Against the Odds

The following Wednesday Emma’s sickness had finally faded, leaving Alex glad it was over and even more glad that she seemed to have escaped getting it herself. Harry had jumped on the chance to finally see for the first time since their interrupted date, and was now at her flat where he had been completely hijacked by Emma who demanded that he play Tea Party with her and Alex.

The three of them sat at the small tea party table in Emma’s room. Emma, who was dressed as Belle, another of her favorite Disney’s Princesses, had insisted that Alex and Harry both dress up as well. For Alex this was no problem, as she could pull of the plastic diamond tiara and feather boa no problem. However, unfortunately for Harry, his tiara and feather boa had turned into Alex’s never-ending source of amusement for the last thirty minutes.

“Emma, don’t you think it’s rude when people laugh at other people at tea parties?” Harry asked as Alex dissolved into giggles for the fifth time. Watching Harry hold his teacup out for Emma with his pinky raised up in the air had been too much for her to handle and she hadn’t been able to keep her mirth in check at all.

“Yes, Mum,” Emma said pointedly to Alex, with only the sass a five-almost-six-year-old can get away with. “It is so rude.”

This only served to send Alex into further convulsions, her hands flying to her face as she tried to hide it.

“You know what I think, Emma? I think your mum shouldn’t be cut off. No more tea for her. What do you think?” Harry asked conspiratorially.

Emma nodded with one large bob of her head, her blond hair bouncing on her shoulders. “Yes, no more tea, and no dessert either!”

Alex tried to feign outrage, but failed miserable, instead shrieking in laughter at the two of them. Her sides were beginning to hurt, and tears were starting to stream from her eyes, but every time she looked up and saw Harry in the tiara and feather boa she couldn’t help herself.

Harry shook his head at her, his lips twitching. “No dessert, huh? Tell me Emma,” he said, turning his direction back to her. “How does your mum punish you when you’ve been bad?”

“I’m never bad,” Emma said so quickly that Harry new it had to be false. Sure enough, this earned another shriek from Alex, who had this point as resorted to wiping her tears of laughter on her shirt sleeve.

“I’m not sure I believe that,” Harry said to Emma, his eyebrows raised.

“Emma, do you know what they do to little girls who lie to Princes?” Alex managed to say between deep breaths.

Emma turned her eyes to her mother and opened them wide. “What?” she asked in a small voice.

“They lock them in The Tower,” Alex said, somehow managing to keep a straight face. She shot a meaningful look at Emma before turning to Harry, praying she could keep the laughter down when she saw his face.

She did, but just barely. He was shaking his head slowly and his lips were twitching, now fighting off the laughter himself.

“Is that true Harry?” Emma asked. Her voice was small and her eyes wide as saucers.

He looked down at her and shrugged. “I mean, if you are going to lie to a Prince, you have to accept the consequences. Of course,” he stopped and leaned down towards Emma, his voice dropping to a whisper. “If you tell me now how your mum punishes you when you’re bad, I’ll promise that you’ll never, ever go to The Tower.”

Emma looked at Alex, who shook her head at her daughter slowly, silently warning her not to tell. Emma, caught between the two, but clearly a smart cookie, leaned towards Harry and whispered, “She makes me sit in the corner.”

Harry threw is head back in laughter and Alex threw her hands up in the hair. “Betrayed by my own kid,” Alex said with a laugh.

“Alright Emma, you know what that means. Your mum was rude so she has to sit the corner,” Harry said.

“I’m not telling her to sit in the corner, you tell her,” Emma said, shaking her head.

“Good try, kiddo, but you are not off the hook,” Alex said with a laugh.

Harry laughed. “Oh I think it’s you who isn’t off the hook, Alexandra. Corner. Go,” he said, pointing to a corner of Emma’s room.

Alex crossed her arm over her chest. “I am not going to the corner.”

“Rules are rules, mummy,” Emma said, clearly imitating something she had heard Alex say many times.

Harry raised his eyebrows. “See? Rules are rules.” His lips curved up into a smug little grin. Which of course sent Alex into fits of laughter again, seeing as he was still wearing the tiara and the feather boa.

“You two are both nuts if you think I am going in the corner. This is my house, I pay the rent, and you two get no say whatsoever,” Alex said once she had recovered. “Now, Emma…it is bath time. You know what to do.”

“Aw, mummy! I want keep playing with Harry!”

Harry stuck out his bottom lip at Emma’s whiny declaration. “Yeah, she wants to keep playing with Harry!”

