Page 39 of Forbidden Heroes

“Normally we only have ten wonderful flowers to auction off, but tonight I have a delicious treat for your eyes. Tonight I present to you a new addition to our garden. Ms. Lily.”

There she is. Under the spotlight her eyes glitter like emeralds. Rosalee—Lily tonight—steps onto the stage, and fuck if I don’t groan.

All that creamy, tanned skin on display. I hear the rumblings of men in the crowd and I have a number out of my mouth before I think about it.

I go straight for the highest bid ever given in one of these auctions. “Eight thousand.”

“Eight and a half,” the man who fancies himself a playboy to my right counters with a raise of his bourbon glass.

I could go higher in one swoop and be done with it, but I liked a little challenge.

“Ten,” I counter.

“Fifteen thousand,” calls a woman in the front row with two men at her side. I tip my glass her way with a smirk. I’m not losing tonight.

“Forty-five thousand.” I watch the lovely Rosalee drinking in all the commotion and love the adorable smile on her face. “You know what, make it fifty thousand dollars.” Not many will pluck that down for an unknown and I’m counting on it.

I drag my eyes over her curvy body until my gaze hits the blush of her cheeks. Those eyes. Mask or not I will recognize those beauties every day of my life. I can see her nipples harden behind the covers placed over them and the goosebumps climbing her skin, and my dick hardens until I can feel cum wet my pants.

Silence hangs heavy over the room even the auctioneer seems stunned. It takes her a second to absorb the number before she clears her throat. “I have fifty thousand U.S. dollars. Do I hear, fifty-five? No. Going once…twice…SOLD!”

Four

Rosalee

Fifty-thousand dollars.

Holy crap, it’s hard to wrap my brain around that kind of money. If my momma could see me now she would be mortified, clutching the ends of her apron saying a prayer. I, on the other hand, am a mixture of excited and shocked and a little bit turned on. Someone wants me so bad they outbid everyone else times ten just to make it happen. That has me swallowing hard around a lump of uncertainty.

Total shock still has my brain rattled but I can run the numbers. Even the small percentage I take from that is life-changing for me and my family. I can pay off the rest of the school year, bring all my father’s medical bills up to date and still have a few hundred left over to stock my parents’ pantry for the summer.

I follow the instructions given to me by the head Mistress overseeing the auction albeit on shaky knees. I’m not practiced in the lifestyle of BDSM but I know of it. My curiosity is piqued, but I’m also nervous because from what I learned handing over control to another is required, and that’s something I don’t know I’m willing to do. I also know this club caters to both who practice and those who don’t with any judgment for either, and that knowledge relaxes my nerves a fraction.

I do my best to stand as the other girls who’ve done this before taught me with a regal posture. My white robe drapes over my shoulders while I stand positioned with my back to the door in the private room of the bidder who purchased me for the evening. I couldn’t make out much of who he was from the stage with the huge spotlight in my face. Through the brightness, I garnered he was a tall man in a dark suit or tuxedo with well-built shoulders and a voice that sounded rough around the fringes. But I can’t help but liken the deep baritone to Blackthorne’s. All of my brain cells were too freaked out to pay too much attention to any more details.

I sigh. There I go again. Thinking about him when I need to focus on me.

I will not let my mind go to him. I clamp my hands in front of me and twine and untwine my fingers as I wait.

I suck in a lungful of air and feel less likely to faint.

I’m really doing this. Ohhhh…what have I done? What if whoever plunked down the staggering amount of money for me is a serial killer? For fifty thousand dollars there’s no way he just wants to sit and chat about the weather.

I mentally shake myself. Get a hold of yourself. I want this. And I want someone that will take my body, make me feel, make me know what it is to be a woman and love life again.

And forget, I remind myself. Make me forget I ever met, desired and craved one Gideon Blackthorne.

Grr…I have this all backward. I’m doing this for the money. Nothing more.

I glance nervously around the room. Plush black carpet is beneath my feet and there’s a large bed on a raised platform directly across from a large mirror, which makes the room look twice the already ample size. A fireplace holds down the far wall and a tasteful chandelier throws a warm golden light over the room.

Everything else is done in red tones. From the sheets to the leather of the sofa. I step up to the large mirror and smooth over a few strands of hair that have slipped out from the waist-length braid draped over my shoulder. I check my makeup and find the glossy pink tinge a girl helped me with still intact.

Beside the mirror, a black electric switch catches my eyes. Not knowing what else to do, I hit it.

I gasp at what I see on the other side of the obvious two-way mirror.

A delightful orgy. Across from this room are others with mirrors all pointed facing the spectacle. A room made especially for anyone into voyeurism.