The Sound of Silence 2 // H.S.

22

"Nikki, shut up. You're tiny!" I do push ups at a steady pace without any difficulty. My injured wrist wasn't bothering me at all this week, but I knew I still needed to get it looked at.

"Sooo you didn't say anything before. Do you want us to be open about our relationship? I mean, I'm sure people will know, but I don't know how guarded you want us to be..." Her voice vibrated down my back. I rather liked feeling her on top of me like this. I switch to using only one arm. Her sweet giggles and mutters of 'bloody show off' make grin from ear-to-ear.

"I'll share you with the world, not only because I inevitably have to, but because I'm also proud to call you mine. Obviously we won't share every aspect of our life. I plan on keeping you forever and a day."

"Only a day past forever? I think I wanna end this now before the doomed end!" She rolls off my back when I go down and pretends to faint on the padded floor. I crawl over and kiss her pouty lips until she's laughing for me to stop. I stare into her eyes, all laughter trailing off into silence. She tugs on my cross necklace, our lips meeting in a soft kiss that quickly gets heated.

They do say that working out together is quite the aphrodisiac.

I'm going to marry this woman.

I fucked this up before, but never again.

Our family and friends had left the day before. I made sure to spend a couple of days alone with my mum, Robin, and Gemma. Nikki didn't mind since she had some work to do. Her first single was dropping in two weeks, which was also a reminder of what little time we had left here in our sanctuary.

"We have work to do, Mrs. Co-Songwriter. If we shower together it'll be faster." I smile down at her flushed face. She pulled me down for more kisses, her tight grip on my ass causing me to grunt.

"Mrs.?" She pulls away breathlessly and raises an eyebrow.

"I'm writing the words. You're writing the music. Sounds like a marriage to me." I stand up and pick her up bridal-style, carrying her from the in-home gym to our bedroom.

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Seeing Nikki in her element was absolutely mesmerizing. Everything comes to her so naturally and I'm not even sure how she takes the vague ideas I think of and knows exactly what I mean and what to do with them. I'm terrible at putting what I see or hear in my head into words. I can visualize an idea, but communicating it and executing it isn't my strong suit.

"How on earth do you do that?" I gape at her while listening to the guitar sections her and Mitch wrote along with the percussion piece for Sarah. We both had the piano part written for days as a skeleton along with words.

"What?" She swiveled around in her chair to look at me. She had on her eyeglasses that she rarely wore. I was being filmed throughout the day, so I had my contacts in. My eyes dried out too fast with the sea breeze in Jamaica. but my glasses made me look, for lack of a better word—dorky.

"In all the time that we've known each other, I finally see for myself what all the fuss is about. People always rave about working with you. I knew you were a brilliant performer, but you really are a true musician." I laugh at my fangirling reaction. I've been in awe of her all day. "You're incredible, darling."

"Styles, you have me. You don't have to try this hard to get into my pants." Nikki jokes, never being able to take a compliment. She rubs her rosy cheeks. The look on her face is adorably bashful. "Thank you, Harry. That means a lot coming from you."

I kiss her to calm her sudden discomfort of me showering her with compliments. When I pretend to munch on her cheeks she playfully smacks me away with a giggle.