Page 101 of Purchase Power
Chapter 30
Life in Gabriel Manor hadn’timproved,Lucy would say, but it had certainly changed. Gone was the resentment filling her veins. So was the quarantine, which now allowed her and Lacey to roam the house and grounds as they pleased, as long as they stayed at least six feet away from the staff who did not live there. Lacey took a liking to Bernard, who went out of his way to teach her his recipes. Candace warmed up to Lucy for the first time since they met, not that it meant they became the best of friends.Knowing that she’s one of the reasons Stacey is so well taken care of makes her a hero in my book.If Noah and Stacey trusted her, then she must be the epitome of good people.
Stacey took an instant liking to Lucy and Lacey. When she wasn’t tracking them down to ask them to play, they were going for walks in the woods and chatting with both sides of the family over video. Stacey was greatly amused that the sisters’ mother didn’t have blond hair. It took Stacey a while to realize how Lucy came upon her hairstyle, and when she heard it was because it grewoutthat way, she demanded that someone give her the same look with black hair dye. That resulted in Stacey having mostly black hair instead of half and half. She was happy, however, and trotted off to show Bernard when the sisters declared it finished.
Lacey was quick to pick up on the nature of Lucy and Noah’s relationship, although not how her sister came to find herself on the other end of Mr. Gabriel’s body in the first place.Every time I think about telling her, I throw up a little in my mouth.Instead, Lacey got a watered down story about them quickly falling into lust the moment she arrived at Gabriel Manor, and briefly explained how the falling out occurred upon the arrival of Tonya.
“Sis…” Lacey said one night, as they sat on the edge of the bed they shared in the guest suite. “You know you kiiiiinda screwed up, right? For one thing, you didn’t give him the chance to explain himself. You kinda went all rogue on him because he hurt your feelings. Then you wrote a nonfactual article about him? I’m surprised he’s not angrier at you than he already is.”
Lucy grimaced. She had been applying moisturizer after her shower, and now felt quite silly about how her sister interpreted the events. “I swear it’s more complicated than that.” She rubbed more lotion into her shin. “You’re not wrong, though. I definitely jumped the gun a bit. That was before I knew about his sister even existing, okay? I thought he was hiding her for some more nefarious reason. Like Mr. Rochester hiding his wife in the attic.”
Lacey slumped against the bed. “Dooon’t ruin a good thing, sis. This house is crazy nice. I feel like a lady simply staying in thisroom. That Mr. Gabriel is filthy richandfine as hell to boot. I don’t blame you for tapping it as soon as it was offered.”
Lucy blushed. “If you wanna get technical, I offered first… he kinda helped himself after…” She couldn’t finish. Every time she thought about her first time with Noah around her own sister, she felt like she should be thrown in jail. Sister Jail. “Anyway, it’s more complicated than him being rich and good looking.”
“And good in bed. Please tell me rocks your casbah, sis.”
Lucy sighed until her breaths turned into small fits of giggles. “Yeah. No complaints about that, although he is allergic to intimacy.”
“Aren’t all rich and handsome men?”
“I swear to God, Lacey, if you keep interrupting me…”
“Sorry, sorry. All I’m saying is that you can’t let a good thing get away. I mean, you know him better than I do, so if there’s some creepy shit underneath everything else, by all means… but the man put us up forquarantine.He’s feeding us, letting us hang out with his sister, and for fuck’s sake, we don’t have to clean anything!”
“We should, though, because Candace deserves better than cleaning up our bathroom messes single-handedly like she has to right now.”
“Sure. Point is, Luce, I hope you have a damn good reason for turning down this guy’s apologies if that’s what you’re looking to do.”
“I don’t know yet.” Lucy truly didn’t know what to do about Noah. She still had feelings for him – and the chemistry between them remained so sizzling that Lucy had to go out of her way to not touch him. Not that they had much time alone in the past few days. Since having dinner with Stacey, it had turned into a nightly occurrence. Only now they all gathered around the downstairs dining room, where Noah told boring stories about what he did for a living and Stacey read her favorite tales from the chapter book of the moment. Occasionally, Lacey shyly talked about her schooling, and Candace opened up about the family she had back in New York. Lucy was the only one who mostly kept to herself during these dinners. She never knew what to say. It was bad enough that she and Noah kept making eyes at each other before glancing away and clearing their throats.
“Well,” Lacey said, interrupting Lucy’s thoughts. “I’ll support you either way, Luce. Just let the guy down easy, would you? I don’t want him kicking us out.”
“Yeah. Me too.” Lucy said. “I’m not in a hurry to go back, either. Makes me glad I got that job I can work remotely.” She was about to hand in her first article about the virus andJane Eyre,but she first wanted Noah to read it and get his opinion on it. After all, he had recently read the book, and it would be fresh in his mind. “I need to talk to him, though. About us. I don’t know what to say.”
Lacey rolled off the bed, pulling her T-shirt over her head and dropping it on the floor. While she unhooked her bra and shook her hair away from her face, she picked up a pajama shirt using nothing but her toes. Lucy was always amazed that her sister looked so much like a monkey at times.Meanwhile, I’m as coordinated as a horse on ice skates.She’d rather leave taking off her bra to Noah, who was more inclined to rip it off her body if given the chance.
There went her imagination again. Or were those memories? She struggled to remember.
“Tell him the truth, Luce.” Lacey tugged the bottom of her shirt around her midsection. “He’s a big boy. He can handle your precious lady feelings. Oh, and ask him if he has a hot cousin in need of a girlfriend.”
“I already know that he doesn’t. Trust me, I’ve already looked into that for you.”
“Thanks! For the bad news, too. Looks like I have to find my own hot sugar daddy.”
Lucy grimaced. “Don’t call Noah that. Please.”
“Fine. But when you get the chance, tell him the truth. Say you’ve still got it bad for him, but you have some stipulations. Maybe you wanna take things slow while banging each other’s brains out. I dunno! Something like that?”
“Here I was, trying to keep the details out of the conversation to not gross you out…”
“You have to stop thinking I’m in high school still. Hell, you know I’m not a virgin, right?”
Lucy tried not to think about that.Besides, thinking about virginity makes me think of Kelsey. I wonder how she’s doing.Maybe she should ask Noah, as if he had any stake in that relationship.
“I’ll tell him the truth,” Lucy said. “I promise.”
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