“Nora, are you okay?” Liam asked her as she sat on the couch, watching all the scenery as it whizzed by at seventy miles an hour out the side window of the tour bus.
“Hmm, what?” She asked, snapping out of her daze, finding Liam’s concerned face.
“Are you okay? You look… I don’t know… distraught,” Liam pointed out, sitting down next to her on the couch.
Truth was, she was feeling a little distraught. She’d been thinking about Grant a lot. The fact that she blew off their four year relationship so easily didn’t sit right with her. She hadn’t talked to him in almost two weeks and she was starting to really have second thoughts about the whole break up. She missed him almost too much to bear.
“I don’t know,” she shrugged, looking back out the window.
“Nora, we’re friends, aren’t we?” Liam asked. She turned to look over at him and nodded her head lightly.
“You can tell me,” he coaxed.
She looked behind him, making sure Harry was in the back lounge and not out there listening to their conversation. The last thing she needed was him to find out her relationship with Grant was now non-existent.
“Right before tour, my boyfriend and I broke up,” Nora told him quietly, letting her eyes drop down to her hands.
“Oh. I’m sorry, Nora,” Liam said reaching out to lightly rub her arm.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harry pop his head up from the floor by the couch Louis was sleeping on. What the hell was he doing on the floor? And why the hell was he eavesdropping? She glared at him and he sent her a wicked grin in response before laying back down on the floor.
“I just… I just want to be alone and it’s so hard because we’re stuck on this bus,” she told Liam.
“I’m sorry. But I’m here if you need anyone to talk to,” he told her.
“Thanks, Liam,” she said, sending him a small smile.
Liam gave her one last sympathetic smile before he got up from the couch, giving her space. She watched as he made his way back toward the lounge, leaving her and Harry alone up front – minus Louis who was dead asleep with his head phones on. She glanced back out the window again, hoping and praying that Harry would just leave her alone. But she should have known it was next to impossible to escape him.
Harry quickly got up and sat down on the couch across from hers, staring straight over at her.
“What?” She snapped at him.
“Why’d you leave him?” He asked, being way too forward – as if they were friends or something.
“It’s none of your business,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.
There was no way in hell she was going to tell him that a fight about him was the triggering factor in her and Grant’s break up. She would never give him the satisfaction.
“Come on, you can tell me. We’re all friends here,” he smirked deviously at her, using Liam’s words.
“You’re the last person on this bus I would call a friend,” she shot at him.
“Oh, that hurts, Nora. After all we’ve been through,” he said, feigning physical pain as he playfully gripped at his chest.
“Friends don’t black mail their friends,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Friends don’t rat out their friends,” he retorted, narrowing his eyes just the same.
“I never claimed to be your friend,” she shot back at him.
“That’s okay. We don’t have to be friends,” he resigned from their argument, lying back on the couch with that stupid smirk on his face, before letting out a devious chuckle.
“What!?” She yelped, aggravated by him altogether.
“What?” He asked, laughing lightly as he looked over at her.
“Why are you smiling like that? It’s disturbing,” she scoffed at him.
“What? I can’t smile?” He laughed, sitting up once again.
“Not when you have some evil plan stirring in your brain,” she scowled at him.
“Some evil plan? What kind of person do you think I am?” He laughed out loud.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” She asked him, pursing her lips together.
He just sat there smirking at her for a few moments, before she turned her head to look out the window again. Before she knew what was happening, Harry moved couches and was sitting next to her, way too close for comfort.
“We may not be friends, Nora, but a girl like you getting sad over a guy is almost too tragic for words. Whoever he was, he probably didn’t deserve you anyway,” Harry breathed lowly in her ear.
Nora was temporarily paralyzed to her spot on the couch as they stared into each other’s eyes for a few lingering moments. Every nerve in her body heightened with his words. And although she knew Harry to be anything but a nice guy, his words held such sincerity that she couldn’t just brush them off.
“I’m serious,” he told her.
