a.n. don't forget to comment and vote

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Renleigh Kensington

Time off from work—and just from London in general—was very much needed after everything that happened. I tried to not think much about it as I laid on the sunbed, in nothing but my two-piece bikini, but the past events still managed to lurk their way back into my brain.

I thought I was doing much-much better than I was, though. I have definitely found some peace with the situation after I managed to make myself believe that the evil mastermind behind all of my troubles—or more so recent troubles—would get what he deserved soon enough. His men were in jail and from what I was told, they were slowly but surely giving up the information that was needed.

I knew the whole arrest wouldn't happen before this trip so it was crucial that I got over it and stepped out of my toxic mindset about it. One thing that I echoed frequently was that I got over things quickly, in a snap of a finger or in a blink of an eye, yet for some reason, this one person and all of his wrong-doings seemed to keep me on the hook.

Harry shouting my name caught my attention suddenly, it came from the house but I didn't have it in me to even move my lips to let him know where I was. The sun felt too good on my skin, my eyes closed as I soaked myself in the warm weather. I really didn't realise how much I needed time away from stress until now that all my emotional breakdowns and constant moodiness suddenly all seemed to make sense.

"Ah, here you are," he chuckled and I heard his feet slap against the tiled floor as he made his way over to me. Eventually, he stood in front of me which was pretty easy to tell even with my eyes closed as his whole body blocked the sun from hitting my body.

"How can I help?"

"Well, I just got news and apparently, my cousin is in Spain, too," he told me excitedly. Right. The cousin he was so close to that he told her everything. At least, he mentioned something like that before.

"Okay. Please move out of the way," I pushed him away with my feet and he stepped to the side. "Now, what is it?" I sighed and closed my eyes again then placed my arms comfortably on the arms of the chair. I very much felt like I was channeling my inner Sharpay Evans.

"So, when she told me she was here, I told her that I was here with you. Gemma's been dying to meet you ever since I first talked to her about you and so when she found out that we're finally all in the same place and we're all good with each other, she said she would love to meet you," he concluded and I hummed.

"Okay, sure," I replied. "We can have dinner with her tonight or something."

"See that's the thing," he said awkwardly and I opened my eyes to glance at him. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his hands were on his waist, one of his legs bent as the other one held all his weight. He wore a pair of navy shorts with turtles on them and all his tattoos were on display. He had a bit of tummy going on which I thought was incredibly sexy and by this time, both of my eyes were open.

"I'm listening," I pushed myself slightly up in the chair and put my sunglasses in front of my eyes to take a better look at him. His love handles puckered out from the band of his shorts and his happy trail excited me to no ends. I kinda wanted to push him down onto one of the beds and give him what he deserved.

"When I brought up the idea, she declined," he carried on talking but all I really heard was mumbles. My attention was on everything but what he had to say which was actually his fault. No one told him to look so fucking hot whilst talking to me yet here he is, doing everything in his power to get me on my knees. Not that I was complaining.

Please.

I would have willingly done it any time of the day.

"Mhm," I hummed, more so at the thoughts that filled my mind than what he really said. I felt like a lovesick schoolgirl, completely drooling over her first crush but I mean this was my man and I had all the time in the world to listen to him chat shit which meant I had all the time in the world to think about sucking him dry and pretty much just admire him, too. "You know, I think we should go inside unless you are in the mood to give your neighbour from across the water a bit of a show."

"Oh, damn," a woman voice replied. I froze in my seat, my heart thumped in my chest like it was beating its last rhythms and I never wished for the ground to swallow me up so quickly ever in my whole life. "Have I just interrupted your sex vacation?" she cackled and I bit down on my lip at the sound of that.

Perhaps that is something Styles and I should have looked into a while ago.

"Ugh. No, Gemma!" Harry groaned and I chuckled. "Why are you laughing? My cousin wouldn't be discussing our sex life if you would have listened to me!"

"Well, I'm sorry but you're a distraction to me," I said, offended. Playfully offended. "Therefore, it is your fault that she's talking about it."

"Wait, I knew I liked you from what he told me about you but I think I really like you," she spoke directly to me with a massive grin on her face. "I'm Gemma, by the way."

"Oh," I chuckled as I sat up properly and took her hand to shake it. "I'm Renleigh."

"I thought you two knew each other's names..." Harry mumbled with a confused expression. "Anyway. Shall we get inside where it's nice and cool and pop open a beer or two?"

"I don't like beer."

"I hate beer," I said at the same time Gemma did.

