IM SO EXCITED FOR U TO READ THIS CHAPTER YES U SITTING THERE IM TALKING TO UUUUU

.

mia

.

  "What did he say?" I asked. 

  "He just mentioned speaking to you." Harry said angrily. "What the hell does he want? Why can't he just leave you alone?"

  "I don't know how to fix this." I ran my hands through my hair, flopping down on the big canopy bed in our suite. If I contacted Matthew it would be bad, if I didn't it would be bad. Any suggestions that my mind had created resulted in something bad. 

  "Does this mean that he didn't accept my offer?" Harry thought out loud. "I wonder if he got the money. Hold on, Mia, I have to make a phone call." Offer? Money? What the hell was Harry getting at? 

  Harry slid his phone out of his pocket and put it up to his ear, pacing back and forth in the large room. He muttered some words under his breath that wasn't audible for anyone unless they were close in range. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, a hardened look on his face.

  "Hello." It sounded like he was trying his hardest to stay calm. "This is Harry... yes, that's fine. Yes. I was calling to confirm that the Roden family and Matthew Miles had accepted my offer... yes. What do you mean negotiate? There isn't anything to negotiate!" He was yelling now.

  Cat jumped up onto the bed and pawed her way through the thick comforter to curl up in my lap. Ideas were swirling through my mind of what in the world Harry could have possibly been talking about, but I decided that I wasn't going to get angry until I had heard the full story.

  "Ask them what they would like to negotiate, don't say yes to anything. I'll contact again within the next twenty four hours... until then, let them know that they should not contact or the deal is off. Thank you." As quickly as the conversation had begun, it had ended.

  "What the hell?" I asked. 

  "Mia, I have to explain." Harry sighed. "I didn't want to have to tell you, but-"

  "You can't keep something like this from me!" I argued. "You're in contact with my family and you didn't tell me about it? Is there anything else that I should know!?"

  "Listen, please." Harry pleaded. "It was the night you were complaining about how Matthew was going to the press about you and I could see how bothered you were by it. I made a phone call to my management team to get them to back off from you. I was doing it for your benefit, swear." 

  "I appreciate the offer, but you should never have done that without telling me." I stopped, trying to calm myself down. "You should know now that you can't just buy them off like that and expect them to be gone. They are rich and powerful and if you decide to play the money game with them, it won't be pretty."

  "My intentions were good." Harry reminded me. "I was thinking on a whim and trying to do it while you were in the shower so you-"

  "So I wouldn't know?" I asked. "Oh, come on! I know that you want to help me out, but not telling me isn't helping anything! I'm in a bad situation right now and to you I might look completely helpless but you can't fight my own battles for me, Harry." 

  "I understand." Harry pursed his lips. 

  The room was silent. Cat continued to rub against me, trying to get some attention. The last thing I wanted to do was completely blow up to Harry for keeping something like this from me, so I said nothing for fear that if I did, the situation would get worse. Fighting with Harry wasn't going to solve my problems and what's done was done. 

  "What do we do now?" He asked softly. "He's harassing you."

  "I need to talk to him." I sighed. "I can call him from your phone. The only way anything is going to be resolved is if he speaks to me directly. I'll listen to what he has to say, tell him some things he isn't going to like hearing but has to hear, and go from there." 

  "Are you sure there isn't any other way?" He pleaded. 

  "I'm afraid not. We could keep ignoring it, but that would be horribly annoying and neither of us want that. You can keep talking to them, but they're not going to want to stop unless they get to me. I'll hear him out and settle things as nicely as I can."

  "I want you to be on speaker phone and I want to be sitting right here." Harry demanded. "I'm not going to be able to argue with you on that, either."

  "You can't make any noise. He has to think it's just me and him or he's not going to share anything with me. If he says something nasty, you can't intervene. Got it?"

  "Got it." 

  Harry handed me the phone and I went to his recent phone calls. Matthew's number was the first on the list, and before I had time to think about all of the nerves I was feeling, I hit the call button and then put it on speaker. Harry held my hand and sat next to me and I was positive that he could feel it shaking.

  "Styles." His deep voice said through the phone. For a moment, I couldn't say anything. I was too plagued with shock and fear from just hearing his voice. Harry's thumb rubbed against the back of my hand and I knew that I had to speak up.

  "It's Mia." I tried to sound confident, I really did, but it came out wrong. 

  "Mia." He chuckled. "I was wondering when I would get the chance to speak to you."

  "Well, here I am." I bit my lip, realizing that being bitter right now was not the best thing. "I'm calling to hear what you have to say."

  "You owe it to me." Matthew said. Harry's hand tightened on mine and I gave him a reassuring look. "Where's your friend? Is he listening in on this?"

  "No." I sighed. "I wanted to talk to you privately. It felt wrong having him listen in."

  "Alright." He cleared his throat. "You need to come back. Not only has Miles Inc. gotten bad press for this, but your family's corporation has as well. If you come back now and fix this, we can leave this little act of rebellion in the past. Your parents do not wish to speak to you, but they have passed a little message along for you."

  A lump rose in my throat when I heard that they didn't want to speak to me. Yes, they were bad people, but they were supposed to be my parents. They were my own flesh and blood and they resented me so much that they could not even say a word to me.

