Sonata (Harry Styles FanFiction)

50. It Was All Nonsense

"You really shouldn't make bets with me during the holidays... actually, at all. I have a tendency to be overly competitive." I smirked at him, sipping coyly from my glass.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Are you sure you won't be too full to follow through with your winnings?"

"Oh, darling. You know I'm always hungry for that." He frowned at me, catching my innuendo.

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh, believe me. I know."

Darien Grace

"So, darling, the question of the hour: are you going to be a sore loser, or are you going to play?" I purred, glancing back over my shoulder at him as I closed the door to my bedroom behind us. My entire body was humming with excitement. I'd been dying to open my treasure chest and get down and dirty since I'd met my Dark Adonis and the fact that I was about to be able to do just that was more than I could handle. We were finally alone and now it was time to play.

Jas had crashed about thirty minutes or so after dinner- the week's over-activity and all the boxed shit for wine she'd ingested finally catching up with her. Harry and I had left Caleb and John curled up on the sofa in the living room, Love Actually playing on the flatscreen. As far as they were concerned, Thanksgiving had gone on without a hitch and I had no intention of letting them think otherwise, because aside from the minor thing with Kade, it had. Harry and I were fine, Jas finally showed up, and nothing burned. It was probably one of our most chill Thanksgivings actually. There had always been some sort of hiccup over the past four years, some "hiccups" were bigger than others- mostly my fault- but, Jas had contributed her fair share. Last year I'd shown up completely trashed and had crashed face first into my third plate of sweet potatoes. Caleb and John had to peel me up out of them and carry me upstairs where Jas washed me off and put me to bed. I couldn't even remember what had sent me into that tailspin either. I just remembered drinking a lot. I still couldn't stand the smell of gin.

There was something about this Thanksgiving, though, everything just felt right. There was really no other way to describe it. I couldn't help but wonder if that was what Thanksgiving and most other holidays were like for "normal" families. This had to have been the closest we had ever come to normality and it was surprisingly pleasant. I was on an incredibly lucky streak lately with Harry, school, family, and life in general; I had absolutely no intention of breaking it.

"Why is it that whenever you give me that look, I know I should be dreading whatever follows it?" He chuckled nervously, hedging the side of my bed, stepping subtly back away from me, matching each and every one of my steps forward. Before my birthday, I'd have described the scene as a predator stalking it's prey, but now I saw just how wrong that was. We were both predators, circling the other, searching for any weakness to exploit. He was more subtle when it came to manipulation. You didn't catch it until you were already finished doing whatever it was he'd intended. Me, on the other hand, I more or less bullied my way through life. I knew what I wanted and I knew how to get it, simple as that. Except, nothing was really simple with him. My Dark Adonis completely rewrote all of the rules. Simple was no longer an option. My choices were either "complicated" or "complicated as fuck". He didn't really give me a lot to work with, but, I thought that I was doing a pretty bang up job, considering.

"Because you're a smart boy. I like to reward intuition." I smirked at him. I was in my element. I'd played this scene out so many times already in my head; It was gloriously addictive, It kept me up at night with possibilities. He may have the appearance of a predator, but I had the attitude and the experience. We were playing my game and we were most definitely going to be playing by my rules.