CHAPTER TWENTY
Daisy
At first, I thought my worst fear had come true. I walked out onstage, a spotlight on me, only to realize I was in an empty room with Carmen Salazar standing beside me.
“Oh,” I said, covering my mouth. “This is because of that box I checked, huh?”
“What do you mean?” Carmen asked, looking slightly confused.
“The box? The one where I didn’t want to be with any men who were in a relationship…”
“Oh, Daisy. No. I’m sorry. I thought you would see him.” She turned and called out to some unseen person in the rafters somewhere. “Turn off the spotlight, please.”
It shut off immediately, but it took a minute for the spots in my eyes to clear. And that’s when I saw him.
A tall, gorgeous man was standing in front of a table halfway across the room from me.
His thick hair, that color caught somewhere in the middle between blond and brown, was styled perfectly.
He was wearing his contacts, showing off those beautiful hazel eyes of his.
The bespoke suit he wore accentuated how built he was, a fact that was still so different from what you’d think of a video game designer.
His hands were by his sides, and he looked more handsome than any man had a right to.
Jack Lancaster was the only man in the room.
Carmen turned to me quickly. “Jack was not the only man who wanted to bid on you, just so you know,” she said quietly.
“But Nico said you really liked him and wanted him to win the auction. And Jack?” She got a big grin on her face.
“Girl. He’s really into you. He paid so much money to make sure he would win you.
He asked us what bids he thought the other men might place, he topped them all by placing one for ten million dollars and asked for this perk of a closed bid because of it.
We gave it to him. It’s by far the largest auction bid we’ve ever had. ”
I just blinked at her, overwhelmed by the information.
“And you might not remember this, but you get twenty-five percent of that bid at the end of your contract.”
I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “I get… two million, five hundred thousand dollars?” Was she joking?
She nodded, grinning more than I think I’d ever seen her. “He wrote a check for that money like it was nothing to him. And just wait until you see some of the other things…” she clapped a hand over her mouth. “But I’ll let him tell you all of that.”
I’d never seen Carmen giddy. But she was kind of giddy. I just nodded at her, then turned and started walking down the catwalk where Jack Lancaster waited for me.
When I got close to the end, I held out a hand for him to help me down the stairs that were hidden on one side of the catwalk. He shook his head, looking up at me intently.
“No? You’re not going to help me?”
He walked up to the end of the catwalk, put his hands on either side of my waist, and lifted me down to him.
He kissed me softly, putting his hands on either side of my face, then pulled me in for a hug.
“I’ve been waiting for today for too long,” he whispered in my ear.
Then he surprised me by picking me up in his arms, bride-style, swinging me around, and walking towards one of the doors that led out of the auction room.
“Jack, remember the rules,” Carmen called out.
“What are the rules?” I asked.
He smirked at me. “Nothing I have to follow. You ready to go home?”
“I thought we… would… you know…” How did I tell him we were supposed to have sex before we left the building?
“I’m not fucking you here while all those other men are here somewhere fucking their women. I’m taking you home.”
“But Carmen said…”
He stopped walking, looked down at me, and smiled. “Baby, I don’t give a fuck what Carmen said. I’m taking you home, laying you down on your new bed, and spending the rest of the night showing you what I’ve wanted to do to you ever since I first saw you.”
“Alright then,” I laughed a little, and he carried me out into the humid, slightly cool late September air.
A limousine was waiting for us. He opened the door for me, put me inside, even buckled me in, and got in across from me.
He immediately pulled out two champagne flutes and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot rosé champagne.
He filled them and handed me one while keeping one for himself.
“Oh, rosé is my favorite,” I said, happily.
He smiled. “I’m glad.”
We proceeded to toast the occasion and talk for a bit as we traveled to Salazar Heights.
I was so relieved, so freaking relieved, to be away from Cinnamon House.
It wasn’t because of my roommates; I’d miss all of them, especially Jelly.
But my stalker wouldn’t know where I was going.
But I bet it didn’t take long for him to figure out I had moved out of Cinnamon House.
He would stop hanging out around there and my roommates would be safe now.
I gave a little sigh of relief and contentment.
This couldn’t have worked out any better.
