Page 3 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 1

“No!” His eyes widened. “You?” He scoffed as though he couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, sir.” I ran my finger around the rim of my martini as I remembered that men sucked.

“I don’t know. I find it hard to believe that any man would let someone like you slip through their fingers.” His gaze was heated when he not-so-nonchalantly took in my body from my spiked Louboutins, up my shiny legs, past my Versace cocktail dress to the cleavage I boldly displayed. He lingered there for a solid ten seconds before he roamed to end at my face. “There is no world in which a smart man would let a queen like you go.”

“Is that right?” I playfully asked, thinking maybe the Rhianna look-alike was not his woman. Maybe she was a family member.

“If it was me…not a chance.” He lifted his hand and wiped along his bottom lip in that sexy way men did that I personally felt as a physical throb between my thighs.

My heart started to beat harder, and my temperature rose as arousal swirled in the air around us.

“Mmm-hmmm,” I hummed, grabbing at the four-carat diamond that hung between my breasts. I often wore a gem I worked with prior to deciding what to create. I found it connected me more fully to the stone, readying my muse for whatever design I’d eventually come up with.

Memphis’s gaze set on the stone. “Your, uh, ex buy you that?” He lifted his chin, and I dropped the length of the necklace back to fall between my breasts.

“Because I’m not capable of buying it for myself?” I countered.

He shook his head so fast I worried he’d give himself whiplash before he held up his hands in apology. “Sorry, my bad. I saw the ice around your neck and assumed a man gave it to you.”

“It’s all right. Not everyone lives by the edict of the great Beyonce’ Knowles.”

He frowned. “Her edict?” He sounded confused.

“Who runs the world?” I sang lightly.

“Girls.” He laughed out loud, and I shivered at the sensual sound. Damn this man had a strong effect on me.

“So, what has you braving Sin City?” I asked, steering the conversation to something more present. I surely didn’t want to think about why I was in Las Vegas. I still hadn’t made up my mind if I was going to go through with it or not.

He looked down and away. Red flags popped up and started waving in my direction. Usually when a man couldn’t keep eye contact with me that meant I was about to be lied to. My heart sank. And I’d had such high hopes.

Memphis inhaled a full breath and let it out slowly as though he were thinking about how he wanted to respond. That was new. “Honestly?” he confirmed, as if I wanted to be told a lie.

I cocked an eyebrow and took another slow taste of my drink. “Would be nice for a change.”

“Do men normally lie to you?” he quipped, a non-answer if I’d ever heard one.

“Honestly?” I repeated his question and batted my fake eyelashes with intention. “Yes. You’d be surprised how often men lie.”

And cheat.

And steal.

And do a whole host of unseemly things that I wasn’t about to share with a stranger I’d met in a hotel bar at a casino a good friend of mine owned.

“Lying is for losers,” he stated with such disdain that I actually believed him.

Maybe my radar was off and he was actually the first solid, honest man I’d met in a long time.

“Then be the change you want to see in the world, Memphis.” I challenged with a smirk. “Tell me why you’re in Las Vegas.”

He pressed those beautiful lips together in a way that made me imagine him pressing them to mine. Until he laid out his truth in black and white.

“I’m here to meet the woman I plan to marry.”

Episode 2

A Kiss to Last a Lifetime

---