Harry Styles

Celia on my arms in an expensive dress looked rather flattering as we walked inside the venue where Zayn Malik's birthday party was held. The paparazzi outside got a few nice shots of us as we arrived. It was a plus-one invite so I decided to take up on the opportunity and bring someone familiar with me. It felt like old times and that was all I really needed to be able to face Kensington again.

A lot of famous faces stared back at me as I walked through the crowd but none I wanted to see. Regardless of how the conversation between Kensington and I ended a few days ago, there was still some hope in me that waited for its chance to light on fire and spread. I wanted to speak to her because as much as I wanted to outdo her business-wise, I wanted her in my life the same amount. If not more. If I had her, the fight didn't really matter.

"I'll get us a drink," Celia told me as she pressed a kiss on my cheek. She was aware of what went down between Kensington and I or at least she had some kind of idea of how there was something between us. She didn't know specifics, no one did other than the people involved and that was fine with me. I could never keep anything private anymore but it seemed like the contract never did seek any media attention.

"Alright," I nodded at her and she smiled before she disappeared from me. She was different now than she was when we got together the first time. Or even the last time. Which was at the charity event hosted by Kensington. Celia seemed much calmer and put together, determined to be more than just a casual fuck. Not necessarily with me but with anyone. She didn't have a bad reputation or anything and she was pretty much my only consistent 'girlfriend' but I knew she wanted more. Someone who treated her better than I did.

I kept my hands in my pocket as I walked around the place. It surprised me that Zayn didn't throw a birthday party at his mansion. Recent news revealed he bought a new place earlier this month. Then again, I wouldn't have wanted to fuck my new place up right away, either.

It was almost embarrassing just how much it pained me to not find Renleigh Kensington in the crowd. I looked for her like a lost child in a grocery store looking for their parents. I so badly wanted her to appear just so I could see her and calm my nerves. As big of a dick move as it was to tell her the things I did over the phone, I never would have been able to spit those words out in real life.

When I told her, I loved her took enough of my power and pride.

"I actually believed for a second that you were bluffing but it seems like you successfully snaked your way in here," there she was. Right behind me, where I couldn't see. I twirled around to face her as my heart thumped loudly in my chest from the sudden interaction.

"I would say it's great to see you but I know the feeling is not mutual," I smirked. Her burgundy cocktail dress sparkled under the lights with her brown hair straightened and shiny. She had legs for days with a pair of black Louboutins on her feet.

"You would be correct," she nodded. I watched as she looked past me and a grin spread across her lipgloss covered lips. It reminded me of Oscar's birthday party where she wore it, where she put some on my lips, where we fought, where we had sex and where we last spoke to one another. Oh, and we also argued before I fucked off to the family villa in Spain. "Liam, thank you."

I turned a little to see what was happening just to face the Liam person. He wore a printed shirt with a navy suit and brown boots, his hair short on the sides and worked up to a high quiff on the top. He passed her a martini – dirty, of course – as he smiled at her then looked at me.

"Styles, this is Liam Payne, my PA. Liam, this is... well, this is Harry Styles," she introduced us with a smile as fake as the woman's breasts chatting to her friends next to us. Not that it was a bad thing. They looked good. From what I saw from one glance. I would never stare at a woman's breast like that. Well, unless they asked me to. I wouldn't say no to that.

"It's very nice to meet you," he smiled at me – his was genuine – and extended his arm to shake hands with me.

"The pleasure is all mine," I replied which caused Kensington to roll her eyes. I only caught it by luck, if I would have looked at her a second later, it would have seemed like it never happened. Then again, all she ever did was roll her eyes at everything and everyone. The act was something that rubbed off on me throughout the time we spent together.

"Are you here on your own?" he carried on with the conversation and it gave me the perfect opportunity to flaunt my plus one.

"Actually," I smirked as I caught Celia on her way over to me, from behind Kensington. Since my attention was on her, Liam and Kensington both turned around. I heard the little scoff and 'of course' that my lovely rival mumbled under her breath and it caused the smug smile on my face to crawl deeper into my skin. Her reaction didn't form from jealousy but more so from not being surprised. Almost like she knew I would reach out to my old fuck buddy the minute I was no longer with her. "Celia is my lovely companion for the night."

"Hey, I'm Liam," he smiled at her. He smiled a lot. He was nice. Seemed like a genuine lad. And for some reason, it made Celia laugh. She giggled when he introduced himself and her hands were shaking as she passed me my drink. I looked at Kensington with slightly squinted eyes to check if she saw the effect he had on her but she seemed to be too busy keeping her attention on the woman next to me.

"I'm Celia," she said much more confidently than I thought she would. I smirked as I lifted my glass up and drank from it. "So, I haven't seen you at an event like this before."

