Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“What are you watching?” he asked, sitting beside her.
“Some romantic comedy. Do you want to watch it with me?”
God, that was going to be a serious test of his control, to sit here watching a romantic film while he couldn’t touch her.
But he also couldn’t tell her no.
“Got a couple of pizzas in the freezer. Why don’t I put them on, and then I’ll come back and sit with you?”
The smile on her face was worth the test to his control.
He could do this.
Harvey was sitting down the other end of the sofa.
The knot in her stomach grew tighter and tighter.
She hated the distance between them.
Somehow, she had to train her body to not be scared of touch, to not be scared of what he needed, the control he required.
So he wanted to boss her around in the bedroom. So what? Harvey would never harm her, and it wasn’t like she knew what she was doing, did she?
Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe she’d be less stressed about getting it all wrong.
Yeah, maybe she’d been thinking about this all wrong. Instead of seeing his bossiness and need for control as a negative, perhaps it was a positive. Because then she could be free of all this worry over what she was doing, over doing the wrong thing. She wouldn’t have to think about any of that, would she, if he had full control?
Especially when it came to sex.
All she had to figure out was how she was going to fix what she’d broken.
21
Harvey’s phone rang the next morning, and he picked it up, frowning slightly as he saw it was his sister.
“Bea? Everything all right?” he asked.
A soft sob greeted him, and he sat up immediately.
Last night he’d slept on the floor again. And gotten barely any sleep
He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, but he’d thought that Lily had looked rather disappointed when he’d chosen to sleep on the floor instead of in the bed with her last night. He’d wanted to explain that it was better this way, that he wasn’t sure that his control extended to lying in bed with her.
Yeah, he’d managed one night, but that had resulted in them kissing. And he wasn’t sure he had the control to stop that happening again. He was trying to claw back some of his control, and to do that he needed at least a few feet of distance between them.
So lying on the floor had really been better for both of them.
But he’d barely slept, and by five this morning, he’d had to get out of the room before the last of his control snapped and he ended up in that bed with her wrapped up in his arms.
He’d made them breakfast this morning, which she’d barely eaten. He was starting to get really concerned about her so he’d shut himself in his office before his mouth could run away on him. But something had to change. She needed to start taking better care of herself, or he’d have to step in. Despite the fact that she might think him too controlling over her. Her health still had to come first, right?
Fuck, but then there was her emotional safety.
Pushing all of those thoughts out of his mind, he concentrated on his baby sister. “Bea, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“They’re all dead,” she wailed.
For a moment, his heart stopped. What was she talking about? Who was all dead? Their family? Had something happened to Ronan, Paddy, and Fiadh?
But he’d only just heard from Ronan about twenty minutes ago.
“Your worms. Oh my God, Harvey. I’m so sorry. Your worms are all gone. I think they’ve all died.”
“Thank fuck.” That was his first response, relief that his family was fine.
Then he felt a strange sadness. Huh, that was surprising. He must have been more attached to the worms than he’d realized.
He was surprised by their death. He wondered what had happened. “How?”
“Somebody’s been in your house. They’ve trashed it. Harvey, it’s a complete wreck.”
He stood, his heart pounding. “What are you talking about? Bea, what do you mean somebody’s trashed my house?”
“When I arrived, the door was slightly ajar. I pushed it in and rushed inside, thinking they might still be in there. I came in before work, so it was still kind of dark outside. And I didn’t notice how bad it looked inside for a moment. Then I turned on all the lights and saw that the worm farm had been tipped over.”
Jesus bloody Christ.
Ronan had done his best to protect their sisters from everything, but that meant that they didn’t have the greatest sense self-preservation, or awareness of the fact that they could get hurt.
“Bea, listen to me. This is very important. Are you still in my house?”
“Yes, of course I’m still in your house. I can’t leave it this way. I don’t know what to do about the worms, though.”