Chapter 25 #2
“Partly, and because I think he wanted to make some changes. Which he has. Changes that our grandfather doesn’t always agree with, but he also doesn’t complain too much, since Ronan makes a lot of money.
Not saying that there aren’t shadier aspects to it, but for the most part, we operate on the right side of the law.
All of the work that I do is for Ronan and his clients.
Paddy, our youngest brother, is involved in the IT side of it, but Ronan keeps our sisters well out of it. ”
“Oh, I see. But I still don’t understand how you guys are going to get Doctor Wallace to talk, though.”
“Ronan can be very persuasive, and some of his guys have some interesting skills. Don’t worry. It’s just a matter of when we grab him and how.”
“Are you saying you’re going to kidnap him?” she asked.
“Probably best that I don’t answer that, baby.”
“It’s all right. I’m not upset at the idea. I think we’ve figured out that he must be complicit in all this, and whatever he did, he did it without my permission.” She wrapped her arms around her. “I don’t have any idea what happened to me in that clinic.”
No, and it made him feel sick to his stomach to think about that.
“What about the other people that worked there? The receptionist, the nurses? There must have been people that saw me or what happened?”
“We’ll get that information,” he promised her. “We’ll take care of anyone who harmed you in any way.”
She nodded, and he watched as a shiver shook her body. His poor girl.
He stood with her in his arms. She was pressed against his stomach, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold on as he walked her toward the stairs.
“Should you carry me up the stairs?” she asked, sounding slightly alarmed.
“I won’t let you drop, baby.”
“No,” she said. “I’m sure you won’t. I don’t think you’d ever let me drop, would you, Harvey?”
“Now you’re starting to understand,” he said as he carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom. He set her down next to the bed. “Strip off your top half and then lie down on top of the bed. I’m going to find some massage oil.”
“You have massage oil?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“I’m a scout. I’m always prepared.”
Harvey held his hand up with his fingers spread so two went one way and two the other.
Lily grinned widely. “I’m pretty sure that’s the Vulcan Salute.”
“Are you a Star Trek fan?”
She shrugged. “A little bit. I like Star Trek, but I love Star Wars even more. Oh, and my favorite of all is Firefly.”
“This is a whole new side of you I didn’t know existed,” he said. “We’ll have to have a sci-fi marathon.”
“We don’t have to if you don’t enjoy watching that sort of thing,” she told him. “We can watch whatever you want to watch.”
“Uh-uh, no, don’t do that,” he said to her, grasping hold of her chin.
“Don’t do what?” she asked.
“Don’t change what you like or downplay your needs because you think you have to cater to me.”
“That wasn’t what I was doing. I just don’t want you to be miserable watching something that you don’t enjoy.”
“So you really enjoyed watching the hockey game the other night with me?”
She bit her lip. Yeah, that’s what he thought.
“It’s just so violent,” she said.
“My point is that sometimes there will be things that you like, that I don’t. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to enjoy them with you.”
“Sometimes we’ll do what you like, and sometimes we’ll do what I like, and hopefully, there are things we like together.”
“Exactly,” he said. “And hopefully, one of the things that we like together is blowjobs.”
She gaped at him, and he couldn’t keep his face clean of emotion anymore. He let out a roar of laughter. “You should see your face right now.”
“I can’t believe you said that to me, Harvey Gallagher.” She slapped her hand down on his chest. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I think you’ve got the wrong word. You mean sexy. Say it with me, sexy.”
“No, I think I had the right word,” she told him. “Well, maybe I mean terrible. But I was trying to use other adjectives since I’ve used that one before.”
“Sassy, aren’t you?” He turned her toward the bed and slapped her ass. “Get semi-naked so I can get you all slick.”
She turned her head to give him a look. “Is this what you always talk like?”
“Hmm, not always.”
He whistled as he walked away.
Relief filled her as he left. Not because he was leaving. She preferred when he was close. No, it was because he was acting more relaxed around her.
Well, maybe he was getting too relaxed around her if he was talking about blow jobs and getting her all slick.
Her mother would have been horrified by the way he’d just spoken to her. But that was her mother, wasn’t it? That wasn’t Lily. And she was learning that she didn’t have to be what her mother wanted her to be.
It was freeing, and at the same time slightly terrifying. But definitely far better than being in her mother’s clutches, slave to her demands and whims.
This was freedom, and she just had to be brave and try new things. She had to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. What were her goals, her desires? What things did she like?