Lily's Forced Freedom

Chapter 22

Harvey pulled up outside the cabin several hours later.

After checking his entire house to see if anything had been taken, he’d had to finish going through his camera footage as Paddy had gotten pulled off onto another job.

Only for nothing distinctive to show.

The intruder had their face completely covered and had been dressed all in black. There was no way to figure out any discerning features, other than the fact that they looked like a man.

Could it have been the doctor? Maybe. But it was impossible to say for sure. And would the good doctor even do his own dirty work? No, he’d probably hire it out, as would Lily’s mother.

To make it look like a robbery, they could have just stolen a few things. Why go around and smash everything? It risked discovery.

It almost seemed like someone had lost their temper. Desperation, maybe? He could see her mother getting that desperate, but he couldn’t see her mother breaking into his house.

Ronan’s guys were combing the house for evidence and then a cleanup crew would come in.

Harvey had to order some new furniture. He wondered if Lily would want to do that.

But he didn’t want to scare her by asking.

No, he’d figure it out himself. Actually, Fiadh had a friend who was an interior designer. Maybe he’d contact her.

Getting out his phone, he called Fiadh.

“Hello, little brother. Did you finally find my phone number again? I thought you must have lost it.”

Harvey rolled his eyes. Everyone in their family was a critic at the moment. “It hasn’t been that long since I called you.”

“Uh-huh, sure. So, what can I do for you?”

Now he felt a bit guilty, since he was calling to ask her for something, and not just to chat. He winced. “So how is the bakery?”

“Brother, I know you didn’t just call me to chat. What’s going on? I heard from Bea that you’d had a break-in. I didn’t even know that you weren’t at home. So where are you staying and why?”

He sighed. “Look, I can’t really get into the details at the moment, but I’ve just had to go away for a while.”

“Hmm. And does it have anything to do with the break-in?”

“Perhaps,” he said. “Or it could have just been random. Anyway, since you’ve already talked to Bea, I guess she told you that all my stuff has been smashed.”

“Yeah, no loss there.”

“Why did none of you tell me that you hated my house?”

“I mean, hate is a strong word,” she said.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you could ask Amanda if she would be able to do her magic on my place.”

“Oh, good choice. She’ll do a great job. Do you have any idea of what sort of style you want?”

Style?

“No.”

“Colors?”

“Ahh, no.”

“You need to think about these things, brother. I’ll give her a buzz and see if she’s got any free space. Then she can call you.”

“Thanks, Fiadh,” he said to her.

As he ended that call, his phone rang again, and he frowned as he saw it was Dr. Wallace. They needed to make a move on the doctor and the clinic.

He wanted this done with.

“Hello, Doctor Wallace.”

“Mr. Gallagher. Good, I’m glad I got you. I need to speak with you.”

“All right, I’ve got a few minutes now,” Harvey replied.

“No, in person. I need you to come to the clinic.”

Harvey frowned. The doctor sounded agitated, upset.

“Why would I want to do that?”

“If you care about Lily, you will come. Better yet, bring her with you.”

“I’m not bringing Lily to the clinic, and I don’t have time to visit myself. But if you’ve got anything you want to tell me, Dr. Wallace, you’re more than welcome to do it now.”

“You must come to the clinic,” he demanded. “And you must bring Lily! It is imperative. She is sick.”

“That’s strange because she seems perfectly fine to me,” he commented.

“If you do not bring her in, I will be forced to go to the police and report you.”

“Report me? That’s interesting. And how will you explain what goes on in that clinic of yours, Doctor?”

“What do you mean? This is a medical facility. I am simply taking care of people here.”

“Sure you are, Doc. Well, you go to the police if you like. I’ll be very interested to see if you do.”

He ended the call and sat thinking for a moment before he sent a message off to Ronan. He had to be careful how to word this.

Harvey: I want to visit the doctor.

Ronan: I’ll sort it.

Pocketing his phone, he headed inside. It was getting close to dinnertime, and he’d yet to even eat lunch, so his stomach was rumbling as he stepped through the door.

Surprise filled him as the scent of something burning hit him. He rushed into the kitchen. Had he left something on? What was going on?

He found Lily standing in the kitchen, waving a tea towel over something in a hot pan in the sink. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was wearing a long dress that he recognized as one of the more formal dresses he’d bought for her.

Only it was now covered in food.

“What happened?” he demanded. “What’s going on?”

Lily looked up at him, then burst into tears.

This was a complete and utter disaster.

Really, how had she thought that she was going to cook a roast? Sure, it had seemed easy when she’d watched the YouTube clip, but she now had a feeling that she was meant to defrost it before she put it in the oven.

Well, if that was the case, they should have mentioned it on the video, shouldn’t they?

Every time she’d checked it had seemed frozen in the middle, so she’d turned the oven up on high and taken the lid off the roasting pan.

Before putting it into the oven again, she’d mixed up the gravy, just like the video had told her to, and poured it over top.

That might have been a mistake too.

And now she was standing here sobbing because Harvey was home and the kitchen was a disaster. She was a complete mess, and dinner was totally ruined.

So much for her plan to seduce him.

Yes, that’s what she’d been planning to do. She wasn’t sure exactly what that would look like or how much she’d be able to do, but she wanted to show him that she wanted him.

And that she wasn’t made of glass.

So, she’d found this gorgeous dress in the closet with the other things that he’d bought for her and put it on. She’d even managed to put her hair up.

She didn’t have any makeup beyond what had been in her handbag, so all she had on was a bit of mascara and some lip gloss. But that was still better than nothing, right?

And then she’d set about trying to make a romantic dinner for them.

She’d actually managed to find a candle, which she’d planned on lighting, and had come up with the idea of cooking a pot roast. Men liked pot roast, right?

