Haven • H.S.

28. This*

Haven- 28

"...this is the start of something beautiful... this is the start of something new..."

Ella.

NOTE: if you wish to skip the sexual content within this chapter, the asterisks (***) will let you know when it starts, and when it ends.

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"I never knew that could be so much fun!"

Harry glanced at my excited eyes, biting his lip to suppress his smile from getting any larger. "I can't believe you liked it that much," he said.

Was he kidding? Destroying targets like a crazy person with an AR was some of the most unconventional fun I've ever had. And I'd been skeptical-- I wasn't going to lie. I didn't know what to expect when we'd first arrived at the gun range because it'd surprised me just that monumentally. But I never went into things with a frown, with a negative outlook from the getgo, and I hadn't been ready to start. Instead, I had smiled and given it a chance. Some of the best chances you take come from the most uncomfortable places.

And I'd learned a lot. Which, for some, would've been the most important part. But Paul had been patient with me, Harry had been thrilled, and I'd been simply happy.

No one could ever say, if the time came, that I wouldn't be able to defend myself.

"I fuckin' loved it," I said with vehemence.

He shook his head disbelievingly from behind the wheel. He let his arm wrap around my thighs until his fingers were tucked comfortably under my right knee. He was nothing more than shocked as he took a calculating left turn. We were on our way back to our dorms, and he'd been unusually quiet in the confines of his car. He was sharing a few smiles, a few glances, a few words here and there but nothing like I was used to. Harry was one of those people that could normally never shut up.

"Baby." I squeezed his forearm. His arm was ridiculously long to be doing what it was doing. "You're being awfully quiet."

He shrugged, creasing his face into dipped brows and pursed lips. "Just thinking, you know?"

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He looked over again, and there was so much in his eyes it nearly melted me into the car's tough leather. I'd always wondered if somebody could ever have eyes as expressive as mine and I'd met him. Harry. He was always watching me with them, and not just watching. Seeing. And tonight they were laid out before me like I hoped they always would be. I would never want that piece of him to be cut from me.

Longing. Adoration. Temptation.

"I know..." he started, staring intently at the road, "I know I say it all the time, baby. But you're the most incredible person I've ever met. You mean the world to me. Spending the night away from you made me realize just how important our nights together are." He squeezed my knee and the wheel simultaneously. Tightly. "I... I said I wanted this to be special, and magical and everything else, because you fucking deserve it, Ella. You really do. But I can't-- I don't think I can wait any longer. I have to have you. I...need you. And I know what we did on the rooftop was fucking amazing, but it only drove me crazier."

Holy shit.

"But I would never force you into something that you don't want, okay? And you can tell me to shutup or that you can't believe I'm even saying these things to you. You can throw something at me, anything Ella, but I can't hold back anymore from saying this. I have to have you."

My gut clenched, my nerves buzzed and my mind went wild. That was the most he'd said since we'd started heading home, and I was left breathless. He'd been holding that back. He'd been holding in the single most heart-bursting line of speech until he simply couldn't anymore. And I couldn't think. Not clearly, anyways.