“Rules are rules, Emma Rose. Go get clean. I’ll come in there in a minute to wash your hair,” Alex said.

Emma pouted but did as she was told, knowing that Alex meant business.

It was no sooner than the bathroom door down the hall closed shut than Alex was out of her tiny chair and climbing on top of Harry, straddling him and hoping his chair would hold them both. She pushed his tiara off, pulled his feather boa from him, and then her mouth was on his, pressing hot, wet kisses against his mouth. Something about the way he was with her and Emma tonight had made Alex want him more than she could articulate with any words. Her daughter had asked him to put on silly dress up clothes and play tea party and he had done it without question. Not only that but he had been happy to do it and genuinely had fun with them. It had made her heart swell and had kicked up a need in her to be as physically close to him as possible; not in a purely sexual way, although that was part of it, but in a way that she wanted him to feel how fast her heart beat for him at this moment.

“Alex…” Harry groaned into her mouth, taken a little off guard but totally okay with her surprise attack on him. His arms slid around her, holding her to him while she ravaged his mouth. “Baby…” he moaned again when she moved to the side of his mouth, pressing small kisses there and down the side of his face to his jawline. Her hands were in his hair, holding him to her, clinging to him.

Harry knew this was about something, could tell this wasn’t just some kiss, but he was unsure and a little bit worried that he had missed something. As reluctant as he was to stop her, he needed to know what she was all about right now. He wanted to be in on it with her, to know what she felt, to feel it with her. He moved his hands to her upper arms, pulling her back from him. She tried to go back, but he held her firm.

“Harry…” she breathed. Her eyes were glossed over, not with tears, but just shining for him.

“Care to tell me what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” he asked softly. He tilted his head to the side, inviting her to open up to him.

“You…you just put on a tiara and feather boa and played tea party with me and my kid,” she said, reaching up and cupping his face in her hands.

His lips curved slightly. “Is that all it takes to get you to do this? Cause I can play again. Get Emma out of the bath. We can all play right now.”

She shook her head slowly. “It’s the fact that you didn’t moan and groan about having to do it. You haven’t seen me in days and you didn’t bat an eyelash at having to entertain her first.”

“Oh Alexandra,” he said softly, “It’s not a big…”

She put her fingers to his lips, cutting off his words. This time her eyes did well up. “It is a big deal, Harry. It is a big deal to me.”

Harry nodded, not being able to find the words to properly respond to her. Instead he pulled her back to him, kissing her with all of the emotion he couldn’t put into words. He wrapped his arms back around her and pulled her back against him. Her hands were still on his face, holding him to her. His lips and tongue moved against hers with an easy slowness that made her feel like she could just settle right there in his lap forever.

Eventually she pulled back, looking at him with wide eyes. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“You’re welcome, Alexandra,” he said back in the same low tone.

She sighed. “I have to wash Emma’s hair.”

“Okay,” Harry said, “You may want to take the tiara and that rather fetching feather boa off first.”

She laughed, her hand going to her hair to feel for the tiara. She pulled it off along with the feather boa and set them down on the table. She climbed off of him, leaning down to give him a quick kiss before heading off down to the bathroom.

When he heard the bathroom door shut behind her Harry let out a breath, rubbing his hands on his legs. He needed a moment to recover from what just happened between them. Unlike what most guys his age would have felt, he wasn’t scared or nervous by what she said to him and what it obviously made her feel. It made him feel…hopeful. She made him feel at home here, with her and Emma. For the first time in a very long time he felt like he was in the right place in the right time. The implications of that for him were huge and he knew that he needed her to know about him, not the private him that she knew pretty well already, but the public him that would affect the private her if and when their relationship went public. He had very much enjoyed their private nights at home, but he wanted to be able to take her places, have her meet his friends, and eventually his family; but he couldn’t do those things and keep her a secret. It just wasn’t an option.

He stood up, an idea forming, and walked down the hall to the bathroom. “Alex?” he called as he knocked on the door.

“Yeah?” her voice came back, faint under the sounds of the running water and Emma’s laughter.

“May I use your computer?” he called back.

“Sure, it’s sitting on the desk in my room. You can unplug it and set it up anywhere. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Harry turned, and then realized he didn’t know where Alex’s room was. There were a couple of doors in the hallway here, but he didn’t want to go opening doors in a flat that wasn’t his. He chuckled to himself. “Alex?” he called again. “Where is your room?”

He heard her laugh through the door. “The last door at the end of the hall,” she called back.