“Harry! Leave Nora alone,” they heard Zayn yell playfully at him as he came out of the back lounge.
Both of their heads snapped toward Zayn. Harry scoffed at his older band mate, seconds before he moved back to the couch he previously occupied. Zayn gave Nora a small smirk before he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed back to the lounge. Her eyes fell onto Harry, who had gone back to reading his book, completely ignoring her once again.
Nora had no idea what the hell just happened, but she was pretty sure she was just witness to and on the receiving end of an ounce of genuine respect from Harry Styles. She never thought something like that would ever happen. And honestly, she didn’t expect it to ever happen again, so she took it with a grain of salt. But something deep down inside of her had an unrelenting urge to want to get to know the side of Harry she just witnessed. Something inside of her wanted to be the person to pull the good out of him.

Harry was pretty impressed with himself the way he handled Nora on the bus the other day. It was just another things that would help him in the long run in getting under her skin – or maybe getting her under him.
Their next stop was Portland, Oregon and Harry had scoped out the crowded queue waiting outside the venue long enough to find a special candidatefor him to take back to the buses. This time he found a girl that was willing to ditch her friends for a little one on one time with him.
“Are you sure this is okay?” The girl asked him as they headed onto the bus.
“It’s fine. We’ll have complete privacy,” Harry said, coaxing her toward the back of the bus.
“Okay,” she smiled and blushed at him as he got her into the back lounge, kicking the door shut with his foot.
He already forgot the girl’s name, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing her. He knew it was something super American like Amber or Megan or Sarah. He was never good with remembering things like that. His hands came up to the sides of her face, kissing her immediately. The first thing he noticed about her was how hot she was. And it was ridiculous how easy it was to pluck her away from her friends standing out in line for the show. Usually they traveled in packs or, at the very least, pairs and it would be a challenge to separate the one he wanted from her friends. But this girl was a willing solo participant.
“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” She giggled against his lips.
“Shh. We don’t need to talk about things like that,” he told her.
She nodded her head and didn’t protest when he kissed her again. Before he knew it, he had her on her back on the couch as they made out and he felt her up. It was probably his second favorite part of tour – the girls. His first was being able to get up onstage just about every night and perform for the thousands of screaming fans.
“Fuck— Sorry, oh. Sorry,” Harry heard Nora’s startled voice and felt the girl scramble away from him, trying to cover up her bare skin. Nora stood in the doorway, trying to shield her eyes away from them.
“Could you knock?” Harry scoffed at her, sitting up on the couch.
“Sorry, I didn’t know it was ‘Harry time’ on the bus,” she said sarcastically, abandoning her fight to cover her eyes away from them.
“What do you want, Nora?” he asked, eyeing her.
“I came to get Louis’ lap top,” she said, her eyes glaring straight at the unsuspecting girl who cowered next to him on the couch.
“I should—I should go,” the girl said, stumbling to her feet.
Harry didn’t say anything and neither did Nora as the girl hurried out of the room. Nora’s eyes bore into her the whole time, eyeing her down. Amusement flooded Harry as he watched her.
“What was that?” He laughed. Nora’s attention fell onto him, snapping her out of her glare.
“What?” She asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at him.
“Why were you looking at her like that?” He asked, cocking his eyebrow at her.
“You know, I don’t get you,” Nora said with a little bit of attitude, changing the subject without answering his question.
“What don’t you get?” He asked curiously.
“I don’t know. You act like this little hard ass, like you’ve got something to prove to everyone. You take advantage of all these girls—” She started lecturing.
“Excuse me? I do not take advantage of them,” he argued.
“You whore yourself out to all these girls,” she corrected and he shrugged his shoulders in agreement.
“But, I don’t know, it just seems to me like it’s a front,” she continued.
“What are you talking about?” He asked her.
“I don’t know. Did your parents not love you enough, Harry?” She asked, her tone sarcastic once again. He scoffed at her, rolling his eyes.
