"You never told me what this one means." Jacob traced the outline of her I promise tattoo lightly with his fingertips.

Carter made up a story to spare his feelings from the truth, "I got it for my grandmother, those were the last words she ever said to me."

She felt terrible lying to him like that, but, if he knew that Harry had done it and what it had actual stood for, he would probably leave her.

After her little moment with Harry behind the shop, she thought a lot about her current relationship. It wasn't fair of her to compare Jacob to Harry and she realized that now.

She also realized that she did love Jacob. She didn't love him as strongly as she had loved Harry, she didn't think that she would ever love anybody else that way, but she did love him.

He wasn't Harry, but he was Jacob and he was special too.

Jacob wore a soft smile as he pulled his hand away, "That's beautiful, but then again, so are the rest of your tattoos and so are you."

He kissed her cheek and she smiled and cuddled closer to him on the couch. She still hadn't told him about Harry being in the area and upsetting her, but she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to.

He didn't deserve someone like her, someone who would break his heart one way or the other, but she didn't want to let him go either.

Carter wanted Harry more than she wanted anything, but she needed to be safe in a relationship and someone as eccentric and as passionate as Harry couldn't give her that.

She'd left him for a reason, even if she hated herself for it.

Jacob was tuning into the soft sounds emitting from the TV when she turned in his arms to smile up at him, "Do you know that I love you?"

The smile that resulted from those words was the biggest and the brightest that she'd seen on him since they first started dating.

This time, he knew that she meant it.

"Only if you know that I love you more."

. . .

She'd been avoiding him for weeks. He sat outside the shop and waited for her to come out, sometimes for her to go in, but she knew and probably went out either the side door or the back door.

Harry was frustrated with himself because it seemed like he had managed to push her even further away. Who could blame him though?

If it was the other way around, she would have told him to leave his lover too.

He understood what she meant about him being a wild card, it was true, but that didn't mean that it was bad or that he would hurt her because of it.

Hell, if anyone was the true wild card here, it was Carter, she'd proved as much when she left him and when she told him that she loved him, but she wasn't going to leave her lover.

Today, Harry decided to park around the corner and wait for her by the back door. If she was going to avoid him, he was going to go straight to the source, no games.

Snow clung to his hair and his clothes, his hands were fucking freezing and his lips were trembling, but he would wait for however long it took, even if he got frostbite in the process.

Nearly an hour passed before he saw the lights switch off. Carter was probably going to hit him again, but he wasn't going to let her walk out of his life so easily.

She wasn't paying attention as she pulled her coat around her as tight as she could manage and locked the back door.

Not wanting to scare her, Harry waited to say something until she turned around and saw him rocking on his heels to keep a little bit warmer.

When she turned around, keys safely in her pocket, she was surprised either way and gasped a little louder than she had probably intended to.

Her light blue eyes met his with a soft recognition this time, "Harry, what are you doing out here? It's fucking freezing."

He couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips and displayed his dimples, "I know. You were avoiding me, so I made it so you couldn't avoid me."

Carter sighed as she walked closer, there wasn't really a way around him because of how close the buildings were together, "People avoid things for a reason, Harry."

"Okay, so, what's your reason?"

The question had caught her by surprise and she had to think about her answer carefully, "If I see enough of you, I'll leave him."

Her jaw clenched tightly as she said it and after as Harry looked at her with a bit of triumph sparking in his eyes.

"Why would that be such a bad thing? You said it yourself, you don't love him."

Carter hesitated and his heart beat frantically in his chest. He hoped to god that he hadn't made her realize that she really did love whoever this other man was.

"I was wrong. I do love him, but not the way that I love you."

His heart sank and his hope had been crushed, but she also said that she loved him differently. Did that mean that she loved him more than her new fiancé?

"If you love me more, then why not have me?"

She was closer now, and his hands automatically took hers and laced their fingers together, a feeling he'd longed for so much since she'd left him.

"Why not let me love you again?"

Carter closed her eyes, tears pricking and demanding to be set free, "I already told you why."

His features hardened and he rolled his eyes, "Carter, we both know that's a shit excuse that you gave me."

Blue eyes met his and she nodded, "I know, but it's the only reason I have and it makes sense to me, even if it's ridiculously stupid. You need to let me go, Harry."

She wasn't talking about his hold on her hands and he knew it even though he didn't want it to be true.

His tears stung in the cold weather, he'd never cried over someone so much in his entire life, "But I can't."

