Page 11 of Sweetest Revenge

Squaring my shoulders, I did as he said. One heeled foot in front of the other until I reached the end of the stage.

“Daughter of a once voracious business mogul, she has been through a rigorous education and graduated at the top of her class. Down for some role playing, she loves a good office affair. When she was younger, she took ballet and gymnastics—” A few jeers from the crowd interrupted him mid-speech. “Yes, she did say she was flexible.”

Instead of shying away, I spun for the crowd and sent a wink to a few of the men in front.

God, their stares make my skin crawl.

But the disgust I was feeling was nothing compared to the anger that had been boiling in my veins for years.

He would absolutely hate that I was putting on a show for them. Good. He always did have a possessive streak, even for the things he had yet to own.

Like me.

The others were nothing to me. Pitiful, disgusting little bugs I couldn’t care less about. They were beneath me. I might not have had my father’s empire to back me up anymore, but I had something.

My mind. My wits. And a body someone would pay for.

“Same as always. A month with this beauty. Doing whatever, whenever. We will start the bidding at five hundred thousand!”

A fucking insult. I was worth five times that, but like Dante had assured me we wanted the bidding war.

When someone complained, I made a fake crying face in their direction and slowly teased down the straps of my clothing.

The bids came in quickly then.

“Six hundred!”

“Six twenty!”

“Six fifty!”

“Seven hundred!”

When we reached eight hundred thousand, my heart began pounding in my chest. He hadn’t placed his bet yet.

It’s his fucking auction house. He has to be here.

I turned around while looking over my shoulder and fully lowered the straps holding the corset up. Slowly, I unhooked husk after husk. Bids poured in.

“Eight hundred!”

“Eight fifty!”

Some voices were more distinct now, the rest dropping out as the price tag rose.

I could feel their eyes ravaging me as I paraded around for them, their dark fantasies of an uninterrupted month together floating around me.

By the time I had taken off my corset, we had reached nine hundred fifty, and there was no sign of him.

Let’s up the pressure then.

I swayed my hips and slowly, inch by inch, started to push the bottom half of my clothing down. I couldn’t hear the crowd over my racing heart.

And then the entire stage was plunged into darkness.

With a gasp, I jerked and covered my upper body before turning back to the crowd. I could see them all then. Hundreds of hungry faces staring at me as I put my body up for sale for them.

“Two million.”

---