Just a Photographer (Niall Horan)

Chapter 9

"Wake up Ava!" I heard Niall shout as he gently moved my hair out of my face before kissing my forehead and whispering in my ear:

"Wake up darlin', it's your birthday and I've made you breakfast". I felt my eyelashes flutter against my cheek before I slowly opened my eyes and saw Niall standing over me with a soft smile on his face.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked quietly, 
"Yeah it was fine, would have been better if you'd let me sleep longer though"
"You need to wake up! It's your birthday and I've spent ages making you breakfast" Niall moaned with a pout. I finally sat up and Niall carefully handed me the tray of food before walking round to the other side of the bed and climbing under the covers as he was shirtless and only wearing sweatpants and it was still quite cold outside. 
After I had shared my breakfast with Niall, we made our way through to the living room where I was shocked to see a pile of presents.

"What is this? Niall you didn't need to."

"No, I didn't need to, but I wanted to, and it wasn't just me, these are from all of your friends and family," Niall told me before he rested his hand on my lower back and pushed me towards the pile. I sat down on the sofa next to the pile and moved to begin opening them.

The first package had a card taped on it and I saw that it was from Tara, Ellie and Sienree. They got me some new makeup and a really pretty dress and there was a note in the card telling me to wear the dress for my birthday night out tonight. My family also bought me some presents which Niall had hidden from me until today. Finally, I opened the present which I recognised had Niall's handwriting on the card, I looked up at him and smiled before opening the first box (yes, he bought more than one box!). I let out a gasp when I saw what he got me and immediately jumped into Niall's arms, I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. He let out a laugh and wrapped his arms around me as well.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you" I repeated over and over in his ear, not even wanting to imagine how much the brand new, professional camera would have cost him, I knew money didn't really matter to him but I was still beyond thankful.

"You're very welcome, my love. Happy birthday" Niall whispered into my ear, still holding me tight against his body. After about 10 minutes of staying like that, not even thinking about how intimate it was that we were hugging like that in our pyjamas. Niall gently lowered me down onto the sofa, once I had unwrapped my legs from around his waist, he pressed a kiss on my cheek, dangerously close to my mouth before standing up again with a wide smile on his lips.

After I had had a shower and gotten dressed, I walked back into the living room where I saw Niall lying on the sofa, watching golf. As soon as he saw me enter the room, he turned the tv off and patted the space next to him on the sofa, I went and sat next to him. He told me about how he was taking me out to a club, and we would meet all of my friends there and I needed to be ready by half past 8. To keep me occupied until then I made Niall do a photoshoot with my new camera while staying in Niall's apartment, the photos actually ended up looking really good, so I uploaded them onto my laptop for the next time we might need photos of Niall.

It was now 8 o'clock and I was getting ready for my night out, I had done my makeup pretty natural except from the dark eyeshadow and I was wearing the new dress Tara, Ellie and Sienree got me for my birthday. It was dark blue velvet, figure hugging and ended just below my bum, I was feeling a bit self-conscious however I decided to wear the dress anyway as I was sure they must've spent quite a bit of money on it and I didn't want to seem ungrateful.

I left my bedroom once I was completely ready and stopped in the doorway as I heard a gasp from behind me. I turned around to see Niall, also dressed very nicely standing in the hall with his jaw dropped, not so subtly checking me out, making me forget all about my self-consciousness.

"Wow! Ava you look absolutely stunning! Is that your new dress?" Niall asked me, with slightly pink cheeks, once he had controlled himself enough to talk.

"Yeah it is. And thank you very much, you also look very handsome" I complimented back, trying to act calm although I knew Niall would be able to see my blushing cheeks.

We had just arrived at the club and after greeting my friends and accepting all of the happy birthdays sent my way, me and Niall were finally able to make our way to the bar and order some drinks, he obviously didn't let me pay for anything.

Once we were all pleasantly buzzed, we all made our way to the dance floor and I once again grabbed Niall's hand and forced him to dance with me. After he was slightly more drunk, he went behind me and pulled me so my back was pulled flush against his chest, every inch of our bodies pressed together. We stayed like that for a while, just slowly grinding on each other before I let out a gasp as I felt something hard press against my back. I immediately realised what it was and felt my chest tighten: Why the fuck had Niall Horan got a boner from dancing with me? Instead of acknowledging it I just kept dancing, too drunk to think too much about it. We kept dancing like that for hours, like no one else in the world existed and it was just me and Niall. I don't remember anything after that point however I assumed Niall must have helped me home at the end of the night.

When I woke up in the morning, I was only wearing the underwear I was wearing last night, and I could feel a warm body pressed up to me when I tried to move. My eyes shot open and I recognised my bedroom, but I couldn't think who would be sleeping next to me. I bent my neck in an attempt to see who it was and nearly let out a gasp when I saw that it was Niall, but he didn't seem to be wearing any clothes. My mind began racing, thinking about all of the different problems this could bring and I had one big, important question repeating itself in my mind: did I sleep with him? I decided to try and get out of bed without waking Niall up however as soon as I started to move, I heard him grumbling under his breath. Now that he was awake, he had loosened his grip on me enough that I could turn around so that I was facing him.

"Niall...what happened last night?" I asked him quietly, scared of the answer and what would change if I had slept with him,

"Hmm" he just grumbled in response,

"Niall! What happened last night?" I asked him a bit louder and he must have sensed the panic in my voice as he finally opened his eyes and responded. 

"I took you home and you wouldn't let go of me so I promised that I would sleep with you in your bed but we couldn't sleep until we got changed so while I took my trousers and shirt off you took your dress off, but you fell asleep before you could put your pyjamas on," he mumbled sleepily. 

I let out a breath of relief, I did have a crush on Niall but I couldn't sleep with my boss and best friend and risk getting fired.