"Isn't this a birthday party?" he laughed. Right away, I looked at Celia – as discreetly as I could to not make it obvious but I felt like that kind of went to shit when she looked back at me – and her cheeks were slightly pinkier than before. Then again, she had blush on so it was probably that.

"Right," she chuckled. "Of course. Sorry, it's just... I get mixed up sometimes."

"You know, I don't think my martini is dirty enough," Kensington commented. "I'm gonna go to the bar."

"I second that," I said right away. With two quick steps, I was next to her as we left Liam and Celia together.

"You don't even drink martini," Kensington scoffed. That was true. In the moment, anyway. It wasn't my first choice of beverage but if someone put a glass down in front of me, I never would have denied it.

"Just because you've never seen me with one, doesn't mean anything," I explained. "Just like the way you never go anywhere with a man on your arm, it doesn't mean you don't have one in your bed."

"What exactly are you trying to say here?" she asked. "A martini, please. As dirty as you can make it," she spoke to the bartender. "I wish I could take my brother wherever I go. He knows my taste so well, I wouldn't even need to ask for a drink, just look at him."

"Your brother does make nice cocktails. I saw him whack together a couple, then again, I was pretty off my head that night."

"Please," she leaned her forehead into the palm of her hand for the dramatic effect and I couldn't help but let my eyes run over her body. She looked so good in that dress, I just wanted to steal her away and make her mine like I did the last time I saw her. I missed her more than words could have explained but the way we left things and each other, I knew it would take much more than a wink to get her to trust me. Again. "I cannot believe he made me drive you home."

"You were pretty quick to turn around and warn me not to puke in your Lambo," I smirked as the hazy memory slipped in my mind.

"It is the only one in Europe, after all," she shrugged with a smug smile. "What is your agenda?"

"What makes you think I have one?"

"You're talking to me."

"Is it a crime to be doing that?"

"Could be," she said.

"I'm willing to take that risk, then," I let her know. In return, she scoffed and gave me a dirty look. Her reaction was fair and also kind of expected. I did say some nasty things to her over the phone the last time we spoke but the situation we were in was not ideal to talk it through.

"Alright," she nodded. "Two rounds of Tequila shots, please," she spoke to the bartender. "If you could bring it over to the table in the back, that would be lovely," she even sent a smile their way as she finished off her drink then grabbed my hand which not only surprised me, but it seemed to make her bite down on her bottom lip, too, in uncertainty. "You, come with me."

"I'm not gonna say no to that," I chuckled as I let her guide me to the table she pointed out to the bartender. We sat against the wall on the booth like seats, the table in front of us with two chairs on the other side. "So, are we gonna talk business or talk about your PA making out with Cel-mm."

My words were cut off by a pair of warm lips that belonged to the only woman who was near me. Her hands were on my neck, her grip strong enough to show how desperate she felt to be kissed back. And because I was a sucker for her, I wasted absolutely no time. I leaned on my right arm and placed my left hand on her thigh, my fingers curled around her exposed skin and squeezed a breathy moan out of her. In no time, her hands ran down my chest and over my lap, the light touch of her fingers ignited something deep inside me and left me excited.

"Time out," she whispered as she pulled back. My mind was too focused on her, the presence of the bartender didn't even occur to me. "Two for me and two for you, arsehole."

"Leave it to you to kiss me and then offend me."

"If it takes one silly word for you to feel offended then I'm not sure I ever really knew you," she mentioned.

"How about we get rid of these shots before someone else comes along and does it for us?" I raised my eyebrow as I dared her and also kind of asked her to quit the chatting. I wanted her lips back on mine, her body on my lap and arms around my neck.

"Be my guest," she winked as she placed two shots in front of me and herself then pulled the little tray between them with the lime and salt on it. I watched as she licked her hand and placed the salt on it then licked it off once I did the same to mine. She threw the shot glass back and bit right into the fruit as I did.

The second round went down just as fast and I was ready to let the alcohol get to my head. Kensington had already won so it was only a matter of time before the beverage encouraged me to do what I was too scared to go through with sober.

"C'mon, wanna show you something," she grinned as she took a hold of my hand again and led us out of the main room. It seemed like we headed for the stairs, her heels clicking against the tiled floor with each step.

"Is this where you'll kill me?" I chuckled. "At Zayn Malik's birthday party?"

"That would be one hell of a story for the media to cover," she hummed and I scoffed. Of course, she would find joy in the idea of that. I watched her walk through the glass doors that were left unlocked and I followed her. It was a bit chilly outside but the minute my arms wrapped around her waist and her arms were back around mine, her lips sweetly attached to mine, everything felt all too hot around us. "But that's not why we're here."

