We're dancing on tables
And I'm off my face
With all of my people
And it couldn't get better they say

Shit.

"Oh, hey. When did you get home?" Daphne asks me and casually returns to whatever she was doing. "Just came home...were you here all the time?"

"No, just came back from that client. Craved one of my smoothies so I stopped home to make one before heading to the salon," she reveals and spins around, leaning on the countertop with a tall glass in her hand. As her eyes descended my body, spending an extra two seconds on my neck, her red painted lips pulled into a smirk.

"You and Niall had some real fun last night, huh? I haven't seen you like this since Henry," she muses and brings the rim of the glass to her lips for a slow sip. None of my friends was allowed to say Harry's name so Daphne made everyone call him Henry instead. She doesn't like me mentioning it but I think she really liked me with Harry. She was sad when we broke up.

Now would've been a great opportunity to confess that Niall and I are broken up but having to explain how Harry is back in my life and currently in my bedroom, wasn't a conversation I wanted to have. Especially since we're on a time limit to arrive at this club on time.

"Yeah. Anyway, I'll be out for the rest of the day and maybe the night. I'm still staying with that friend," I steered the topic away. Daphne nods her head, already knowing my plan from when we texted on the group chat this morning. "Just let Niall know, don't need him asking me about you today like I'm your mother," she rolls her eyes and places her glass on the top.

"He just gets worried easily and it's my fault. We haven't been doing good so I didn't tell him I was with that friend," I defended him. Any worried person would ask around. "Sounds messy," she comments, grabbing her bottle from the shelf and emptying her smoothie into it. "I've got to open the salon now but I'll see you whenever you're home, yeah? Text me later so I know you're safe," she orders and we walked to the door.

"I will. Have a good day at work!" I shout as she walks down the hallway, swaying her hips and with a little laugh. I shut the door and returned to my room, seeing Harry spread out on my bed, his arms stretched out. I licked my lips, loving the beautiful sight of his ferns peeking out from where his pants covered most of the tattoo.

"I'm gonna get hard again if you keep looking at me like that and we don't have time for round two. I suggest we hurry this up so Li doesn't chop my head off for being late," Harry warns, giving me a stern look. I pouted, hating that he's right. I wanted to cuddle him and drink in the fact that we are together, officially or not, he's mine.

"Going," I sighed and slid out of my clothes, throwing them into the basket and wrapping my purple towel around my body. Meanwhile, Harry had found one of the books and refused to look away from its pages. I got into the shower and cleansed myself, no longer having to be sad that my fantasies with Harry won't come true. They are true now.

After showering, I continued my morning skincare routine before carefully putting all my bottles into a cute bag for tonight. Maybe Harry would want to try out the new products I use. Fuck, I really do think about him all of the time, don't I?

I walked out of the bathroom, my eyes landing on the bed where I thought Harry would've been but all I saw was crinkled sheets. "You framed my letters?" I darted my eyes across the bedroom where Harry stood, disbelief obvious on his face. In his hands were two frames to protect his letters inside them. Crap, I forgot about those.

"Oh...you're now seeing that?" I casually asked and moved on, grabbing underwear and pulling it up my legs. I'd turn back to Harry once I was in my bra and underwear, towel discarded. His pretty lips were parted, still in shock or denial. His eyes though, I smirk as they darken as they slowly descended my body, lingering on my legs and chest.

"Madeleine," Harry breathes and spins around and he carefully places the frames back on the wall. "What Harry? I'm just getting dressed. You can't want to fuck me every time you see me naked," I replied and continued getting dressed in my dark brown pants which I'd tuck my light brown turtle neck into. "Why did you frame my letters?" Harry questions eventually after minutes of silence. "I like the way you wrote them even though it broke my heart every time I read them," I truthfully answered.

"Every part of me was in pain when I wrote those, I felt so crushed in every sense," He reveals, staring at the letters before flicking his eyes to me and I could see the memories replaying in his eyes. "None of that matters now, yeah?" I smiled softly and Harry slowly nods his head.

