"This is fucking crazy," Pete muttered as he followed Allie along the icy pavements, trying his best to keep his footing. "Couldn't they have rescheduled the pissing thing?"

Allie turned and looked at her boyfriend, wrinkling her nose when she looked down at her Ugg boots to see that they had soaked up a pretty impressive amount of water from the snow around them. It had apparently been over a decade since London last saw snow like this which meant that the only way people knew how to deal with it was to piss and moan and more often than not crash their cars. Hence the reason she was walking to Shannon and Steve's house this morning, between Pete's general driving and the icy roads, her Porsche wouldn't have stood a chance.

"Oh yeah," she laughed. "I'm sure if explained that we didn't want to go out in this weather that they'd happily cancel their only child's third birthday party,"

"He's three," Pete shook his head. "He's not even going to know what's happening,"

"Quit being a grumpy old bastard," Allie laughed and tugged on his hand so that he was next to her again, smiling when he slung a protective arm around her shoulders. "We're going to have enough of that once we get in there,"

"What do you mean?" Pete frowned at her.

"Pete, it's a kids party, meaning most of their parents will be there. Which means for the next few hours we can look forward to listening to middle aged people yap on about nappy rash and the joys of teething,"

"Oh fuck," he groaned and buried his head in her shoulder. "Can't we turn back? They don't have to know, we could say that we forgot…"

"Suck it up, Dunham," Allie laughed, turning and kissing him quickly. "We've got tonight to make up for it,"

"You staying at mine then?" he grinned, tightening his arms around her and already looking forward to tonight.

"Do I ever sleep in my own house anymore?" she laughed. "I think Lara's having withdrawal symptoms,"

"You see her at work though," Pete reasoned.

"No I mean the withdrawal symptoms are for you," she grinned. "Without you there to ogle, she's on the verge of having to go and get herself a boyfriend of her own."

Pete laughed and followed her up the steps of his brother's house, wincing when he heard the screams of what sounded like a hyperactive army of toddlers from inside.

"We can still run you know," Pete told her, tightening his hands on her waist and pressing a kiss against the side of her neck. "I can think of better things we could be doing,"

"Nice try," she grinned, pulling away from him and shaking her head as she knocked on the door.

"Thank God," Shannon gushed, pulling the door open and practically tugging Allie inside. "I need your help,"

"What?" the young blonde frowned, glancing over her shoulder at Pete who was stood in the door way, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear.

"I can't control these kids," she shook her head. "They're everywhere, it's like the plague,"

"Ok, Shannon," Allie laughed and pulled the older woman to a stop, placing her hands on her shoulders. "Just…stay calm ok? Give me a job to do and I'll do it, whatever you need,"

"Ok," the American breathed. "Ok, um can you help me with the food maybe?"

"Sure, no worries," Allie nodded and followed her down into the kitchen, leaving Pete to fend for himself for a while.

"Right girls, this is Allie," Shannon gestured to the group of cackling middle aged women standing around the breakfast bar all looking as though they were about to keel over. Lifting a feeble hand and waving at the chorus of 'hellos' Allie nervously shoved her hands into her pockets and glanced around the usually spotless kitchen.

"So, what do you need me to do?" she asked.

"Um, do you reckon you could mix up another batch of chocolate milk for the kids and then maybe get some coffee going for the rest of us?" Shannon asked her, biting her lip.

"No problem," Allie nodded, reaching for the chocolate mix and pointing the wooden spoon at Shannon. "Get back out there before Steve looses his mind,"

Laughing and shaking her head, Shannon quickly planted a kiss on her cheek and jogged down the hallway back into the fray of toddlers.

"Jesus, I hate women like you."

Allie looked up, her eyes wide in shock as she stared at the huddle of older women who were looking her up and down. Where the hell had that come from?

"I'm sorry?" she squeaked.

