My pleasant dreams in Jake's luscious Queen-sized bed were soon swapped for a living nightmare. Both of us were woken from our peaceful slumber by Jake's ringing phone. He grumbled about unwanted interruptions and reached out for it in the early morning light. Squinting from the bright light, I saw that not only was it barely five am, but that it was Harry calling.

"Yeah," Jake said, answering.

Harry's deep voice boomed down the phone, jolting Jake straight upright. I couldn't quite hear what Harry was saying. He spoke far too quickly with his cockney accent for me to understand anything.

"I don't care about legal loopholes, Harry. Just do what needs to be done and get it done now." He jumped out of bed and pulled his jeans on. "I don't give a shit. I want the pictures down and I want them down NOW."

He snapped his phone shut, took a deep breath, and then sat back on the bed. When he spoke to me calm and composed, my head was whirling. After just witnessing him barking at Harry like a drill sergeant to then have him speak to me like normal was almost too much to process.

"There's no easy way to say this," he said, moving closer to me. "But as you heard, it's being dealt with immediately."

He took my hand in his, and with his free hand picked up his phone. After a few taps on the screen, he handed it to me.

I gasped.

On the front page of the news app was a picture of me and Jake. Cuddled up; asleep. In bed. This bed.

***

Jake was livid. I'd never seen someone so mad in my entire life; not even Adam. I knew his anger wasn't directed at me, but I still kept out of the way. His whole demeanour changed as he shouted orders down the phone, growled at his lawyer, and yelled at Marcus and Johnny to get down here asap.

After settling the boys with some cereal, I wandered out into the garden and sat down on the wooden bench outside the back door. The sun peeked through the clouds, warming the dew damp grass beneath my feet. My heart hadn't stopped racing since seeing that picture plastered all over the internet. I couldn't get over the fact that he'd been in this house, inches from us, whilst we'd known nothing about it. He could have done anything. The horrific thought of him murdering us in our sleep wouldn't go away. Chills rushed down my spine every time I thought of him so close to me again.

"Lou?" Jake's voice filtered through from inside, his tone edged with worry. He stepped outside and let a breath out. "There you are." He came and sat next to me, throwing a hand up in the air as he sat down.

Without even thinking, I flinched away from the sudden movement.

"Whoa," he said. "I was only going to put my arm around you."

"Sorry," I said, heat flooding my cheeks. "I...I don't know why I did that."

"I would never touch you like that, sweetheart," he said. He lifted a hand, slowly, and stroked my cheek. "You know that, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Did I scare you?"

I blushed. "You are pretty intimidating when you're mad."

A soft glow of amusement trickled through his eyes. "I'm not mad, sweetie, I'm absolutely seething. I don't think I've actually ever been this angry."

"I thought you had a clause on the press that they couldn't publish pictures without your consent?"

He smirked and nodded. "They found a loophole. Bastards. The paperwork they signed states they wouldn't publish any pictures without my consent; taken either by them or members of the public. It doesn't cover random photos being dropped through their letterbox as there's no proof of the source."

"But it's not like E.T. put them in there, is it?"

"No," he said, sighing. "I know. But because it's not explicitly stated that it covers all pictures, not just pictures from the press or the public, they can wriggle around it."

I closed my eyes and sighed. "Can we prove it was him?"

"No. CCTV didn't catch a thing. Seems he was clever enough to work out the seconds it takes for it to sweep the entrance."

"So what happens next?"

He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. I think my quivering voice let the cat out of the bag as to how nervous I was right now. "You're not going to worry about a thing." He laid a tender kiss on my lips, his touch melting away any worries I had in an instant. "We need to get out of here as soon as. I'm currently in some negotiations with the press to get the picture taken down. If Harry does his job correctly, it should be gone by lunchtime."

"And what will the negotiations involve?"

He cleared his throat before he spoke. "I agreed that I would inform them of our relationship if they took the picture down. I said I would give one of them the rights to an interview with us. They're now scrapping amongst themselves with Harry."

My mouth fell wide open as my heart beat itself into a death ridden rhythm. "What?"

"Don't panic. Trust me."

The thought of having my entire life spread across the nations' papers freaked me out beyond belief. Why hadn't I thought about this before? Had I really been naïve enough to think Jake was untouchable because they all signed a piece of paper?

"I can't do that, Jake," I whispered, shaking my head. "I can't relay my entire history to them; they'd go mad over it. No way."

"Hey," he said, rubbing his thumb over my shaking hand. "This is why I sacked my old lawyer. I've been meaning to have Harry look over that agreement for months, but I've been putting it off. I should have got him on it when I met you." He kissed the back of my hand again, covering me in goosebumps. "Don't worry. I'll wrap them up so tight in non-disclosure agreements over your past that they won't be able to breathe, let alone print a wrong word. Just trust me, please?"

I looked up into his startling blue eyes, my faith in this marvellous man growing by the second despite the given circumstances. "Ok."

He wrapped me up in a chest crushing hug and nuzzled into my neck. I relaxed into his arms with relief, finally realising that I could face anything with him by my side. But exactly how much could two people in a new relationship take before it became too much?

"When are we going? I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be."

Tightening his arms around me, he kissed my hair. "I know, baby. We'll go and get packed up now, ok? Not a word to the boys though. I'll tell them that we're going to another house tonight just for something different."

"What a weekend to do it on," I said, inhaling the musk of his cologne.

He pulled back slightly, just enough so the tips of our noses were touching. "What do you mean?"

"Have you forgotten you're going to France tomorrow?"

He snorted. "Not a chance."

I cupped his face in my hands. "Jake, you need to go to France. I won't have you skipping out on work because of me. I'll have Marco; I'll be fine."

"Lou...,"

"No, Jake. I survived ten years with Adam, I think I can survive another few weeks with Marco as my new shadow. If it makes you feel any better, I'll move in with Charlie or Mum."

His serious frown lightened into an amused smile. "Hmmm," he whispered. "After last night, I think my motives for staying here are perhaps otherwise inclined."

I giggled, fresh memories of me exploring his body last night springing forwards. "So easily distracted."

"Only by you," he whispered, drawing me in for another heart stopping kiss.

My head spun at a million miles an hour. How could a simple kiss dissolve all my worries and fears? Everything about him now represented safety and pleasure. Why couldn't I have found him years ago?

The shrill ringing of his phone cut through our moment like the wail of a flood siren. Jake answered and listened for a few seconds before saying thank you to Harry and hanging up.

"Sorted. We have an interview with Front Row when I'm back from France. The picture is down, and Harry is tying them all up in legal circles as we speak."

I didn't actually hear anything after the words'we have an interview'. What on earth was I getting myself involved in?