Deception - H.S

Chapter 73

Hope Whitlock

I think waking up next to Harry was my new favorite thing right after his eyes. I wasn't really a morning person, it takes me at least two alarms to open my eyes and three to actually get out of bed so the days I had to wake up early, which was almost daily now was tiring and put me in a whiney mood. However, Harry found a little trick to get rid of the whining by waking me up with kisses, it started when he did it a few days ago and continued to do ever since. So, I woke up laughing instead of complaining about how it should be illegal to function before 11am.

He gave me about ten more minutes in bed but leaned over my body and pulled my blanket down along with pulling his shirt that was covering me up to my waist, exposing my lower half.

I couldn't see what he was up to since his body was perpendicular to mine, his head and shoulders blocking my view of my bottom half, his back facing me. I was too sleepy to pay attention to him but when I felt something cold tickling my skin, I was on alert.

"Are you drawing on my hips?!" I exclaimed.

"Shh..." he swats my ass to get me to stop moving.

The more I paid attention to his actions, the more I realized – he was tracing my stretch marks again. It made me frown, making me feel extremely insecure because he was paying so much attention to them.

I buried my head back into the pillow, unsure of what to do and try to push the insecurity away since I couldn't get him to stop.

After a few moments, he places a soft kiss on my hip, turning around and sitting crisscross. "Look." He pointed at my hips, I peeled my eyes away from him, seeing that he had drawn over each of my stretch marks with golden glitter.

"You better start thinking of them as pretty now or I'm gonna have to do it every day." He flips the golden glitter pen into the air and catches it.

He was so fucking sweet, it was like he was trying to suffocate my heart with nothing but positivity and care.

The reason I had to wake up early was because Harry was keen on teaching me some self-defense in the hotel gym before we had to practice the new song chosen for today's show and then do the actual show.

I had forgotten to tell Harry that Niall knew about us but when I did, he was ecstatic and spread his arms out to his sides and yelled "thank fucking hell!" which confirmed that the only reason he was being careful with the hickeys and the few stolen touches is out of respect for my wishes. Cute.

We had a quick breakfast and shared a cup of coffee because Harry was hell-bent on getting out of our hotel room by 9am sharp. I was dressed in plain black leggings and a dark grey t-shirt that I had knotted on the back as my gym wear, wearing my dirty white sneakers that Harry shook his head at saying I needed new shoes.

First stop was my hotel room, we found a box placed on the small coffee table but nothing else was found, no cryptic messages on the wall or mirrors and no booby traps like I was anticipating. Harry said we didn't have to read it right now but I insisted, the curiosity would get the better of me and not let me fully focus on "training" as Harry called it.

Harry made me wait until we got to our hotel room to open the box, finding the signature note, same paper, same font.

"1826 days, most of them lonely

Even the ones around you, didn't know them truly

Heartbreak, lies, betrayal

Will you ever figure out why you're not worthy?