"Look at you," a red head gestured to her and Allie looked down, wondering if she had worn the wrong thing. Black and white striped sweater and hipster jeans…ok, she hadn't exactly pulled out her Oscar dress for this one, but she looked ok.

"I didn't even look like that before I had a kid, let alone after," the red head continued before smiling lightly and sticking out her hand. "Sorry for the verbal outburst, I'm Claire by the way,"

"Oh," Allie laughed, feeling more than a little relieved and shook her hand. "I'm Allie,"

The rest of the women said their hellos and then went back to their individual jobs, chattering amongst themselves about the pleasures of nappy rash and stretch marks. It was something of a change to her usual chit chat about whose fall couture line was better than everyone else, or which celebrity came into Vogue looking particularly nasty that morning.

"So Allie," Claire brought her attention back from mixing up the chocolate milk. "How many do you have?"

"How many…?"

"Kids," Claire rolled her eyes. "Or minature devils with which I affectionately refer to my two,"

"Oh, I don't actually-…"

"Oh dear God, he's here,"

Allie glanced up at one of the other mum's who was staring through the glass door which separated the kitchen and living area. Allie craned her neck to see what everyone was looking at and grinned when she saw Pete picking up Ben and hoisting him over his head, making the little boy squeal excitedly.

"Thank God, I was beginning to think Shan was lying," Claire shook her head.

"What are we looking at?" Allie frowned, trying to see over her head.

"Steve's brother, Pete," Claire grinned over her shoulder at the blonde. "My oldest Jacob is in his class at St. Marks and the man is an absolute God,"

Allie instantly felt a bout of giggles bubbling in her throat and tried to cover them by coughing; she couldn't let them in on who she was…it would ruin the fun.

"He's the only reason I ever bloody go to parents night," one of the other women piped up. "I mean would you just look at that arse?"

"I was looking a little lower and more towards the front," someone else answered and a brief wave of laughter rippled through the group. "I mean, look at him, you just know how amazing he must be in bed,"

Allie shook her head and grinned; wait until she told Pete about this. He'd die when he found out that he was some form of demented porno eye candy for the desperate housewives of London.

"Just look at those hands," one of them whistled. "Imagine the damage those babies can do,"

"It's a crime that that man is single,"

"I don't know about that," the blonde near the front chimed in. "I heard he's gone and got himself a girlfriend,"

"Bugger, are you sure?"

"Well, every woman likes a challenge don't they?"

Allie covered up her laughter with another cough, not particularly wanting to get dragged into the conversation where she would have to confirm everything they were saying because she knew from first hand experience.

"Do you know Pete, Allie?" Claire leant forward as though whispering some kind of secret. "

"Um…" Allie bit her lip, not sure whether she had the heart to humiliate the entire pack of women who were still practically drooling on the glass at the sight of her boyfriend.

"If you have to think that hard, I'm going to say no," Claire shook her head. "No red blooded woman would be able to forget meeting that 6ft hunk of pure sex,"

Claire giggled and this time Allie thought nothing of pissing herself along with her. A 6ft hunk of pure sex? Oh, she was going to use that one against Pete for the rest of his life.

"So which one is yours?" Claire nodded to the mass of tumbling kids. "Is he out there?"

"Oh he's out there alright," Allie grinned, still giggling quietly.

"Well which one is he?" Claire stood on her tip toes to see over the heads of the kids.

"Mine would be the 6ft hunk of pure sex," Allie bit her lip, trying to keep from laughing as the hoard of women turned to face her, their eyes widening in utter horror.

"I'm sorry?" Claire squeaked out, smiling nervously.

"I'm uh," Allie laughed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm Pete's girlfriend,"

"What?" Claire laughed. "No, you're not,"

They all stopped when Steve came into the kitchen and grinned, noticing Allie.

"Alright gorgeous?" he stooped to brush his lips over her cheek. "Thanks for coming," he brushed some flour off of his shirt. "You better get in there though, before my little brother has a heart attack without you. Plus, Ben's missing you."

