Page 33 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 3

Even though my relationship with sexual pleasure had been a rocky one, given my upbringing, I wasn’t uncertain about being physical with Rhodes. We’d already had fun together and proven we had chemistry in spades when our clothes were off. It was my fear of beingintimatewith him that made me nervous. Intimacy was new. Sex to me had always been like scratching an itch thatcould be satisfied by picking up an attractive guy in a bar, or by using my battery-operated boyfriend.

This was different.

Rhodes was different.

He feltlovefor me. And I needed to know what that meant. At the same time, I was terrified of not being able to reciprocate those feelings in the way he deserved. Frankly, I didn’t know how.

I heard classical music coming from the bedroom.

It was showtime, and I couldn’t hide in the bathroom and freak out any longer. With one last fluff to my hair that was now falling around my shoulders, I took a deep breath, let it out, and opened the door.

On feet that felt weighted in cement, I slowly exited the bathroom. The room was sparkling with flickering candles dotting many of the flat surfaces, giving it a pretty glow. There were rose petals on the bed, making the room smell lush and inviting.

Rhodes stood, holding two glasses of bubbling champagne. His gaze was all over me, starting at my face, working down to my toes and back up.

“Do you have any idea how breathtakingly beautiful you are?” His words were filled with awe.

I smiled shyly and slowly turned around.

“Jesus!” He gasped when he saw that the back of the nightie was completely open. The satin barely covered the top of my ass let alone the bottom.

I chuckled nervously and turned back around, feeling more confident after his positive response. He looked amazing, stunning even. Low-slung black satin lounge pants, bare feet, and the flickering candlelight highlighted every dip, swell, and curve of his pecs and abs as he moved toward me.

He handed me a glass. Our fingers barely touched, and it was as if I’d been zapped by an electrical current. My breath caught and his gaze heated as he cocked a brow and smirked.

“Sensitive to touch this evening,” he murmured, then reached out and caressed the ball of my shoulder and down my arm with two fingers. I shivered at the contact. “Mmm, I like that,” he rumbled in a low, heady purr.

I swallowed and gasped as he stepped so close to me that our chests touched. He held his glass aloft. “I’d like to make a toast.”

On autopilot, I mirrored him, raising the glass even though I could barely breathe with him standing so close. I wanted to flatten my body to his, but also step away from the intensity surrounding us.

“To never letting anything or anyone get in the way of what we’re building.”

“Rhodes,” I breathed and looked down.

“Look at me, Maia.” His voice was stern and had me snapping my gaze to his instantly. “This is happening. You and me, regardless of the way we met, the hurdles we have yet to jump through, and anything else that gets tossed in our path. It’s happening. And I, for one, am not going to let anything ruin it.”

“But Portia…”

“Is history. It’s not as though we just broke up. We’ve been over for years. There has been no person in my life that has hurt me more than her. And she continues to break my daughter’s heart. I wish the best for her, I do. I want her to have a good life, but more than that, I want her to be a good mother. Those two things have fuck-all to do with me and what I want in my life and in my bed. That position is solely dedicated to you, Maia. The woman I can’t wait to marry. Do not let Portia’s antics prevent you from being all in with me because, baby, I am all fucking in with you. You’re everything I could ever want. I’m in love with you, Maia.”

I gasped and reached out, holding on to him so that I didn’t fall. My heart beat so fast I thought it might break free from my very chest and flutter away. His words sank deep, burrowing into the dark place inside me where every single person I’d believed in from the past had let me down, and obliterated it. He replaced it with him.

His light.

His family.

His love.

“I don’t know how to love you back,” I confided, tears filling my eyes.

“Don’t worry baby, I’ll teach you.” He cupped my nape and pressed his forehead to mine.

“Rhodes…” I croaked, the emotions swallowing me whole.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing, Maia. Your actions show how much you care about me. The way you kiss me proves your desire matches my own. And when you look into my eyes…”

I eased back and looked into his eyes, trying to convey without words what I didn’t know how to say.

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