He walks closer and pulls me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me. "I love you," he whispers and presses the top of my head, his arms tightening around me. "And I love you," I returned three words that were nowhere near to how deeply my feelings were for him. I looked up at him, feeling as if Heaven was wrapped around me. Once again, we don't get to savour the moment because his phone blares with a phone call and we knew it was Liam.

Harry holds one of my bags and I carried the other one as we walked back to his SUV, leaving the bags in the back. He speeds down the road, music unknown to me shouting from the speakers but Harry sang every word. When we were back at the cabin, Max and Liam switches places with us and we sit in the backseat with me in the middle of Harry and Zayn.

_♤_

I've never been to a hotel so I didn't have anything to compare this one to. Harry laughed at me when I got lost gawking at everything in the lobby as we made our way to the elevator. Even the elevator was as big as my bedroom at my father's house.

We couldn't tour our room enough because of our strict time limit so we had to get ready for the club quickly. I demanded that Harry give me a bedroom to myself, thankfully the hotel room had two. When I'm hurrying, I rather not share because I'd need the space.

My dress revealed more than it was supposed to cover compared to the last time I'd worn it. Considering I'll be with three armed men and Zayn, I didn't really feel like I had to cover up to prevent unwanted hands on my body. "You can come in now," I granted after Harry knocks on my door to see me. He eagerly throws open the door and when I saw him in his outfit, I draw in a deep breath.

Harry's chest was hidden by a red silk shirt, the top two buttons undone to tease me with his delicious skin, slightly showing the two swallows inked on his chest. Tight black jeans that I couldn't wait to tug down his delicious body later. I was jealous of how his curls were so messily hot, I also couldn't wait to slide my fingers through them.

"Fuck," falls off his mouth, lips remaining parted as his eyes slowly cascaded down my body, drinking in every feature I'd displayed in front of him. "Fuck me," Harry mutters to himself, stepping closer but not close enough so he could still rake his eyes shamelessly over my body.

"Later," I smoothly replied and hooked my finger on his cross chain, giving it a small tug to direct his mouth close enough for me to kiss him. Harry moans as our lips met, surrendering and parting his lips, welcoming my intrusion. I'm one lucky girl to be able to freely kiss a man that's dressed like this.

Time doesn't allow us to do anything else but that small kiss because a second later, someone is pounding on our door. "Guys, it's go time!" Liam shouts from behind the door. I rested my forehead against Harry's shoulder with a small sigh. "Come on, we'll continue this later," Harry says and he walks to the door meanwhile I slipped into my shoes and grabbed our masquerade masks.

"Looking fine, milady," Liam smiles at me as I walked outside. "You too, Milady," I repeated, looking at him in his purple outfit and brown pants. He nods his head towards down the hall and I follow, seeing my brother dressed in the same outfit with only a different shade of brown for the pants. "He ordered we matched," Maxon says as he walked towards us, throwing his hand around his boyfriend.

Zayn walks out of his room dressed in all black, no surprise there. "Let's go, traffic is a bitch," Liam suggests and I handed everyone black masquerade masks that cover most of our faces. The drive there was a short one, probably the reason why we stayed at that hotel in the first place. The only form of traffic is to get a parking space.

Liam finds one and parks the vehicle, turning around to face us once it was time for them to leave first. "Alright. You just need to walk in, there's going to be a guy checking for a code that only one person needs. I've already sent it to Harry," He explains, looking at us to make sure we're understanding. "Max and I are going to stick to the left side of the club, you guys find a table on the right. Keep your eyes open for suspicious shit, keep your masks on and Harry make sure you get every message I send," he orders.

"Got it," I nodded my head. "Me too," Zayn adds, flashing a cheeky smile. Liam eyes him worriedly," I'm serious. No one can know it's you guys under those masks." It's going to be fine because no one here can recognize us anyway. I don't think Zayn and I stick out of the crowd either, we can blend in, it's going to be fine.

