11...12...13...14

14 photographers where lining the gates outside Harry's house.

Or at least that's how many I could count from the upstairs window facing the street where I had been sitting for the last hour since Anne and Robin had left with the children. Thankfully, from this angel, they couldn't see me.

The press release had been out for a week now and it had been a little under two weeks since everything had started.

According to Harry's people, we were cleared and encouraged to go back out into the world. I wasn't quite sure if that was for the benefit of us or the publicity that One Direction's PR reps were banking on getting for the band with this whole mess.

Harry had tried to convince me to go out with him but I was still apprehensive, even if I was dealing with it a little better than I had been. I had become desensitized to the short trips through the crowds whenever I had to leave the house but had yet to deal with any of it without the safety of being inside the car.

Baby steps.

Although, it had been a massive leap for me to allow Jamie and Darcy out of my sight.

Harry had set Anne to the task of guilting me into allowing her to take them to her home for the weekend, something I ended up feeling a lot better about after she explained that it would be less stressful for them.

So I watched as they loaded up the blacked out SUV, which had been loaned to Anne and Robin by Harry, inside the enclosed garage. Harry had assured me that they would be fine and had even gone through the precaution of enlisting Eleanor and Louis as decoys so that his mother and step father could get out unscathed as he wandered near the gates to distract the paps.

It was such an over the top dramatic production that I had a feeling was more an over precaution for my benefit than anything else and I definitely appreciated it. Especially when I watched the SUV with my babies safely drive away mostly unnoticed through the back entrance to Harry's property.

It was shortly after that when I had found myself seated on the window seat in the upstairs hallway watching the people that had drastically changed my life.

"Hey."

The husky voice behind me had me smiling even before I turned to take in his bare chest and slightly glistening skin that had me deducing he had just come from taking a shower.

"Hey." I answered back with a smirk that Harry mirrored back.

"What are you doing?"

I shrugged at his question and let my fingers dance over the fabric of the seat I was on.

He glanced out the window and sighed at the sight before taking a few long strides towards me to take a seat beside me.

I didn't look up from my fingers even as he leaned forward and pulled me onto his lap.

It was the first real moment to ourselves we had in a very long time.

Since everything had gone down every moment of our lives has been a hectic mess of trying to squash rumors or help set up a time for the massive photo shoot that was being held here in this home, our sanctuary, in a weeks' time.

But now it was just Harry and I, alone, if you didn't count the 14 photographers outside that is.
"How do you handle all this?" My voice sounded small even to me.

Harry pulled me closer and rested his chin on my head as his eyes swept the people outside. "I'm not sure. I don't really think too much about it. Normally it's just something I have to deal with when I go out with certain friends or to big events but this..." I felt his chest move under me as he took in a deep breath. "This is something new."

"Will they ever go away?"

"I hope so." He said before placing a kiss to the top of my head.

"I'm sorry this has made your life so much harder, Harry."

He didn't hesitate to pull me away so he could look into my eyes. "My life isn't any harder than it already was, if anything this whole thing, although very annoying, has made something's easier."

I wrinkled my brow in utter confusion.

He chuckled before pulling me back into his chest and once again resting his chin on my head.

"I hated lying about Darcy. I felt like I was keeping a dirty secret and that's not how I wanted to feel about my daughter. Now that this is all out I can actually do things with her, take her out and not have to worry about people asking questions. I can be an actual father."

I nodded at his words. They made sense. I had thought, on more than one occasion, about how hard the whole situation had to have been on Harry with keeping his daughter hidden from the world. I already knew how it effected Darcy now that she was starting to understand the world around her.

"And it makes things easier for me when it comes to you too."

Now I was the one pulling away from him.

"What could possibly be easy about any of this for us?" I didn't say it with malice or anger; it was a genuinely curious statement.

The way his lips tugged up at the corners had my heart do its own little tugging and my eyes couldn't help zero in on his deepening dimples.

"I can finally take you out on a date-"

I opened my mouth to remind Harry about my current strike on going outside but he quickly shushed me.

"This is going to pass Aria. They are going to find some other story that is more interesting than us when they realize we are a boring, normal couple with two kids."

I slouched away from him and crossed my arms in front of my chest with a pout. "Speak for yourself, I'm not boring."

He just chuckled and shook his head before pulling me back into him. "You're doing that thing you do right now, but I'm not going to let you do it anymore."

"What thing?" I mumbled into his chest petulantly.

"Running."

And I was struck speechless because I knew he was right, only this time I had nowhere to run from all this mess so I decided to run and hide inside.

Harry leaned back to slant his body against the wall behind him and pulled me with him until I was practically lying on top of him. "You can't run from this babe. Trust me, I know."

I sighed an adjusted myself to lie more comfortably on his chest as I glanced out the window at the people milling about outside our home. "There are just so many of them."

