Red.

Cold fingers slipping under my sweatshirt and running over my warm stomach is what woke me up on Christmas morning. I let out a small groan, turning my body away from the frozen fingers. “Harry stop,” I mumbled out, pulling his hand out from under my shirt. I heard his low chuckle as he began placing kisses all over my face. “Haaaaarrrryyyyyyy…” I whined, scrunching up my face in protest.

“It’s Christmas morning, Kaylin. Everyone else is waiting downstairs for you to come down so we can open gifts and eat.” I rolled back around, cracking one eye open and looking at Harry’s bright smile.

“How can you be so happy right now?” I muttered out as I moved closer to him to nestle into his chest. I felt his lips press down onto my head.

“Because I’m with you,” he mumbled against my hair. His words never fail to make my heart melt.

“Gee, since you put it that way…” I pulled back with a smile and he let out a laugh pecking my lips before rolling out of bed, holding his hand out.

“Come on, babe.” I relented and placed my hand in his, allowing him to pull me up into his chest. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and place a soft kiss onto my forehead. “I love you,” he almost whispered out. The corners of my lips tugged upwards into a smile and I kissed the spot on his neck that drove him crazy. I felt him stiffen slightly.

“I love you too.” He pulled back with a smile.

“Alright, let’s go downstairs before I do something I shouldn’t do.” He slipped his hand into mine and turned to the door, but I pulled him back around, pressing my body into his. I looked up at him with a smirk growing on my lips.

“But what if I wanted you too…” His eyes widened slightly as he hissed in a small breath. I saw the confliction in his eyes: to be a gentleman… Or to take me right now. But he shook his head after regaining his composure.

“No, they’re waiting downstairs… We can’t…” He sounded unsure at first but a small smile appeared on his lips. “We’ll be alone soon.” His words brought in confusion. What did he mean we’d be alone soon? We’re here for another week. With the parents. With Brian in the room next to us. Ugh. That’s definitely not soon enough for me. “You coming?” I noticed Harry was at the door waiting for me with an amused look on his face. My cheeks heated up immediately as he stared at me with a knowing look.

“Yeah,” I barely squeaked out and met him at the door.

“Oh!” I looked up at him, confused by his sudden outburst. “Merry Christmas, love,” he exclaimed before backing me up to the wall and kissing me on the lips… With parted lips… And tongue. He pulled away with a satisfied grin and bounded quickly down the steps, leaving me absolutely breathless and utterly frustrated.

This was going to be a long morning.
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Harry kept his hand on my thigh all through the Christmas dinner, only lifting it when necessary. Brian’s eyes were hard as he stared down at his untouched food. “Brian, honey. You need to eat,” my mom said sweetly, patting his shoulder softly. He snapped his head up, his hard gaze landing on Harry, but Harry didn’t flinch and show any signs of acknowledgement towards my little brother. He just continued to shovel mashed potatoes into his mouth.

“I’m not hungry,” he gritted out. When his eyes met mine, my heart sunk. Not only was he glaring at my boyfriend but at me too.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I spat out weakly before stabbing my fork into a piece of turkey. “Asshole.” I mumbled out quietly. Harry’s hand squeezed my leg tenderly before pulling away.

“Why are you here?” I heard my brother ask bitterly, making my head snap up. He wasn’t asking me, he was asking the man beside me.

“Brian, now co–“ My dad started but Harry cut him off.

“I’m here, because your sister and parents asked me to come.” His eyes stayed glued to Brian’s.

“You have no right being here, after breaking my sister’s hear the way you did. You don’t deserve her.” Harry’s face fell when the harsh words fell from Brian’s mouth.

“That was completely unnecessary, Brian.” I glared at him and turned my head to look at Harry. My eyes immediately softened when his sad eyes didn’t meet mine.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m not entirely hungry anymore.” He stood up; pushing his chair back in then leaned down giving me a soft kiss. Even that simple of a kiss, left me wanting more. He pulled back, only leaving a small space between us. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. I shook my head to protest that my brother was the one at fault not him, but he only gave me a sad smile and nodded at my parents before heading upstairs to our room.

I turned back around, throwing my napkin onto the table. “Thank, Brian. Thanks a lot,” I said bitterly. I pushed my seat back standing up, nearly knocking the chair over.

“He deserves it, Kaylin.”

“No!” I snapped. “No, he doesn’t and you know it. You’re just being an asshole. Grow. Up.” I turned to my parents who were sitting there stiffly. “May I please be excuse?”

