Page 1 of Bought

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Zara

If you think I didn’t know what I was doing when I walked through that curtained doorway in Arcadia, wearing only a Red Riding Hood cloak, on the way to auction off my virginity to the highest bidder, well…

You’d be wrong. I knew exactly what I was doing.

Arcadia was one of the most exclusive clubs in Manhattan, where you had to be A-list, a Mensa member, or Midas himself before you could even get on the waiting list. Exclusive wasn’t the word for it. This was another grade up from exclusive.

It had the best cocktails in the city, the best vibe, and if you wanted to get down and dirty with someone you could, whatever your fetish.

As long as it was legal, anything went in Arcadia.

Obviously, I wasn’t a member since I was in no way famous or rich, or extraordinary, but once a month if you were a poor virgin down on your luck and you passed their stringent vetting procedure, you could auction off your virginity to members for — hopefully — a large amount of money.

And yes, I was this month’s poor virgin.

But that wasn’t really why I was there.

Isabel Fox, my friend and work colleague, who’d come with me to Arcadia for moral support, was out in the main bar since only people who’d registered for the auction could pass through that curtained doorway, and I knew she was worried about me. But she needn’t have wasted her energy.

I wasn’t who she thought I was. I wasn’t the party girl who went out clubbing every weekend, martinis and dancing, and a different man every night. The girl who definitely wasn’t a virgin.

In reality, I was a self-taught computer hacker with massive trust issues, who didn’t like men and who took on sketchy hacking jobs so I could earn enough money to get out of this hellhole of a city.

That’s why I was here tonight. Money. Because it wasn’t love that made the world go around, it was cold hard cash. Or at least, it was the dollars that kept my particular world spinning.

To get those dollars, I had my orders and there was only one buyer I had in my sights.

My contact had told me that the man I was here for would be in the audience, and even though he’d always avoided the auctions at Arcadia, there was no doubt he’d buy me tonight. Because I’d been chosen especially for this job. I had the right ‘look’. Vulnerable, fragile, virginal. He wouldn’t be able to resist buying me, she’d said, even though fragile and vulnerable I wasn’t.

Still, having spent the past week studying the giant file she’d given me, full of information they’d collected about him, I knew she was right.

This might have been the first virginity auction he’d attended at Arcadia, but it wasn’t his first virginity auction. He’d been at various sex clubs around the city, buying the virgin and then…letting her go. Catch and release, so to speak. My contact didn’t know why, that’s just what he did. A white knight, apparently, which was why I had to look as fragile and vulnerable as I could.

Not that I needed a knight. I wasn’t any man’s damsel in distress, and I didn’t need saving. I saved myself.

Anyway, tonight I had to convince him not only to buy me but to take me home for the night. No catch and release for me. Which was fine. He clearly didn’t buy virgins for sex so at least I wouldn’t have to deal with that.

I kept the voluminous red riding hood cloak I wore gathered tight around me as Andre, Arcadia’s handsome front-of-house manager, ushered me to the back of the small auction room. There was an alcove a little off to the side, with a comfortable armchair to sit in, where I was to wait, safely out of sight until the time came for me to display myself to all the drooling buyers.

“I’m going to get everyone in now,” he said as I sat down, giving me a reassuring smile. “First, I’ll do a brief introduction and then I’ll get you to stand up so everyone can see you. It’s your choice if you want to stay clothed, but…” He eyed my cloak. “Perhaps you might want to give them a preview?”

No perhaps about it. I was naked beneath the cloak and that had been deliberate. But I didn’t want to give too much away, so I only smiled enigmatically. “Perhaps.”

Andre nodded as if he was well aware of what I had on underneath that cloak, then he left, heading for the main bar.

I sat back in the armchair, ignoring the clutch of anxiety in my gut, because there was nothing to be anxious about. It was fine. All I had to do was get naked in front of a bunch of rich people, who couldn’t touch me, and my buyer for the night was a man who apparently didn’t take what he’d paid for, so no sex was required. All I needed to do was convince him to take me back to his place and give me a bed for the night, which would allow me to search for the evidence my contact said would be there. Then, once I’d found that, I could leave.

My contact assured me that the money from the auction would go straight into my bank account, along with a nice little bonus if I completed my mission, so really, it was all good. I had nothing to lose, nothing whatsoever.

Andre was ushering people through the curtained doorway, and I relaxed, sitting unseen in my little alcove.

The room was small and intimate, the floor covered in thick, dark blue carpet and oriental rugs in rich colors. The walls were a deep red with expensive-looking artwork on them. Couches upholstered in black velvet were scattered around, along with leather armchairs. They’d all been positioned facing the small, raised dais with a huge, ornate crystal chandelier hanging over it.

The room reeked of opulence, of money, and so did the people coming in. The buyers hoping to buy a virgin for the night. The voyeurs who wanted to watch. Rich people. Privileged people. People who’d never had to scrape to survive. People who didn’t appreciate what they had.

If this went the way my contact had promised me, I’d never have to scrape again. I wouldn’t have to take the jobs that Donny gave me because I couldn’t afford not to. In fact, I wouldn’t have to deal with Donny ever again. For the first time in my life safety was in my grasp and for that, I’d do basically anything.

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