"Ok," she nodded. "I'll be in there in a sec,"

"Good girl," Steve squeezed her shoulder, reaching for the jug of chocolate milk she had finished making and jogging back out into the living area.

Allie turned back to the group of women who were busy looking everywhere but at her.

"Oh shit," Claire whispered, pressing her fingers against her lips and staring at Allie in horror. "I'm so, so sorry,"

"Relax," Allie laughed and waved her off. "I thought it was funny,"

"But if we had known even for a second that you were…"

"Seriously, don't worry about it," she leant in and grinned. "It's not like I'm going to tell him, no man needs an ego boost that big." Turning back to the table she picked up a tray of cakes and smiled breezily. "And besides, you were pretty spot on," she winked. "He is pretty damn amazing in bed,"

Allie turned on her heel and made her way down the corridor, the laughter of the women following her.

�

"I am so fucking cold," Allie muttered, her teeth chattering together as she waited for Pete to unlock his front door. He tugged her in behind him, the heat of the flat already enveloping them both of them. "How's the head?"

Pete shot her a look and she giggled, the grin pulling at his own mouth not going unnoticed. It had only taken about 2 hours for the kids to get bored of being inside, so Pete and Allie had volunteered to take them out into the garden to play in the snow. But when Pete and Ben had playfully knocked Allie to the floor and soaked her jeans, she had taken revenge in the form of a snow ball to the back of her boyfriend's head. Unfortunately, the last one she had clocked him with happened to have a pretty big rock in the middle of it, hence the nice egg shaped lump on the back of his head.

"Don't pout Dunham," she grinned. "You should no better than to mess with me,"

He shook his head at her and made his way over to the electric fire, switching it on and flopping down on the sofa, letting the flames flicker around the room and ridding it of the cold.

Reaching blindly over the back of the sofa, Pete took Allie's hand and laced his fingers through hers, pulling her around so that she was stood in front of him before pulling her down onto his lap.

"Do you want me to kiss it better?" she laughed.

"It wouldn't hurt," he smirked at her as she pushed herself up and placed a kiss on his head, smiling when she felt his hands move under her sweater, rubbing over the flat surface of her stomach, trying to warm her up. "Today was actually a laugh,"

"Yeah," she grinned, kissing her way down to his mouth and resting against him.

"At least we survived,"

"Barely," Pete laughed, gesturing to his head. "Trust you to finally be the one that takes me out,"

"You started it!" she smacked his chest. "Teaming up with a toddler to knock your girlfriend on her arse," she frowned. "That hurt by the way,"

"Want me to kiss it better?" he grinned, raising an eyebrow suggestively and laughing when she rolled her eyes.

"Sometimes, Pete I worry about you," she giggled, bringing his face closer to hers and letting her eyes flicker down to his lips.

Leaning in, she gently swept her lips across his, smiling when he eagerly leant forward urging her to kiss him harder; she sucked his top lip into her mouth and nibbled it playfully, before doing the same with his bottom lip. Only this time as she pulled back slightly to catch her breath, Pete leant forward quickly and captured her lips once more, his tongue swiping at her lips, begging her to open her mouth.

She almost missed him pulling off her sweater, his hands running feverishly over her bare skin, moulding themselves to the curves he knew so well. He frowned when she pulled away from him and stood up, unbuttoning her jeans and shimmying out of the damp denim, kicking them off to the side before falling back onto him, the heat of the fire combined with his touch making her body heat up quicker and quicker. Tugging at the hem of his sweater, Allie smiled when he pulled back for a second and allowed her to pull it off of him, throwing it to the floor and pressing her body closer to his, revelling in the feel of his naked skin against hers.

Throwing her head back as his mouth moved lower on her body, his hands brushing up and down her arms as he ran his tongue along the swell of her breasts.

"I love you," he whispered against her lips, one of his hands coming up to gently caress her face.

