Page 14 of Lacey's Fight

It shouldn’t, she hadn’t been interested in anything with him other than a fun, hot night, and perhaps friendship, but his rebuff had hurt more than it should. There was nothing between them, and she didn’t want there to be, and yet somehow, she couldn’t seem to get him out of her head.

“Uh, Trent,” she said, tugging her hand free.

“Change your mind, gorgeous?”

This never happened to her.

When she went looking for a good time she never backed out. Why would she? It was what she wanted.

But tonight …

Tonight, she didn’t think she could go through with it.

“I’m sorry. I’m not a tease I swear. I wanted this. It’s why I came here tonight, but I …”

“The reason for the bad day a guy?”

“Yes, but not in the way you think. I don’t cheat. I’m single, and I don’t even know this guy. But …”

“You don’t have to explain, beautiful. A real man knows that a woman can change her mind. It’s no big deal.”

“Raincheck maybe? Next time we’re both here if neither one of us is seeing someone I’d love to spend the night with you.”

“Deal.” Trent grinned and dropped a kiss to her cheek before releasing her hand and disappearing into the crowd.

Tears stung her eyes as she watched him go.

Damn, Ben for doing this to her.

If he didn’t want her, fine, but he didn’t have to make her feel bad about herself. Now, all she felt was shame for using sex as a way to cope with the horrors of her past.

Dirty, stained, ruined inside.

Lacey knew tomorrow she’d have to pull herself back together, but tonight, she was going to give herself permission to remember that no matter how hard she tried or how much color she added to her world, the black was still there and always would be.

* * *

August 3rd

10:16 A.M.

This certainly wasn’t the first night Ben had gone without sleep. Guilt, grief, anger, loss, and nightmares were all the major contenders for his lack of meaningful rest, but none of them were the reason for last night’s restlessness.

The honor for that rested on the head of a stunning brunette.

All night he’d felt … wrong … about the way they’d ended things last night.

He had no reason to. He didn’t have to take her up on her offer of dinner and sex. But he’d been rude, purposefully hurtful and he did regret that.

Just because he had to shut down his emotions to survive, didn’t mean he went out of his way to be mean to people. Usually, he just kept contact to an absolute minimum. But last night he had punished Lacey because his body had responded to hers.

Not her fault, and yet he’d made her pay for it.

That felt wrong and completely unfair, but he could do nothing about it now.

No way was he going to track her down to apologize. It would have been the right thing to do, but he didn’t want to see her again.

Next time he might do something stupid.

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