~Harry's POV~

I slowly awaken to the feeling of someone softly tracing the tattoos on my chest and arms repeatedly. It feels nice. I keep my eyes closed and sigh, wishing the headache I have would go away.
Holy shit, Max and I fucked last night.
The memories suddenly filling my mind. She had said that she didn't regret anything we had done previously, but now that we have to maintain a professional relationship with each other, will she regret last night? God, I hope not, because I don't. But if she's still cuddled up to me, she can't be that mad, right? Only one way to find out.
I open my eyes and look down at Max, but she isn't looking at me, she's still running her hands over me. “Morning,” I greet her, my voice still thick with sleep. I pull her naked body closer to mine. “Afternoon,” she corrects, “It's nearly three.” That doesn't surprise me, the lads and I always sleep in as late as we can after a night out and as far as I know, we don't have anything planned for today.
“Mmm?” I hum in response, just enjoying her warmth and touch against my skin. When she doesn't say anything for a few minutes, I decide to just ask her, “What are you thinking about?”
She sighs deeply, “Trying to decide where to go from here.”
“And hows that going?”
“Shitty.”She says while wrapping her arms around me tightly. I know she wants to be friends with benefits, but its her damn job that is stopping her. I pull her up so her face is closer to mine. Putting my finger under her chin, I make her look at me. “Talk to me.”I tell her softly.
“Do you really think we could be friends with benefits and keep it a secret?”She asks me. “Yes,” I answer honestly. She purses her lips in thought and sits up against the headboard, wrapping the blankets around her. I sit up as well even though it makes my headache worse.
“If we do this, we can't tell anyone, not even the other guys. The less they know, the better.” She's actually saying yes?
“Fine with me.” I respond quickly. “We need to be 100% professional when I'm working, those cameras catch everything so we need to be careful. And-” I cut her off by pressing my lips to hers. “I'm good at keeping secrets, Max.” She just nods before kissing me again. We slither back down the bed and I hover over her, giving her soft kisses before tickling her side. She squirms and giggles, grabbing my hand to stop their torture.
I chuckle at her, she's cute. She runs her hands through my messy curls while looking in my eyes. “You are trouble, that's what you are.” She tells me, a smile playing on her lips before she kisses me roughly. I grip her waist tightly and press her firmly against me so she can feel my dick harden against her. I grind against her, receiving a quiet moan. Fuck, she's so sexy. I'm so glad that she decided to agree to do this.
I kiss her neck, not staying in one place for too long making sure I don't leave any hickeys. I play with her breasts, pinching her nipple between my fingers. She moans in pleasure and my little friend springs to life, wanting her. I rub my tip against her sex to find that she's already wet and waiting for me. She wraps her legs around my waist and just as I'm about to enter her, there is pounding on my bedroom door.
“HARRY! Wake up!”Niall yells. I groan in frustration and thank the gods that I locked the door last night. “Go away!” I yell back. “You need to get up! We're going out to dinner with Perrie soon.” Max's face brightens at the mention of Perrie, but I'm too sexually frustrated to give a damn. “I'll be out soon! Go away!”I growl at the Irishman. He doesn't reply indicating that he probably walked away.
“I didn't know Perrie was gonna be here! I miss her.” Max tells me with a smile on her face. “I wonder how long she's staying-” I cut her off by filling her completely, causing her to gasp. I love making her feel this way. “I don't want to think about Perrie while I'm having sex with you, love.” I tell her, voice husky. She giggles, “Sorry. Now, where were we?”

~Max's POV~
I know that I shouldn't be doing this with Harry. I know it, but I'm doing it anyway. Besides, nobody is going to find out and even if they did, the worst that would happen is I'd be relocated. Of course, that means no more Harry, but I can live with that. Right? I hope.
After fooling around with Harry earlier, I was able to sneak to my bedroom without being seen. I hope nobody heard my moans, Harry had to cover my mouth either with his hands or his lips almost the whole time because I couldn't keep quiet. If they did hear them, they will probably just think it's some random chick Harry brought home last night. That's his story if he needs it, anyway. If you had sex with Harry Styles then you would understand why I can't say no to him. He is a perfect British sex God.
Turns out it's not just Perrie we are having dinner with, Liam and Louis' girlfriends are also joining us. I really like Perrie so hopefully the other boys picked good girls as well. I'm standing in my bathroom putting on my jewelry when Harry pops up. I didn't even hear him come in.
