Page 51 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 1

Christophe’s head jerked back as though punched, and his facial expression shifted to disgust.

“Oh, I see we already have interest in Maia. As this is the last candidate of the night, and we already have a bidder, let’s skip ahead. I have three million from bidder Number 19.”

“Three and a half million,” another bidder called out, and I sighed in relief.

My joy was short-lived as the jerkish man countered, “Four million!” He waved his lit paddle, then leaned over to his friend. “I’m going to hog-tie her, hang her from a hook in my bedroom, and play with her little body until she begs me to stop.” He grinned wickedly, a malicious haze overtaking his already unfortunate features.

“Are you just going to let him get away with this?” I pointed my hand toward the disgusting person. Christophe’s wife owned the auction. Couldn’t he do something?

“My wife vetted him completely. She has checks and balances in place. Perhaps it’s just locker room talk.” Christophe’s jaw was as firm as granite, his teeth clenched as he spoke slowly. I could tell he didn’t truly believe his own words and it was weighing down on him.

“Pssshttt! Obviously a nasty one snuck through.” I lifted my foot, considering shoving it into the back of the man’s skull the next time he said something inappropriate. I was never one to result to violence, but this guy was fucking gross.

The bidding was now at five million in favor of the nasty bastard.

I stared into the warm brown eyes of the woman I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since I’d opened my eyes and found her sitting on top of me at the airport after we crashed into one another. She was unearthly beautiful with a perfect little curvy shape, but her eyes were sad. Stunningly so. Much like what I saw in the mirror when I looked at my own reflectioneach morning. There was a shared unhappiness there, one I recognized all too well. Sometimes I thought it was loneliness, other times I believed it was my own karma staring back at me.

Why was Maia sad? Had she lost someone like I had all those years ago? Did her last man cheat on her more times than the years they were together? Did life continue to screw her over in ways most people could never understand? I’d bet I could relate.

Just because someone had money didn’t mean they had it all. Frankly, I knew more rich people who were unhappy than people who lived paycheck to paycheck. The latter individuals knew that money wasn’t the source of happiness. The former continued to try and force it to be, as if they could get more and more and eventually reach the highest level of bliss possible, only to find the top was lonely as fuck. It didn’t mean jack if you didn’t have anyone to share it with. At least that had been my experience.

“Five million going once…” Alana announced.

Maia heard that number and smiled for the first time.

That smile broke me in two. Shattered my resistance into dust. Everything I thought I knew was obliterated. My cock hardened behind my pants, my heart pounded like a drum within my chest, and I lost all common sense.

I lifted my hand in the air, the weight of the paddle feeling like a sword, as if I was going into battle. I flicked the button to fire it up, a beacon of light in a dark, unrelenting sea of bidders.

No other would get that smile pointed at them but me.

Maia would be mine.

* * * *

MAIA

“Seven million.” A new voice that sounded slightly familiar entered the bidding war suddenly.

My mouth dropped open, and I swear my eyeballs practically bugged out of my head. Some man out there wanted me to be his wife forseven million dollars. Me, a tiny little pickpocket. That was more money than I could have ever dreamed of having. The entire process was absolutely unreal and blew my mind every time the bid increased.

I’d entered the auction in the hopes I’d be picked for the base minimum of three million. That kind of money was all I would need to get my mother and siblings away from that horrifying man and his abomination of a son. Seven million would be more than life altering. It was world-changing for someone like me and my family.

Alana smiled wider than I’d ever seen in the many years I’d known her. Whoever this bidder was, she recognized him and was blatantly thrilled he’d entered the battle.

“You just want to take her away from me,” one of the voices that had been bidding griped loud enough for everyone to hear, but the lights on the stage were too bright for me to see anything other than shadows in the audience. I squinted and could vaguely see a large shape with his arm out pointing at something or someone who may have been seated, but I wasn’t sure.

“Maybe I don’t like the way you refer to women as toys.” the new bidder fired back angrily.

That voice.

I’d definitely heard it before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it…Wait. What did he say? Treating women like toys?

A different voice invaded my mind like a nightmare come to life.

“You’re my little toy, Maia. Whenever I want. However, I want. No one is going to save you. Now hush up and do what big brother says…”

Bile rose up my throat and immediately my skin broke out in goosebumps as fear slithered up my spine like a snake, wrapping its coils around me and squeezing every ounce of breath I had left in my lungs.

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