Mastered by Lust (The Auction #2)

Chapter 1

1

Leah

I gasp. I can’t speak. I can only stare at the television screen.

“What?” Danica snatches the remote from the coffee table and pauses the video. “What is it?”

I raise my arm and point at the screen, at Gage’s teenage face. It’s him—it’s definitely him.

But wow. That smile looks open and carefree. It’s very much at odds with the guy I slept with. The Gage I know is guarded, and his smiles are oh-so-rare.

“What, you’ve never seen Gage Hawthorne before?” Danica laughs. “I get it, he’s a heartthrob. But girl. He’s like fourteen in this show. Calm the fuck down.”

“No, I—I know him,” I blurt.

“You know him?” Danica laughs in disbelief.

I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m not supposed to talk about Low Vice or the people who go there. “I can’t talk about it.”

Dmitri clears his throat, a warning look on his face.

By saying as much as I have, I’ve said too much.

“Leah, you know him?” Danica repeats.

I can only shake my head.

“Oh shit .” Danica stands and faces me, excitement and intrigue gleaming in her eyes. “There’s only one reason you wouldn’t say anything. It’s Low Vice. Is it the auction guy? You fucked Gage Hawthorne? Teenage me is so jealous right now, it’s not even funny.”

“I didn’t say that—I didn’t.” I stumble over the denial. I don’t want to lie to her. Bad enough I’m lying by omission about Dmitri and me hooking up.

Dmitri is quiet, gripping his brownie like it’ll save him somehow.

Danica turns to face him. “And you knew! How late did you stay that night? You knew who paid for a night with our girl? Shit, Dmitri, I can’t believe you. This is major.”

“We’re not allowed to talk about it,” I say. “And I didn’t realize he was…him.”

I nod at Gage’s face, still frozen in that young, happy smile.

“Okay, so wow, that’s crazy.” Danica shakes her head in disbelief. “Wow.”

I can tell she wants to ask questions. She wants to know everything about that night, now. I was never the kind of person to give a play-by-play of my sexual encounters. At most, I would say whether sex happened on a date and whether it was good or bad.

“Let’s just watch the show.” I take the remote from Danica and hit play .

She’s still in shock, but I don’t have the mental fortitude to deal with her reaction when mine is swirling all through me.

All this time, he never told me he’s famous? Not famous to me, sure, but famous to the rest of the world.

And Dmitri knew.

They both lied to me.

The episode plays out in front of us, teenage dramas developing between the newer characters. Gage plays a young incubus—a sex demon. Of course he does. He’s in a perpetual state of horniness throughout the entire episode, constantly hitting on the female characters. If the show were filmed now, he’d probably be hitting on the male characters as well, but the early aughts weren’t known for their sexual diversity.

In one scene, he corners a blond vampire in the school library. The two of them kiss before the vampire loses control of her bloodlust and bites his lip. His demon blood sends her into a seizure, and that’s the end of the episode.

“I can’t believe you got to bang that guy,” Danica says as the final image—Gage as an incubus weeping over his vampire lover—fades.

“Sis, he’s a kid in this season,” Dmitri says. “Don’t be gross.”

“I’m not talking about him here as a teenager. Ew.” Danica shakes her head. “I’m talking about the hottie he grows into. He was in the news a lot when he was in his, what, early twenties? Wasn’t there some sex tape or something?”

I stand up. I have to get out of here. “If there is a sex tape, I’m never looking for it.”

“Neither will I,” Danica says. “There’s a lot of shit I’ll watch on the internet, but peoples’ private bedroom activities is not among it. Hey, where are you going?”

“Home. I have some tutoring lesson plans to set up, and an early day tomorrow.”

She squints at me. “You don’t have students on Monday mornings.”

“I have to go apartment hunting.” Because no way can I stay with Gage after this giant revelation. What was I thinking? He’s told me nothing about himself.

Danica accepts my excuses. I wave goodbye to Dmitri. I don’t know if Danica thinks I’m still staying with him or not. Luckily, it hasn’t come up. By the time it does, I hope to have somewhere else to stay.

My bruised face aches like nothing else. Or maybe that’s just a headache because I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know. I don’t know anything.

I drive back to Gage’s building, stewing in my bitter thoughts.

One thing is for sure: I never knew Gage Jannik.

The elevator takes me up to his penthouse. I punch in the numbers on his keypad to let myself in.

“Leah.” He rises from one of the black couches in the large, open living room and walks toward me. “How was movie night?”

“Illuminating.”

“Really?” He cocks an intrigued eyebrow. “Tell me about it.”

“Maybe later.” Maybe never .

I brush past him. I go straight to the guest room and start packing. There isn’t much out of my bag, yet. A couple of clothing items, my toiletries case.

Gage follows me in. “What are you doing, Leah?”

“What does it look like?” I can’t fit everything into the bag. Did my things expand since yesterday?

“It looks like you’re packing.”

“Yep. If I can get this fucking hoodie into this fucking bag.”

“Hey.” He lowers his voice to that stern tone I like so much. “How about you talk to me about whatever’s bothering you, instead of running away with an attitude?”

I throw my hoodie onto the bed next to my bag. “Is it worse to run away, or to hide a big-ass secret?”