"Is this some kind of soulmate bullshit?" Styles asked, slightly shocked at how in sync we shared our distaste towards his offer of a drink. "Whatever. Can we go in? I don't have suncream on and I don't fancy getting burnt."

"This relationship has turned you into such a crybaby," Gemma sighed then quickly glanced at me. "No offence, Renleigh."

"I beg your pardon?" I asked with my eyebrow cocked, my movements suddenly stopped and Gemma slyly glanced at Harry before she looked back at me.

"I said, no offence to you," she chuckled awkwardly.

"Yeah, I heard," I dropped my towel on the sunbed. "But if you truly meant that, you wouldn't have said it to begin with, don't you think?"

"Ren, that's enough," Harry interrupted.

"What? You don't think that was completely inappropriate to say? To think that us being together changed you?" I fought back.

"Guys..." Gemma tried to get us to listen, unfortunately unsuccessfully.

"Don't you think it was inappropriate to suggest us having sex right in front of her? This is the first time you met her and you already introduced yourself as a sex addict!"

"A sex addict?" I asked back in complete shock. "I'm sorry but are you hearing yourself?"

He didn't say anything but laughed in response. That caused me to drop my whole act as well and although it went on for longer than I initially imagined it would, I was still a bit bummed that he failed us.

"You ruined my whole act with your laughing, you bitch," I told him and threw my towel at him then looked at Gemma. "I'm sorry—that joke got ruined and you clearly didn't realise it was one so that's something we need to work on as a couple."

"You didn't- that was a- oh my goodness," she laughed with her hands over her chest, clearly relieved that I wasn't being serious. I smirked as I picked up everything I brought out and listened to what else she had to say. "Okay. For a second, I really did think I offended you."

"So, my plan did work then," I grinned. "Sorry. That was meant to be funny—I thought it would be."

"Ah," she nodded understandingly.

"People often don't get my humour and that hurts," I placed my hand on my chest in dramatics and made my way inside the villa. No matter how dramatic that was, it did sometimes bug me and made me feel awkward when people didn't find my jokes funny.

Like.

I was funny. And it wasn't my fault that others didn't seem to get it. That was their fault.

Whatever.

Note to self—never try to be funny with strangers again.

I put on the beach dress I left on the couch in the living room to look a bit more appropriate and I was surprised to see a chef in the kitchen. The lady smiled at me then let me know that lunch was almost ready so we should all head to the dining room.

"So, have you been to Spain before?" I managed to start a conversation which was surprising. Harry even smirked at the sound of my voice, clearly aware that this was something new for me. He poured himself a glass of water then lifted the glass to his lips to take a sip.

"I have, yeah," she answered as she crossed her arms neatly, her elbows on the edge of the table. She sat across from Harry whilst I managed to grab the seat at the head of the table—just where I belonged. "Stayed here a few times, yeah."

"Oh, that's nice," I nodded. "So, you are from Leon's side of the family, right?"

"Yeah. He is my uncle," she said. I felt a bit nosey asking that question but for some reason, I felt weirdly confident about it and I thought Gemma didn't mind the little interrogation. "I'm assuming you had a great encounter with his mum," she nodded towards Harry with a smug grin on her face and I chuckled knowingly. "Yeah... she was never really my biggest fan, either."

"Why is that?" I asked, again, nosily.

"Ah, just... you know... my whole outlook on life. Being at the age where I am, still not engaged or married but constantly on a plane in the skies, experiencing what this world has to offer instead," she said as she played with the décor on the table, her eyes focused on the movements. I glanced from her hands back up to her face as she explained. "Ever since I've known her, I always felt like she would never accept me or the way I want to live my life and so I was fine with not being in her circle of people who she likes. In all honesty, I would have imagined she liked you."

"Why is that?" I asked her, surprised.

"Because you run your own company," she replied.

"That was a false little dream you let yourself live in, Gems," Styles added to it. "I run my own company and she is not too ecstatic about it."

"Yeah but that's 'cos you didn't join your dad's company so that's not relevant," she brushed him off and I smirked as I looked at Harry. I liked his cousin. She was fun. "But you," she looked at me again. "You are not just your own boss but you are a woman. I would have thought—since Amelia's whole brand is about female empowerment and shit—that she would lick as far up your arse as she possibly could."

"Well, quite the opposite happened, actually," I commented. "She was rather bothered by my existence at the brunch that I threw for his birthday," I did the same she has as I nodded towards my boyfriend and he offendedly put his arms up in the air with his palms upwards, mouth agape.

"The way both of you talk about me like I can't hear you... unbelievable."

"You heard something?" Gemma asked me with her eyebrows furrowed.