“Yes,” my dad said softly. “You may.”

“Thank you.” With that, I ran up the stairs to my old room. I stopped at the door, hearing some banging and cursing. I pushed the door open, peeking inside to see Harry’s clothes thrown all over the floor and him sitting on the bed with his head in hands, cursing to himself. “Harry?” A sound hardly came out of my mouth; I was surprised when his head snapped up. He stood up instantly, walking to me and taking me into his arm.

“I’m so sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to start anything, I swear.”

“Harry,” I started, pushing on his chest slightly to pull back and look up at him. He loosened his arms, allowing me to take in his frazzled appearance. I reached my hand up and brushed his unruly curls back into place. “It wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry he was just being a jerk. Mom and dad understand it’s not your fault, I promise.” He let out a heavy sigh.

“It’s just, he was being a proper tosser and I just couldn’t not say anything. But when he said that… I just had to get out of there.” He brushed his fingers across my cheek before threading them loosely into my hair. “It’s still a sensitive topic with me…” I leaned up on my tiptoes, brushing my lips against his briefly.

“He’s just stupid. I love you and that’s all that matters,” I told him before leaning up to kiss his lips, but the door from across the hall slammed shut, shaking the frames on the wall, violently. “I should go talk to my mom and dad.” He nodded, dropping his hand slowly from my hair.

Dad wasn’t in the kitchen when I reached the bottom of the stairs, but mom was carrying the turkey dish to the counter. I ran across the room, taking it from her and carrying it the rest of the way to the counter. “Oh thanks, sweet girl.” I nodded and continued to help her with putting the food away and washing the dishes.

“I’m sorry about dinner Momma.” She shook her head before turning on the water, letting it warm up.

“Brian’s been moody lately. I told him to apologize to Harry; he’s done nothing wrong.” I nodded in agreement, dropping the conversation.

Mom continued scrubbing weakly at the plate in the sink, letting the warm water run over it. It was close to ten o’clock now and I could tell she was exhausted after all the cooking and cleaning. I stood next to her, watching her movements and waiting for her to hand me the dish to put in the dishwasher. She lifted the dish from the sink and handed it to me, giving me a small smile. I smiled back, leaning down and settling the last plate in the bottom rack of the washer. I closed the machine after putting the detergent inside and looked over at mom. “Harry’s a nice boy, Kay.” If only she knew how he acted behind closed doors… I felt my cheeks burn almost instantly at the thought. After a whole day of being completely sexually frustrated, I couldn’t help but think about him that way.

“Yeah, he is.” I paused thinking over her words before blurting out, “He’s not a boy mom. He’s definitely a man!” I knew my cheeks were red now especially since she was staring at me with a small smirk on her lips and eyebrows raised. I let out a nervous chuckle and crossed my arms, avoiding her eyes.

“It’s alright, baby.” She let out a laugh. “You’re an adult now. At least now I know I definitely know to wash the sheets after you two leave.” I gasped, looking at her with wide eyes and a flushed face.

“Mom!”

“What?” She asked with amusement floating around in her brown eyes.

“How’d you know?” I asked embarrassingly. She threw her head back and let out a loud laugh.

“You two aren’t as sneaky as you think you are, honey.” I threw my head into my hands, feeling the warmth from my face on my palms.

“Ugh!” I laughed in my hands and mom wrapped her arms around me, kissing the top of my head with a laugh.

“It’s alright.” I pulled back, shaking my head with a shy smile. “I’m gonna head to bed now. I’m wiped out after all this. Merry Christmas,” she said with a warm motherly smile.

“You too, Ma.” I kissed her cheek and watched her walk slowly out of the kitchen to her room.

“What were you and your mom laughing about down there?” I heard Harry ask as soon as I stepped into my old room. I chuckled quietly and shook my head.

“Nothing, just mother and daughter stuff.” I saw him grimace slightly and rolled my eyes, picking up a shoe from the floor and throwing it at him.

“Hey!” He laughed out, catching the shoe and tossing it to the floor. I crawled into bed, lying next to him. I felt the bed dip slightly as he moved closer to lean over and kiss my neck with wet, open-mouthed kisses.

“Harry we can’t,” I protested, pushing on his chest, weakly with one hand. But he continued making my shoving falter completely.