Harry shook his head, moving down the hall to her door. He pushed it open and moved in, a little bit intimidated by being in her space. Her room was like the rest of her apartment; light, comfortable, and filled with pictures and mementos of hers. The bed in the middle of the room was made of light colored wood and was covered in a light purple bedspread with a small assortment of matching throw pillows on top of it. There were two nightstands that matched the bed, each topped with a small lamp. She had a dresser in a corner with a small flat screen TV on top of it and a desk against the wall under the single window in the room. As much as he wanted to stay in this room until she came and found him in here, he didn’t want to feel like he was intruding. So, instead of lingering he went and unplugged the laptop sitting on the desk, and with one last glance around him and a small smile at being allowed in her space, he took it into the kitchen and set it up on the table.

He was seated at the table, searching and pulling up pages when she popped her head around the corner.

“I’m just going to put Emma to bed, give me ten more minutes?” she asked him.

“Sure.”

She lingered at the door frame for a second.

“What’s up, Alex?” Harry asked with a smile.

“Emma wants to give you a hug goodnight,” she said with a small, hopeful voice.

Harry’s face spread into a slow, wide grin. “Why are you asking like I’m going to freak out and run the other way? I just played dress up and had a tea party for that kid. Of course she can give me a hug goodnight.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t know, that’s a pretty personal thing,” she said shyly. “I’ll go get her dressed and bring her out.” She smiled and blushed before ducking back around the corner.

Within minutes Emma came around the corner wearing pajamas and a head of damp hair. “Goodnight Harry,” she sang as she ran up to him.

He turned and smiled at her, opening his arms for a hug. She ran into his arms, squeezing him tightly before leaning up and placing a peck right on his cheek. Harry’s eyes opened wide and shot up to Alex, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, her fingers held to her lips, which were curved into the sweetest, most grateful smile Harry had ever seen. And then, as quick as she had run in, Emma turned and went running past Alex, calling for her to follow to go tuck her in.

When Alex returned, Harry looked up and smiled at her, opening his arms for her much like he had done for Emma. Alex sauntered over and sat in his lap, letting him hug her to him. Neither of them had to say anything, they knew that he was cradling her, holding her to his heart, letting her know how much Emma’s gesture had meant to him.

Eventually he pulled back, looking at her with a smile. He brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her lips gently. Then he took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do.

“Alex, I think we can both agree, that after tonight, we’ve got something going on here,” he said, his lips curving into a small smile.

She laughed. “I’d agree with that.”

He grinned. “Okay, so now that we’ve gotten that out there, I need to put the rest of it out there.”

She tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

He took another deep breath. “There is a lot that goes along with dating me…being with me. I don’t date casually. I can’t.” He rubbed a hand along the bag of his neck, trying to decide what to say next.

“So you’re saying I can’t just use you for sex? No late night booty calls?” She asked; trying to ease his tension a little bit.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “You can late night booty call me anytime. I’m totally okay with that. But using me just for sex?” He laughed and shook his head in the negative.

She sighed. “I’m kidding. I know my position in life isn’t the same as yours, but I’m not a casual dater either.”

“Okay…okay. So, we are agreeing then that this isn’t just casual?” he asked. His eyes were wide, hopeful.

“Are you asking to be my boyfriend, Harry?” she asked with somewhat of a cocky smile.

“I am,” he said. His voice was low and warm as he spoke the words clearly to her. “But before you agree, which I’m hoping you will, I need to show you some things. I wish I could be romantic and bring you flowers and ask you like a normal bloke, but I’m not normal, Alex. As much as I feel so normal with you, I am in fact, a prince. So, I can’t be romantic. I have to lay it all out there like a damn business proposal.”

“Ooookay. Am I going to have to sign something?” Alex asked a bit nervously.

He chuckled. “No, you do not have to sign anything. No confidentiality agreements or anything. Here, look,” he said turning her slightly so they could look at what he had pulled up on her computer.

He had her internet browser open with about five tabs going. He moved his arm around her and clicked on the first one. It was a picture of his mother and his father, with a baby wrapped up in his mother’s arms.

“Alex this is the first photo ever taken of me. I was two days old. Two days. I’ve had cameras pointed at me since I was forty-eight hours old,” he said, looking at her meaningfully before he closed that tab and clicked on the next photo. It was a picture of him and his brother from their mother’s funeral, looking just utterly devastated.

“This picture…” he stopped and swallowed, forcing the lump down that formed at even discussing his mother’s funeral. “This was taken when I was twelve. My mother died when I was twelve and I had to stand in front of the entire fucking world and mourn my mother, one of the single most important people in my life. William and I had to…” he stopped as his jaw clenched. “That was something I’d never wish on anyone, but the press caught every single second of our misery that day. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t hang my head and sob because I didn’t want pictures of it.”