"They've got it, Li. I'll be with them," Harry assured them, being the thing that Liam needed to hear. Liam gives in and finally unbuckles his seatbelt and opens the door. Just as Max was about to slide out of the vehicle, his eyes locked on Harry. "Keep her safe, Harry. If anything happens it's going to be your dick nailed to the tree outside the cabin, yeah?"

"I'll do it myself if anything happens to her. Now go on, loverboy," Harry agrees and that's all that Maxon needed to give in and leave. "Yeah don't worry about me, Maxon! I don't need protection too at all!" Zayn shouts as Maxon shuts the door. We wait three minutes, Zayn rolling his eyes as Harry brushes my hair off my shoulder and pressed a kiss to where it meets my neck.

"I'm going to throw up with all this love around me," He scoffs. Harry grins, pleased with his reaction. Eventually, we get out of the vehicle and walk in the same direction Liam and Maxon did. The three of us entered the building through the open entrance, following the red lights that ran along the sides. There was a guy standing in an all black suit that squeezed his intimidating sized arms across his chest. He looked as if he was just out of WWE smackdown or something.

Harry shows the man the code on his phone and he lets us through, as we walked deeper in, the music got louder. The club looked like any other I've been to, the only difference between my other experiences was that I had a bad feeling I couldn't wait to mute with some shots. Harry directs us to an empty booth that was beside the massive dance floor and I'd glanced at Max and Liam in similar ones across the room.

It took about fifteen minutes for us to blend in with the crowd, drinks around our table and the need for dancing appearing after watching strangers on the floor. "Dance with me," I ordered Harry, speaking loud enough for him to hear me with a happy smile across my lips. Harry looks up at me with a stern look, one that already shut down my request.

"I get a perfect view of the main floor from here, I can't leave. Told you I'm here on business, Madeleine," Harry denies, sinking my hopeful heart. At the same time, Zayn strolls back to the booth with a cocktail glass in his hand. He pays no mind to us as he rests the glass on the table and opens his other hand, revealing two small white pills and allowing them to fall into the glass.

He picks it up again, moving around the glass for it to mix into the drink. In the middle of stirring, his eyes flick up and he looks at us staring at him. "What? There weren't any spoons," Zayn shrugs and happily brought the rim to his lips. "Mhm, good stuff," he grins, face brightened by the taste of his drink. I turned to Harry, seeing him staring at Zayn quizzically.

"Zayn, dance with me," I commanded. His widened eyes darted to Harry," do I need your permission for that?" He wonders. I rolled my eyes and responded before Harry," no. He knows I only want him anyway." Zayn flicks his eyes to me, his grin returning. "So I'm your second option dance partner?" He scoffs and I nodded my head.

"Ugh, fine. Let's cause some mischief, Maddie," Zayn gives in and slides his drink closer to Harry. "Watch over my drink, will you? Such a sweet man," he smiles, patting Harry on his head. Zayn skips off and I handed all of my attention to Harry before I left too. Harry watches me as I leaned down and I smirked to myself, thinking of what I was about to say. "Pay attention to me, Harry," I whispered in his ear, my hand sliding down his chest slowly. Harry reaches out to hook his arm around my waist but I'm faster, stepping away and walking away with Zayn.

"I'm only doing this because there's a girl I want to be in bed tonight with," Zayn tells me as he leans over. "Where is she?" I asked, trying to stop myself from looking around. "Three tables away from ours, look when we're dancing," he tells me and straightened up. Zayn's hands fall to my waist once he assumes we have a perfect spot, hidden in the sea of dancing strangers, not enough so Harry couldn't see us.

I slid my fingers up Zayn's arm slowly to lock on the nape of his neck. I didn't know how it was possible but I could feel Harry staring at me, his eyes burning my skin. "I hate this song," Zayn tells me, his head dipping to where my shoulder and neck joined and I feel his mask pressing my skin. "Pretend you love it," I responded and leaned into him, wanting to feel Harry's hand on my body.

