Chapter 65 Lady Blue Balls
lady blue balls
Lorien
“We have a stop to make before we can go home.”
I want to growl. Or whine. Maybe I do.
Seriously? I just got cleared. Like cleared-cleared, and we can have sex and we’re stopping on the way home?
I could unzip my pants, slide my fingers inside my panties, and encourage him to avoid this useless stop. But no matter my comfort level with him, or how bold he makes me want to be in bed, we’re in a moving vehicle on Downing Street and I’m just not that girl.
I swear, though, if he delays us too long, I might become her.
By his turns, we’re near downtown. While this is fun and I like the area, I love the man driving and want him inside of me.
“Does the cat have your tongue?” he asks.
“No.” I fight the petulance in my voice and stare out the window and wonder what in the world would be worth the delay.
He turns onto Larimer and finds a parking spot. Who gets a spot in Larimer Square in the evening? I’m met with the disappointment that this won’t be a quick stop.
There’s another car here, which either means dinner or socializing.
When did I become so horny for this man that enjoying dinner is a hardship? Move-in day is my guess. Or, more than that, when three broken ribs meant an orgasm caused more pain than pleasure.
The bruises faded. The sharp stitch of pain with a deep breath did not. Until it did. Even then, the man who was willing to pierce his dick for my pleasure wasn’t willing to risk me. Chivalry isn’t dead; my lady blue balls are proof.
“What are we doing here?” I ask, sliding out of the passenger’s side.
He rounds the hood, back to full strength after his injuries, too, and extends a palm, enveloping mine, and not answering my question.
We enter Aspen & Evergreen, Ayla’s gallery, and I have to fight to keep my attention on the people in the room. The photos are so breathtaking, so distracting, that it’s hard not to gawk.
Christian mills about with Sophia who’s more and more beautiful by the day. She’s alert and smiles when she hears her godfather’s cooing encouragement. He’s so soft and gentle with her.
Knowing what I know. Knowing he took a bullet for her. Knowing he put one in a man’s brain for me, the juxtaposition between the Liam the world knows and the Liam his family knows is black and white.
“How did today go?” He addresses Sophia, but his question is for Ayla, whose focus is on the gallery’s focal point piece, a moose under tree cover, standing below the mountains that loom proudly.
“Good. Bad. Shit.” She turns our way.
Christian clears his throat, focusing on her.
“Oh, whatever. You think she won’t hear that word in this family? From your own mouth?”
“I’ll at least try.”
“Yeah, well.” She turns from her husband to her brother.
“He’s just as arrogant, even with all the information that came out in the deposition.
Acted untouchable. He kept that shit up even when the recording with his own voice, in his own words, started and he admitted to what went down with Christian and with Ci.
And all the rest. He got taken down a peg with that.
Tomorrow is the video from the ridge.” She shakes her head. “We’ll see how long he can keep it up.
“Do you want me there with you?” Liam asks.
“Maybe. For Mom, anyway. Christian will be there with me.”
His face jerks back. “She was there?”
My sister-in-law nods. “She’s trying to be there for him. I’m sure he wants that, but this day-after-day thing is bringing things to light. Whether she pretended it wasn’t the case or didn’t have a clue, I don’t know.”
Christian adds, “But you can watch the truth dawning in her eyes. She’s waking up to the reality of the man she joined herself to. Prepare yourself. She’s going to need you. Need us. And that’s not going to be easy.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I finally put in. It’s family stuff, and I’m family-in-law, but in a situation that’s beyond delicate.
“You’re already doing it,” Ayla offers.
“How do you figure?”
She tilts her chin to Liam. “He hasn’t killed anyone.”
“I haven’t even threatened it,” my husband says tongue-in-cheek. Though, to be honest, that is something.
“And he hasn’t burned anything down.”
“Lately,” the man at my side quantifies.
Imagine if he had, say, a sexual outlet instead, and could focus his energy there. I want to say it aloud. But if I were Ayla, I wouldn’t want to hear that about my brother.
And Christian is a man who wouldn’t care about Liam’s sex life. He cares about his wife and his daughter. Everything else either contributes or is a deterrent. I don’t want to fall on the negative side of the equation.
“No remorse? No anything?” Liam asks, as if he can’t fathom his father’s arrogance.
Christian and Ayla shake their heads in tandem.
“I’ll be there.”
“Be prepared for wild accusations. You show up at every event in his life as a villainous threat.” Christian says.
“We all do,” Ayla adds. “No accountability. Just victimhood and narcissism.”