"I love you, too," she kissed him hard, smiling against his lips as he shifted their positions, placing her on her back on the sofa before falling down on top of her, the snow falling gently outside the window as the sun set completely, leaving the two of them in their own little fire lit world.

�

"So we can now add carpet burns to our list of injuries," Allie giggled as Pete rested his head against her stomach, their breathing still coming out in harsh pants as they tried to get their bodies back to a state of normality.

"At least we're warm," he mumbled, pressing hot, open mouthed kisses against the taut surface of her stomach, his hands massaging her hips. Allie turned her head to the side and stared into the fire, giggling slightly when she felt his tongue swirl in her bellybutton before he pushed himself up and rested his arms either side of her head, lowering his mouth to hers and kissing her deeply.

"You'll never guess what I heard today," she grinned as he fell to the side of her and rested his head on his arm, one hand still roaming over her body.

"Was it that snowball fights are really good foreplay?" he asked, grinning when she giggled sleepily and shook her head.

"Close, but not quite," she grinned. "I overheard the parents talking about you,"

Pete groaned and pressed a kiss against her shoulder.

"Well, just the mum's actually," Allie laughed, nudging him with her shoulder. "Oh come on, don't pretend you don't want to hear it,"

"You never told me you had such a fan club," she regarded him seriously, trying to keep her smile at bay. "And by the way Lara will be devastated to know that she isn't the president of it,"

"Alright come on, give it to me," he shook his head.

"Oh, don't let them hear you say that," she laughed harder, her stomach muscles beginning to cramp. "I mean, not that they'd know what to do with a…" she dissolved into giggles again, feeling tears stinging her eyes. "And I quote," she gulped in some air. "A 6ft hunk of pure sex,"

Pete's eyes went wide as she fell against him, her entire body shaking as she laughed so hard that she actually snorted.

"You've got to be shitting me?" he looked at her, laughing at the expression on her face.

"Nope," she tilted her head to the side as though thinking. "And what was the other one…oh yeah, how you must be amazing in bed, and apparently you're a demon with your hands,"

"You heard them saying all this?" Pete frowned. "Did they know who you were?"

"Um…" Allie winced. "I may have let slip that I was your girlfriend,"

"Then what happened?" he shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, they pretty much avoided eye contact with me for the rest of the day," she grinned. "Aside from that, not much. But you might want to be careful next parents evening, something tells me these women aren't above drugging you."

"Jesus," Pete laughed, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Well its not all bad," Allie shrugged. "At least you know you have the option of trading me in,"

"Never," he shook his head firmly and leant over her again. "Not in a million fucking years,"

"Are you sure about that?" Allie teased him. "I bet none of them would ever smack you in the back of the head with a snow covered rock,"

"Probably not," he grinned down at her. "But you're the only person in the world that could get away with doing that anyway,"

"It's the Harding family charm," she reasoned.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's just you," Pete told her, brushing his lips softly over hers. "Even from the first night I met you I pretty much knew I was fucked,"

He ran his tongue along her bottom lip and smirked. "I don't go handing out my jacket to just anyone, you know."

"What, so did you really think all those years ago that we'd end up here?" she giggled.

"I thought about it pretty much 24/7," he grinned. "But if I'm honest, no, I thought that if I ever did see you again, you'd run a fucking mile,"

"Yeah well given you were all I thought about for two weeks after that night, I'd say the odds of that happening were pretty damn slim,"

Pete leant down and kissed her again, more than happy with that answer. Kissing his way down to her neck, he ran his tongue over the slight mark he had left there earlier and felt her body start to move against his again. Panting, he fought to gain back some self control, but it was proving difficult as she ran her fingernails over his shoulders and whispered his name in his ear.

"God, I don't ever want to lose this," she moaned, pressing her body up into his.

"What?" Pete pulled back from her slightly and gazed down into her face, the lust in his eyes clearing somewhat as he registered the panic on her face having obviously realised what she had said.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean you don't ever want to lose this?" he shook his head.

