Harv's POV

Waking up to small movement next to me, I look down and see the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on curled up to my side. Her long black hair laid out over the bedspread behind her as I gently rub her bareback. With her naked form pressing closer to mine, all I can think about is how thankful I am that everything worked out between us last night. 

Last night when we got back home, to say we couldn't get our hands off of each other would be an understatement. The fear we shared, that we might have lost someone we love with all our hearts, was just so overwhelming. 

The makeup sex was incredible though.

We haven't spoken about everything that happened yesterday yet, and a part of me doesn't want to. Just so that we don't ruin the good mood we are in, but I know it'll happen sooner or later. 

Hearing her melodic voice sing to me last night was the happiest moment of my life. Knowing that not only did I not lose her but she loves me, just like I love her.

What more could I possibly want?

I love this woman so much, and finally being able to tell her lifted such a weight from my shoulders. Seeing her beside me right now in all her natural glory, makes me wonder what I ever did to deserve such an incredible person by my side. From her smooth skin under my fingertips to her light hums in her sleep as I rub her back, all of it just pulls me further under. Like a sea of emotion and attraction, that I'm happy to drown in. 

"You're going to put me back to sleep if you keep doing that." She mumbles into my chest, adjusting her body slightly next to mine.

"Go back to sleep, I don't mind," I whisper, kissing the top of her head.

"What time is it?"

Reaching over to grab my phone from the bedside table, I see that it's already 11 am. I feel like we could stay in this bed forever though, even the twins haven't come barging in since they got home an hour ago. I think they know we need some time to ourselves, which I'm grateful for right now. The cheeky bastards were using all the right words to get me out of my room last night, and it was the best thing they've ever done for me. 

"It's 11:04."

"Shit, we should get up!" She jerks to get out of my hold but doesn't get far with my arms still holding her close.

"Not happening. You're not leaving my side today, sweetheart." I playfully tell her, burying my face in her exposed neck.

Loving the light squeal she lets out as I leave gentle kisses across her skin, I just relish in her small giggles from our contact. 

"We'll starve if we stay in here all day. And I'm not going anywhere, I promise." She tells me, as she gazes at me, those electric blue eyes stare back at me. 

"Never again," I whisper, resting my head against hers.

"Never, ever." She promises, a sweet smile on her lips.

We stay laying together just lost in our own thoughts, enjoying the light touches and caresses of each other's bodies. Her fingers are lightly playing with the hair on my chest, while my own fingers glide through the black mane on her head.

"You know we should probably talk about yesterday, right?" She says after another ten minutes of silence.

"Yeah." I sigh, wishing it could be forgotten.

"I'm sorry... for not listening to you, and for not trusting you when you explained what happened." She tells me, a sad look on her face as she gazes up at me.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Crys. I'd have done worse than you did, had I been in your shoes." I chuckle, happy to see her smile up at me. Guilt has been eating away at me for everything that happened yesterday. The pain after thinking I might have lost her was unbelievable, but I can't help but think I deserve it a bit too. I could have done more, and I should have done more. 

"I am sorry for everything that happened, Crys. If I could go back, I would in a heartbeat and tell her to fuck off and never look her way again."

"Harv."

"I don't know why I thought she was being genuine, she seems to have already turned into such a hateful shrew," I say sadly. 

"Harv!"

"And the fact that she nearly got what she wanted in the end just makes my head spin, I don't know what I'd do if we-"

"Harvey Anderson!" Her voice shouts, breaking my ramble.

"W-What?" I stutter, shocked by her yelling.

While she can be a fierce woman, she doesn't yell a lot. Looking down at what I thought would be her angry face, I see her holding back a giggle while looking up at me.

"You don't have to think about the 'what ifs' Harv. I think we both know what's happened, we don't need to keep going over it." She softly scolds me.

Sighing in relief that she doesn't want to go over it in detail, I pull her closer to me and just hold her. Reassuring myself that she really is still in my arms, that she really is still mine.

"You have no idea just how terrified I was yesterday. The moment I saw your hurt expression, a chunk of my heart broke. Those hours alone without you, and with no clue about where we stood were the longest, most painful moments of my life." I whisper, occasionally pulling her closer to me. 

"Har-"

"I can't lose you, Crystal. You make me whole, without you I don't think I'll ever be the same again." I finish off, the memories of pain still fresh in my mind.

"Harv, we're okay. I promise you, I'm not leaving you. Do you remember what I said last night?" She sternly asks.

Nodding my head, she smiles up at me with satisfaction.

"I love you too, forever and always," I tell her, kissing her with as much love as I can.

That is until-

"Ewww! Why didn't I knock?!" A twin's voice, most likely Jeremy's, cuts into our blissful state.

Looking over to see both men smiling their identical smiles back at us, all I can think is 'what do they find so amusing?' Normally they would be whining and groaning about us keeping a lid on it or just slamming the door shut to avoid scarring themselves further.

Apparently, Crys found it weird too.

"What has you two so happy, hmm?" She questions them with a smile.

"Come out and have lunch. We went to get some chicken and chips." James tells us, leaving with a click of the door shutting behind them.