I had a huge crush on Jack Lancaster, and he’d won the auction.
He’d paid way more than he had to in order to have a private auction.
It made me feel so special that he’d done that.
Plus, two and a half million dollars was nothing to sneeze at.
And he’d made me feel beautiful and treasured by carrying me out of the auction room and bucking the rules to give me a private experience for our first time together.
For the first time in a long time I was away from my stalker. Far, far away. And safe.
***
I was in shock by all the trouble Jack had gone to in order to make me feel comfortable in my new condo.
“How did you know to do all this?” I asked twirling around in my green ballgown and feeling like something out of a romance novel. Jack and I had polished off one bottle of champagne and he’d opened another one.
I was feeling very buzzy and spinny.
“I might have had a little help,” he admitted. “Carmen called in your friends Nia and Jelly to advise me.” He pointed to the side table. “There’s your Amex card, though. Anything you don’t like you can easily replace, and I know you’ll need a lot more clothes than what’s in your closet.”
“Will I really need that many new things…”
“Yes,” he said simply, backing me up against the nearest wall and kissing me.
“Now that I have such a beautiful girlfriend, I’m going to want to show you off,” he said between kisses.
“I get constant invitations to appear at formal events. I never wanted to go before.” He started kissing along my jawline and down my neck, tracing the lines of my throat with his nose.
“Now I want to go. I want everyone to see that you’re mine. ”
I was about to say something, but he started kissing down into my cleavage. All thoughts immediately left my mind, and a bolt of lust shot straight through me. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. “I’ve never seen you,” I gasped out between breaths.
“You want to see me, baby?” His hazel eyes locked on me.
I nodded.
He tossed off his suit jacket and tie and started unbuttoning his shirt.
I stared at the expanse of extremely toned, tanned skin that he revealed as he threw his shirt behind him.
His muscles were… insane. He was huge, so well-built, and so perfect.
I reached for him, running my hands over his shoulders, biceps, pecs, and the well-defined six pack of his abdomen.
He stopped me, though, when I reached his Adonis belt and started moving lower.
“Wait a minute,” he said smoothly, bringing my fingers to his mouth and kissing them. “I’m dying to unwrap you,” he grinned.
He unzipped my dress enough to push my top down. I was wearing an extreme push-up bra by La Perla. Carmen had insisted.
“Goddamn,” he breathed, pulling back and staring at me in it.
“Take off the rest of your clothes. But leave the underwear and the shoes,” he commanded in a husky voice.
I did as he told me to, finally standing before him in the lacy push-up bra, its matching thong, and three-inch fuck me heels as Jelly would call them.
He stared at me long enough that I started to wonder if something was wrong. “Am I… okay?” I asked, timidly.
He ran a hand over his mouth, still staring at my body. “You’re so much more than okay. I’m trying to decide what I want to do to you first.”
“Oh.” The heat that had taken over my body earlier was back.
He finally started walking towards me, and I couldn’t help but notice the huge erection in his pants.
He unzipped his suit pants, tossed them aside and walked towards me in his underwear.
“I want to fuck you so bad,” he admitted.
He pushed me back against the wall, his kisses no longer soft and gentle but rough, demanding.
His hands were on my breasts, and he moaned as I arched up into him, loving the way they felt on me.
“These are my undoing.” He ducked his head and sucked my nipples, one after the other, through the lace of my bra. “I don’t know what made me fall harder; your perfect breasts or that sweet smile of yours.”
He was so talented with his mouth, so attentive to my every sound, that I almost missed what he’d said—that he’d fallen for me. Did he mean fallen in lust? It couldn’t be more than that for him. Right?
He kept his intense focus on my breasts and nipples until they were stiff, almost painful peaks of desire. He pinched one as he dipped his hand into my thong and pushed a finger inside me.
“Oh God,” I said, at the unexpected invasion.
He smirked at me. “So fucking wet,” he said, then brought his finger to his mouth and sucked off my juices while I watched. “And delicious,” he continued with a wink. Then he picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and carried me into the main bedroom.
He threw me down in the middle of the bed and stood observing me. He was so tan, muscled, and sharp jawed, he looked like some warrior about to claim a maiden he’d taken as the spoils in some battle.