They were both crying now, the cold stinging their skin and snow falling in their hair and coating their clothes.

It was hard to tell who was more upset, but Carter turned the heartbreak into anger and shouted back at him, "Well, you have to! Damn it, you fucking have to!"

Her back was against the frigid brick wall, Harry's proximity suddenly very close as he yelled right back, "Why!?"

The words that flung from deep in her throat were anything but true, but she needed a reason to get him to leave her alone and it was the only thing that she could think of that would work, "Because I don't want you anymore!"

Instead, her words seemed to have the opposite effect. Something changed in his eyes and then he was kissing her. His lips warm and pleading, kissing her passionately and begging her to just give in to what she knew was right.

He knew that she had lied the moment she began to move her lips against his and wind her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer to her to deepen the kiss.

They stayed like that for a while before Carter spoke between kisses, "Where's your car?"

"Around the corner."

Carter nodded and pushed him away finally, "Lead the way."

The streets were practically empty because of the hour and the weather and they were in the backseat of his car in minutes.

Harry's hands held her hips as they picked up their makeout session and hers roamed all over his body, tugging of his coat and then slipping under his shirt. She'd been away from him for far too long and her want took over in only moments.

Having sex in a car wasn't really what she imagined when they met up again, but it would have to do because she needed to feel him again and the drive to wherever it was that he was staying would take too long.

Jacob didn't even cross her mind as she discarded her clothes and rid Harry of his, her hands exploring every exposed inch of him as he trailed kisses down her body, leaving love bites wherever the hell that he pleased.

She was his and he was hers.

Carter took him in her hand and he slipped his own hand past her stomach and down to where she wanted him the most, second to her heart anyway.

Soft moans filled the small space inside the car and the windows had begun to fog. Anyone who was passing by could easily just wipe the window and see them, but neither of them cared as they recaptured the spark that had never really been winked out in the first place.

The backseat was an extremely uncomfortable place to have sex, the seatbelt holders dug into their skin and it was cramped, but that didn't stop them from doing it anyway.

Harry lined himself up with her, after smacking his head on the ceiling, and eased into her slowly to let her adjust since it had been a while and he doubted her new love interest was even half of his size.

Carter gasped softly, her fingers pressing into his biceps and her eyes snapping shut as her body adjusted and the slight pain turned to pleasure.

Slow didn't last very long, Harry's hips banged against hers and her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. Her head hit the door a few times, but she ignored it to focus on the way that his lips parted slightly, the way that his eyes fluttered shut frequently as she lifted her hips to meet his and push him deeper, and the way that his hair hung around his face in damp ringlets, clinging to his neck and forehead.

The low moans that escaped from deep in his throat only served to turn her on even more and he didn't seem to mind that she was being rather loud and that the car was rocking slightly with each thrust of his hips.

People on the streets had started to notice and a few teenagers pressed their hands and faces against the tinted windows to sneak a peek. If they weren't desperately going at it, they would have laughed and given them a real show.

Carter's short nails dug into his back, a slightly higher pitched moan passing her lips, her body arching into his and her toes curling as she unraveled beneath him.

Harry marveled at the familiar sound, a smirk finding his lips moments before he dipped his head down to kiss her, her mouth catching his moan as he lost himself.

He carefully lowered himself over Cater, careful not to put all of his weight on her as they caught their breath.

Carter caught her breath first and Harry nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck.

As soon as he did that, Carter started to cry.

"Hey. Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

That only seemed to make it worse. She pushed him away and sat up to search for her discarded clothing.

"I'm the worst fucking hypocrite in the world. That's what's wrong."

Harry sat up too and placed his hand on her arm, gently running it up and down to soothe her and to rid her skin of the goosebumps she'd accumulated.

"Carter..."

She shook his hand off and started to struggle with her bra, "No. Don't you fucking say anything. Here I am, afraid of being cheated on because it's happened so many times before, and, yet, here I am, cheating on my fiancé with my ex-fiancé. God, don't you understand what you're doing to me?"

Harry frowned and connected the latches for her. He didn't say anything because she was right. Without really thinking it through, he'd turned her into what she had avoided and what she was afraid of.

He felt awful, but not as awful as Carter felt about being the cheater herself. She knew how it felt to be on the receiving end and it really fucking sucked.

The car was silent as they dressed, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

Carter's hand was on the door handle when Harry finally decided to say it, "I'm sorry."

She wouldn't look at him. Her body went rigid and she took a deep breath, wiped her eyes and stepped out of the car, "No, you're not."