His to Steal

Ch. 18: Answers (Part One)

Sutton

"That's hot," Lauren whispers, leaning forward on her elbows.

Her blue eyes are wide as she soaks in every detail of my encounter with Nicolai in the park last night. "I can see why you're willing to literally bribe me to get out of here. Which you don't have to do, by the way. I'm not going to tell."

She holds out the gift card I gave her last night, pressing it against my folded arms.

I roll my eyes and push it back toward her. "I understand that, but no. You're keeping it." I sigh and sit back in my seat. "Last night was probably the last time I'll ask you to do it anyway, so..."

"What? Why? It sounded like you two were hitting it off."

"Well, I didn't finish telling you what happened. The ending wasn't nearly as happy."

"Oh, shit. What did he do?"

I don't want to tell Lauren everything, so I just choose a condensed version of the truth.

"He said some things that made me mad about our past, lowkey insulted my dad, then said something he knew would get under my skin...so I snapped and slapped him in the face," I admit, grimacing and covering my eyes when Lauren raises her brows.

"You slapped him after..." she clears her throat, "that kiss?"

"I know, I know. But he pissed me off! And it didn't even hurt him; he actually looked like he enjoyed it," I say, remembering his lowered lids and sexy smirk that had turned up the corners of his mouth.

"Kinky," Lauren replies with an exaggerated crack of her chewing gum. When I just shoot her a half-hearted glare, she offers me a sheepish grin. "Sorry. So...what's your next move?"

I shrug and let out a sigh before dropping my head into my arms on the table.

"I don't know," I whine, my voice muffled into the curve of my elbow. "Nothing, I guess."

Lauren grips my messy bun and pulls my head up so she can see my eyes. "Nothing? You're not going to talk to him again?"

"Ow! My bun is sensitive!" I exclaim, smacking her hand away, but there's no force behind my swat. She's been too kind for me to actually be an asshole to her.

"Sorry," she says, but the expression on her face doesn't change. "I can't believe you're not going to talk to him again just for saying something shitty to you? I mean...he's a guy."

She shrugs as if this is supposed to explain everything.

I sigh. "It's just...you know how I, like, never get to go anywhere on my own?" She nods and I continue. "Well, it's been that way my whole life. It's always been my greatest fear that I'll spend the rest of my days as nothing but an employee for the Ring, and I'd never truly be free. Nicolai knows that. He said I was nothing but a puppet for my father."

Lauren crinkles her nose. "Oh. Ew. That's a dick thing to say."

"Yeah. So maybe this was the closure I needed. I mean, yeah, we kissed, and it was hot. But I think I can move on from him now. Clearly, we are at two different places in our lives, and he has some kind of weird fixation with my dad's company. And my friendship with Jason. What it is, I don't know, but honestly, I really don't care."

"Good for you, Sutton." Lauren looks around and leans in. "What is the deal with Jason, anyway? He looks at you like...I don't know. Like you're something to eat."

There was a time when I would have told her she was dead wrong, just like I have with Dominique a million times, but now, I can't deny there's something up with Jason. "I don't know. That's a whole other situation."