Harry's POV

Most of my evening has consisted of staring at Carmen. She looks gorgeous, first of all, and after this afternoon I just can't help myself. We still haven't spoken about it officially, but I finally feel like she's mine. All mine. Once in a while when she's talking to someone her eyes will wander to mine, and when I smile at her her cheeks turn slightly pink and I know we're thinking about the same thing.

Today couldn't have been more incredible. I had this picture of what our first- well, second I guess- time would be like, and this was so much better than I ever could have imagined. I feel like a fucking girl saying that, but it's true. I feel like I'm on cloud nine, or higher but I don't know if that would make sense. Anyway.

I can tell Carmen is getting irritated with the person she's talking to, because the smile on her face is far from sincere. It makes me laugh a little, and when I start walking over to her my whole body starts like...tingling or something. She looks gorgeous, and she's got a sort of glow about her right now. The dress Gem leant her is floor length, fitted to about her hips and then flows down to the ground. It's a deep blue colour with some silver embroidery on it, and with all the lights in here she seems to sparkle.

"Hi, Mr. Raymonds," I say when I step up to them. I place my hand on the small of Carmen's back and shake his hand with the other. "How's the wife?"

"Harry," he says happily. "She's well, thank you. Hip is healing nicely."

"That's great, tell her I said hello." He nods. "Do you mind if I steal Carmen for a moment?"

He nods again and my hand slides over Carmen's, pulling her away from the dull old man and towards the bar.

"I was about to die of boredom," she says when we're far enough away.

"I could tell. Good thing I rescued you."

She squeezes my hand places her other one on my arm. It's a struggle to keep myself calm, to be honest, and I don't think she even realizes what she's doing to me. When we get to the bar I let my hand rest on her hip, slowly lowering it a little. She puts her hand on my chest and looks up at me, batting her eyelashes as she does.

"Fuck, don't look at me like that," I whisper.

"Like what?" she asks innocently.

I just shake my head and she kisses my cheek, my heart racing a little. I order each of us a drink and try to focus on breathing normally so I'm not walking around here with an uncomfortable bulge in my pants.

"I told you the tie would look nice," she says, running her fingers along the black material. I went for all black with a white shirt, and while I wanted to leave a few buttons undone and go without the tie, Carmen convinced me it would be better this way.

"Yeah, fine. You win."

She smiles warmly and our eyes lock for a moment, I can practically see the images in her eyes, stolen kisses and soft touches and gentle whisperings that all told her without words how much I really care about her. Today has been the best day of my life. The bartender places our drinks in front of us and I place a gentle kiss on her forehead before we both take one.

"You look beautiful," I say in her ear.

"You've told me that like five times already," she reminds me.

"Just want to make sure you remember."

She smiles and tilts her chin up, and immediately my lips are on hers. It's really hard not to try anything, to keep this appropriate for other people to see. My mother would yell at me in front of everyone if she saw me standing here making out with Carmen at one of her fancy events. So, against everything my body is telling me I stop kissing her and take a sip of my drink instead.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks quietly. I take a deep breath and her eyes search my face while she waits for an answer.

"You know damn well what I'm thinking about." I laugh and she giggles a little as she takes another sip of her drink. She's a little drunk I think, actually. Now that I think about it, this is probably the fourth drink I've gotten her.

"Tell me secret," she says, stepping away from me and leaning back against the bar. My body automatically moves a little closer to hers and she peers up at me.

"A secret," I repeat. I look up and pretend to be thinking.

"Make it good."

I laugh. "Okay, you go first."

"Umm...I'm scared of frogs," she says thoughtfully. I laugh again and she takes another sip of her drink.

"Frogs? Why?"

She shrugs. "I have no idea, but they freak me out. Especially when they open their mouths, just ew." She shudders a little and shakes her head, and I'm still laughing when I kiss her forehead. "Now you go."

"A secret." I take a deep breath and run her hair between my fingers. I can think of one thing I've never told her, but this isn't the time or the place for saying it for the first time. She stares at me expectantly and I take a few sips of my drink, setting it down on the bar and reaching to take hers. "I secretly love the spiderman sheets."

Carmen laughs and lets me lead her away from the bar. There's a live band playing at the head of the room on a stage, and when we get there she tries to escape my hold on her hand.

"No, no. Harry, seriously." She tries to wriggle free but I don't let her. "I don't dance."

"Come on."

"No, I'm so terrible!" My hand rests on her lower back to keep her hostage against me, our hands raised to the other side. "I can't do this."

"Don't look at your feet, look at me." She briefly looks at my chest, then back down at our feet. "Carmen."

She sighs and looks up at me, her eyebrows pinched together. Carmen looks around the room a little, seeing if anyone is watching. I am. I could watch her all day if that wasn't creepy and unproductive.

