Page 20 of Purchase Power
Two vivid hazel eyes glanced in his direction. Stringy, unwashed strawberry blond hair curled over bony shoulders. Large toes curled around the mahogany chair that Noah sat in when he wanted to devote more than ten minutes to his self-opposing chess games. A wrinkled, oversized T-shirt branded by Under Armour hung loosely on a forgotten frame. Every time the woman before Noah chewed on her nails or rocked back and forth in her chair, he was reminded why Lucy could not leave her suite.
She might encounter Stacey, and that was not allowed.
“Your Bishop is exposed.” Stacey rocked harder, eyes darting across the chessboard. Noah minded his energy as he approached her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Eventually, Stacey slowed her rocking and smacked her lips in concentration instead. “You’re gonna take the Bishop with your Rook on the next move, but then you’re forced to advance your Pawn. But if you advance your Pawn, the Queen has to move to protect your King. Then you lose your Queen. Ten more moves, you’re gonna lose the King.”
“Every game has to end at some point. Even those against myself.”
“Why let it happen, though? Take the Bishop over to C5. Block the Rook and defend the Queen.”
Noah sighed. “Thank you for the tip. Are you here to tuck me in, Stacey?”
She looked up at him, arm looping around her bent knee and chapped lips parting. “There’s someone new in the house.”
Noah tightened his hold on Stacey’s shoulder. “Yes. We have a guest. For a month.”
“Your guest?”
“Yes. My guest. Her name is Lucy, but she can’t come out of her room.”
“Oh, Lucy’s been a bad girl.” Stacey turned back to the chess board. The rocking momentarily increased. “Bad, bad, girl. Stays in her room. Bad girls stay in their rooms.”
Damnit.Noah had said the wrong thing again. Stacey needed things explained to her in simple words. Short phrases. Easy concepts. Yet Noah occasionally said the right combination of words that triggered her worries. “Not all bad girls,” he said. “Lucy hasn’t been a bad girl. She just has to stay in her room while she’s here.”
Lucy. A bad girl.Beingbad girl. Noah hated how disgusted he was by that thought. He also hated how his cock twitched when he thought about it. Didn’t matter who brought it up.
“New person in the house.” Stacey grabbed the arms of the chair, forbidding herself from moving Noah’s chess pieces on his behalf. “Someone new has come. Noah’s got a friend. She’s gonna stay in her room. Candace is gonna be really mad if I try to visit Lucy. I think so. Yup.”
Noah pulled out the other chair and sat down, careful to not move to too suddenly. Stacey was easily startled, like a cat that had come home from the vet’s office after a long, grueling day of thermometers and needles.We once had a cat. When it died, we never bothered to get another one.In a house as big as Gabriel Manor, it took a while to find a cat, anyway. Noah often forgot it was there until he inexplicably tripped over it in a hallway.
“Lucy is a special guest. She has something really important to work on, so it’s also important that she not be disturbed.” Noah had used this exact lie multiple times. Which was a laugh now, considering the real reason for Lucy’s appearance. He tried to not let his mild embarrassment show on his face, though. Stacey was far more perceptive than he often took her for, and Noah wasn’t in the mood to pay for his follies.
“What’s she doing?” Stacey asked.
Noah considered the chess board, as if he could easily see the problem Stacey had constructed. “She’s helping me with something.”She’s helping me with my sex life. God. This is pathetic.How did Stacey always know the best way to make Noah feel like an idiot? She didn’t have to try. All Stacey had to do was speak her truth, and there Noah was, in the spotlight and ready to bash his head into the wall.
“Is she pretty?”
Noah tapped his finger on top of one of his pieces. “Pretty? Why do you care about that?”
“Because pretty people have the best lives.”
The wincing wasn’t because of what Stacey said, but what she referenced when she said it. “I haven’t really paid attention to Lucy’s appearance.” Bullshit. Of course. The whole reason she was there in Gabriel Manor was because Noah was aroused by her. Aroused enough to blow tens of millions of his own money on the woman now sitting around his house, doing nothing except picking at her dinner and watching old sitcoms on TV. Noah was determined to not touch Lucy that night. Although, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to go back to Lucy’s room and lose himself in her body. It wasn’t only a matter of getting his money’s worth. He wanted an escape from the memories Stacey now presented him.
“She’s gotta be pretty…”
Noah shook his head. “Is there something else you need, Stace? I was about to head to bed. I think it’s your bedtime as well.”
“I wanted to ask about the person in my house.” Stacey hopped off the chair, accidentally knocking over a Pawn as she turned around. “I think that’s fair. I always want to know who is coming here and what they are doing in my house.”
Noah stared at the Pawn resting atop the carpet. “That’s fair.”
“Night.” Stacey stopped at the door. “You will still have time to go horse riding with me this week, yeah?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I? Don’t we always, if I’m not out of town?”
The door opened. “You’ve got a guest. Maybe you want to spend more time with her than me.”
“You will always come first, Stace.”
