Page 24 of Lacey's Fight

“My husband is a bit of a grump. I apologize for his surly manner, but yes, we can find our own way,” Lacey said, smoothing things over.

“Of course. You are in room 204. Up the stairs and to your right, at the beginning of the first hallway,” Amelia informed them.

Taking Lacey’s hand only because he had to for appearance’s sake, in his other Ben grabbed their bags and took off inside.

“Thank you for having us,” Lacey called over her shoulder as she allowed him to tow her along behind him.

Once they reached their room, he threw open the door, tugged her inside, then closed and locked it behind them.

Finally.

Peace.

“That went well I think,” Lacey said as she breezed across the room toward the giant four-poster bed.

The sight of her so close to a bed when his body was throbbing with three years’ worth of pent-up sexual frustration was too much for him to handle right now.

“Do not put your hands on me again,” he hissed.

Lacey spun around, eyes wide with surprise. “What do you mean? We’re playing a husband and wife. You knew this would be part of it.”

“You don’t have to kiss me.”

“Ben, you know I do. Diana would kiss her husband. Drake would want his wife to kiss him. If you can’t handle this, you better tell me now, and I’ll get a message to Eagle telling him you need an exfil. I guess we could claim Drake got sick and had to leave. It will look suspicious, but not enough that they should call off the auction.”

That she was standing there so calmly when his body and emotions were flying so totally out of control was the final tear in his control.

Stalking toward her, he didn’t stop until he was right in her personal space. With their height difference, Lacey had to tilt her head right back to be able to meet his gaze. “You don’t ever kiss someone without their permission. I’m not one of your cheap one-night stands.”

Shame flew through her gaze before she schooled it. “I had your permission, Ben. When you agreed to play this role, you agreed to everything that went along with it. Don’t ever imply that I would sexually assault someone again.”

Her voice was all the more powerful because she didn’t raise it, didn’t scream or yell, didn’t cry, just stepped away from him and walked into their attached bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Leaving him standing there staring after her, hating himself all over again for causing her pain.

Seemed that was all he was good for.

Real wife or fake one the result was the same.

Pain.

Destruction.

Guilt.

CHAPTER SIX

August 5th

8:19 A.M.

To say things were tense might just be the understatement of the millennium.

Lacey hadn’t exchanged a single word with Ben since last night when he’d all but implied she was some sexual pervert who raped men.

Having grown up being raped regularly since she was ten years old, being compared to someone like The Master who had taken great pleasure in stealing things that didn’t belong to him was about the worst thing someone could say to her.

Knowing that Ben was aware of her past—even if he didn’t know every detail he had to know enough to know how badly that insinuation would hurt her—and yet had chosen to say something that would so effectively inflict pain, definitely made her opinion of him dim. Lacey wasn’t stupid, she could see he was battling some pretty major demons, but that didn’t mean it was okay for him to hurt her.

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