  "Your father says that if you do not return now he will slowly start cutting things out of your will. You own a fraction of the company, but in time that could all be gone if you do not comply. If this becomes more of a long term thing, I assume you can expect all ties cut off from them. They can easily give you a bad name as well and just like that your whole future could be gone. Do you hear that?"

  I clamped my hand over my mouth. I didn't want Matthew to be given the satisfaction of hearing me cry, so I knew that I had to end this conversation as quickly as possible. 

  "Is there any way that I can speak to them?" My voice was shaky. 

  "As of right now, I don't know. They really don't want to." Matthew said. "Come home, Mia. Marrying me will not be that bad. You will have your wealth and won't have to work a day in your life and you will be accepted by your family. Isn't that what you want?" 

  "I... I don't want your money." I said, trying to muster up all the courage in me to get across what needed to be said. "I can make a life of my own. Just because I don't have mommy and daddy to buy me everything does not mean that I can't live a good life."

  "Are you sure?" Matthew laughed dryly. "Because, the way I look at it, you're nothing without them and I can make sure you become nothing." 

  "I'm sure." I said. "I'll have Harry's management team contact my parents, but I don't want to hear any more from you."

  I hung up before he could say anything else and choked out a sob, holding my hand over my mouth again. I had just chosen to give up the people that raised me and everything that they had to offer. My life had drastically altered with a choice that I had just made and it was terrifying.

  "I'm so proud of you." Harry whispered, holding me close. "You have no bad how much I wanted to yell at him, Mia. I'm so proud of you." 

  "What do I do?" I asked. "The life I was supposed to have is gone now."

  "You make a new one." Harry smiled at me. "I'll help you out, okay? I promise I will. And I don't want to hear anything about money, because I have it and I'm willing to share. If it weren't for me picking you up that day, you wouldn't even be in this position. I owe it to you." 

  I didn't even want to protest anymore. Arguing about money with Harry would be pointless, and at this point him offering me his help was the only thing that I found comforting, besides the warmth that radiated from him to me. 

  "In my opinion," Harry continued. "Wealth is not measured by money. I think it's measured on happiness, and you have the full capability to become richer than they ever could." 

  His words hit me hard. He was right, of course. The only world that I had known was one filled with luxuries and shiny things. It was all I knew. But from being on this trip and living in a bus, I had come to realize that it was the most fun that I had ever had in my entire life.

  "Thank you." I whispered. "I don't know what I would do without you."

  "And I to you." Harry chuckled. 

  Cat had now managed to hop off the bed and tried to hop back onto the bed to join our cuddling, but she fell in her attempt to get up. We both laughed at her until she had successfully gotten up and laid down on Harry's pillow, chewing on an end of his hair. 

  "Hey, no." Harry frowned, shooing her away. "Mia... would your parents really cut you off like that? I mean, they're your family. Do you think that Matthew was just making an empty threat?"

  "No." I sighed. "No, I believe that. Everything to them is strictly business, including family. If I'm not a beneficial tie, then what's the point of having me?" My chin started to tremble and I wiped at my eyes before the tears could come. 

  "Hey, hey." Harry said, rubbing my back. "You don't need that family."

  "But they're the only one I've got."

  "I can be your family." Harry promised. "Me, you, and Cat."

  I nodded and cuddled back into his chest, closing my eyes. For some reason, crying just simply tired me out. If it weren't for the fact that Harry was this close to me and I had to concentrate just to resist the urge of kissing him, I would have been out like a rock. 

  "I promise you nothing bad will happen." Harry said. I glanced up at him, not even realizing how close our faces were. I immediately blushed at the closeness. 

  "Wherever you are, nothing bad will happen. As long as I'm with you, I'll be safe." 

  "Can I kiss you?" Harry blurted.

  Of course, my first reaction was shock. Why would he want to kiss me? He had just witnessed me lose practically my entire identity and he knew that bad things were going to be said about me and there was nothing attractive about that. But of course, Harry didn't care about those things. I told myself to just go with the moment.

  I nodded, and slowly our lips touched. We both were still for a second before they moved together perfectly. Never had I ever expected something like this to happen, and so suddenly, either. My hands found their way to his curls and I could feel his lips turning up in a smirk, causing me to laugh against his lips and him to laugh back as well. 

  We continued, and suddenly tongues were involved. It wasn't awkward at all, it was almost a natural feeling. Harry was slow and gentle, like he was with most things. I wasn't afraid that he would pressure me into anything, because I knew that he wasn't that type of person. In that particular moment, I felt the safest that I had ever felt in my entire life. This could have been a spur of moment thing, but I wasn't about to question it. 

  His lips were different than I'd imagined. I had pictured him to have softer lips. Yes, his lips were soft, but I could feel indents and crevices of where his lips were slightly chapped. He didn't have huge lips, but he didn't have small lips either- they seemed to be at a happy medium. I did know one thing for certain- he was amazing at kissing, despite his lips being slightly chapped. In a way, him not having the most perfect lips was nice. It made everything feel more human.

  We broke away. Both of us were slightly breathing hard, both of us just staring. Neither of us knew exactly what had just happened, but we both knew that we had been waiting for it for a long time.

  "That was nice." Harry giggled.

  "These." He said, pointing at my lips. "These are nice." 

  "I was waiting for you to do that." I admitted. 

  "I want to do it again." He decided. "Can we?"

  He didn't even have to ask. 

.

.

  a/n: yay they kissed

  follow me on twitter _delilahmae_ 

pls

-del