Unguarded (A Harry Styles short)[Completed]

Chapter Six

I awaken to find Harry getting back into bed. It's still dark out. When he hears me move, he turns and gathers me in his arms to hold me. Then he kisses my forehead and says my name before he drifts back to sleep.

I listen to the beat of his heart neath my ear as I lay next to his chest. My thoughts venture to just hours before, when he kissed every inch of my body, stopping at the mean scar on my abdomen. My only explanation was a lie. I couldn't tell him that it was from a knife wound that had sliced through me, inflicted by a thug while working on a case as a field agent. Instead I told him I had my spleen removed from an accident. It was, after all a half truth, they did have to take my spleen out.

I don't want the sun to come up. I don't want to enter the real world tomorrow, and I certainly don't want to one day very soon, have to say goodbye to Harry. My thoughts trigger tears which spill freely. It's so unfair. I have found the life I want with the man I want to be with, but there's the question of how he will feel about me once he knows the truth. When he finds out that I've been lying. The one thing I know for sure is that when this is over, no matter what happens with Harry, I'm through with the Bureau. I no longer want that life. I want something better, as I have tasted the better these last few months.

I'm startled from my thoughts as I feel Harry's hand at my face. His fingers touching the tears I have absently shed.

"What's wrong love?" He asks me, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Nothing's wrong. Just happy." I answer him, with another lie, but he isn't having any of it.

"I know people cry for joy but I've been awake since I got back into bed. These aren't tears of joy. So I'll ask you again love, what's wrong?" He asks, coaxing me, but he is still gentle with his question.

It's that very gentleness that is my undoing and the tears free fall into a downpour. I can only tell him the truth that I'm able to utter to him right now. The truth as to why I'm crying. I hesitate for a moment, then tell him, "I love you, Harry."

Harry is still. At first I think it's because he doesn't know what to say or because he doesn't feel the same way, or maybe he thinks it's crazy for someone to say something so serious just because of an evening of sex.

He sighs and softly says, "Beat you to it love, I fell in love with you in the kitchen that day, when we first danced to our song."

My heart skips a beat. I can't really see him but I can tell he has turned to face me in the dark.

"I figured out who you were within the first week you arrived love. Confronted Jeff, but told him not to say anything to you. Didn't want you to have an excuse to leave."

"You knew as far back as that?" I say to him, my eyes wide with tears and amazement.

"Um hmm. I just came back to bed from checking my phone. It kept beeping that I had a message. It was from Jeff. They've got the people responsible for the threats, arrests have been made and the case is, for the better part, closed."

"Harry, that's great!" I say, but then notice he doesn't respond. "This is good news Harry, aren't you happy?"

There is a pause, then he says to me, "That depends on whether you'll be leaving now, or...or if you want to stay on here with me."

"Stay with you?" I ask, barely getting the words out.

"Harry, I know I came here to protect you, but do you realize, in the end, you're the one that ended up rescuing me?" I ask, as I touch his face. He lets out a breath as if he had been holding it, his eyes still closed.

He grabs my hand and he wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me so I am resting on top of him. I can see his bright green eyes now, even in the dark. They are now addressing my soul.

"You didn't answer my question, love. Will you stay here with me? Will you sing to me again, and for a long time to come?" He asks once more, his voice cracking.

It's hard to speak through my tears but I manage to get out the words, "Yes, I'll sing to you Harry...for a long time to come. As long as you'll want me to."

He slowly turns me so that my back is resting on the bed and he leans over me. He lowers his head and hovers his lips over mine as he murmurs against them, "Then that will be forever love, always and forever."

Pressing me down into the mattress, I can feel his need for me again and it matches my own rising ache. Then he kisses me like there's no tomorrow, and I think to myself that it's the way I'm going to look at every day I have with Harry, from this day forward. Like there's no tomorrow.