“Your act is getting kind of old,” she told him, moving toward the side of the couch where Louis’ computer bag sat.
“You seem to think you have me all figured out,” Harry scoffed, watching her every move.
“I didn’t. Not until you said what you said to me the other day,” she told him. He narrowed his eyes at her, regretting ever thinking that comforting her would be a good idea.
“Hmm. Does it make you want to really get to know me?” He smirked at her.
“No,” she scoffed, grabbing up the laptop case in her hand.
“Not even a little bit?” He smiled widely.
“Not in the slightest,” she said, shaking her head.
Harry stood up from the couch in one quick motion, blocking Nora’s path to the door.
“Just because I like to be sexual, doesn’t make me a bad person,” he said, moving toward her.
“No, but being an asshole all day, every day does,” she retorted without missing a beat.
“I think deep down you kind of like it,” he said, smirking wickedly at her, cornering her up against the wall. She scoffed loudly in response.
“I think it turns you on just a little bit, doesn’t it?” He said as their eyes held each other’s.
“No,” she said, but he could see the lie in her eyes.
“Grant – that’s his name, isn’t it?” Harry asked.
Nora’s eyes narrowed immediately at the sound of her ex-boyfriends name dropping from Harry’s lips and he knew he had her attention.
“Grant – he obviously didn’t know how to please a girl like you, Nora,” Harry continued.
“You’re vile,” she shot at him.
“But I’m exactly what you’re looking for, aren’t I?” He smirked at her.
“Not—” She choked out as his body pressed lightly against hers.
Her whole body tensed up against the wall, but he knew what he was doing to her deep down. A girl like Nora needed adventure and spontaneity – things she never got from the guy she left behind.
“You’re lying to yourself,” he smirked, amused greatly by her internal struggle.
“Harry—” She whimpered, her breathing hitching in her throat.
Not once during all of this did she push him away or protest in the slightest. Not once.
“Nora…” Harry breathed, looking down at her lips, watching as her tongue darted out wetting them quickly.
Fuck. He was almost certain he couldn’t hold himself back. There wasn’t much keeping him from her and oh god, he wanted her.
“Just say it, Nora. Tell me to back off and I will,” he breathed in her ear, just above a whisper, giving her an out.
Harry heard her breathing quiver, but no words came out with it. Seconds later, he pressed forward, kissing her lips hard. She stood motionless for a few moments before he felt her lips move against his. Harry’s ego had never felt more alive as he tangled his fingers into the back of her hair, kissing her deeper. But just as fast as it started, he felt her free hand push at his arm and the hardness of Louis’ laptop case hit him in the side.
“Ooof,” he groaned, stumbling away from her.
“Don’t. Just don’t,” Nora snapped, wiping at her mouth. Harry smirked at her, knowing she liked every second of it.
“It’s obvious you possess some supernatural charm, alright. It’s blatantly obvious. But don’t get me wrong – just because I fell for it for a split second, don’t think I’m all of a sudden going to fall at your undeserving feet. Everything about you repulses me. I want nothing more than to knock you off the pedestal you seem to put yourself up on. Just because you’re rich and famous doesn’t mean you can manipulate people and treat them the way you do. You’re a little boy, Harry. You wouldn’t know how to treat a woman if you even tried. You have a lot to learn and I feel sorry for you – I really do. Because I don’t think it’s going to be an easy lesson,” she scowled at him, shaking her head disapprovingly.
Harry could do nothing but smirk at her. It was a noble speech, but honestly, she didn’t know the first thing about him.
“Ugh! You are so irritating,” she grumbled, turning toward the door.
“It’s okay, Nora. I like a challenge,” he called out to her as she moved toward the front of the bus.
“Grow up!” She shouted back to him moments before he heard the bus door slam with her exit.
In those last lingering moments, all Harry wanted to do was break down the wall she built up to keep him out. And if the challenge was to tear it down brick by brick, he whole-heartedly accept the terms and conditions.

Notes

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