"No? I mean, you never replied to what I said, so," I leaned back on the chair and sipped on my mojito that the chef brought out a few minutes ago.

"I didn't think I would regret allowing you two to meet but here I am," Harry sighed dramatically and I laughed as I squeezed his bicep closest to me a little bit. "Stop trying to butter up to me."

"I'd never do that—that's your thing," I winked at him. "Now, back to you, Gemma. It seems like you ending up with the better half of the Styles men as your father, you are much more fun than your dear cousin on my right."

"This really is unbelievable," Harry sighed loudly, clearly fake-fed up of us completely ignoring him. I heard him push his chair out as he stood up and he caught both of our attention.

"Where are you going?" Gemma asked. "Lunch is almost done, isn't it?"

"I got a call off my PA this morning that I never returned so I'm gonna go do that while you two talk," he kissed my head as he walked away behind me so I didn't see him, only his cousin nodding at his reasoning.

Once he left, we carried on chatting which was really nice. Gemma was so easy to get along with and I was super surprised at just how smoothly it all went.

• • •

I very much felt like Gemma and I were joined at the hip and I'm not even exaggerating. After we got over that slightly awkward start—which I am still deeply saddened about because I thought it would be funny—it was all great. I was so shocked at just how well we got on and I could tell that Harry was, too. I mean, we both knew just how bad I was at meeting new people and the fact that I treated his cousin like she was some kind of old friend of mine was simply astounding.

After lunch, we decided to spend some time by the water since the sun seemed to want to stay out for a bit longer and warm the weather. Gemma stayed on the sunbed and tanned, well as best as she could, with about twenty layers of suncream on her skin whilst Harry and I were being complete dickheads in the water.

He kept pushing me under the water until I had enough of his bitch ass trying to drown me and I stayed under for longer than any of the other times. That kind of scared him and he pulled me out with a frantic look on his face only for me to laugh in it then get out of his arms and splash him like a child. But obviously, he had to go and big me up—his hands were bigger and so the splashes were more forceful meaning that more water got in my face with one swoop than it did when I tried to drown him. I couldn't let him win so in the midst of it all, I took a deep breath and went underwater then tugged down his swimming shorts so the band was down his thigh. That resulted in him kicking me in the face or more specifically in the nose which meant that the blood poured out of my right nostril like it never has before.

I couldn't lie, my nose hurt like a bitch and I saw the whole night sky with the starts and all for a bit yet it still made me laugh when I noticed him still outside, walking up and down with one hand on his waist and the other on his mouth. Gemma helped me stop the bleeding and she made sure my nose wasn't broken as I sat on the kitchen stool. I had the perfect view of my man from there and although I felt bad for him for feeling bad for me, it was kind of funny how he didn't dare come closer to me after we got back in the villa.

"Is this the first time he hurt you?"

"That's a bit deep, babe," I chuckled and she joined me when she realised how I could have misinterpreted her question. "But no. This was the first time something like this happened so I guess he feels horrible."

"Can't lie, it's funny," she said. Then after a little bit of silence, she spoke again. "You know... he really loves you."

"I know," I sighed. "He's a complete fool wanting someone like me."

"Why would you say that?"

"Let's just say that I'm a mess and he still has no idea what he signed up for. It's like he can't see it or more so doesn't want to see it."

"Ah, so, it's deep rooted shit, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Well, from what he told me about you and your relationship, he's determined to put a ring on your finger and have you in his life forever," she slipped the information I didn't even think about as much as any other person would have. Don't get me wrong, a nice life with a nice man would be just that—nice. However, settling down made me feel funny. I never thought of it much because it was a territory which I didn't even want to enter. "Why did that make you tense up?"

"Hm?"

"You tensed up when I mentioned marriage," she said. "Why?"

"Uh... the last time I got engaged, it all went tits up. I was never that bothered about getting married anyway so the fact that it went wrong the first time, it kind of just confirmed that it's not something I want to put on my priority list."

"I see," she replied as we sat on the stools together and she drummed on the marbel countertop. "I have no experience in that area at all. I mean I've been with my man for... wow. For almost five years and we're still just boyfriend-girlfriend. But what I think is that you shouldn't let one bad experience put you off of something for the rest of your life. I understand that marriage and the whole lifestyle never interested you to begin with but do you think that if your first engagement would have been successful or it never would've happened, you'd still be so against the idea?"

"I think that's a great question but I have no answers for it," I chuckled. "I really don't know. In all honesty, I don't even know if I'd still be alive if things wouldn't have happened the way they have," I admitted genuinely. Again, extremely surprised at how I opened up to her so easily. "Sorry, that was a load to drop on you just like that but yeah..."

