I slowly turned my head, also furious the auctioneer had suddenly started referring to a sweet, vulnerable woman as a number. As a slave. He was lucky my patience was wearing thin.
Perhaps in playing a game of being nonchalant I was risking exposing my real identity, but the last thing I wanted was for them to believe I actually gave a damn about who they were.
So I waited until Shadow was gloating before ending the bidding war.
“Two. Million. Dollars. And the slave is mine.”
CHAPTER 7
Reese
Two million dollars. What?
I carefully glanced at the handsome masked man placing the bid, a strange shimmer of sensations coursing through me.
He tipped his head, catching my gaze. Almost instantly, a rush of heat slipped deep into my core. I could swear he was looking right through me, capturing a taste of my soul. Whoa.
With his chiseled jaw clenched as was one of his hands, I sensed he was furious at the way the bidding process had gone. There was a swell of darkness in his aura that had captured and held my attention.
Whoever he was, he wasn’t like the others.
“Sold!”
The single word created an intense fog swirling around me, an ache deep in my joints that threatened to drive me to my knees. And a pool of bile in my throat that instantly became suffocating.
There was no recourse, no chance of escape. I’d been purchased by a stranger. I was now a slave to some vicious monster determined to make me serve him, surrendering to his sadistic needs.
I’d failed in my duty to free my sister, underestimating a sick, twisted game that I’d had no chance of winning.
All the fight I’d had in me, the push and drive that had brought me to this godforsaken city in the first place was gone. My mind was in a vacuum and I could no longer feel my legs, only vaguely aware I was being discussed like cattle.
When I finally found enough strength to lift my head once again, the man staring back at me was the only one I’d found some strange sense of comfort from. It was difficult to rationalize or even explain to myself, but the tall, muscular stranger behind the black mask was definitely different from the others.
He was captivating in every sense of the word. I’d felt his eyes on me from the moment he’d noticed me walking across the stage. After that, his gaze had never left, a heated reminder of what the event was about. The selling of sex. Yet in his eyes I noticed a deeper need, a dark hunger than exploded from a twisted sense of connection we’d both felt.
There was no denying the crush of electricity. My dry throat was a testament to the attraction we both felt.
Which was positively crazy. He was nothing but a rich john needing his fix. I had no intention of becoming his play toy.
My mind was spinning as he carved out a sense of longing while studying me. Where the others had acted like I’d been beef, grading me on a perverse scale, there was something muchdarker about the wild look in his eyes and the tight clench of his jaw.
Not just in his attire, which was a testament to his wealth, but in his mannerisms. Where the others were like sea slugs or wolves eager for any crumbs dropped along the path, he was reserved in a way that highlighted his savagery. As well as his power. The mystery man wasn’t like the others in any way. And there was no doubt every single member of the horrible club was a monster in disguise. There was no other explanation for the club and its entitled membership.
The vacuum remained, his expression holding a slight hint of amusement. Did he find any of this funny or was he commiserating with my need to fight the system? Even in the shimmer of light, I was clearly able to see just how intense the swirls of gold were in his sapphire eyes.
I couldn’t pinpoint the difference, but even the way he was looking at me wasn’t laced with the vile hunger of the others. But a sense of need, as if longing to help me. Maybe I was crazy or grasping at straws, but it was almost as if I could trust him.
No, I was just fighting my way out of hell and praying for any lifeline.
“Your bid is quite significant,” the man they called Lucifer told the masked stranger who’d purchased me. “You’re certain about the amount.”
As soon as the stranger laughed, my pussy throbbed. The sound of his voice was deliciously dark. And annoyed.
“Lesser men have second guessed me, Lucifer, and didn’t like my response.”
“Very well,” Lucifer quipped in return. “I do hope she’ll be worth your while and your trouble.”
“I have no doubt she will be.” He shifted his gaze toward me once again, his nostrils flaring. The action, while simplistic and not particularly repulsive, still increased the size of the knot in my stomach.
