Chapter 2
two
Mia
The spotlight on the stage blinds me as I try to look out into the audience, hoping that at least one person is suitable for me.
And when I say suitable, I mean someone who isn't at least thirty years older than me.
Since the day I turned eighteen, my mother has been forcing me to do these auctions as a way to uphold our family duty.
Meaning, that if I don't do what my mother says, she'll disown me, leaving me destitute.
I tune the rest out, because honestly, I couldn't care less who makes what. The only person I care about is me. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and it feels like someone is watching me. Glancing behind me, I check to see where they are, but I see nothing out of the ordinary.
I try to ignore the feeling, tuning back into the auction.
Missy has been sold and now we're moving on to the next woman.
She must be new because I haven't seen her before, which means that she'll probably go for a high price.
In my experience, the longer you come to these things, the lower you go after a while, unless you can do something that will make you more appetizing.
Me, I've been experimenting with a bit of pain when I'm hooking up with someone from these auctions—it keeps things it a little more exciting.
The new girl goes for ten grand, good, but not great.
I look at them as they walk off the stage, when I get the feeling of being watched again.
This time I look at the audience to see if I can see if anyone is paying more attention than the others.
No one seems to jump out, until I reach the shadows in the corner of the room.
I squint, trying to get a better look. I can see dark wavy hair and piercing green eyes that are trained right on me, looking at me like he wants to devour me.
It makes a shiver run down my spine, but I can't tell if it’s because I'm turned on by the way he's looking at me, or if I'm scared out of my mind.
Speaking of creepy, I watch as the old auctioneer comes over to me, breaking me from my musings, as he announces, "Now, we have this beautiful angel here."
The creepy auctioneer places his hand out, and I place mine in his as lightly as possible, not wanting to touch him.
It takes everything in me not to pull my hand away from him.
No matter how many times I encounter this man, something about him feels off.
He introduces me, commenting on how I like pain and pleasure, making my eyes roll. But that is how the club makes money.
The bidding starts off at ten thousand dollars, which isn't too unusual, dark and sexy bids first, at fifteen thousand.
Someone else in the audience counters with twenty thousand, which makes dark and sexy upset.
He glares at the man who bid on me, making the other man gulp.
Right then, dark and sexy stands up and announces a bid of one hundred thousand dollars, making my jaw drop.
"Holy shit," I mutter as the auctioneer yells, “Sold” quickly.
The people running the auction hurry everyone off the stage and I come face to face with Guy, one of the security guards. We all break into different rooms, preparing to fulfill our side of the deal. My stomach turns with uncertainty. Why would this guy spend so much money on me?
Guy opens the door to the room that is assigned to me, I walk over the threshold, and my nerves run rampant.
He closes the door, leaving me behind. The anticipation of what could happen when that door closes is always the worst part, though.
I mean the man is hot, sexy and everything any woman could want, especially in this situation.
But from my experience, sometimes the worst things come in pretty packages.
I begin to pace back and forth, waiting for the man who bought me to come, my back facing the door to keep my emotions under control.
There is no way I want anyone to see how anxious I'm feeling right now. At least if I have my back to the door, it’ll give me a moment to get myself together.
My nerves are so frayed that I’m gnawing my nails.
Unfortunately, a bad habit that I've had since I was young, plus my mother hates it.
And anything my mother hates, I try to do, just to annoy her.
To push what boundaries I can in my life.
The door behind me opens, and I hold my breath, listening to the footsteps walking up behind me.
The need to turn and see runs high, but I refuse to turn around, not yet.
In my life, I have so little control that I like to use these small moments to rebel and whoever came in, seems to be playing the same game.
Neither of us speak, but the tension in the room rises with every second that passes.
I spin around to see the man who is standing behind me, and the moment I lay eyes on him, my body freezes exactly where I'm at. I'm not even sure I'm breathing.
He is the quintessential picture of tall, dark, and handsome with a dash of danger. We stand in silence, assessing each other. The mystery man before me is dressed in a dark blue button-down, tucked into a pair of black slacks, very much molded to every single muscle on his body.
I suddenly feel as if I'm on fire.
I straighten my spine, trying to gather some confidence, remembering that my mother might control my life, but she didn’t raise me to be weak. Finally, I’m able to squeak out, "Hi."
The moment the words leave my lips, my gaze drops to my feet, feeling slightly embarrassed. He says nothing, but I can feel his gaze on me, accessing me, as if… if he searched hard enough, he would find all my secrets.
The silence between us unnerves me. I keep tight-lipped, but I’m unable to keep my hands still, as I try to force myself not to start chewing on my fingers. There is no way I’m going to embarrass myself once more.
A beat later, the man finally puts me out of my misery. "Hello, Mo bhanphrionsa," he says, putting two of his fingers under my chin, and tilting my head to bring my eyes to his.
I want to ask him what that means, it’s on the tip of my tongue, but I bite my tongue not allowing it to escape.
This is for just one night, it doesn’t matter what it means.
Besides, I can’t seem to look away from his eyes, they are such an intense blue, and I can’t help but feel hypnotized by them.
Despite my best efforts to keep myself from feeling anything for this man, the moment he touches me, I feel something deep within me stir.
