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)
“You don’t get it, do you, Lily?” he said to as he cupped the side of her face.
“No, I don’t get why you kidnapped me.”
“The reason I took you was to save you. It was to free you.”
“So I’m free to leave?” she asked.
Harvey smiled. She wouldn’t call it a pretty smile, or even a reassuring one. “No, Lily. You’re not free to leave. Not until you don’t want to.”
What the heck kind of sense did that make? Did he even understand what he was saying? She wasn’t free to leave until she didn’t want to leave?
“That doesn’t any make sense.”
“It will,” he told her. “Just give it time. Now, I’m going to clean your arms and your hands, and you’re not going to do this again.”
“You can’t just boss someone around and expect them to do what you want.”
“No? I thought you would be used to that from your mother.”
A surge of anger filled her. “So because my mother bossed me around, you think you can do it too?”
His eyes flashed, and she sucked in a breath. He took gentle hold of her chin. “I’m nothing like your mother. Understand me?”
Right. Sure, he wasn’t. But from where she was sitting, wasn’t she just escaping one cage to be placed in another?
She rubbed her forehead. Lily was so confused.
She didn’t want to think anymore. She was tired, and she just wanted to sleep.
“Do you know the difference between me and your mother, Lily?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know anything. I’m just dumb and stupid. And I need my pills, Harvey.”
“You are not dumb or stupid and you will not say that about yourself again.”
“You like to make a lot of demands, don’t you?”
“I prefer to think of them as commands, because demands can be rejected or dismissed. But a command should always be obeyed, just like me.”
“I never realized how arrogant you are. You’re not the nice man that everyone thinks you are, are you?”
“See, you’re starting to get to know me already. That’s what this is about, Lily. You’re going to find out who I am. Who you are.”
“I haven’t forgotten that. We barely know each other, Harvey.”
“When you know someone is meant to be yours, it doesn’t matter how well you know them.”
She rubbed at her forehead again, and he grasped hold of her hand, drawing it away.
“Headache?” he murmured.
Lily nodded with a wince.
Harvey’s hand moved round behind her neck, and he started to massage the tight muscles.
Oh my God. A small sigh of pleasure escaped her as the pain eased. How did he know just how to touch her?
“I know what to do,” he murmured to her as he moved closer, his lips nearly brushing against her forehead. “I know just how to take care of you, Lily, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Harvey was aware that he was pushing her. And he still hadn’t taken care of the scratches on her arms and hands. It was so fucking difficult not to draw her into his arms. Not to hug her tight and declare that she was his.
However, he needed to pull back slightly before he completely terrified her.
“Better?” he murmured.
“Yes. How do you know exactly where to touch me in order to ease the pain?”
“Magic hands,” he told her as he barely resisted kissing her forehead.
God, the scent of her was delicious. Perhaps he shouldn’t have waited so long. Rick hadn’t deserved her. He was the most selfish prick Harvey had ever met. Harvey wondered if Lily knew how many times he cheated on her? And boasted about it.
Stupid asshole hadn’t known what he had, the greatest treasure that anyone could ever have.
And now she was Harvey’s and he wouldn’t let her go.
But he did need to find out what these pills were.
He could sense she was panicking again. She seemed to have moments of panic interspersed with clarity.
“What time is it? I’ve gone too long without them,” she told him.
He needed to get Michaela out here to check her over.
“I’m going to get you what you need. You just need to trust me. I’ll just grab the first aid kit and clean up those scratches. You are going to stay right here. Understand me, Lily?”
It was a test, and when he returned from the bathroom with the first aid kit . . .
He discovered that she’d failed it.
With a sigh, he brought out his phone and checked the cameras. It wouldn’t take long to find her.
And he couldn’t blame her for running, but she needed to learn that she wasn’t ever leaving him.
4
This was crazy.
What was she doing? She didn’t do well outdoors. She wasn’t like Clem. Everything out here scared her. Animals didn’t like her. Everything smelled so strong, so real.
So scary.
Why had she run off like that? What did she think she was going to do? That an Uber would just suddenly appear and pick her up to take her home?