"Got any more secrets?" I ask lowly. She sighs and smiles slightly, and I can tell she's trying hard to look displeased with me.

"Maybe one," she says, her tone serious. My heart starts racing again; eventually that's got to be a bad thing, right? I hope not, because I don't see it stopping. I know it's wishful thinking, but I'm hoping this secret is the same one I'm keeping.

"What's that?"

She smiles and shakes her head. "Can't give you everything in one day."

She laughs when I do, both of us smiling when I kiss her. She sighs contentedly and rests her head against my chest, our feet barely moving at all at this point. My Mum catches my eye and she smiles at me with that proud motherly look on her face. There was no doubt in my mind that she would love Carmen, but even I am a little surprised by how much she actually does.

"Harry?"

My body tenses at the sound of that voice, my eyes closing briefly so I can try to pretend that didn't happen. Carmen lifts her head and I just stare at her while she looks around for the voice. She stops when she looks to the right of me, and her eyes widen slightly, nervousness replacing the happy glint that was there before. I don't fucking need this right now.

I finally tear my eyes from Carmen and look over at Tara. It hadn't occurred to me that she might be here, and now here is the last place I want to be, especially with Carmen. This could ruin everything.

"I thought I saw you," Tara says. Her eyes turn icy as she looks at Carmen. "Who's this?"

"Tara, don't," I say quietly. I feel Carmen looking between the two of us. With a challenging look in her eyes she steps closer to me and Carmen.

"I'm Tara." She holds her hand out to Carmen. "Harry's ex."

Carmen isn't stupid; she can see just as much as anyone else can that Tara is trying to get under her skin, trying to get to both of us by having this conversation. I knew she was a bitch, but I really don't need this right now. Carmen looks at Tara's hand like it's a death trap and steps a little closer to me.

"Carmen," she says, not taking Tara's hand. Tara smiles a little bitchy smile and drops her hand.

"She's nice," Tara says, looking up at me and crossing her arms.

"What do you want, Tara?" I ask, keeping one hand on Carmen's back while the other one clenches into a fist at my side. With one last judgemental once-over of Carmen, she steps a little closer to us, the deep plunge of her dress shifting slightly as she does. She always was a slut.

"You left a few things at my place," she says, zeroing in on me. "I would have brought them if I'd known you were going to be here."

"Are you serious?" I spit.

"I'll admit, I was a little surprised you showed up with a date," she continues. "We always have fun together at this party, remember?"

Before I can react Carmen is stepping away from me, her dress flowing behind her as she weaves through the crowd to flee the situation. Tara laughs quietly and when I look back at her she doesn't seem phased by the glare I'm giving her.

"After all this time I thought maybe you'd actually become a decent person," I say lowly. She raises her eyebrows, seemingly entertained by my anger. "Apparently not."

"Come on, Harry." She steps closer to me again and I can feel myself getting more angry. "She's not your type."

"You don't know anything about her."

"No, but I do know you." Tara reaches up and adjusts the bottom of my tie so it's laying flat against my shirt. "Better than most. We had fun, remember?"

"Fun?" I scoff. "The way I remember it, our relationship was a string of lies and an endless amount of cheating on your part."

Unaffected by my words she continues, her hands still on my torso. "We were good together, though. The sex was-"

"Stop," I spit, putting my hands around her wrists so she stops touching me. "You're insane if you think I'm going to cheat on Carmen with you."

"Don't act so above it," she says. "Wasn't it just a few months ago you were sneaking out of my bed in the middle of the night?"

"Stay away from Carmen." I drop her hands and turn around to go after Carmen. I'm not sure where she went, but knowing Carmen she's either hiding or trying to leave, so I go to the doors first to see if she's trying to get away from me. When I don't find her in the lobby or outside I run through the halls until I find her, leaning against the wall near the kitchen with her arms crossed over her stomach.

When I start walking towards her my heart is already beating fast. She looks beautiful and I'm nervous as hell for this conversation. There are certain things, and people, that I would rather leave in my past, and Tara is definitely one of those. It really doesn't have anything to do with Carmen, but it's embarrassing that it happened the way it did and I would prefer not sharing as much as possible.

"Carmen."

She looks up and then away from me, wiping her cheeks. My heart clenches when I realize that she's crying, and immediately I'm walking towards her. She sidesteps away when I'm close, recoiling from my touch.

"Who is she?" she asks quietly, staring at the wall opposite.

"Tara." I take a deep breath. "My ex."

"Did you sleep with her?" she asks.

"Well...yeah. We dated for almost a year," I admit quietly. She rolls her eyes.

"No, Harry. Recently. Like while you've been here."

"What?" She looks away again and I step closer. "No, no. Of course not, Carmen, I've been with you the entire time since we got here. I don't want anyone else."

"Why does she have your things at her house, then?"

