arms came up, snaking up my forearms, my elbows, and my biceps—squeezing the muscles as I lowered my head, pressing a soft, sensual kiss to her shoulder, which was exposed by the baggy tank top. I gently tugged her body closer to mine, so that our chests brushed, and continued kissing the skin.

I moved my head further in, all the way to the crook of her neck, and turned to the side, peppering small kisses on her collarbone, my lips only gliding along her slightly sweaty skin for a moment before moving somewhere else. My mouth tasted like her skin—a sweet fruity taste, mixed in with a salty tinge of perspiration, but at the moment, it was the best taste in the world.

“I want you to be mine,” I whispered, sucking lightly on a small part of her neck. It wasn’t forceful enough to leave a mark, but she gripped the sleeves of my white t-shirt anyways.

“All mine,” I murmured, the words sending vibrations up and down her body. She shivered lightly, her body quaking against mine, and I wrapped my arms around her waist, hugging her. I buried my face into her shoulder, stopping the sweet torture, and closed my eyes.

“Please say yes,” I begged, tightening my hold around her. She wound her arms around my neck, finally letting go of my biceps, and sighed, and we just stood there in her main entranceway, hugging.

I inhaled deeply, smelling her hair, loving the way it smelled—that same fruity scent that drove me wild.

“Say it,” I urged her, pulling back a centimeter and kissing her shoulder again—a long, lingering kiss that took up several seconds and made her squirm. I knew that my curly hair was probably tickling her neck, and had a sudden urge to leave so many love bites that her throat would be all purple and pink and blue tomorrow, but I refrained.

“Yes,” she sighed, and I froze.

As I processed the word, a smile found its way onto my face and only grew into a large, wide grin. I let out a loud laugh and picked her up, pulling back to see her face. Her eyes were closed dreamily, but she wore a small smile.

“Thank you,” I breathed, setting her back down, and without another word, I smashed my lips onto hers.

She was surprised, to say the least. For a moment, she just stood there, shocked, before closing her eyes and winding her arms around my neck, finally beginning to kiss me back.

Our lips moved in synch, but I could tell she was hesitating, and I pulled back, whispering, “I’m so happy, thank you, Cassidy.”

I kissed her again, feeling a twinge of joy erupt in my stomach, my brain unable to process all of the happiness racing through my veins right now, like liquid ecstasy. Kissing her had always felt absolutely amazing, but now it was something else, something that was the cherry on top, making me so happy that I felt as though I could explode.

This time, there was no hesitation, and she sighed against my lips. My hands found their way to her thighs, and I murmured, “Jump.”

She hesitated, pulling back, and I stared into her beautiful chocolate eyes, “Do you trust me?”

She nodded and laughed dryly, “God, I can’t believe I’m saying this—yes, I do.”

I smiled at her, “Then jump.”

So she did. Her fingers gripped onto the collar of my shirt as she leapt up, wrapping her legs around me. My hands were on her back, but I needed more leverage, so I slowly let them slip lower. As if sensing what I was about to ask, she nodded quickly, and I let my hands drift all the way down to her arse, holding her up.

Her legs were making my t-shirt ride up slightly, exposing the bare skin of my hip, and brushing against it. Little tingles danced along my body wherever our bare skin touched without any barriers or boundaries. Her hands fisted the back of my shirt, occasionally slipping under, feeling the muscles of my back contract and expand as I held her.

I slowly turned us around and began walking down the hall, turning into the living room and trying my hardest not to bump into anything; that would’ve completely ruined the mood.

Eventually my knee hit the couch and I collapsed on top of it, laughing when I heard her squeal—she’d never made that noise before. I clambered on top of her messily, desperate to feel her lips against mine again. We kissed long and hard for a few minutes before I moved down, pressing a sweet kiss to her chin before getting to work on her neck.

I kissed and nipped at the column of her throat, making her emit a sound that sounded very much like a moan. Her hands dug deeply into my hair, pulling at it, and I couldn’t help but to smile.

“I just have one condition,” she said breathlessly as I moved up, kissing the spot behind her ear—her sweet spot—and she shuddered quite visibly.

“What’s that?” I murmured, attacking that spot with my lips, kissing it, licking it, taking it between my teeth and biting down gently, everything I did making her body jolt.

“We—we have to go slow,” she got out in between laboured breaths. I nodded, making my way back to her lips and pecking them once, “Right.”

I ruffled the back of my head sheepishly, finally taking in the position we were in. My knees were on either side of her waist, my forearms near her head, and we were making out. I smiled embarrassedly, “I guess this really isn’t going slow then, is it?”

“No,” she laughed somewhat sadly.

That made my heart somersault; so she hadn’t wanted to stop either? Well, that was good to know.

I climbed off of her and helped her pull herself up, gazing at her, watching how she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, watching how she bit her lip nervously, how her eyes flickered everywhere but my face. Chuckling, I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger, bringing her face to meet mine so that she had to look at me.

“Hey,” I said gently, inhaling the scent of a fruity aroma, “I don’t mind.”

To prove my point, I kissed her cheek, and I felt her smile. I could’ve easily kissed her lips, but I had refrained from doing so, just to prove my point to her. She smirked bashfully, looking down at the floor.

Huh, I liked this Cassidy just as much as I liked the stubborn, prideful side.

“Want to watch a movie?” I asked, moving closer to her on the couch. She nodded, “I’ll go get the popcorn.”

She was already standing, but I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, so I began getting up from the couch too, “I’ll come help.”

“Oh, no,” she said, putting her hands on my shoulders and pushing me back down, “I can make popcorn myself,” she said exasperatedly, but she was smiling, horrible at keeping a poker face, “Just stay here and pick a movie.”

I rolled my eyes playfully as she disappeared into the kitchen. Looking over, I saw that her phone was resting on the arm of the couch, so I quickly grabbed it, opened it, and punched my number in. Then I used her phone to text me, so that I had her number as well.

I flicked open the telly, pretending nothing had happened and flipped to the Netflix channel, clicking the search bar. “Love…Actually,” I mumbled quietly as I keyed in the words.

“You’re picking Love Actually, aren’t you?” she yelled out from the kitchen, and I laughed.

Notes

Yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed the update! I'm happy with all the comments I received, but I only got ONE VOTE from the last chapter! Let's change that please! I won't update again until I get to 87 votes! Random number I know :p

Random fact: The average life of a taste bud is 10 days.

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