Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
A sniffle caught his attention, and Niall hissed because he had not noticed Harlow had joined them.
Shit and shit. “Hey…”
“You see me that way? You genuinely think I would pay for the lawyer of the man who burned the hell out of me?” Harlow asked, and Niall couldn’t figure out if he was in serious trouble or not.
He decided to go with honesty. He stood up. “I think you could hate a person and still help them because you couldn’t withhold aid if you had it. I’m not talking about something small. I remember when you refused to help that friend of your sister’s fix her corset.”
“Well, I heard her call a friend of mine fat, so she could do that herself,” Harlow shot back.
“And if she tripped and broke her wrist?” Niall prompted because he was right about this. No matter whether she was upset with him, he would speak truth about her.
“I would do whatever I needed to in order to make sure she got help.” Harlow moved into his space, her head tilting up as her hands went to his shoulders. “I want to be mad at you.”
Oh, he was so in love with this woman. He put his hands on her hips, his whole body feeling electric because she was close to him. “I’m going to make it very hard, princess. I’m going to do anything I need to do to ensure you can’t be mad at me.”
She sniffled again and then went on her toes and brushed her lips against his. “I’m going to try hard.” She stepped back. “Sorry to interrupt. We’re out of juice.”
He grinned and turned to the fridge. It still worked, thank the universe. He pulled out the bottle of orange juice and passed it to her. “Here. You need fuel to trash us.”
“I don’t think we should encourage her.” Jensen had a frown on his face.
She huffed his way. “Yeah, I don’t need encouragement. I have rage to keep me strong. And your way smarter friend is right. You are not talking to Jack or anyone else until we get a lawyer. My uncle doesn’t do criminal law, but I have a friend who does. Greer will talk to Travis. He’s a Taggart, by the way.”
Jensen’s head shook. “How fucking many of them are there?”
“It’s an army,” she conceded. “Also, he’s a baby lawyer, but he’ll know what to do. Now I have some assholes to trash to my friends.”
Niall winked her way. “You have fun, princess.”
She winked back and then turned and gave them both her middle finger before walking through the doorway.
Damn but she was pretty. “She’s asking for it.”
Jensen’s dark expression turned his way. “I don’t like that she kissed you and she didn’t kiss me. She should have kissed me, too. Isn’t that how it works?”
Oh, they had finally gotten to the portion of the talk he was most interested in. “Nope. We have our own relationships with her, and she is not expected to keep some chart where she divvies out her affection in a perfect fifty/fifty fashion. You want her to kiss you, tempt her.”
“What if I sleep with her when you’re not around?”
Niall shrugged. “I hope you have a good time, and I will try to tempt her to sleep with me, too. Though I suspect a lot of the sex will be the three of us. I don’t intend to let her live on her own for long. I’m going to work extremely hard to get the three of us in an apartment quickly. Think of this time not as a traumatic experience, but rather as a trial run. We need her to never want to be without us.”
“I don’t think I know how to do that,” Jensen admitted. “I’m way better at pushing her away.”
“Okay, we’re not going to do that anymore. I know you don’t think this can work. I know you think you want her for yourself,” Niall began.
“I don’t know,” Jensen interrupted. “I love her. She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved, but I think loving her scares me because I’ll fuck it up. I’ll hurt her.”
“I won’t let you. Or if you do, we’ll work on it. And she’ll always have me, too. Think about that. You can rely on me. Now that doesn’t work if you think you can come in and blow her mind with sex and leave everything else to me.”
Jensen held up a hand. “I don’t want that. If we’re going to do this thing, I want to be a fully functional member of the family, and I’ll do what I need to in order to be that man. You said you were talking to someone.”
He was not going to cry. Niall nodded slowly. “I am. He’s an expert at family trauma and PTSD. He’s roughly our age and he works at a place called the Ferguson Clinic. He plays at The Hideout, so he’s lifestyle friendly.”