"Well, I'm all ears," I grinned as I pulled her closer to me by her waist but she pushed me away as her hands flattened out against my chest. My eyes followed her to the edge of the balcony, her tall frame stood in front of me as she leaned on her hands. Her left foot crossed behind her right leg and she let out a loud sigh.

Even from the back, she looked amazing.

She felt amazing from the back, too.

"I overheard a couple of people chatting," she started. Her voice became louder as I walked closer to her, the scent of her perfume intensified as I felt a little on the edge being so close to her. I didn't know what to expect. "There should be fireworks soon."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm," she hummed as she turned to face me. I leaned on my right arm with my elbow down as I glanced up at her. There was something else in the way she allowed her gaze to follow the way her fingers crawled over the back of my hand and left a trail of fire burning behind. "I know the way we left the contract was... well, complicated. But it was also something that has been on my mind constantly."

Slowly, I felt a smirk tug on my lips. It's all I did around her. Smirk and feel cocky. Well, other than the times when she made my knees shake and stomach feel like it could explode from all the butterflies in it.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not signing a contract again," I let her know playfully, aware of the fact that she didn't talk about the contract. But in all honesty, that was true. There was nothing on this planet that could have made me grab a pen and scribble my signature on a piece of paper and enter an agreement like that. Feelings and actions cannot be tied down to an A4 sheet. That is just not how it works.

"That's not really what I meant," the coy smile on her lips embedded itself into my brain before they smashed against mine. I couldn't help myself when I smoothed my hands down her side and pulled her left leg up, encouraging her to lean on me more so I could pick her up. "This is more like it," she chuckled as I sat her on the edge of the balcony. There was a railing behind her that kept her from falling then again, we moved onto the bench near the table pretty quickly.

I laid her down on it as my lips explored her exposed neck and chest, her breasts softly puckered out from under her dress. My ears warmly welcomed the familiar sound of her pleasure filled sighs, my heart thumped in my chest with every kiss and touch of her hands.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" I questioned. Whether I wanted it or not was simple – I did. But I also knew we were not in the healthiest stage of our relationship. Having sex was probably going to make things worse but any chance I had of being with her was not going to go to waste.

"Right now?" she asked back. "Couldn't think of anything else I want more than this," she breathed before her lips found their way back onto mine.

My hand travelled between her legs whilst my other one kept my body up next to her head. The thin material of her underwear got in the way of my fingers, though they were quick to push it out of the way. A lust-filled gasp was the reaction I got from the woman beneath me as I worked on making her feel good.

Mentally, I patted myself on the shoulder for being so prepared. I slipped my hand in the inside pocket of my blazer and pulled out two packets that held the only reason why I didn't have a baby yet. And thank god that was the case.

"Hurry," she groaned as she laid on her back with her hair all over the place, the straps of her dress down on her shoulders. Her lips looked swollen from all of the kisses we shared, her cheeks seemed warm and her eyes sparkled.

"It's almost like you want me more than I want you," I smirked as my trousers and boxers were pushed down my legs. I rolled the condom onto myself quickly whilst she pulled her dress up on her waist. "Do I really get to be on top?"

"Say one more word and you lose your privileges," she threatened playfully, the emotions flashed through her gorgeous eyes.

There was no time to be wasted after we settled on this actually happening. It made me feel even more excited to be with her, the memory of us from before did not match up to the actual feeling. She was warm and wet, the perfect fit for me with the perfect reaction to how it all felt. The breathy moan that my ears had the pleasure of bathing in was enough to make me want to sacrifice anything for her in a heartbeat.

Speaking of which, mine went absolutely crazy. The fact that I got to be so close to her, did things to me that I wanted to forget. The way I felt around her was something I pushed as far away from my brain as it was possible but, in all honesty, just seeing her was enough to crush all my hard work quicker than I had the chance to breathe a breath of fresh air.

No matter how hard I tried to not love her, I loved her.

Every day of every week of every fucking month. It happened rapidly and unexpectedly, I was never meant to fall for someone who I always looked at as competition. I wanted to out-do her from the minute I heard about her – loving her was never a thought that crossed my mind. But here I was, not wanting to hurt her career anymore, completely in awe of her.

Especially as she fell apart beneath me. She was so beautiful. She even sounded beautiful.

She was quick to push me away from her and get up. I watched as she pulled her dress down then ran her fingers through her hair. I quickly got rid of the condom I had on me and dressed back up, too.

"Well, that was fun," she sighed.

I laughed as I buckled up trousers. "What?"

"What?" she asked me, confused.

"Why did you have sex with me just then?"

"Because I wanted to? And you didn't seem to be against it, either. You were in control, after all," she explained as if it was that easy. And to her, it probably was. But I foolishly believed there could have been some other, underlying reason behind what had happened. "Wait... you didn't think it meant I want to go out with you, right? Because I don't date people, you know that."

