Page 57 of Lacey's Fight

“Unfortunately, I did not see his face, he wore a mask,” she said softly. When she dropped her gaze, it wasn’t to play her role it was because she just couldn’t bear to meet anyone’s eye. She didn’t want to see lust or interest in the guards’ eyes, and she didn’t want to see pity in Ben’s.

“We will do everything we can to find him,” Amelia assured her. “And as a gesture of our most sincere regret that this happened to you while you should have been safe on our estate, we would like to offer you a complimentary woman to take home with you.”

That was it.

Those words, thrown out so casually like it was absolutely nothing to give away a human being to smooth things over with a business acquaintance, sent her stomach into revolt, and she shoved off the bed.

Ben reached for her as she stumbled toward the bathroom, but she swatted at his hands, needing to be alone right now. It was bad enough that he’d seen her half-naked hanging from the ceiling, he didn’t need to see her throw up as well.

Slamming the door closed behind her, Lacey left Ben to handle Amelia. Not having the energy for that, she dropped to her knees in front of the toilet just in time to empty the meager contents of her stomach.

There was only so much she could handle, and she needed a break.

Wearily, Lacey pushed to her feet, flushed the toilet then turned on the tap. After scrubbing her hands, being as careful as she could not to wet her bandages, she splashed water on her face. It did little to wash away the dirtiness she felt clinging to her skin, so she cupped her hands together so she could pour some water into her mouth and rinse it out.

“They’re gone,” Ben announced, breezing into the room, not even bothering to knock.

“I see we no longer have boundaries,” she said, meeting his gaze in the mirror above the sink.

“Think we’re past that, sunflower.”

Because they’d had sex or because he’d seen her at her most vulnerable?

Lacey wished it was the former but feared it was the latter.

How did Ben see her now?

He already knew about her past, knew The Master had trained her to be a killer, abused her, likely could assume that she had also been violated even if he hadn’t known for sure. But knowing it or suspecting it and actually seeing it with your own eyes were such very different things.

Did he pity her?

Think she needed to be handled with kid gloves?

Because that wasn’t what she needed.

What she needed was to find her control again.

Her safe place.

Sex.

As absurd as it was given what she had been through, her safe place was sex. It was where she wiped away every time he’d made her come against her will by coming because she wanted to.

Because she chose to.

No one else was in charge of her or her body. That privilege belonged to her and her alone.

Would Ben want her now? Even seeing her as he had a couple of hours ago?

Only one way to find out.

Turning off the faucet, she dried her hands and then closed the distance between them. His dark eyes were a stormy mess of emotions as he looked down at her. There was the guilt and grief she expected to see there, along with what was obviously concern for her, but there was something else. Something she couldn’t quite get a read on.

Placing her hands against his rock-hard pecs, Lacey stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips against his, teasing them with the tip of her tongue.

For a moment he opened to her, but just as quickly his lips closed and he grabbed her forearms, pulling her hands from his body as he took a step back.

The space he put between them hurt so bad.

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