Crys gets out of the bed before I can even think about holding her captive again, much to my dismay. I watch from my spot as she sashays her way to the clothes she keeps in my room, admiring the view more than would be considered gentlemanly. After she is dressed in her bra and panties, I decide to give up on staying in bed and get up too. 

Once we are both dressed into some lazy clothes for the day, I pull her back to me again and just hold her close. I'm sure I must be coming across as clingy and annoying, but right now I just don't care. I need to get this out of my system after everything that happened.

Pulling apart after a minute, she smiles while placing a gentle hand on my cheek. I lean into her touch just a bit, closing my eyes to savour her touch for a moment longer before we face the day.

Walking into the kitchen area, the twins have set plates out for us all and placed the food in the middle of the table. It smells fantastic too, something I'll always love eating is chips and gravy, with roast chicken. As we all dish up our own meals, the twins start to tell us what seems to have them so happy.

"So, we were out and about earlier, right? James here had to go to the shop for something or other, and while we were minding our business, we spotted a certain troublemaker." Jeremy starts off, practically glowing as he tells the story.

"Naturally we got a little curious." James continues. "Which of course, meant we tried to follow her a little." He smiled.

"As we snooped about, she turned her face to look at something on a shelf. And guess what we spotted?" Jeremy asks, close to jumping in his seat.

"What?" I ask, a bit confused by their odd behaviour.

"She has two black eyes!" They yell in unison.

Crys and I are wearing a near-identical expression at the news they delivered, mouths gaping open and eyes wide open. 

"W-What? How?" Crys stutters.

Both men just give her pointed looks, smiling from ear to ear.

"Me? Surely I didn't hit her that hard!" She rushes out, not believing a word they said.

"We figured you wouldn't believe us. That's why we got proof too!" Jeremy beams, pulling his phone out of his pocket to show us something.

And what a something it was!

Clear as day was Chloe wearing a hoodie and jeans, with oversized sunglasses on her head. In the picture, she has her sunglasses pulled up to read the label of something she was looking at. Her nose with a taped bandage on it, and two clear bruises under her eyes that she must have gotten from the punch Crys laid on her. 

"Fucking hell!" I exclaim, shocked by the damage my girlfriend delivered to my ex-girlfriend.

Not that I'm complaining, people can only be pushed so far before they snap. And Crys had clearly had enough yesterday, so the punch was pretty minor compared to what I'm sure she wanted to do.

"Was she okay?" Her small voice asked.

Looking over to see her face ridden with guilt, I grab her hand and give it a small squeeze. Her brothers are slightly shocked by her reaction before giving her warm smiles.

"She was fine, really. She had been barking mean comments into her phone about people at college, she doesn't seem to have learnt self-restraint whatsoever." James tries to ease her worries.

She seems to lighten up a bit after finding that out, though I can see it still bothers her.

When we all finish eating, I ask Crys if she wants to join me at the gym for a while. Thankfully she says yes because I think she's in need of an outlet right now. Plus Lee is always great with her when she plummets into her thoughts.

**********

As we walk into the familiar gym building, we see Lee behind the counter typing away.

When he sees us approaching he gives us a small smile before it drops back off at what I'm guessing is the sight of Crys' grim face. She hasn't really looked too happy since she found out just how much she had hurt Chloe, no matter how much we tell her not to feel too bad.  

"Hello darlin'. What's got you so glum?" He eyes me, before looking at her again.

"She punched someone yesterday, now she feels guilty because they got black eyes from it," I tell him when I see she's got no intention of saying it out loud. 

After getting an angry glare from her, and a thankful nod from Lee, he offers for them to go out back and talk about it. As much as I wish she spoke with me about these things, I'm glad she is comfortable enough with Lee where she will tell him what's on her mind.

Watching them walk into the back staff room, I decide to help Lee with some of the computer work I know I'm allowed to do to pass the time. He knows about my dad, and that I want to be a physical therapist when I graduate, so he helps me learn whatever he can around here. 

He truly is a great boss, despite the fact that he looks rather closed off a lot of the time. Crys is probably one of the only people I've seen him lighten up with, he clearly has a soft spot for her. Not that I blame him.

He's told me about her determination before he had offered her lessons in self-defence, about the broken girl she used to be. Not to mention the threat to never harm her, or else...

About half an hour later, the two come back out from the staff room, Crys was looking lighter and Lee was looking slightly annoyed.

I braced myself for his wrath, knowing he may very well let it out on me after hearing about everything. What surprised me, isn't the smack up the back of my head he gave me. But rather the quick hug I'm pulled into afterwards.

Looking at Crys confused, she simply giggles while shrugging. When we pull back, he simply smiles at me before telling us to go practice some of the holds she should already know. 

Looking over at the woman that drives me crazy, I can see the weight lifted from her after talking with Lee. That's all I was wanting in this moment, was for her to be happy again.

And I'm not going to let anyone take that away from her, ever again.

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Sorry for the slight delay! 

I had my pop's 90th birthday yesterday, and I was donating Plasma today!

But it's up and the next chapter will likely be on Tuesday or Wednesday! 

On another note 4.27k reads and #5 in Newlove

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