"Do you mind me asking why you said that? Otherwise we can pretend I never did and you can go check on Harry."

"I went—I kind of still am going through some stuff and it affected me badly. I don't really want to go too deep into it, mainly because I don't want you to feel sorry for me but yeah."

"Ah, makes sense," she hummed. "Well, I'm glad you managed and continue to push through it, honey. If you ever need anyone, you know how to reach out to me."

"I'm literally the worst at contacting people but sure, thank you," I laughed. We swapped numbers a few hours ago actually and that was another thing I didn't really do with many people.

Speaking of phone numbers and phones, Gemma's went off not long after and she excused herself to take it. I found this as my opportunity to go and see Harry, who was now sat on the sunbed with his chin in the palm of his hand. He turned his head slightly to the side when he heard me approach him and squinted as the sun blinded him.

"You okay?" he asked with his eyes closed, his words mumbled as he didn't move his head from his hand. He sounded like he genuinely meant the question, more specifically aimed at what happened before.

"Well, I'm alive and standing in front of you. That should answer it for you," I smiled as my fingers ran through his slightly damp hair. I twirled a curl around my finger that the sea water magically made so much curlier. "Are you okay?" I chuckled.

"Yeah," he answered. "C'mere," he sighed as he pulled me on his lap then cuddled himself to my back, his hands intertwined in front of my stomach. "I didn't mean to kick you, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, silly," I tapped the back of his hand with my fingers and smiled when he pressed a kiss on my left shoulder. He put his chin there soon after and I leaned my head against his. "It was an accident. There is no need to be like this over it."

"I know, m'sorry," he said silently. With my hand over his ear, I turned my head a little and pressed a kiss on his temple, the gesture a bit longer than a simple peck and he let out a content sigh. "I'd never hurt you like that on purpose."

"Harry," I said his name whilst I got off his lap and sat next to him. I kept my legs over his and draped my right arm over his shoulders. "I know, honey. You are not like that. It was an accident. And in case you need a reminder, I have a brother. He may be younger but he still loved getting into physical fights with me. Trust me, I can handle a kick in the nose."

"Oh yeah?" he chuckled.

"Mhm," I nodded. "See this line here?" I showed him my left hand where a faint, darker line was seen, from my thumb down to the left side of my wrist.

"Yeah. Always wondered where you got that from," he admitted.

"Well, that's all my brother for you. But basically, I think it was a family thing and the grill was on. I have no idea where he got one of those metal tongs from that you use to take the food off of the grill but he did and it was obviously hot. As per usual, we were arguing and he thought the best way he could've won the fight was if he used what he had and he burned me with it."

"Oh, bloody hell," he laughed at me and I rolled my eyes with a grin on my face as I remembered back to the memory.

"Or do you want me to tell you about the times we gave each other bruises all over the body? I think our parents thought they had two sons," I shared.

"Good to know that my girl can put up a fight and win," he pecked me on the lips and slowly slid his hand up my thigh. He leaned back and kissed me again, his lips slowly made their way down my neck and over to my chest. I sighed in content and threw my head back a bit as I enjoyed his intimate kisses. "What do you say we get rid of my cousin and christen the rest of this place?"

"Hmmm," I pretended to think long and hard. "Nope."

"Did you just say no to sex?" he acted shocked.

"Yes."

"Wow."

"I really like her and I want to take her out for dinner—you can come, too, if you want," I let him know as my feet dangled between his and I eventually placed my other arm around his neck, too.

"Is that it?" he asked with a smug grin. "I can come if I want?"

"Mhm-hm."

"Interesting... very interesting," he mumbled. "Well, I'm going to have to ask my girlfriend first."

"You do that, gorgeous," I smiled at him and stood up from my comfortable position. I disliked leaving him, I would have loved to just sit there and chat to him but I had to get in the shower and ready for tonight. "I shall see you later tonight," I said and pressed a kiss on his forehead, something that he seemed to love more than anything else.

• • •

a.n.

THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHAPTERS SKSKSKSKSKSK i just love gemma and she's so nice to ren and then ren and harry being all cute at the end 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

i love them sm

also this story is already longer than i first thought it was going to be and so what i'm trying to ask is if you guys prefer longer or shorter stories?

writing this one, i focused more on their development and the story itself as opposed to the number of chapters so i guess that's why it's still running lol

o also do i stretch it out to a 100 or is it acceptable to end it on a weird number like 98 or 99 😳

xoxo