"You just need to find something else to focus on." Harry murmured as his lips placed themselves on the side of my head and his hands rubbed soothingly on my back.

We were quiet for a long time.

My eyes stayed glued to the window for the longest time, trying to think of a when and how I would ever feel alright going out into that insanity again.

Maybe Harry was right, it would blow over and we wouldn't be such big news anymore but there were always going to be photographers in my life now. I was going to be a point of interest for people I had never met and would likely never meet.

It was a very intrusive concept but as I shifted my eyes to Harry with his pouty lips and long lashes resting on his cheeks while he rested peacefully, I knew the tradeoff was worth it. They had my life on a platter but I had Harry so it was okay...right?!

"Stop staring at me woman. You're going to give me a complex."

I giggled at his words and pushed myself up off of his chest so I could swing one of my legs around until I was straddling him, once again grateful that the people outside couldn't see us or I was sure we would make the headlines once again this week.

Harry's eyes shot open as I wiggled my way into a more comfortable position on his lap only to have him grasp my thighs and halt my movements.

And abruptly the mood in the room had shifted to a much hotter, much more ignited, sexually fused atmosphere.

"Aria..."

I'm not sure if it was the look in his ever darkening eyes or the deep, husky, painfully slow way he said my name that made me freeze with a bundle of nervous butterflies actively flapping away in my tummy.

Normally at about this point in time Jamie would start bawling, or Darcy would skip into the room, or someone would need to speak to one of us but now I was suddenly acutely aware of how alone we were in this house, something that hadn't happened since we had started whatever this was.

I didn't respond to him and he didn't verbally continue. The only reaction to any of it was my sharp intake of breath and Harry's massive hands squeezing my thighs and applying pressure to pull me closer.

I certainly hadn't meant to tease him, however I wasn't complaining either as the muscles in the very pit of my stomach began to coil and tighten as he continued to stare intensely at me.

Losing my balance I once again found myself lying on Harry's chest only this time all playfulness was gone. His lips didn't hesitate to latch onto my own.

A low growl escaped from his throat when my hands found their way into his curls and my nails raked over his scalp before my fingers tangled into the softness and pulled.

As retaliation Harry's teeth bit down on my bottom lip at the same time his hands drifted up my thighs and onto my jean clad bottom to squeeze and push me even farther onto him.

"Harry..." I gasped out, thoroughly enjoying the way he made my body sing as his breath fanned over my lips. "Window."

It was the only words I could get out to remind him that, we were in face on display if ever one of the photographers decided to shift away from the front gates and look up.

Without a single word in acknowledgment, and with his hands already conveniently placed, Harry quickly sat up with me and in one fluid movement had lifted me up as he stood and began to make his way from the window.

I had no idea where we were headed and honestly I didn't care so long as he kept his mouth on me.

I was only vaguely aware he was carrying me down the hall and I almost made him set me down but in the moment I was going to open my mouth to say the words his lips had found the sensitive spot just behind my ear and as he sucked and nipped at it I, instead, found myself moaning.

The next thing my hazy mind registered was being tossed onto Harry's plush bed and Harry shortly following my body down.

"You have no idea how much I want you."

Oh I have an idea.

And if the sizable bulge pressing against my thigh was any indication I would say we were even on that front.

I lost that train of thought, and really any thought I had in my head, quickly enough when Harry's hands began to make a path from my hips up my belly and under my shirt where they disappeared but didn't halt their upwards movement.

The whole time Harry's eyes were on mine and all I could do was grabbing onto his flexing forearms and bite my lip.

"Fuck Harry..." It took everything in me not to throw myself at him as he expertly slid his hands under my lacy bra and kneaded my breasts.

This was happening. We were finally alone and we were finally going to do what we had both been longing to do.

My hands slid off his wrist and down my own body until I found were our pelvises collided. More nimbly then they had ever been, my fingers worked the button and zipper to Harry's impossible tight jeans.

Something else to focus on.

Those were his words and as my shirt and bra started off the flurry of clothes being ripped off our bodies, I realized he had certainly given me something to focus on.

And I wanted to focus on it all night long.

Notes

Alright kids let me start by saying this.... DID ANYONE SEE MY FIRST LOVES *NSYNC AND THE MAN I AM GOING TO KIDNAP FROM JESSICA BIEL AND TAKE AS MY OWN ON THE VMAS!!!???!!! Yea I pretty much screamed at my TV for the whole thing.... but anyway back to this... You guys are officially caught up to the other site and my tumblr (which has this story) so you know what that means??? You guys get to wait until I finish the next chapter... boo I know but at least you're up to date now. I hope you guys enjoy and I left it off there because I always find writing smut kind of awkward so yea... let me know what you think ok?

OH yea and if you are looking for a good story to read go check out the lovely maliksbabe's story Unbelievable