He wraps his arms around my waist from behind and looks at me in the mirror, just like he did the morning after we first met. He kisses my cheek and nibbles on my neck. “You look nice.”
“Thanks, so do you.”
He turns me around in his arms, “Tell me something I don't know about you.” I purse my lips in thought for a moment, “I haven't listened to any of your songs.” He feigns hurt, “Not even one?” I chuckle, “Sorry, I've never been much into boy bands.”
Harry pushes me against the bathroom sink roughly and growls, “You are gonna pay for that statement later, Max Calder.” He smirks, “And I like to think we aren't half bad.” I caress his face before pinching his cheek, “Aww, I'm sure you aren't sweetie.” I tease. He slaps my hand away and leers at me while I laugh. He goes in for a kiss but I dodge it. “I have lipstick on, Harry. We can't be wearing the same color now, can we?”
He pouts and I grab his ass before walking back into my room. “Are you ready to act normal?” I ask him, grabbing my purse. “I would much rather spend the night in bed with you.” He responds, his eyes raking up and down my body. I blush involuntarily and walk to my door. “Well, that's too bad, Styles.” I blow him a kiss and he lunges toward me, but I quickly run out of my room and down the stairs to join the others, Harry following close behind. He gives me a dirty look and I stifle a laugh. I love teasing him.
We get to the restaurant and find the three girls waiting for us at a semi-secluded table away from the other customers. Each of them have their own body guard. Zayn walks over to Perrie and gives her a sweet kiss. Liam then walks over to a pretty brunette, giving her a kiss as well, however it looked kind of strained. Louis gives his girl a silly kiss and she giggles, pushing him away and walking over to me with the other girls.
“Hi! This is Sophia and Eleanor. Girls, this is Max.”Perrie introduces the others. “Hi, nice to meet you both.” Okay, Sophia is Liam's girl and Eleanor is Louis'. Got it.
We began to take our seats and I was going to sit down next to Harry, for professional reasons, of course, when Perrie grabs my hand and pulls me to the other side of the table to sit between her and Niall and directly across from Harry. “I've missed you! We need to catch up.” She tells me.
After we ordered, she basically filled me in on her life since the only interesting thing I did was go to the movie premiere and fuck Harry. I suddenly wish I could tell her everything that's going on between Harry and I. I miss having girl talks. I miss Abby but I couldn't ever talk to her about these things. No, who I really miss probably hates me; Cassie. I wonder if she likes One Direction, I hope shes not a crazy fan. I need to call her, I've been putting it off long enough. I'm just so afraid she hates me for what I put her and her parents through after everything they have done and continue to do for me. Not only will I lose my best friend, I'll be losing my sister, if I haven't already.
I hadn't realized I was zoning out until I felt someone kick me under the table. I look at Harry, a little dazed. Everyone is chatting amongst themselves as he mouths to me, “You okay?” I give him a small smile for being worried and just nod back. He doesn't believe me but lets it go as its not the time or place for this discussion.
When our food comes, Niall immediately snatches a bite from my plate. I hit him across the head as I scold him, “Hey!” He laughs and licks his lips, “Mmm, that's good.” I go to take a bite from his plate, but he knocks my fork right out of my hand and onto the table. “Back off! This is my food, get your own.” My mouth agape with shock, “You stole from me first!”
“I did not! Lou did you see me steal her food?” Niall asks his friend with a cheeky grin. I know for a fact Louis didn't see a damn thing, but he takes Niall's side anyway with a sly grin, “Nope, sure didn't.” I flip them both off, earning some laughs, and begin to eat my dinner.
After a nice dinner, we all took a limo back to the house. On the way there, Eleanor and I figured out that we have the same last name, but have no relation to each other. She said we could always pretend, though, and I've decided that I like all of the boys girlfriends, they've picked well.
When we get back to the house, everyone cracks open a beer except for me. I'm afraid once I start I won't be able to stop and I'll end up spilling every thought I've been having tonight. I can't stop thinking about Cassie.
We all go out to the back and sit around a small fire that Zayn got going. The fire is surrounded with plush couches and loveseats. I sprawl myself out onto a couch before Niall lifts my legs, plopping himself down next to me and resting my legs on his lap.
All of the other couples are on loveseats, except for Harry. He's sitting all alone on a single chair across from me. An hour later, the conversation had gone silent, we were all just staring at the fire and enjoying this nice night. “Would One Direction do me the honor of singing me a song?”I ask out of nowhere. I think its about time I listened to one of their songs.