"Nothing," Allie smiled, running her fingers down his face. "I just meant…I don't…" she shook her head, feeling her cheeks turning red. "I'm a girl!" she laughed. "We tend to blurt stuff out during sex,"

"Allie," Pete shook his head, apparently not buying it. "I'm not ever going to leve you, you know that don't you?"

"Yeah," she nodded, reaching up to kiss him again. Pete kissed her back but felt slightly ill; he'd seen the doubt in her eyes just then. Did she actually think that one day he was just going to…get sick of this or something?

"Allie," he whispered against her mouth, pulling away and looking down at her.

"You know how much I love you,"

"I know," she nodded, smiling lightly. "I love you, too."

"Then you have to know that," he shook his head. "You're everything to me…it sounds gay I know, but I can't…" Pete frowned. He'd never been good at this kind of crap, possibly because he'd never been in this position before. How did you tell someone you loved them to the point that you almost couldn't breathe when they weren't around? That the thought of not having them in your life made your heart stop? That the idea of not being about to touch them or kiss them was enough to make your stomach clench and your chest tighten?

"You're mine forever," he told her. "You know that don't you? You have no choice in that,"

"Ok," Allie laughed. "Sounds doable,"

"Well my alternative is that I'm going end up in an old people's home next to Bovver chatting and the rest of the boys dribbling and singing football chants,"

Allie laughed, turning so that she was laying on her stomach and meeting his eyes; the intensity in the blue depths always made her heart flutter, even the first night she had met him, three whole years ago when he had been a complete stranger, she had known just from looking into his eyes that she was in trouble.

"That won't happen," she promised him. "Besides if that's where you're going to be, I'll be next door in the women's home with Lara nursing the 99 cats we own and waiting for her to fall asleep so that I can switch off her life support, just so I won't have to listen to her talk for another 20 years,"

"It's a deal then," he grinned at her.

"Done," she smiled sleepily, her eyes drifting closed as the fatigue finally won its battle against her body and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Pete stared at her for a long time, gently kissing her before standing up, pulling the blanket further over her and kissing her forehead gently. Pulling on his boxers and shirt to ward off the cold, he jogged into his bedroom and opened his bottom drawer, feeling around for a few seconds before pulling out the small black box and sitting down on the edge of the bed, staring at it for a few seconds before opening it and taking a deep breath as he laid eyes on the white gold diamond set ring staring back at him.

He'd bought it last week without telling anyone. But he'd known for a while now that he wanted to marry Allie; Christ on some scary level, he'd known it since the moment he met her. But seeing her today playing with Ben, giggling as she let the kids paint her face, chasing them around the garden, making snow angels with them, her green eyes flashing at him as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, flicking snow flakes at her as she tried to hide behind a tree, he had known never more so than in that moment that she was the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

The thought of waking up to her every morning, of being the only man who got to touch her, to kiss her for the rest of her life, of seeing her have his children, of knowing that she was his and his only, was something that he would sell his very soul to have. Pete Dunham was never supposed to fall in love, there were better things he could be doing with his time, but he hadn't factored in Allie Harding, the one woman on earth who could make him forget that anything other than her actually existed. She was the woman who made him want more, she made him want to be more.

Taking a deep breath, he placed the ring on the bed next to him, not taking his eyes off of it as he dialled the number Harry had given him earlier in the week and waited.

"Hello?"

Richard Harding's voice came through the line as clear as day, temporarily making Pete forget that he was somewhere in Mexico and as a result, this phone call would be costing him 50 quid a minute.

"Just the grumpy old bastard I've been trying to reach," Pete smiled down the phone at the old man's laughter.

"Blimey, I didn't think hooligans knew how to spell let alone use a phone," he chuckled. "To what do I owe the honour?"

