Page 101 of Liberating Lily

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.