They all look at each other, discussing it silently before Niall abruptly goes inside. Harry nearly jumps at the opportunity to steal Niall's spot. I'm afraid that looks suspicious, but as I look around I see that nobody is even paying attention to us. Harry smiles at me and I return it, then Niall comes back with a guitar in his hand. “Oi! You stole me spot!” Niall whines. “Snooze you lose, Nialler.” Harry tells him smirking. He looks at me for help, but I hold my hands up in innocence, “Don't look at me, I just laid here.” He pouts before accepting it and taking Harry's old spot, placing the guitar on his knee.
“What shall we sing for the pretty ladies, mates?” Niall asks his fellow band members. “Little Things.” Harry declares. The rest of them agree and I cover Harry and I with a blanket before they begin. As soon as the first lyric left Zayn's mouth, I froze and instantly remember when Harry first sang this to me on the night we first met. Harry chuckles at my reaction, he did this on purpose. As Harry sings his part, he looks right at me and entwines our hands under the blanket. I give him a squeeze and he returns it, smiling and showing me his adorable dimples in the process. When the song is over, I take back my hand and clap along with the other girls. The boys bow dramatically.
“Well, I think we're gonna go to bed.” Louis says, him and Eleanor standing. Following suit, the two other couples also retreat back inside, leaving only Niall, Harry and I. We sit there in silence for about twenty minutes before I see Niall start to drift to sleep. I throw a pillow at his face and he nearly falls off the chair. Harry and I laugh at him. “Okay, I guess it's time for me to go too. Night guys.” Niall tells us. “Night.”
“And then there were two.”I say. Harry swiftly moves me to give him space to lay down next to me. He lays flat on his back and I lay my head on his chest, our arms wrapped around each other. He rubs soothing circles on my back and I can feel myself finally begin to relax for the first time all night.
“You coming to rehearsals tomorrow?” Harry asks me.
“I go wherever you go, Styles.” I respond to him flatly.
“Are you gonna tell me whats wrong?” he asks, voice soft.
“It's stupid, Harry. I just need to suck it up.” I tell him.
He tilts my head up with his fingers gently to look at him. “It's not stupid if it's making you this upset, Max.” I mentally curse him for being able to read me so well. I need to work on my poker face around him. I was about to tell him to forget it, but his inviting green eyes convinced me to confide in him. Not wanting to reveal my entire past, I tell him whats going on, omitting some details, like my parents death. I don't need him looking at me with pity. It's bad enough I'm telling him about my shameful addiction.
I look at the fire as the painful memories surface.“Before I went into the Academy, I was going through a rough time. When I was 17, I... I started to get into some hard drugs. I put my family through hell, especially Cassie. Long story short, when I was 18 I got caught, but the judge allowed me to go to the Academy instead of charging me. Honestly, I think he was paid off, but I'm glad he was. The Academy saved my life. I know for a fact I would have overdosed soon. Anyway, I said some pretty horrible things to my family before they sent me away. When I sobered up, I couldn't bring myself to call Cassie whenever they let us call loved ones. I feel so guilty and ashamed and now she has this amazing new life without me. She's going to college and doing everything we planned to do together, but I fucked it all up and she probably hates me. I hate me.”
When I feel tears start to run down my cheeks, I sit up putting my back to Harry. I don't want him to see my cry. I feel weak. He sits up with me and I hastily wipe away my tears, sniffling. He rubs my back, trying to comfort me. I probably just freaked him out, great.
“Max, love, everyone makes mistakes. Your parents forgave you and so will Cassie. She's your sister and she'll understand.” he tells me. When I don't respond or look at him, he once again forces me to. He cups my cheek in his hand and I lean into it, sighing. “The only thing you can do is apologize and try to make it up to her. Besides,” he wipes away a stray tear with his thumb, “who could stay mad at you?”
I can't help but smile and press my lips to his softly. Hugging him tightly, I say, “Thank you, Harry.”

“Anytime, love. Let's get to bed, yeah?” he says. I nod into his neck before he stands. After he puts the fire out, he grabs my hand and we go into his room. Harry didn't even try to have sex with me despite his warning from earlier that I would 'pay'. He understood that I just needed comfort tonight. It's good to know that we are actually friends, and not just benefits.

Notes