My husband turns his face to mine, communicating without words, but not something I can put my finger on. Deciphering him is a sport that only I am trained for. But it requires expert-level experience, and I’m a novice at best.
Christian wanders the gallery that I now realize must be closed because there’s no one here but us.
I’m suspicious and should be, as it turns out, when he starts a whole new line of thought. “One more thing before you head out.”
I brace, waiting for whatever is to come, and hate how small I feel—like all three of them watching me shrinks me into a game-sized piece as they play chess.
“Okay?” I don’t mean for it to be a question. I hate how it’s my tendency.
“We’ve made some moves over the last several weeks. Strategic ones. Ones that we know will pay off, if not in dividends, then in our family.”
Well, that’s ominous.
I lift my brows, unwilling to interrupt.
“Since your trip home, Ayla and I—”
“And you and I,” Liam interjects, as if I have any clue what’s happening.
“Have been buying up stock in Platt BioPharma.”
What? How? And how have I been doing that without my knowledge?
“We are nearing a majority share, as a family, when you add Cian and Sariah’s piece. We’ll need to find a way to make the shift inside the company, but you need to be apprised of where this is headed.”
Majority share? Where this is headed?
“And where is this headed?”
Ayla comes to stand next to me in front of another exhibit. “This is heading toward you having control of your lab and of your research. This is heading toward you making sure your brother—and our mom—can live long, healthy lives.”
The pressure of their love, their commitment, their belief in me might as well be a weight around my neck. I buckle, my hands cradling my face, and sob.
Ayla’s gentle hand skating along my spine is replaced by another. It’s larger and warmer. Its touch is more comforting.
Shuffling around me gives way to me wrapped up in my husband’s arms.
“You… You… You.” I cling to him as if he’s the buoy so I avoid drowning. “You bought me a lab?”
Liam chuckles. Ayla laughs, and Christian lets out a sound like air leaving a balloon. “Not exactly. We bought you the opportunity to do the right thing, by a lot of people.”
Into my hair Liam adds, “And to show the world that glorious brain of yours in action.”
I press up onto my toes and press my mouth to his, smiling through the tears as I kiss him.
“See? Genius,” he whispers against my lips. “Do you think, if the data isn’t stolen, that Dr. Patel would want to be a part?”
My eyes go wide, and I’m sure my face belies my surprise.
I nod with such fervor, my hair slings alongside my cheeks.
“I do,” I whisper. “I think he would be thrilled. Thank you,” I say quietly to him.
It’s about the lab and the shares and the dreams, but it’s about so much more.
It’s loving me, seeing me, knowing what makes me tick, and choosing to lay it at my feet.
Spinning in the circle of his arms, I offer the same to the couple in front of me.
“Thank you. I— There are no words. That’s a lot. ”
“I told you, if money can fix your problems, you don’t have problems. And I have money, so…”
“So, let’s fix some problems,” I finish.
“Fix that one first.” She points over my head to her brother before winking. I don’t know if the gesture is for me or for him, but it doesn’t matter.
He’s not a problem. But the growing length at my spine is.
“On it. Love you. We better go.” My words are rushed out, as I try to push Liam toward the door.
Christian leans forward and drops a chunky fob in my hand. “Here.”
“I like you. I love you both, but this is a key fob. You just bought a pharmaceutical company. I draw the line at a car.” I lift it between us in offer, not knowing what universe I live in when, in one day, Liam has flown to meet my parents to ask their blessing, I get confirmation that my dream has legs and funding, and my brother-in-law wants to offer me a car.
“That’s where you draw the line?” Ayla asks on a giggle as Liam speaks from behind me, “That’s not from Christian.” His voice is low but very near my ear.
I spin in a slow smooth circle, staring into the eyes of the man I love, alight with humor. “You bought me a car?”
He bites that plump lower lip as his beard twitches from controlling a smile. “You said I could.”
“I said you could do the research and test drives.”
“I did.”
“And you bought one?”
He nods, his eyebrow ring glinting in his brow raised in challenge.
“And what if it wasn’t what I would’ve chosen?”
“What would you have chosen?”
Hands planted firmly on my hips, I retort, “I don’t know.”
He mirrors my stance. “Well, now you don’t have to decide. Unless you hit another brick wall, in which case, it can be your turn. That work?”
“And if I hit a brick wall tonight?”
His head dips low, and he whispers in my ear, “Then I won’t be able to eat you or fuck you or play with those perfect tits. And I really want to do all of those things. Now.”
Shivers race down my spine. “Maybe tomorrow then.”
“Okay, Wifey, maybe tomorrow.” He lifts a hand over my shoulder and turns me toward the door.
And my new car.