Always

Chapter 37

"It's so amazing to hear you say that, Joey. Especially after I... thought I ruined everything," he said quietly, his face showing a hint of sadness and regret.

"You didn't ruin everything, Harry, I'm here, aren't i?" I replied, wishing he would stop blaming himself and feeling so guilty.

"You are," he said, smiling slowly.

"Just never, ever do that again," I requested, smiling softly, although completely serious. "I don't know if I could take that, again." It was the truth; it had nearly destroyed me the first time, I don't think I could manage feeling like that ever again.

"I won't, Joey, I promise," he said earnestly. His eyes searched mine intently, silently begging me to believe him. I did.

"Okay," I said again, smiling once more as he leaned in to kiss me. His lips shaped softly against mine, kissing me in the slow, thorough way that only he knew how. Even now, after all we had been through, his kisses set my heart on fire.

"We have school," he said suddenly, mumbling against my lips as he said so before returning his mouth to mine. I groaned. School was the last place I wanted to be. All I wanted to do today was stay wrapped in this cocoon with Harry, laughing, touching, kissing, anything.

"No," I replied softly before sliding my tongue along his lip, trying to coerce him.

"Hmm, Joey," he mumbled. "We have to go."

Damn him and his religiously studious ways. "You haven't been to school for three days," he reminded me as he pulled back an inch or so.

"So," I said stubbornly, pouting out my lower lip like a child.

"So you should come back," he said playfully. "I've missed seeing you there."

"But you could see me here, all day, naked might I add," I said, grinning at him and raising my eyebrows suggestively. He blushed. It was amazing to me that we could share so much, yet I still had the power to make him blush with the tiniest of comments. I ran reached my hand up to run my fingertips along his cheek, feeling the slight heat from the blood resting below his skin.

"That's very tempting," he said. "But we still should go."

I rolled my eyes teasingly at him. Such a good student. "Fine, but I'm not happy about it," I said, feigning anger and wrinkling my forehead in a scowl.

"Oh hush," he teased. "Thank you, love."

My heart fluttered again. I loved that he had just called me "love." He leaned up and pressed a kiss to my forehead, smoothing out the frown that had formed before pushing himself up to raise himself off me. Immediately my body felt cold, missing the heat of him pressed against me.

He crawled out of bed, dragging his large, naked frame from the confines of the covers before quickly finding his pair of boxers to throw on, much to my disappointment. My eyes raked up his back, the muscles there taught beneath his skin, wide shoulders flexing as he moved. He turned around to see me observing him and blushed deeply, very much not used to anyone seeing him naked. I giggled at his modesty as he shot me a reproachful look.

"Oi, are you going to get out of bed or what?" he asked after clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"Don't rush me, you're lucky I agreed to go to school at all," I laughed. I stretched my arms lazily above my head, reveling in the feeling of my muscles relaxing. Sitting up, I pulled myself out of bed and stood up. Harry quickly averted his eyes from my exposed body and began busying himself with finding something to wear. He was so adorable.

After managing to find some clothes that weren't in a hopeless pile on my floor, I pulled them on and examined my outfit. It was extremely casual and it wasn't exactly what I would normally wear to school, but I didn't care. If he was going to make me go, I could at least be comfortable.

My hair, on the other hand, was nowhere near acceptable. The back of it was slightly matted, tangled from all the distress caused by Harry and the sheets, while the front stood up in a weird cowlick I had never had before. I sighed in defeat as I managed to rake it all up into a pony-tail rather than attempt to conquer it.

After sorting myself out, I turned to see that Harry had also gotten dressed. Also putting on his clothes from last night, he had pulled on his usual jeans, along with a plain white t-shirt, just like he frequently wore. The wide scoop of the collar allowed his the exposure of his clavicle, which looked extremely inviting to me.

I crossed the room to where he stood in front of the mirror, attempting to calm his hair down. He smoothed his hands through it, managing to reign in the curly locks and get it relatively smooth against his head, similar to how he used to always wear it.

Without his glasses, which still lay broken on his dresser at his house, he was like a perfect mix of the old, nerdy style Harry and this new, wilder looking Harry. No matter what, though, he always looked perfect to me.

He turned to face me when I reached him and looked down at me. Without saying anything, I leaned up on my toes and pressed a kiss to the base of his neck, just above his collarbone. I pulled back a little only to dive in again, placing another kiss to his skin, this time allowing my tongue to dart out. I felt him exhale softly, the air whooshing past my ear.

My lips peppered against him, pushing against his skin, trialing up higher and higher along his neck until I reached the hollow under his ear, where my teeth sunk into his skin softly. He groaned as his hands wound around my back, pulling me against him. My teeth then took his ear lobe between them, tugging on lit lightly and running my tongue along the edge of it.

"Joey," he moaned. "If you keep doing that, we're never going to get to school."

I smirked. Exactly. "I don't know what you mean," I breathed into his ear before sliding my tongue back along his skin again. My lips trailed across his cheek now, pressing slow kisses to the smooth skin, inching closer and closer to his mouth. When I finally reached his lips, he was panting softly, exhaling steadily through his slightly parted mouth.

My eyes flicked up to his, meeting his green gaze, which was intensely directed at me. With the slightest smirk, I leaned forward and gently bit his lower lip, tugging it into my mouth to run my tongue across it. He hesitated for a second before giving in and quickly bringing his hands to cup my face, crashing his lips into my own and taking control of the kiss. His lips parted my urgently, dipping his tongue into my mouth and massaging it against mine.

My hands gripped at his shirt on his hips, pulling him flush against me. His lips captured mine over and over, alternating between molding against them, tugging on the softly, and spreading them apart, kissing me deeply, soundly. His hands had just started to trail down my body when I pulled back suddenly, breaking apart our kiss, leaving him panting.

"Let's go to school," I said, smirking at him. His mouth hung open as he looked at me.

"Now?" he asked, clearing his throat again and trying to reign in the wild look in his eyes.

"Yep," I said, smiling at him. "You're the one who wanted to go so bad," I teased.

"Um... yeah. Yeah, let's go," he said, tugging on his jeans quickly, adjusting himself. I smirked again. "Don't look so smug," he replied upon seeing my expression.

"I don't know what you mean," I said sarcastically. As bad as I felt for teasing him, it felt good to know that I would be the thing on his mind all day, especially now that I had him all worked up. "You ready?"

"Yep," he said, grabbing my backpack from under my desk and handing it to me. "That really wasn't nice, by the way," he shot.

I shrugged. "Oh well," I said innocently, smiling at him. He returned my grin, indicating he wasn't actually mad before grabbing my hand and tugging.

"Let's go."

Thanks for reading! Just to let you guys know, it's my university's homecoming this weekend so I probably won't be able to update tomorrow because I'll be busy doing stuff, but I'll do my best to update Sunday again! Sorry!! xx