Page 58 of Lacey's Fight

He didn’t want her.

How could he?

Who would want her for anything more than a romp in bed? She had nothing else to offer and Ben had found love once before, he knew what it was like to have a real woman, a whole woman.

No wonder he couldn’t stomach the thought of her touching him.

After all, she’d already done what she promised. She’d helped him overcome his fear of sex, now she had nothing else to offer him.

Yanking her hands out of his grip, she ignored him when he called out her name and ran out into the bedroom. Hightailing it for the bed, she curled up in the middle of it and pulled the blankets up over her head, blocking out the rest of the world, especially Ben.

Childish though it might be, for now, she just needed to bury her head in the sand.

* * *

August 8th

12:33 A.M.

She wouldn’t talk to him, and it was driving him crazy.

Hell, Lacey wouldn’t even look at him.

How was Ben supposed to figure out what was going on inside that beautiful head of hers if she was busy pretending he didn’t exist?

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he’d upset her by turning her down when she’d kissed him earlier. The kiss was an invitation for more, he knew that, had seen it in her eyes. She wanted sex, but she had just, a mere hour before been sexually assaulted by a man who had already taken so much from her.

Just because he hadn’t had a chance to grill her about exactly what The Master had done to her in that room, didn’t mean he didn’t know with absolute certainty that she had been violated. It wasn’t just the fact that her jeans had been down around her knees, it was the look in her eyes that confirmed it.

What kind of man would he be if he had sex with her when she wasn’t thinking clearly?

Lacey might have been the one to instigate it, but she was traumatized and vulnerable, it would have been taking advantage, no doubt about it.

Ben might have shut down his emotions after Jemima’s death. Might have pushed his family away, his teammates too, and not allowed himself to get close to any woman in case they made him care about them, but he wasn’t a complete jerk. He knew the right thing to do and in this case he’d done it.

Only it looked like Lacey disagreed on what the right thing to do was.

After running to the bed and hiding herself under the covers, she’d stayed there for hours. She wouldn’t come out, wouldn’t talk to him, wouldn’t eat anything when he’d called down to the kitchen and asked for them to send stuff up. He hadn’t even been able to coax her out to drink some water and take some painkillers.

Getting her to let a doctor look her over had been impossible, and while he would have liked her to have a rape kit done, he knew she would have refused. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway, they knew who had done it and when the compound was raided in about twenty minutes, they’d have the man in custody.

Assuming he hadn’t already left.

Since Lacey wouldn’t leave their room, he hadn’t either. No way was he letting her out of his sight again. Which meant he had no idea if The Master had left along with several other auction guests. The place was being watched by Prey and they would be apprehending anyone who left, taking them into custody and the women they had bought to the hospital to be checked out and then taken to a safe place before they could be returned home. The Master could be one of those who had already left the manor or he could still be here, either way, it didn’t matter, the man was going to finally be caught.

Maybe that would finally pull Lacey out of her funk.

Of course, he understood that she was dealing with trauma, he certainly didn’t hold it against her, but he didn’t like her hurting.

Her pain caused him pain.

Feeling anything wasn’t what he wanted. Feelings led to unimaginable loss when the thing you loved was ripped away from you. Losing Jemima had cured him of ever wanting to care about anyone other than those already in his circle, and even then, he had to maintain some sort of emotional distance.

But Lacey had come blasting into his life like the thunderstorm in which they’d met and made him care.

Part of him resented her for it, but the other part just wanted to soothe her pain.

The bathroom door opened, and Lacey stepped through it. A couple of hours ago she had finally emerged from under the covers. Not that it meant she had interacted with him in any way. She’d taken a long, hot bath, sipped a little water, and refused to even touch any of the trays of food that covered about every available surface of the room.

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