At the need of him, I turned my head and already caught his eyes, seeing him sitting calm but nothing about his eyes were calm. Back against the chair, hand on the top of his thigh, the other one wrapped around the glass as he stirs it slightly, prominent eyes glaring at mine through his masquerade mask, reminding me of rough seas while his lips showed no trace of a smile, jaw clenched. Reminds me of a ticking time bomb.

"She's looking at us!" Zayn squeals in my ear, excitement obvious in his voice. I nodded my head even though I hadn't comprehended what he meant or anything else besides Harry. "Don't seem like I'm boring! We have to make her want to be you, remember?" Zayn continues, talking into my ear as his hands sway my hips.

I continued dancing with Zayn until my arms and feet were pained and I was out o breath. "Think I secured myself a girl for the night," Zayn tells me as the song ends and I slid my hands off him. "Congratulations," I shouted, my eyes locking on Harry's and I made my way to him, swaying my hips when I was very close to our table.

"Zayn's done dancing with what's mine?" He calmly asks, tilting his head to the side. Fuck, he's so hot. "Well you didn't want to," I shrugged my shoulders and wrapped my hand around his glass and brought the rim to my lips, taking a slow sip with my eyes locked on Harry.

Without barely an effort, Harry's hands curved on my waist and pulls me to him. I automatically fall on his lap and fixed my legs on either side of him, eyes rounding when I felt how hard he was. Fucking hell. "Harry, we're in public," my confidence shatters and I pushed away from him but his hands never let go, only letting out a small groan when I rub my inner thigh over his bulge.

"We're in a club, darling. If you look around you'll see much worse than this," he smoothly replies, leaning off the chair to press a kiss to the hinge of my jaw, his mask pressing my skin. "Feel how hard I am for you, Sunshine?" he whispers, pressing another kiss to the side of my neck. Fuck, I could feel myself soaking my underwear. "H-Harry." I whimpered fisting my hands in his clothes.

He hums, loving the reaction he has on me, god damn it I was panting at this point. "Let's leave, right now," I ordered, trying to gather all my composure. I wanted these masks off and clothes too. "Can't, I'm here on business," Harry sighs and pulls away, his hands sliding down my exposed thighs. Thankfully, my back was towards the crowd. Harry's sharp eyes scanned the buzzing room before they returned to me," bathroom?"

My head nods impatiently and I slide off his lap, intertwining his fingers with mine and Harry follows, him holding more patience than I did. His other hand fell on my shoulder, tilting my body towards the direction of the bathroom since I had no clue. I followed the neon light he directed me to, it got brighter once we were in the tiny hallway and the music lessened.

"Madeleine fucking Henderson."

My body stiffens at the sound of my name coming from that voice, emphasizing every word and a feeling runs through my body as if I knew I was in trouble. That same voice sent shockwaves through my body because I instantly recognized it. I spun around, heart racing and blurted out her name," Daphne?"

Suddenly, the hallway felt awfully a lot smaller than it was.

Dressed in a tight orange dress that made her body look so well, black heels I had once borrowed and a black mask hiding half of her face I had bought her for Halloween. Even through them, I could see her eyes perfectly, I could see the anger boiling behind them. Her hands were rolled into fists, not clenching as tightly as she probably wanted because of her long nails.

Harry slides behind me, his hand on my shoulder sliding down to my waist and her eyes of fury flicked to him for the first time in the five seconds. "Henry," The name falls off her lips, drenched in disbelief. Even with something concealing half of his face, Daphne still pinned him out. What the heck is going on here? "Uhm...nice to see you again, Velma," Harry returns awkwardly.

"What are you doing here, Daphne?" I questioned sternly, feeling worried especially because there were dangerous people in here. Not even I know of the full risk of being here. How did she know it was me anyway? Her eyes flickered to me with hesitation. "Mitch wanted to party...Gem and Niall are at the bar with him," she reveals. Fuck's sake, everyone is here.