"Um," Pete took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a minute. "It's about Allie,"

"Is she ok?" Richard asked immediately, the panic evident in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah, of course she's fine," Pete nodded. "She's asleep at the moment I just," he laughed nervously and looked down at the ring. "I kind of have a favour to ask you…"

�

Allie wiped some of the steam off of Pete's bathroom mirror and stared at her reflection for a long moment; pushing her hair to the side, she reached up to fasten the necklace Pete had given her last valentines day when she felt his fingers brush against her neck and smiled as he took it out of her hands, fastening it for her.

"You were up early," he told her, pressing a soft kiss against her neck and leaning his head on her shoulder, meeting her eyes in the mirror. It had only just gone 6.30 and whilst he had to be up for school, Allie usually stayed in bed till 7.

"Yeah," she smiled. "I couldn't really sleep," she shrugged. "Plus, it never hurts to get to the office early, that way I get first choice of the Krispy Kreme's."

Pete laughed against her skin and held her silently for a moment; he had spent over an hour on the phone to her dad last night and was dreading his phone bill coming at the end of the month. But hearing the tears in the old man's eyes when Pete asked him for Allie's hand in marriage, it was all worth it. Having always gotten on with her family, Pete knew how important it would be to them and to her for him to have asked permission before doing anything.

"I'm uh, I'm sorry about last night,"

He lifted his head and frowned at her slightly, unsure of what she was referring to.

"About getting weird when we were…" she shook her head and blushed.

Pete nodded, suddenly understanding and spun her around so that she was facing him.

"You weren't weird," he promised her.

"Yeah I was," she shook her head. "Pete, I didn't mean to say anything like that…it was stupid. I know that me and you…"

"Oi," Pete leant down and kissed her, silencing her. He couldn't stand to see that faint doubt in her eyes when she was talking about them. "You know I love you, right?" he tilted her head up and forced her to look at him.

"I know you love me," she nodded, smiling when he linked his fingers through hers.

"Ok, then shut up about all the weird stuff," he grinned as she laughed. "How about I come pick you up from work tonight and we can go have dinner?"

"Ok," she smiled up at him, her bright green eyes boring into his and making his heart jump. Jesus, she was so beautiful. "Sounds perfect,"

"Alright," he nodded, lowering his lips to hers once again. "I'm going to go get changed and then I'll walk you to the station, alright?"

"I love you," she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing his lips against hers before letting go and playfully shoving him towards the door. "Go on, or we'll both be late,"

Pete grinned at her and then stopped, turning back to face her for a moment and catching her eyes in the mirror again.

"I lied to you," he told her, watching her eyes widen in shock and panic. "Last night when you asked me if I thought three years ago would we end up here and I said no," he smirked. "I lied, I knew we'd end up here,"

"Really?" she laughed lightly, leaning against the sink and raising an eyebrow at him. "What makes you so sure?"

"Because within about five seconds of laying eyes on you, I knew that I'd rather die than have my life turn out any other way," he walked back in and kissed her hard, needing her to feel how much he loved her in that moment. Pulling away he caught the look on her face and smiled as she licked her lips, her breathing quickening. "Well that and that I gave you my favourite jacket," he winked at her as she laughed. "I would have walked over fucking fire to get that jacket back,"

"You're such a bastard," she shook her head and smacked his chest playfully.

"Nah, I'm serious," he caught her hand and grinned. "That thing cost me over 100 quid," he winced. "You might be fit as hell, but there's still a limit,"

"You are such a retard," Allie laughed, shaking her head and giggling harder when his arms came around her, pulling her out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

"Oi," he laughed, swinging her around and hoisting her up so that she was in his arms. "It worked though," he reached up, nipping her bottom lip playfully. "I got you, didn't I?"

Allie stared down at the man she loved, letting one of her hands gently trace his features and feeling her heart swell. Jesus, she loved him so much it was actually terrifying.

"Yeah," she whispered, ignoring the slight stinging of her eyes. "You got me,"

She leant down and kissed him deeply, sighing happily as he kissed her closed eyes. "You got me,"

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