My face burns with humiliation.
The auctioneer starts announcing the next item for sale, and hatred and anger burn inside me. I’m so embarrassed, I’m so confused.
I kick against his arm, looped beneath my legs.
Kristopher’s agitation peaks, and he shifts my position, lifting me and slinging me over his shoulder so that he can hold my legs down and stop me from my feeble, weak attempts to kick free.
My body is still not fully in my control. My legs and arms feel sluggish. My head is still spinning.
These stupid drugs, whatever they gave me, are wearing off, but not enough to ease the nausea in my stomach and the horrible fuzzy feeling in my mouth.
My breath shudders as he carries me out into the warm night air.
No one else is outside.
“Stop, Georgie. Can’t you see I’m trying tohelpyou?” he commands roughly.
“You just…you just bought me. Like athing,”I stammer.
He sighs, tugging his car door open and dropping me into the passenger seat with a soft thud.
I want to keep fighting. My instincts tell me to push the door open again and run. But where to? I don’t even know where I am, and from the looks of it, there is nowhere to hide out there in the open land.
Kristopher climbs into the driver’s seat. He reaches over me and fastens my seatbelt, making sure it’s secure across my chest. I slap his hand away, and a low growl rumbles through me. His eyes pierce into mine, silver gray in the dark light.
He says nothing.
The drive back to the city is long, and my eyes drift closed, then open, then closed. The dark night speeds past my window, and I watch, waiting to see something familiar.
Slowly, the drugs fade from my system.
We eventually pull into the driveway of his mansion. It always astounds me how massive this place is, but in the darkness, it’s something I know. It’s something I understand, so unlike the places I’ve been for the past two days.
Kristopher tugs my door open and offers me his hand. I slap it away, climbing out of the car on my own shaking legs. I stand for a moment, waiting for them to obey me, waiting for my body to be ready to walk.
“Let me help you,” he says gently. His voice brushes over me like warm honey.
“I…I don’t feel that great.”
“They probably pumped you full of sleeping medication. I promise you, after a good night’s rest, you’ll feel a lot better.” He carefully slips his hand around my waist, and this time I don’t fight him. He looks like the Kristopher I know again.
My heart pulses heavily as he half-carries me up the steps, towards the front door and into his home.
“Sir, everything is ready.”
I jump when the other man’s voice booms through the entranceway.
“Good, let’s get it done now,” Kristopher says, guiding me into the dining room, where there is paperwork waiting on the massive wooden table. The other man stands with a pen in his hand, tapping it with his fingers.
“You’ll both need to sign here and here and then…”
“What’s going on?” I ask, my voice sounding stronger than before. My head almost fully back to normal, apart from the exhaustion.
“You and I are getting married, Georgie. I need you to sign this document.”
He says it so casually, so calmly, so matter-of-factly that for a moment I just giggle.What a strange joke. What an odd thing to say.
But when his gorgeous eyes lock with mine, I see no smile on his face. Nothing but that serious, deep furrowed frown etched across his forehead.