"Because...it was during the summer. I was at a party at my friends house and got pretty drunk, and she was there..." I don't finish the statement, knowing Carmen can fill in the blanks on her own. She leans her head back against the wall and sighs. "Carmen, I'm not cheating on you."

"Are you over her?" she asks, finally looking at me. She looks terrified and it makes me want to cry, honestly. When I step towards her she doesn't move away this time, her eyes tearing up when I place my palm against her cheek.

"Do you really have to ask me that? Trust me, I don't want her. All she did was cheat on me. We were really young when we met and I thought I loved her, but I didn't. I never did."

"She cheated on you?"

I nod. "More times than you would believe."

"Well, she's clearly not over you," she says, clearly disgruntled. I can't help but smile.

"Jealous?" I tease, tracing her jawline. She rolls her eyes and pushes my hand away.

"You wish." There's a slight edge to her voice and I know I haven't put her insecurities to rest with all of this. So, I lean against the wall next to her until she asks what she wants. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Over the summer," I admit. I'm really not proud of this. "Like I said, we were both at a party and...I don't know why I did it. She has a way of reeling me back in, I guess."

"How old were you when you dated her?"

"I've known her a long time. She grew up down the street from me and always went to the same schools. When I was seventeen we started dating and we broke up right before I left to go to USC."

"She looks like a whore."

I let out a loud, surprised laugh, looking down at her again. She half-smiles at the wall and I have a feeling she's alright now. Tara is the last person I expected to see here, though I don't know why since my mother invites her family to every one of these events. I've focused so much on Carmen that I honestly didn't think about it. Who would?

"Are we okay?" I ask quietly. She sighs and tilts her head to the side, leaning it against my shoulder.

"I thought you...I know it's stupid, but I believed what she wanted me to believe. I thought you were with her."

"When?" I laugh a little and she shrugs.

"I know it was dumb, okay? But...why would she go out of her way to do that? I mean...if she's trying to get rid of me or something it's kind of a pathetic attempt," she says. She tucks her arm around mine and I lean my head on hers.

"I hope you're not that easy to scare off," I mumble. She sighs.

"I'm not going anywhere."

---

"Are you sure she's okay with us leaving?"

"For the millionth time, yes." I set my hand on Carmen's and I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. "I always leave early, anyway. She really doesn't mind."

"Did you see Gemma and Oliver while we were there?" she asks. "I didn't see them after we got there together."

"Yeah well, prissy little Oliver can hide for the rest of the week."

"Harry," she laughs. "You haven't even had a conversation with him. At least get to know him."

"I don't think so." I pull into the driveway and look over at her as I push the door open. "It won't be long before he's out of the picture, anyway. Gem has no intentions of settling down, but she doesn't mind bringing every guy she goes on a date with home to meet my mother."

We both step out of the car and Carmen's hands are sadly occupied holding up her dress so I can't hold one. When I unlock the door we head right upstairs in silence, not even bothering turning on the lights. I follow Carmen straight to her room and she smiles as I shut the door behind me.

"What are you doing?" She folds her arms and her eyes follow the movements as I remove my suit jacket.

"I'm tired. Thought I'd go to bed." I step directly in front of her, only two inches between us. "You?"

"What makes you think you're sleeping in here?"

"Well," I begin, tossing my jacket onto the chair in the corner, "There's this girl I know that tosses and turns all night long, and while most people might find that annoying I find it incredibly adorable and now I can't sleep without her."

"Ah." She nods and my fingers trail lightly up the side of her arm. "Do you think she likes you?"

"Hard to say. There was an incident earlier that makes me think she probably does."

"I hope you're not misreading things," she says. Carmen reaches up and starts gently pulling my tie loose, eyes remaining on mine. "Some girls do anything and to be honest, you're not that appealing."

"No, why are you ruining the game!"

She laughs and pulls the tie from my neck, starting in on my buttons. Carmen seems so confident in all of this now, while I'm over here shaking like a fucking wimp because she makes me so damn nervous. When all my buttons are undone my hands hang at my sides, hers pressed flat against my stomach and slowly sliding up to my chest. A low hum leaves my throat, eyes closing while my heart races under her touch.

"Can I ask you something?" she says quietly. I nod and open my eyes as her hands slide up, arms wrapping around my neck so her face is only an inch or two from mine.

"Yeah, of course."

"Are you ever going to ask me to be your girlfriend?"

Notes

ooooooooooooooooooh bbbbbbooooooooooooooooooyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

puttin him on the spot. 'bout time, eh?

so yeaaaa hope you guys like this one :) there's going to be a few more chapters for while they're in england, maybe three? unless you guys are bored of it. but i like it, so ill probably do it anyway :P

and i didnt get a lot of responses to the last chapter...i thought you guys would be so excited!! so it made me a little sad :( pleeeease comment! let me know about this one and the last one :)

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