Alex couldn’t help the tears that sprang to her eyes at what he said. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

He looked up at her and his heart fell at the look on her face. He reached up and wiped away a single tear that fell with his thumb. “This isn’t meant to make you cry or feel bad for me, Alex.”

“I can’t help it. You were so young,” she said.

He nodded. “I was. But look,” he said, clicking on the next tab. It was the infamous picture of him dressed as a Nazi at a fancy dress party. “I wasn’t so young here. I mean, I was, but I wasn’t that innocent little twelve year old boy. I was twenty years old and an idiot and somebody took a picture of me being an idiot and sold it. Someone who was trusted by me and my friends sold me out to make a quick buck. I thought I was safe and I wasn’t.”

Alex nodded. “You can never be too careful, can you?”

He shook his head meaningfully and then pulled up the next picture. It was of a pretty blonde girl that she recognized instantly. The blonde was walking on a London street, just minding her own business but was being photographed none the less.

“Your ex-girlfriend,” she said in a small voice.

“Chelsy,” he said firmly. “I dated her for a very long time. Years. I loved her, Alex, I won’t lie to you about that. But, this is what she went through. Everywhere she went there were photographers. Yes, I can make sure they are controlled to an extent, but there is always the one pap who won’t listen, who doesn’t care about the rules. Pictures will always be taken and they will always be published. The one thing I can do is make sure that they don’t publish pictures of Emma here in the UK, but I can’t promise that they won’t get shown overseas. I’ll do the best I can, but in all likelihood, pictures of your daughter will get out.”

Alex gulped. “I don’t…I don’t know what to say about that…”

“They will find out Alex. The media, they will find out within minutes of us going public that you have a daughter. They will write things about it…shitty things that mean nothing…”

“I don’t care what they say about me,” she interrupted with a wave of her hand. “I just don’t want them to get to her. I don’t want them to be able to get close to her if she isn’t with me. If she’s out with Molly or Mia or something, I don’t want her safety to be an issue.”

Harry took a deep breath. “I’ve thought about that. It’s never been done before, but…I can hire someone. I would pay for it from my own pocket; it wouldn’t come from taxpayer money or money from the Palace. I can hire private protection for her. It can be whenever you go out with her or when you aren’t with her, but I can do it.”

Alex looked at him with wide eyes. “You would do that?”

“If it meant that you were secure in the knowledge that Emma was safe, no matter what, I would do anything.” The look in his eyes was absolute, final.

Alex did a mental shake. “Harry…I’m not sure I’m ready to decide on that. I think, should the need arise, it would be an option…” she trailed off.

“I understand. I just wanted you to know that I am willing to do that. I don’t know if it would ever get that bad, but I wouldn’t hesitate to take care of it, damn what anyone says about it.”

“Okay,” she said with a nod, taking a deep breath.

Harry mentally relaxed a little bit. That was that hard one, the one he had feared the most. She was still wrapping her head around it, but she hadn’t flipped out at it, as she fully had the right to do. She had remained calm, processing the situation. He admired her more than he could say in that moment.

He smiled at her then. “That was the worst of it, Alex, I promise. I just have one more to go, a one more point to cover, but that’s the worst of it, okay?”

She nodded, looking a little bit better as the information settled. He turned and clicked the next tab. It was the one of him naked in Vegas, with only his hands covering his privates, and a naked girl hiding behind him. It hadn’t even been taken a year earlier.

Alex sucked in a breath. “I forgot about this,” she murmured.

“I won’t ever forget this. It was literally the dumbest moment of my entire life,” he said quietly. I was wasted, beyond wasted. I was blowing off steam with my friends, and why I decided Vegas would be the place to do it, I don’t know. What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas, as you can see.”

“Were you embarrassed?” She looked positively mortified for him.

“Massively. Alex, I invited people I didn’t know to my room and got naked. I knew pictures were taken and I didn’t have my security go through their phones or cameras. I was careless. Was I mad when those pictures came out? Pissed as fuck,” he said with a small laugh. “But in the end, I was careless and the whole world saw me pretty much naked.”

“Okay, so what is the point of this picture? Are you telling me that you could get naked again pictures could be taken?” she asked, a smirk playing on her lips.