“Why not?” He asked, huskily. His hand slipped under my pajama pants and underwear, sliding a finger over the most sensitive spot on my body. I pulled in a shaky gasp. He pulled back his hand, making me whimper. “You want it…” His voice was smooth and seductive, making my insides melt.

“I do.” My voice was weak and airy as my heart began racing. I swallowed back a small moan as he ran his fingers slowly over my body. “But my mom knows,” I barely whisper out. “She’ll hear us and know.”

“Then I’ll make sure you’re quiet,” he said smoothly, sliding his hand right under my butt on my thigh. His hand slid down my thigh and pulled me to my side, grounding our hips together. My heart pounded against my chest. I choked back a moan after feeling his bulge press into my core. “Do you not want me?”

“Harry.” It sounded more like a moan than a protest, which was not helping my case. Of course I wanted him. The question was: when did I not want him? “The bed’s too loud…” And it is. It’s squeaky and it moves too much. He knows that. That was all he was talking about after the first time we made love on this bed just nights ago. How the sounds of the bed hitting the wall was turning him on more…

“I guess we’ll just changed position tonight.” His mischievous, lust-filled eyes met mine, making my heart thump harder against my chest.

“What do you mean?” I barely squeak out.

“You. On top.”

That was enough agreement to make me throw myself at him.

And let’s just say… Switching didn’t help anyway.
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The bed dipped tremendously, making me sink into the bed and roll over to whoever caused it to happen. My eyes flew open and met a very naked and horny Harry. I sat up, holding the sheet up to my bare chest. “Come on, you could at least give me some warning.” I looked down and blushed immediately, regretting looking down.

“I love that I can still make you blush,” he whispered out, brushing his fingers over my warm cheek. I looked up at his grinning face and felt my face burn more. “Okay, anyway here’s your gift…” He shoved a rectangular box into my hands. “I was going to give it to you last night, but uh, got a little distracted.” His cheeks turned red and my eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Harry, are you…” I leaned in closer to look at his cheeks, causing them to turn redder. “Are you blushing?” I asked in complete exasperation. I bit my lip to hold back my laughter.

“Just open the damn thing, yeah?” He demanded weakly, the growing smile on his lips betraying his irritation. I giggled and pulled the box open, looking inside to see two slips of paper. I stared down at it in confusion and lifted one out to look closer at it. It was a plane ticket. Well two tickets. To Paris. I stared at the ticket in complete shock. Of course, I live only five and a half hours away from the city of love, but I’ve never had the time to actually go since I spent most of my time off at the office or here in Tampa. Now, Harry has bought us two tickets to go and… My eyes scan over the date:

December 26, 2017

And there’s no return date on there. He has no intention of going home right away.

“Harry…”

“Oh god, you hate it. I knew you wouldn’t like it. It’s to–“ I cut him off with my lips, throwing the ticket down and moving to straddle his hips and wrap my arms around his neck. His hands found my hips and he threw me back down onto the bed, not breaking the kiss. Our lips moved eagerly together and tongues danced around each other’s mouths. I pulled back; pushing back his floppy curls out of his eyes with my fingers.

“I love it, Harry. Thank you.” I pecked his slightly swollen lips.

“Thank god… I already talked to your parents about it a few weeks ago. They don’t mind us leaving early.” So they even knew this whole time and didn’t say anything?

“Okay,” I whispered with a huge grin on my face. I picked up the tickets to look over the details more.

Departure time: 8:30pm EST

Arrival time: 6:30am CET

“We leave today…”

“Yeah… I hope you don’t mind. I picked a late flight so you could sleep through the night and you can also have time to pack and say goodbye and stuff,” he rambled on. A small laugh escaped through my lips and he glanced down at my lips then up to my eyes. “I guess I should go take a cold shower now…”

“Yep,” I agreed, patting his chest softly.

“That’s alright. I’ll get more on our holiday anyway,” he stated smugly, getting up to pull on some sweats and grab extra clothing. I gasped, grabbing a small throw pillow and chucking it in Harry’s direction.

“Harold!” He laughed out loud and ran from the room to the bathroom. The pillow hit the door as he slammed it shut, running out. I fell back onto the bed looking up at the ceiling with a smile, and then getting up to get dress for the day and pack up.

“What time are you leaving, Kay-Kay?” Brian asked me when he walked into the kitchen to join me for a late lunch.

“Pro’bly around six so we can get through security and make our flight on time. It’s going to be crazy with everyone heading home from holiday.” I saw him glance at the clock.