"But the contract-,"

"There is no contract, Styles," she smirked with her arms crossed. "What we had was interesting and a great thing to explore, but that's over. You are free to hook up with whoever you want, although I believe you are already aware of that since your little night outs are all out in the open for everyone to see."

"I still don't know what you are chatting about," I chuckled, baffled.

"Do you seriously not read the newspapers or go through social media?" she questioned but didn't leave time for me to answer as she sighed. "You know, you could have waited at least a week or something to fuck around. It would have made your pathetic little outburst of how you felt about me seem at least a little real."

"Well, for one, I have no time to search stuff up about myself. For two, if anything like that happens, my team usually deals with it," I said. "As for my 'pathetic little outburst of how I felt about you' was real but I guess you wouldn't know that, would you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she scoffed. "You know what? I don't care. You can do whatever the hell you want."

"You coming here and begging to get fucked makes me think otherwise."

"Begging to get fucked?" Kensington chuckled in disbelief as she walked closer to me. "Wow. Okay. Nice one, Styles. Nice one."

"You don't even have it in you to defend yourself because you know it's true."

"So, what?" she asked. "What if I wanted to get laid? Is that so bad?"

"You could have found anyone else to get in bed with."

"Quit acting like you didn't want it," she rolled her eyes.

"I don't act like I didn't want it," I fought back. "I'm just saying. It's weird how you're accusing me of going out and fucking other people right after I said what I said to you at your parents' when I haven't been with anyone since that night. Acting like you're hurt and I supposedly did something wrong. Then you contradict yourself by saying you don't care and I can do whatever I want," I chuckled as I tried to make sense of the situation. Saying it out loud made me sound stupid and made her look... well... confused. She probably was confused. "I haven't gone out to get pissed – I actually was out of the country. So, whatever the fuck you saw in the newspapers, was probably old news. Not that it should matter to you, anyway."

"Woah, chill out, lover boy," she laughed at me as if I wasn't serious about what I said. Then again, this was Renleigh Kensington we talked about. She was different. "I just said you could have waited so I didn't think you were bluffing but it doesn't matter because you are free to do whatever your heart desires."

"Firstly, I wasn't bluffing but it doesn't make a difference to you because clearly, you never had any true feelings for me. And secondly, you are quite wrong about me being able to do whatever my heart desires."

"I'm sure you would know how I feel about things and people, you are Harry Styles after all, aren't you? You know everything," her voice dripped from sarcasm as she replied. Of course, she would drag this argument out as long as she had to so that I would let her have the last word.

"You know, I actually do think I know how you feel about certain things – me. This... whatever we had," I said as a matter of fact. "I think you are scared and confused. You are scared because we fought and we left things the way they were, messy and hazy. You don't know what to do with the feelings you have for me or for this relationship, if you have any. Ultimately, this makes you confused as well. You are not used to talking things out with people so you just bottle it up and let it eat at you until you can't bare it anymore and something happens to you. I told you before that doing that is not healthy and you can talk to me whenever about whatever. That hasn't changed."

"Oh, cool," she nodded as she replied like I just told her a tip on how to spice chicken.

"Is that all you have to say?" I laughed as I looked at her with a stunned facial expression.

"I mean... yeah," she shrugged. "We never really get anywhere whenever your serious voice makes an appearance so I'm just cutting this conversation short before you say something that I trusted you with and I tell you to fuck off then walk away."

"My serious voice?"

"I'm glad you heard the most important part of what I said," she replied. I rolled my eyes before both of us got caught off guard by the fireworks that went off. I didn't think she was serious when she told me before, but it clearly wasn't a lie. "Now, I never spend more time with my nighties than I have to, so see you around or something. I don't know. I never see them around after we are done with our business. Well, I do see Zayn Malik often but that's because we're partners and-,"

"Shut up," I muttered before I pulled her closer and kissed her. She was rambling and even though I knew she disliked being silenced, especially this way, I couldn't hold myself back.

I needed her.

• • •

a.n.

FINALLY. we'll be on the roll from now on lads i promise ok

wait i actually am laughing we're 57 chapters in and they're still not dating 😭😭 but to be fair they did have some good sex so i mean who the hell needs to be in a relationship for that xx

also if u want u could go on @thefictionawards and vote for ffc for best fanfiction story. i saw a few of you vote for it and i was like omg i didn't even know it was a thing like i usually don't partake in awards an shit but it's nice seeing u guys vote for it 🥺 so yeah u can do that if u want or don't i don't mind honestly

aaaaand that's it i think lol see u on wednesday for another episode of henleigh being anything and everything but an actual couple that knows how to communicate and stand each other for longer than necessary xoxo