He laughed. He loved that she was making jokes right now, making it a little easier on them both. “No. That will never happen again. The point of this picture is for me to tell you that I know what I did was wrong, I learned from my past. If you and I are together, I won’t run off to Vegas for a boy’s weekend. If you and I are together, you’ll know where I am, I won’t hide things from you. There won’t be any women invited to any hotel room I am in…ever. I am completely committed in my relationships. I respect you and would never, ever put you in a position to hurt you. The papers questioned my faithfulness and my loyalty for years to Chelsy, but I never cheated on her. I never wanted to. And I would never cheat on you. I want you to know that. I need you to know that.”

Alex looked at him, took in the openness in his eyes, the serious tone in his voice that begged her to know that he was telling her the truth. She reached up, laid her hand on his cheek, and leaned close to him. “I know that, Harry. I would never think you would. Now, are we done here? Can you get on with asking me to be your girlfriend now?”

He let out his final sigh of relief, the tension flowing out of him instantly. He reached over and snapped the laptop shut, and then wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight. Her forehead came to rest against his for a moment before he leaned back slightly and looked her in the eyes.

“Alexandra, I would very much like it if you were my girlfriend. Officially. Will you?” He could barely keep the smile off of his face as he said it.

She didn’t even hesitate. She didn’t have to think about it anymore. He had laid it all out there, showed her the worst parts of his life, and she knew that unless he really cared about her, he would have never done that.

“Yes, Harry. I will.”

The smile Harry was trying to quell broke through, lighting up his entire face.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now can you kiss me? Seal the deal?” she said, her sassy side shining through.

“That I can do,” he murmured before he captured her lips with his.

The kiss was hot. Hot and wet and intense. He held her tightly to him, their lips sliding together, their tongues teasing and dancing together in a fast paced rhythm. He groaned when she shifted, moving her legs so she wasn’t so much sitting on his lap anymore as she was straddling him. Her hands moved to his hair and her fingers played in the hair at the sensitive base of his neck, sending shivers of pleasure through him. She planted her feet on the floor and ground her pelvis into him, making him even harder than he already was, almost to the point of pain.

She was insatiable for him, wanted him; needed him. She pressed close as she could, wishing she could do more…feel more. His hands had dropped and were roaming her body. They moved over her back, her sides, her ass, and then they slid up under her shirt. They moved over her belly, eliciting a small gasp from her. Then finally, his hands slid slowly upward and found their home on her breasts.

“Ohhhhh…” she moaned, pulling her mouth back from his slightly. “Harry…”

He moved slowly and gently over her peaks, enjoying the feel of them in his hands. And then he pushed her bra up, freeing her from its confines. He moved his hands over her, groaning into her mouth at the feel of her, the warmth of her, in his hands. He traced the outline of her with his fingers, thumbed her nipples; almost dying at the sounds and movements that drew from her.

“Alex…” he murmured. “What are the chances I can stay tonight?” he asked, hoping against hope he could be with her tonight. He was aching for her; had been aching for her for weeks now.

She groaned. “Harry…I can’t. Not with Emma here. Not for our first time.”

He knew she was right, but was disappointed all the same. Not releasing his hold on her, he slowed down his attentions, leaning forward and resting his forehead on his chest.

“Then I have to stop now, or I’m going to try to talk you into it, and I don’t want to be that guy.”

She knew he wasn’t that guy, but it made her smile all the same. “Saturday,” she said simply.

He looked up at her in confusion. “Huh?”

“Saturday after her party Emma is going to stay at Mia’s, to make up for the slumber party she missed when she got sick. You can stay on Saturday. We can finally…make love…on Saturday,” she smiled down at him, knowing that waiting until Saturday may just kill them both.

“I’m going to be a walking hard-on until then, I hope you know that,” he said almost grouchily.

She laughed. “Don’t let the paparazzi catch a picture of that!”

He laughed with her and resigned himself to the fact that he should go, knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands from her if he staying any longer. He helped her re-arrange herself and then she stood, leaving him instantly missing her.

“Walk me to the door?” he asked her.

“Of course,” she said, taking his hand.

When they got to the door he turned to her and pulled her close. “I want to do something for Emma’s party…I want to have the cake made for her. I’ve got an idea that I think she’ll really like.”

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “I think that would be lovely. Emma would love that.”

“Good. So I’ll see you Saturday?”

“Don’t forget your toothbrush,” she smirked.

He groaned, tossing his head back. “You. Are. Killing. Me.”

“Kiss me you crybaby,” Alex laughed.

And he kissed her goodnight sweetly, reverently, and then slipped out of the door into the night, already wishing it was Saturday.