“That’s so soon.” He mumbled out, taking a sip of his sweet tea.

“I know, I’m sorry. It was unexpected, Bri-Bri.” I saw his lips tug upwards at the old nickname. “Don’t complain about me never coming home. You don’t come and see me so, yeah.” He shrugged, sitting down at the round glass table across from me.

“I’m a broke college student, Kay. I can’t just drop everything to come and see you.”

“Now you know how I felt the last five years.” I stated simply before taking a bite out of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I hold back a moan, relishing the taste of the simple sandwich. He grunted in agreement, gulping down his tea.
Awkwardness filled the air, as the only sounds heard were Harry’s heavy footsteps from upstairs, my chewing, and Brian’s gulping. I listened to Harry’s footsteps noticing that he was in my room, packing. He still hasn’t understood the concept of thin walls. I shook my head a little before getting up and throwing my paper plate in the trashcan and putting my empty glass in the sink. “Mom and dad are going to find out Brian…” I whispered, sitting back down across from him. “You have to stop,” I pleaded him, leaning onto the table.

“I just can’t stop, Kay. It’s not that simple.” His voice was clipped and tense.

“Please, Brian…” He continued to stare down at his now empty glass, his fingers turning white at the tension from squeezing the cup too hard. I hated seeing him like this… So broken. His girlfriend of three years broke off their relationship after deciding it was too hard to be away from him for so long. I understood what he was going through but he seemed to be taking it harder than I ever did. I turned to school and work for distraction, and only drank alcohol when the pain was too much. But he turned to something much worse than alcohol. He started using pot just weeks after the break up wanting to numb the pain, only using it when the pain seemed unbearable. It turned into a daily routine: go to all his classes then football practice, and then take a hit to release the stress and heartache. Doesn't seem like much, and it didn't... Until I found the white powdery substance in his jacket. He was lucky it was me and not mom doing the laundry four nights ago.

“I can’t…” His once warm brown eyes, now dark and empty, looked into mine and I saw all the pain I once felt. I now understand why he’s been so bitter towards Harry and me. He wants what we have; love. He’s spent three years completely in love with that girl and she left him with absolutely nothing but heartache.

“You have to get help Brian… You can’t do this to yourself,” I said, my voice breaking. “I know you’re hurt, I get it. But you can’t do this. You’ll lose everything. Football, school... Everything you’ve worked for.”

“I’ve already lost everything the day she left me.” I felt that way too. I couldn’t get out of bed for days.

“I know,” I whispered, feeling my eyes burn as tears threatened to fall. I got up and walked around the table, pulling him into me letting his head press into my chest. I raked my fingers through his hair and laid my head on top of his. He clung onto me, letting sobs rack his body. I’ve never seen him so broken and… Vulnerable. “I know, Brian.” I repeated, letting a tear fall.
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It felt like the day back when I first left Tampa to go to London, but today was different. It was better because instead I wasn’t flying alone. I had the man I love with me. And instead of going to London right, I was to going to the city of love. With the man I love.

“I’m going to miss you, sweet girl. Come back soon, please?” I just nodded, hugging mom close for one last time.

“I promise,” I whispered before pulling away to say goodbye to dad. Brian and Harry were talking quietly when I was bidding my goodbyes to my parents. My eyebrows rose when I saw them shake hands and give each other a tight hug. When Brian pulled away from Harry, he had a bright smile on his face as he made his way to me and pulled me into a tight embrace.

“I’ll tell mom and dad as long as you promise me one thing,” he whispered into my ear.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Just say yes.” My eyebrows furrowed in confusion when I pulled back but he simply shook his with a smile. “You’ll understand one day, I promise.” He kissed my forehead before dropping his arms and allowing me to meet Harry by security.

“What’d he say?” Harry asked curiously, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and walking towards security.

“Nothing, just being Brian I guess.” I smiled, looking up at him and he smiled back, leaning down and pecking my lips.

After going through security, I turned back around and saw my family still there with smiles on their faces. I laughed quietly, lifting my hand and giving them a small wave, which they returned before leaving.

“Ready?” Harry asked when our flight was called. He took my carry on and pulled on to his shoulder with his bag on his other shoulder. He held his hand out for me to take. I slapped his hand with a teasing grin, making him roll his eyes and reach for my hand. I laced my fingers through his when our palms connected.

“Always.”