The Beautiful Escape [ZARRY]

4

Grunting with effort, Harry rolled onto his back. For only the third time in his life, he was literally seeing stars. He ruthlessly gathered his drifting sense, the halo vanished and he realised he wasn't seeing an angel but a dark-headed school girl. Given the clear falsetto of her singing voice, the girl had a surprisingly low, pleasing speaking voice.

"I'll do my level best," the leather-clad figure promised, much to Zayn's relief.

"I live just over there." The scarf Zayn wore wrapped twice around his head to indicate the overgrown path behind them. "I'll go and get help."

Zayn froze with shock when a large hand curled firmly around his forearm.

 "No, don't do that." He hadn't figured out the context of his injuries yet, and if the girl disappeared who knew if she'd ever come back or get help? The kid looked scared half to death.

"Give me hand to get up."

He seemed determined to get up with or without Zayn's help, so Zayn shrugged philosophically and helpfully slid his arm under the shoulders of the tall, curly-headed figure.

It wasn't easy as Zayn had expected; he might be lean, but the unexpected visitor was endowed with a generous share of muscle and there wasn't a single useful roll of excess flesh or fat to grab onto.

"Ahh...!"

The involuntary grunt of pain that escaped his firmly clamped lips made Zayn jerk back with a similar squeak. 

"Did I hurt you...? I'm so sorry."

If all he'd done was bust his shoulder he'd got off pretty lightly. Harry supported his injured arm with his healthy arm and hauled himself upright, ignoring the sharp, burning pain in his shoulder as best as he could. Nostrils flared, he spared the hovering girl a brief glance. The kid had a soft face, sharp nose and big brown eyes, and she looked as if she was going to throw up- which made the two of them.

"Not your fault," he gritted. The knowledge that he couldn't blame anyone but himself for his present situation wasn't doing anything to improve Harry's frayed temper.

"Should you be doing that?" Zayn wondered fretfully, watching the tall figure get slowly to his feet.

The stranger ignored his query. "Listen, I think I might have hurt my shoulder."

From where Zayn was standing there didn't seem to much 'might' about it. It was obvious the man was in pain; it was also obvious he was more good-looking than any man had a right to be.

Zayn's slight awed gaze was tinged with vague resentment as he took the impressive overall effect of the combination of the shapely jaw, firm and luscious mouth and straight patrician nose. Even if you took that rich, dark curls complete with auburn highlights and those stunning green eyes out of the equation, he was knockout material; with them, he became almost too handsome.

Those spectacular eyes were at the moment slightly dazed as he looked around, obviously trying to get his bearings.

"I've got a phone in my pocket." Lifting his arm from his chest, Harry nodded towards the breast pocket of his leather jacket. "Could you fish it out for me...?"

The kid was looking at him as if he'd grown two heads, which, given the cautionary tales that were drummed into the youth of today about strangers, was hardly surprising. Harry attempted a strained smile.

"I'm quite harmless." He used the tone he normally reserved for frightened animals- perhaps it would work on kids too?

Zayn almost laughed at this preposterous claim- no man with a mouth like his could be classified as harmless! He withdrew his gaze from the said mouth with some difficulty- it was, after all, rude to stare.

Zayn took a deep breath' he felt oddly reluctant to touch him, which was strange because he usually had to repress his naturally tactile nature.

"Inside pocket."
Zayn swallowed and for some reason got a lot clumsier. His nostrils twitched, and his tummy muscles went all quivery, his twitching nose detected a faint whiff of expensive cologne, but most of all he got a noseful of freshly scrubbed male. The gorgeous stranger felt warm and despite the sub-zero temperatures Zayn suddenly felt uncomfortably hot; he averted his flushed face as his fingers skated lightly over the surface of a broad, solid chest.

The sad thing was this was the closest Zayn had been to anyone since Perrie- How sad is that? Perhaps I'll be reduced to tripping up sexy strangers so I can grope them, Zayn reflected with an angry self-derisive sniff.

It was a relief when he finally retrieved the phone and held it up for his inspection. They could both see straight away the mangled mess was never going to work again.

The stranger swore; considering the circumstances, Zayn thought he was quite restrained. He had no inkling that he was restraining himself in deference to the presence of an impressionable kid. 

"You must have fallen on it," Zayn said sympathetically.

Harry turned his head stiffly, his green eyes gazing directly down into Zayn's face. "Brilliant deduction," he observed nastily.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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