"It's time to go," he says, dropping his hand. I instantly feel the loss of his touch, but I try not to think too much about it.
"Where are we going?" I ask, wanting to know where this night might lead to. I mean, I know he bought me for sex, but not every winner wants that. In the past, some just wanted company.
I can feel my body weep, though, at the idea of not having sex with this delicious man.
He looks over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes, as if he's not sure why I opened my mouth and asked him a question. At this very moment, it's you and me both, buddy. "To fulfill your obligation," he replies, before turning around, and continuing to walk out the door, leaving it wide open.
Did he just say what I think he did?
I look around the room wondering if someone might confirm my thoughts, but no one else is in here. For a moment I contemplate what I am supposed to do, usually the winners of the auctions have explicit instructions, especially when it comes to exiting the building.
No matter what their intentions are, they want to let everyone know that they could purchase any woman they wanted. They want to show off their power.
But this man didn’t tell me anything. He just left. Like he doesn’t feel the need to show off his strength. I mean anyone who encounters him would feel it, I know I did the moment I saw him—danger just oozes off of him.
After a few seconds, I decide to follow him, and this time, I’m going to hold my head high, letting everyone see that I’m not just some meek woman. I make my way through the hall, quickly as possible, to catch up with the mysterious man.
I'm moving so fast through the hallway, I crash into a hard muscular wall. My hands go out to steady myself, and I grip hot and sexy’s shirt.
His hands go out, catching me. "Be careful there, angel."
Once I'm finally settled and not in fear of falling, I mutter, "I'm ready.”
"Good. Let's go," he says, releasing me and we continue to move through the rest of the building.
It takes only a few more minutes before we're standing outside at the back of the club, in front of a sleek, black Audi.
Man, does he love black.
"Get in," he says, moving around me.
He opens up the driver’s door to get into the car, but before he can get in, I yell, "Wait."
The handsome man looks over at me looking like he might want to shake me, but instead, he arches his brow. Chewing on my lip, I somehow gain a little bit of strength from somewhere within and take a chance asking, "Can you tell me your name?”
"Kieran," he grumbles before sitting down in the car and closing his door. I stay put, watching him while he waits to see what my next move will be.
After a few seconds, Kieran rolls his window down, giving me an intense look. "If you don't get in this car right now, the first thing you will get is my hand on your ass."
His words make my legs move quicker than ever before, and as I make my way around the car, I’m not sure if it’s out of excitement or fear from his threat. Opening up the passenger door, I slide right on in. The moment my butt hits the seat, Kieran takes off.
The silence in the car is heavy as I watch him weave through traffic. Needing something to distract myself, I open the small purse I brought with me, grabbing my favorite gum. Popping it in my mouth.
This man has barely said anything to me the whole time. He's either going to demand a ton from me or nothing. A small part of me hopes it's the former. I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly, hoping to keep myself calm.
My main focus is to get through this, so I can get my money and move on.
My mother makes me do this, but what she doesn't know is I take a small portion, and hide it. So one day, I can free myself from this life. It might seem glamourous with fancy dresses, fast cars, and sexy men, but it's nothing but strings, leaving an empty feeling within, because none of it is real. It’s all transactional. To receive any kind of gift, affection, you have to lose part of yourself. It’s all sad and empty.
Sometimes I wonder if defying my mother and losing all of her money would be a better life.
The fear of not having anything keeps me here.
At least I have my sister… most of the time.
Kieran pulls up to a very tall building, I look up at it through the windshield. The building looks as threatening as the man before me. When he parks, he gives me a small smirk. "Ready?"
I swallow down any fear I have running through my head, before nodding. We get out of the car and Kieran waits for me next to the elevator, a private one.
Chewing on the cinnamon gum in my mouth, hoping to disguise my nerves when the doors to the elevator opens, and I mindlessly walk onto it.
I feel when Kieran steps on, standing so close to me.
He hits the penthouse button and the bile in my stomach comes up, but I'm able to swallow it down.
I can hear the elevator, in the background, making its way up.
Suddenly, Kieran’s large hand wraps around the back of my neck, as if he owns me and guides my lips to his. My whole body goes lax, and every bit of anxiety leaves me the moment his touch mine, allowing him to sneak his tongue in. Just as quickly as he invades my mouth, he’s pulling back.
Trying to wrap my head around what the hell just happened, I look up at him. He gives me a smirk, chewing on something. I search my mouth for the piece of gum I had earlier and come up empty—he’s chewing on my gum.
Then to add insult to injury, the man who stole my gum, has the guts to murmur, “Mmm… cinnamon, my favorite.”
I go to open my mouth but am interrupted when the elevator dings, alerting us that we are at his penthouse.
He doesn’t give me much time to think when his hand goes to the small of my back, guiding me inside.
The doors open to a beautiful living room that has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city.
When I look around the room, though, the furniture is very minimal, like someone doesn’t even live here. All very depressing.
Focusing more on the view in front of me, I absentmindedly move inside the penthouse toward the window. "Wow, this is beautiful," I mutter under my breath.
"Yes, it is," a deep masculine voice replies behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I expect to see him looking out the window, but instead, he's eyeing me like he might devour me.
What surprises me the most is for the first time ever, I find myself wanting him to do just that.