Well, they probably did when they weren’t frozen in the middle and burnt on the outside.

“Are you hurt? Lily, hey, hey, talk to me. Where are you hurt?” Harvey strode over to her, taking gentle hold of her arms.

“In my heart,” she cried.

“What?” He reeled back, gazing down at her. “What do you mean your heart hurts?”

“Because I ruin everything. It’s just me. I’m a ruiner. I ruin things.”

“Lily St. Clary, you will not talk like that,” he said sternly.

There he was. There was the Harvey who wasn’t scared to tell her off, to scold her when he thought she was doing something wrong. That was the Harvey she wanted back, the one who didn’t treat her like she was going to break at any moment.

“Shit, fuck, sorry. Sorry. It’s been a crazy day, and I shouldn’t have just done that. I just hate hearing you talk about yourself like that. I hate that you think it, and I hate that you say it. Are you hurt? Lily, did you burn yourself?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m not physically hurt. I’m just disappointed in myself. I was trying to cook you a nice dinner because, well, you’re always doing nice things for me, and I wanted to show you that I could do something for you, that I’m not useless.”

She clenched her hands into fists and slammed them down on the countertop.

“You are not useless. You need to stop talking about yourself like this.”

It was hard to stop though. It wasn’t just her own thoughts.

There were the things her mother had said to her over the years about how she wouldn’t amount to anything unless she got herself a rich husband.

How that was the only way she’d get anywhere in life.

That it was the only thing she was good at, being some man’s trophy.

It was hard to imagine a different sort of life when the person who was meant to be your cheerleader was the one who was holding you down and telling you that you were useless.

“I just wanted you to see me as someone who isn’t delicate and fragile, who you have to take care of.”

He tilted his head to the side. “But I enjoy taking care of you.”

“You do?” she asked.

“Yeah, I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but I feel like a part of me was always missing, not quite right, like an itch that I couldn’t scratch. But looking after you, it’s scratched my itch . . . and that sounded really terrible.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. “I’m glad I can scratch your itch.”

Harvey shook his head with a growl. “Yeah, I’m not explaining this very well, but you aren’t a burden, Lily. You aren’t a job that I have to tick off my to-do list. You are my list. You’re everything on it, okay? Everything to do with you comes first for me.”

Now she was feeling teary-eyed for a completely different reason. She sniffled. “How can you say all that about me when we haven’t even spent much time together?”

“Is that your way of saying you don’t feel the same about me? It’s all right. I know it’s going to take you time to catch up to where I am. You’ve been dealing with other things for the last ten months, including Rick the Dick.”

“Pretty sure Clem calls him Rick the Limp Dick.”

“Clem always did have a way with words,” he said with a smile.

She snorted then covered up her mouth and nose. “Oh my God, sorry. That was embarrassing.”

“What was? Snorting? I thought it was cute.”

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, and a shiver ran up her spine. She wanted more. More touch from him. More of those shivers.

“You really do like me, don’t you?” she said to him. “I mean, if you find that snorting cute, you must.”

“I find everything about you cute, adorable, sweet, sexy.” He ran a finger along her jawline. Who would have thought that that could be arousing?

Not her, obviously.

“You do?”

“I really do. Now, do you want to tell me what is going on?” He pulled back, which wasn’t what she wanted from him.

“No.”

“No?” he questioned.

“Don’t pull away. I want you to pull me into your arms and hold me tight and kiss me deep. I want what we had before I ruined it all.”

He blinked down at her.

Oh, no. What had she just done? It wasn’t what she’d been planning on saying. Had she messed up?

What was wrong with her?

What was she talking about? He ran her words through his mind again. She wanted him to kiss her, to hold her tight, to go back to the way things had been before she’d ruined everything?

What did that even mean?

She hadn’t ruined anything.

“I mean, I know we didn’t have anything .

. . well, you seemed to want something. I think.

You said you did. And then I ruined things and now you seem to not want the same things.

Or you’re worried that I’m scared of you and see you as like my mother because you’re super bossy.

You are super bossy. That hasn’t really changed except for the fact that you’re trying to hold back how bossy you are.

But I don’t want you to hold back . . . I don’t want you to stop kissing me and hugging me and telling me what you think I should do. ”

He stared down at her for a long moment. “Lily St. Clary.”

“Um, yes?” she asked, looking confused.

Grasping hold of her, Harvey spun them both, so she had her back to the island and he was facing her. Then he placed his hands on the countertop on either side of her, leaning in. “Are you saying that you want to be with me?”

Something had changed. And recently.

Was it because he’d decided to hold back a bit in order not to make her fear him?

She’d obviously missed his touches and his kisses.

Interesting.

That hadn’t been the purpose of him drawing back, but it could be a very welcome side effect. He watched her closely for any fear. And while she seemed a bit nervous, she didn’t appear to be afraid.

Maybe he could push a bit further. He just had to be careful to recognize when she’d reached the limit of what she was comfortable with. Normally, he might push limits a bit, but he wasn’t sure that was wise with Lily.

Or perhaps it was just what she needed considering that they were now here. With her wanting him to touch her.

“Do you miss me touching you the way I was? Like this?” He wrapped one hand behind her neck.

He kept his touch light, watching for any sign that she needed him to stop.

But while her eyes grew wider, her breathing sped up, she didn’t move away.

“My brave girl, aren’t you? I’m going to kiss you now, Lily.

If you’re not ready, then you need to pull away. ”

“Why would I want to do that when I’m standing here, waiting for you to kiss me?”

Well, fuck. He should stop messing around, then, shouldn’t he? But when he leaned in, she shied back.

“Wait!”