Page 60 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 1

Too many questions, too little time. Before I knew it, he’d dropped his hand and went over to the contract and signed his name across the bidder’s line.

“I think that’s the end of that part. Where to next?” He stated as if it were just another day in the life of a rich guy. You know, wake up, coffee, shower, breakfast, lunch, meetings, bid on a bride, spend eight million dollars, sign a three-year contract, maybe a quickie wedding, and back at the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

“What do you mean, where to? I have never done this before, and you boughtme, buddy! Not the other way around. Technically it’s your show. As the bride-to-be, I’m supposed to go wherever you say.” I crossed my arms, more as a self-hug than anything else. I still couldn’t believe Elevator Jack and my fiancé were now one and the same.

“Touché.” He rubbed at his scruffy chin and ran his thumb along his bottom lip.

Ugh. That move was aces. Straight up eye-candy to a sex-starved woman like myself. And then my brain immediately switched to thinking about sex. My future husband was absolutely bangable. Top tier hot. His shoulders were broad, his frame solid, and he had an air of pretentiousness that made me want to dirty him up a bit.

“I imagine you’ll want to go home, introduce me to your family,” he suggested.

“You want to meet my family? Already?” I pressed my lips together and tried desperately to hold back my laughter but itcame out in a big gush of air. I laughed so hard at his innocence. My family was freakin’ awesome. The problem was, they were totally the opposite of what the average person would consider “normal.”

Jack grinned. “What’s so funny?”

“I…I…I’m just imagining you meeting my wacky parents, my psychic sister, and turning right around and heading back to Madam Alana to ask for a refund.” I replied, through gasping bouts of air.

“Your sister’s a psychic?” His eyebrows rose up toward his hairline either in curiosity or incredulity. I wasn’t sure which.

“Yeppers. And my mother is a real life, practicing pagan witch.” I added with zero voice inflection, so he’d know I was being serious. The worst thing he could do right now was scoff at what I’d shared. If he was going to be one of those people who discriminated against others for their beliefs and lifestyle choices, we could stop everything right there. I hadn’t signed my name across the dotted line yet. And I wouldn’t marry a man who couldn’t accept my family exactly as it is.

“What does your father do?” Jack asked, his expression neutral.

I frowned, expecting him to ask me a hundred questions about the very unusual facts I’d just shared about my sister and mother. “He’s a…a botanist. Handles all the science behind our products.”

“And you? At the auction, Madam Alana said you were already wealthy and didn’t need the money.”

“But you’re paying up, my friend.” I side-eyed him. “I’m earning that eight million by becoming your wifey.”

That made him chuckle. “Wifey, I like it. Suits you.” His eyes heated as he reached out and pushed a dangling lock of hair behind my ear.

I simply stared at him. Jack Larsen was beautiful. And he smelled good enough to eat.

His hand fell from my neck to my bare shoulder. “Tell me, wifey, what is it you do for a living? What fills you with passion, gets your heart pumping?”

“Right now? You’re doing a mighty fine job of getting my heart pumping,” I breathlessly responded.

“I’m glad to hear I affect you as much as you affect me. You’re a uniquely beautiful woman, Summer. Looking at you is like staring at the sun. If I look too long, I may find myself blinded by your beauty.”

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Um, uh, I’m a horticulturist. I make plants grow.” I said robotically. Hating and loving in equal measure the sheer pull this man seemed to have over me.

His thumb caressed the ball of my shoulder. “Plants. How curious. And you have a company that sells these plants you grow?”

I nodded, my entire focus on that small slide of his skin over mine, wishing it was directed somewhere else. I squeezed my legs together as arousal wove through me, a throbbing ache settling between my thighs. Without reason, I stepped closer, placing both of my hands onto his chest. His hand curled around my shoulder and tightened. His other arm wrapped around my waist, holding me close. I could feel the hard press of a very impressive erection digging into my abdomen. So he was as affected as I was.

I lifted my face and smiled as I ran my hands up his chest and around his neck, my fingers weaving into the shorter layers of his hair.

Just as I lifted up onto my toes and he dipped his head down, our lips an inch from one another…

“Oh my! My timing is impeccable this evening,” came Jade’s voice from the doorway.

Jack and I turned our heads but didn’t let go of one another.

“Um, hi, Jade. Just getting to know my fiancé,” my voice cracked.

She laughed. The first time I’d heard the serious woman lose her cool composure. “There must be something in the air tonight.”

“Oh yeah,” I let my arms fall down Jack’s chest, making sure to cop a quick feel of his muscular chest before I winked and shifted to the side.

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