Sorry for abandoning you all for so long… many apologies, but here's the end now. Hope you like it.

Chapter Six

What a Girl Dreams Of

Harry took Nikki's glass and offered to return it to the kitchen, it wasn't merely an altruistic instinct to help tidy up but having had a good sniff of the punch earlier, he decided that a good swig of that would be just what he needed to give himself a boost for what he now knew he had to do. He scooped out a half glass full into Nikki's empty one and chugged some back. The fiery liquid made his eyes sting. He wasn't sure what was worse the alcohol hit or the sugar buzz. He tipped the rest down the sink, left the glass on the side and looked vainly round the floor for a recycling box or bin for his beer bottle.

"What are you doing down there?" said a giggly voice.

Harry looked up into Claire's voluminous cleavage and rapidly stood to his full height and adjusted his eye line. Her party hat had now slipped down over the side of her head. It provided a useful focal point.

"Ah, just the person I was looking for!" she slurred and made a grab for Harry's neck and pulled him towards her face. Harry tipped his head to the side and kissed her cheek.

"Happy Birthday Claire," Harry said catching sight of Nikki out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh," moaned Claire.

"It's been good to see you again, Claire, I'm sorry but we have to go." Nikki said hastily. She grabbed Harry's hand and ran to the front door. They laughed as they ran down the path and then suddenly felt shy at the realisation that they were still hand in hand. The evening had turned cool but Nikki felt anything but cold. She looked at their intertwined hands and then up to Harry's face. He was looking at her with the same intent expression he'd had as he'd watched her get ready for the party. She could feel her face burning despite the chill breeze.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?" he said his voice serious and low, relieved that finally the words had come. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?"

"I don't have DD boobs." Nikki pointed out.

Harry made a scoffing laugh and held onto her forearms to hold her at arm's length and ran his eyes up and down her body. She saw his Adam's apple bob.

"Nothing about you is fake," he explained. He ran a finger down her hair line and along her jaw and Nikki felt herself shudder.

"I do colour my hair." She gasped out; her head leaned into his touch seemingly of its own volition.

"You are perfect," he said as his hand gently brushed her cheek. She was aware that her body had started to tremble, and she felt that familiar suffocating struggle for oxygen as she'd done in the observation room of the police station just days before. But this time she knew what was coming. An explosion or implosion, an equal and opposite reaction that would shatter all the tension of the previous week, plunge them over the edge and change everything they thought they ever knew. However this time she was looking forward to it.

"Harry…" she mumbled, biting her lip instead of her fingers and looking into his eyes, they were so dark now there was little green to be seen.

"I want you," Harry half mumbled half growled as he leaned in to her. She could feel his hot breath burning the skin of her neck.

"Harry…" she sighed, and tried to move her head to make the connection with the lips that every part of her being ached for.

"This a bit more like what a girl dreams of when she's growing up?" Harry asked his eyes boring into hers.

"Mm hmm." She answered and pressed her lips to his. She ran her hand under his jacket, and felt the strength and solidity of his back. She'd never been frightened of him, not even when he yelled at her, she just felt scared that she hadn't known what was going on. What had been on his mind? Here in his arms she felt connected to the very core of what made Harry, Harry. And for once she was in with a chance of something good; someone good; Harry wasn't faultless, she wasn't going to pretend he was. But for once she knew he was worth the risk.

His own arms tightened around her waist, pulling her even closer towards him. Her stomach did its own 10,000 feet emergency dive and she clung to Harry and felt his arms hold her up and for once she relished the feeling of being possessed by another. Because this was Harry, and she'd waited two years for this. Two years in which a student crush had turned to admiration, that had turned to friendship that in turn had turned to partnership and now…

"Come home with me," he murmured interrupting her thoughts.