Gage goes very still. Then, as if he needs something to do, he picks up my hoodie and folds it. “Talk to me, Leah. What big secret do you think I’m hiding from you?”

He sounds so reasonable, so calm. When I’m here cringing and thinking it’s time to run.

It hits me, then. I’m all primed to get yelled at, because whenever I voiced to Mick I was unhappy, he blamed it on me. Usually with shouting and name-calling thrown in for good measure. I would accept his groveling apologies afterward, but our arguments were toxic.

So of course now my defenses are up, my adrenaline’s pumping, and I’m shaking because I think we’re going to argue and Gage is going to yell.

But Gage isn’t Mick.

“Leah?” He doesn’t touch me, but the sound of my name in his mouth has the same effect as a calming hand on my shoulder.

I meet his gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me who you really are?”

“This is who I really am.” He points to his chest. “We don’t know each other well yet, but you know me.”

“But I saw—I saw you. We watched Academy of Ghosts .”

Gage nods slowly. “You never saw the series before, I take it. I was surprised you didn’t recognize me when we first met.”

“Do I need to, like, read up on you online?”

“I won’t stop you.” His eyes flash behind his glasses. “But you aren’t going to like what you see if you search my name.”

“Is there anything I need to know? What’s going to surprise me next?”

“We’re just getting to know each other, Leah. Do you want to share all your skeletons with me, right here and right now?”

I suppose I don’t.

What kind of knowledge does he owe me, anyway? We just met, we just talked about having a relationship. We haven’t even been fully intimate. Have we had sex, technically? Does it count if he never comes? I guess it does, but I almost think it should be called “half-sex,” or something else. Maybe there’s a really long German compound word for it, translating to “he gets her off but doesn’t have an orgasm of his own.”

He gestures at my half-packed bag. “Are you still leaving? Because I don’t want you to.”

Leaving means giving up. Being apart. Relationships are fleeting, love isn’t forever. But it should last longer than this, right? I want to know him. I want to love him, someday.

And I’m already falling for him.

He doesn’t want me to go. He said as much. That means there’s some hope for us. We can see this relationship through, from beginning to end.

“I don’t want to leave, either,” I whisper.

Taking a step closer to me, into my personal space, he leans down and kisses the tip of my ear. “Say it louder, little girl.”

I find a stronger voice. “I don’t want to leave.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He smiles. His hands are warm on my shoulders. “And when you have issues with me in the future—because I’m sure you will—are you going to run from me?”

That rolling, rumbling voice. Low and powerful. It tugs deliciously at my body. I’m surprised he was an actor instead of a musician, because if he sang love songs, entire countries would fall to their knees.

“No, Gage. I won’t run. I’ll talk to you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” He’s shown me that he’s safe. I can remember that.

“Good.” His breath ghosts against my ear for a brief moment, then he’s kissing me hard, his lips pressing to mine, his tongue licking forward, coaxing me to open for him.

He pauses the kiss. “I want you to stay, little girl.”

“I want to stay.”

His lips meet mine once more.

I bring up my hands to touch his face, his bristly short beard, then travel down to his shoulders. I cling to him like I’m in danger of floating away, lost at sea.

But I don’t feel lost. Right now, I feel like I’ve found my home.

He pulls back from the kiss, licks his bottom lip as if he’s still tasting me. We’re both panting.

His brown eyes are deep and dark. Mesmerizing. “Do you want this? Do you want more?”

So fucking much. “Yes.”

Cupping my chin carefully in his hand to avoid my bruises, he says, “Take off your shirt and follow me to my bedroom, baby girl. You were naughty. I’m going to punish those beautiful nipples of yours until you come.”

* * *

Dmitri

Danica sends me home with a plate of brownies. She says if they stay at her place, either she’ll eat them all—or “that traitorous bastard of a roommate Elias will eat them and he doesn’t deserve my brownies.”

So I take the fucking brownies.

But my gut is churning. No way can I handle eating.

Leah’s upset. At Gage, at me, at everything. She smiled and pretended everything was okay with Danica, but I didn’t buy it.

I don’t think Danica bought it, either, but she chalked it up to the big reveal that Gage Fucking Jannik is also Gage Fucking Hawthorne.

I want to fix things with Leah, but I don’t know how. Or maybe I can’t.

Maybe I don’t deserve to.

Once I’m in the house and the brownies are sitting on the counter, I sit on my couch. Leah’s spot again.

I won’t jerk off this time, though. Things are too shitty to even think about it. She’s probably at his place right now. He lives in some fancy penthouse. Nobody’s ever been there. Betty teases him about it sometimes. Calls it his “introvert castle” and his “masturbatory mansion” because he doesn’t allow company.

But he allows Leah.

Someone bangs on my door. I jump, startled. It’s after ten—who would be coming here so late?

Cautiously, I make my way to the door. Standing to the side, I say loudly, “Who is it?”

“It’s Patrick, buddy. Open the fuck up. We need to talk.”

I open the door to see my cousin standing on the stoop. His light brown hair is hidden beneath a dirty ball cap, his t-shirt torn at the shoulder seam. And his left eye is swollen so badly, he can’t even open it.

“Patrick.” I gesture him inside. “What the fuck happened?”

He doesn’t move. He just looks at me, his right eye sharp. “It’s fucking time to make good on those promises, cuz. Our plans just got set into motion.”