"Shit," I accidentally cursed out loud, cursing this horrible coincidence. This just got ten times worst. "I saw you dancing with another man, who isn't your boyfriend and then you're making out with someone else, who isn't your boyfriend! What the hell is going on, Madeleine?" She rambles off. Holy shit, she saw everything. My lips parted to say something but his face falls," Harry's the one you've been with since Louis' concert, not Niall."

"Yes. Not fucking Niall," Harry spat, feeling it necessary to add that confirmation even though she already knew. "Plus she was dancing with someone else but she was dancing for me to watch so don't make her sound like someone she isn't," Harry continues, voice defensive. His hand on my waist tugs me slightly closer to him. It was safe to say that all desire we had for each other right now vanished when we saw Daphne.

"Is that supposed to make her cheating better? Madeleine is my sister, I'm supposed to hold her accountable for shit like this so back the fuck off, Henry," She snaps at him, that name just a cherry on top. "Stop, stop. We can't be speaking like this outside a bathroom in a club for fuck's sake. Niall and I have been done for a long time, just ask him yourself," I sighed

"What?"

"We can't do this now, Daphne. Go home and I'll call you tomorrow. Take the rest of them with you, please," I urged, desperately hoping she would listen to me without questions asked. She's my best friend so therefore, I knew that wasn't going to happen even if I wanted it. Worth a shot right?

"Fuck this, I'm getting Gemma," Daphne huffs and spins around, taking quick strides back into the main attention of the club. I'm quick in chasing her, shouting her name to get her to stop walking through the music. Daphne doesn't listen and heads to a table a couple of booths away from ours. Around it, Niall and Gemma were sitting across from each other talking, cocktail glasses in their hands and Mitch missing.

Gemma turns her head as she sees Daphne approaching, then they dragged to me and Harry who were following behind her. "You and Mads are done?" Daphne demands from Niall instantly. Niall's eyes found mine, his masquerade mask was sitting beside his drink, not on hiding his face.

"What?" Gemma blurts out but she's ignored. "When did she get here? You said she wouldn't be here? And who the fuck has their hands on her?" Niall's eyes narrowed on Harry, scanning him up and down, face twisted. "Answer the question first," Daphne responds impatiently. Niall's eyes met mine, contemplation in them before they flick to Daphne and he finally nods," yeah," he sighed.

"What the fuck is going on here, guys?" Gemma questions, her tone demanding that someone answer her. "Can we explain this tomorrow? You three really shouldn't be here right now. Find Mitch and leave," I pleaded, hoping Gem and Niall would actually listen to me. "Why do you need us to leave? What else are you up to?" Daphne questions, squinting her eyes that were shadowed by the mask under this lighting.

Harry suddenly reaches into his pocket and pulled out his phone, a notification across his screen and he frowns as he reads the message. His eyes met my waiting ones. "Baby, I'm really sorry but I have to go. Get them out of here and find Zayn," Harry whispers to me, his eyes showing me how alarmed he was. "What why?" I frowned too, hating that he was about to leave me during a time like this.

He glances at my friends and flicked his eyes across the club. "Rooster," he states and immediately I realised what he was trying to say. "Go," I granted and Harry kissed my cheek before sprinting off, walking in confident strides through. "This is why you were so done with me?" My head faces Niall, guilt rising to the surface at the sound of hurt in his voice.

"Niall..." I whispered, expecting the right words to follow but they don't.

That noise that follows after, saved me yet doomed me at the same time. It was a loud and piercing sound that rose chaos across the building. A sound that made my body stiffen, as it bolts across the air, heading for something or most likely someone. A sound that promised disaster. A sound that revealed we were nowhere close to safe.

It was the sound of a gunshot.

Twenty. Thousand. Reads. That's such a huge number for me and my mind can barely process it at all. It makes me so emotional to see my story grow, the words I'm typing right now will never be enough to thank you for loving this book as much as I do and for being on this journey with me. I love you so freaking much always❤️

Sorry for the ending. All I can advise is to buckle up because we're approaching a rough road ahead.