Page 68 of The Reluctant Siren
“I don’t have money to pay for a lawyer,” Jensen replied.“They give you a lawyer if they arrest you. Turning myself in is an option weneed to talk about.”
“With a lawyer who will talk to you for free since you’reconnected to Harlow. Also, our princess is a moneybags. She won’t miss it atall. That’s the hardest thing. Her parents are filthy rich. It’s weird. Shedoesn’t act that way. It kind of freaks me out.”
“Yeah, I met what I thought was a middle-class, normal womanwith an interesting career and then she’s got two billionaire dads, a trustfund that could buy the world, and a mom who’s considered a modern masterpainter,” Jensen agreed. “And I came from this.” He gestured a hand around theworn kitchen. “I wondered what I could offer her. I worried I was herrebellion.”
Niall shook his head. “Nah, that’s not who she is. Honestly,from what I can tell, it’s not who her family is. And if you think she’s rich,I don’t even know what to call Gigi. Her dad is the oldest of the Dawson kids,and he apparently was a ruthless businessman. Guess who he married? A nursefrom rural Colorado. At least that’s where they met. Harlow’s mom was a massagetherapist when she met Ben and Chase Dawson. They’re not some elite family whoonly hangs with other elites. From what I can tell they’re pretty normal withthe exception of the money, and she’ll pay for your lawyer even if she hatesyou. She’ll do it because it’s who she is.”
A sniffle caught his attention, and Niall hissed because hehad not noticed Harlow had joined them.
Shit and shit. “Hey…”
“You see me that way? You genuinely think I would pay forthe lawyer of the man who burned the hell out of me?” Harlow asked, and Niallcouldn’t figure out if he was in serious trouble or not.
He decided to go with honesty. He stood up. “I think youcould hate a person and still help them because you couldn’t withhold aid ifyou had it. I’m not talking about something small. I remember when you refusedto help that friend of your sister’s fix her corset.”
“Well, I heard her call a friend of mine fat, so she coulddo that herself,” Harlow shot back.
“And if she tripped and broke her wrist?” Niall promptedbecause he was right about this. No matter whether she was upset with him, hewould speak truth about her.
“I would do whatever I needed to in order to make sure shegot help.” Harlow moved into his space, her head tilting up as her hands wentto his shoulders. “I want to be mad at you.”
Oh, he was so in love with this woman. He put his hands onher hips, his whole body feeling electric because she was close to him. “I’mgoing to make it very hard, princess. I’m going to do anything I need to do toensure you can’t be mad at me.”
She sniffled again and then went on her toes and brushed herlips against his. “I’m going to try hard.” She stepped back. “Sorry tointerrupt. We’re out of juice.”
He grinned and turned to the fridge. It still worked, thankthe 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 frownon his face.
She huffed his way. “Yeah, I don’t need encouragement. Ihave rage to keep me strong. And your way smarter friend is right. You are nottalking to Jack or anyone else until we get a lawyer. My uncle doesn’t docriminal law, but I have a friend who does. Greer will talk to Travis. He’s aTaggart, 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, buthe’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 hermiddle 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 thatshe kissed you and she didn’t kiss me. She should have kissed me, too. Isn’tthat how it works?”
Oh, they had finally gotten to the portion of the talk hewas most interested in. “Nope. We have our own relationships with her, and sheis not expected to keep some chart where she divvies out her affection in aperfect 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 tryto tempt her to sleep with me, too. Though I suspect a lot of the sex will bethe three of us. I don’t intend to let her live on her own for long. I’m goingto work extremely hard to get the three of us in an apartment quickly. Think ofthis time not as a traumatic experience, but rather as a trial run. We need herto never want to be without us.”
“I don’t think I know how to do that,” Jensen admitted. “I’mway better at pushing her away.”
“Okay, we’re not going to do that anymore. I know you don’tthink 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 theonly woman I’ve ever loved, but I think loving her scares me because I’ll fuckit up. I’ll hurt her.”
“I won’t let you. Or if you do, we’ll work on it. And she’llalways have me, too. Think about that. You can rely on me. Now that doesn’twork if you think you can come in and blow her mind with sex and leaveeverything else to me.”
Jensen held up a hand. “I don’t want that. If we’re going todo this thing, I want to be a fully functional member of the family, and I’lldo what I need to in order to be that man. You said you were talking tosomeone.”
