Page 24 of The Dollhouse

I stepped between them, cutting in quickly, “Yeah, yeah. I know. Don’t worry, I’m not returning any of it. Just hurry it up so I can make dinner, will you?” Thank God, the two beefy guys nodded and got back to work.

Lake scratched the back of his neck, looking just as awkward as I felt after that whole thing. This day was not turning out how I thought it would; not at all, but that shouldn’t be a surprise. And I chose to assume surprises like this would become commonplace as long as I was Roman’s… whatever I was. His.

His belonging. His body. His obsession. Seriously, I had no idea what it was about me that made that man obsess over me, but it was kind of nice, being wanted.

This, though? This was a little overboard, wasn’t it?

“You want to stay for dinner?” I asked Lake. I didn’t have a table or any place for two people to sit yet, but I bet those guys had more in their truck for me. Maybe a table would be the next thing they’d bring up.

He blinked, not bothering to hide his shock. “Really? I mean, yeah, totally—I’m more than happy to—”

“Don’t get too excited,” I told him. “I’m not a great cook, and all I bought at the store was pizza rolls and microwavable food.”

“I could order us something for delivery,” he suggested, grinning, beaming at me, so happy to be invited to stay for dinner, like I had literally just made his day. And, hey, maybe I did. Maybe Lake didn’t really have a life outside of his college classes and his work.

I waved him off. “No, let me cook for you. I insist.”

Lake could not stop grinning. The smile was infectious, and I wrestled with myself as the two strangers finished up filling my apartment with everything I could possibly need. A tall dresser, a huge mounted flat-screen TV, even a tiny sofa. The apartment was damn near unrecognizable when they left, and even though I had pizza rolls in the oven, I couldn’t help but get lost in my thoughts.

This wasn’t right. Me, taking all this stuff from Roman. It was basically just me accepting whatever agreement I’d walked into—er, begged to be in when his hands had made me feel alive. God, those hands…

And then I’d dropped to my knees like a greedy cock slut and sucked both Carter and Roman off.

What was wrong with me? I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have turned into a whimpering fool the moment Roman walked into my life, let alone let my body light with fire anytime those black, soulless eyes landed on me.

But I did, and now I had to face the consequences. The consequences that, apparently, involved presents of the expensive, intrusive variety.

Lake was overly amicable to the two guys as they left, and once they were gone, he closed the door and sighed. He shot me a half-smile, saying, “Well, that was eventful.” He took in the newly-decorated apartment, adding, “Although, to their credit, this place does look a lot better. You were sleeping on an air mattress before?”

“Uh, yeah.” I made my way to the sofa, sitting on it and expecting some hard, uncomfortable cushions. It wasn’t. It was the softest fucking sofa I’d ever sat my ass on. Of course.

It wasn’t like I wanted to admit to Lake how I’d been living since moving in here. I literally ran with next to nothing, pretty much only cash. Lugging along a mattress was one of the last things on my mind as I hightailed it out of my parents’ house and away from my lying sister and my fuckup of a boyfriend.

Ex-boyfriend now.

Lake took his time in sitting beside me, careful to leave some space between us. He leaned back on the couch, lifting an arm and hanging it on the back cushion. “Why’d you run away?” A pause before he quickly said, “Sorry if that’s too intrusive. You don’t have to answer.”

Talking about it was one of the last things I wanted to do, but sitting here with Lake, I felt… it was weird, but I felt like I wanted to open up, wanted to tell him what happened. Would he think less of me? I mean, what kind of girl was oblivious to her steady boyfriend and little sister hooking up under her nose for over half a year?

“It’s okay,” I finally spoke, breaking my silence and causing Lake to exhale a shaky, nervous breath. This guy really didn’t want to be invasive; he was almost too nice. “I, uh, I used to go to school. Hillcrest University.”

“That’s that rich school a state over, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “One day my class was canceled, but I didn’t know until I got there.” Memories flashed in my head, and though I tried to act impartial, like the cut didn’t still sting, it did. The wounds were still raw, and I hated the pain in my heart. “When I got back home, I found my sister and my boyfriend going at it.”

Lake’s expression changed, and he looked like he was going to tell me how sorry he was, so I plowed on.

“Like rabbits,” I said. “So, I flipped. Kicked his cheating ass out and reamed my sister. When my parents got home from work, they told me it wasn’t a big deal.”

That Lake couldn’t keep silent on. “They told you it wasn’t a big deal that your boyfriend and your sister were doing it behind your back?” He was incredulous, and I couldn’t blame him. Something like that would never leave the lips of normal parents; my parents, though, were anything but normal.

Everyone in Hillcrest was a little off their rocker, somehow. People with money were never normal. They all had their skeletons, the shit they’d rather work to hide than let their mistakes be widely known. My family was no different.

“Yep,” I muttered, drawing my feet up on the sofa and wrapping my arms around my legs. “And then my mom made a comment to me, basically saying they’d been doing it for months behind my back and I was clueless then, so why couldn’t I just forget about it and let it go? He came from a nice family, after all—”

“Damn,” Lake spoke with a frown. The frown hardly sat well on his face, nowhere near as cute as his dimples and smile were, but that frown meant he was on my side, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. “That’s cruel, and heartless.”

“That’s my family.”

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