Page 67 of Ravished By Her

“Jesus, Sterling, can you not? I know you’re trying to convert me to be Team Arrowbridge so I can move here and be one big happy family with you, but it’s not going to happen. I’m sorry. I know it’s going to be hard to have me leave again, but I’m going to have a guest room. You and Kai can come stay with me.” One of the main reasons I wanted to be so financially stable was so I could afford a two-bedroom place. For her. So we could see each other more.

Sterling sighed. “That’s not the point, and you know it isn’t. You’re being stubborn.”

“Of course I am! How do you think I accomplished anything? I had to be fucking stubborn! So are you!” I had no idea why I was yelling at her, but I couldn’t pull it back.

“Gwennie,” she said, her voice irritatingly gentle. “I just want you to be happy. If that’s not with Lacey, then fine. But I know you. And I know what you look like when you’re happy, and that life in the city? It wasn’t making you happy. You were literally working all the time and then the company you gave all those hours to just laid you off without a second thought. I’m so thrilled that you’re doing your own thing now and you’re going to be amazing at it because you are not mediocre.” She stood up and pointed at me. “Don’t you fucking dare to settle for a mediocre life. You deserve everything.”

I failed to see how a stunning apartment in a skyscraper in a vibrant city was “mediocre,” but I wasn’t going to argue with Sterling when she was like this.

She clasped my face between her hands and looked into my eyes.

“You deserve everything that makes you happy, Gwen. Always.”

Emotion thickened in my throat and I had to break our eye contact.

“Thank you. Can I have my face back now?”

“Yes,” she said, letting go, but not moving away from me.

“I have things to do,” I said, wanting to escape the intensity of this conversation.

“I know. Just…think about what you want. You might surprise yourself.” She left the van with those parting words, and I wanted to scream. Instead, I turned on my laptop and threw myself into fiddling with my website, ending up going back to all my original ideas after testing multiple options.

The rest of the day passed too slowly for me. I tried to read, I tried to do more work, I tried to do anything, but all I could think about was going over to Lacey’s. This time I wore my own clothes, pulling out a fluffy pink knee-length princess dress. I’d bought it on sale under the influence of too much caffeine and I’d never worn it. Something told me that Lacey would like it. Especially with me wearing her hat with it.

Not something I would normally wear, but I looked cute as hell. I’d done my hair in two low messy buns and if I put on black glasses, I would have looked more like Sterling.

Sterling had begged me to come over to show off my outfit.

“Oh my god, you look incredible,” Sterling said, taking my hand and making me do a little twirl. I posed with one of my feet kicked up behind me. I hadn’t put the hat on yet, because I knew they were going to tease me about it.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I love it,” Kai said. “It’s so cute.”

Boosted by their compliments, I grabbed my overnight bag, shoved Lacey’s hat on my head, and drove to her place.

Chapter Sixteen

“Fuck,” Lacey said when I walked into her kitchen with a cake from Sweet’s to find her flipping some steaks.

“Good fuck or bad fuck?” I asked, doing a slow twirl that made the skirt spin out and setting the cake down on the counter.

“Good fuck,” she said, wiping her hands off and coming over to me. “Get over here.”

She swept me into her arms, lifting me off the floor and kissing me as if we’d been apart forever.

“You look amazing,” she said, spinning both of us around before she set me back on my feet again.

“You look so hot,” I said, and she did. Her white T-shirt was fitted, and she’d rolled the sleeves up to show off her arms and paired it with a pair of dark joggers that did wonders for her ass.

Lacey blushed and bit back a smile and she was so adorable in that moment that I wanted to shove her right into bed and have my way with her, but I didn’t.

“What are we having?” I asked.

“I know it’s not fancy, but how’s steak and mashed potatoes, asparagus and a salad sound?” she asked.

I put my arms around her waist and smiled up at her. “It sounds perfect. I swung by Sweet’s and got a mojito cake because it looked good.”

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