Page 23 of Auctioned Surrender

I inhale deeply, trying desperately to stem the flood of tears. “You don’t understand. They don’t care about anything exceptselling me to the man in the auction who came for me. They’ll come after me as soon as they realize I’m gone, and he didn’t get what he wants. They will want their money from him!”

“You were bought, and they will receive their money regardless of who purchased you, and we will deal with the rest. We have to get you out of here,” Damian whispers, stroking my cheek.

I hear him, but it takes time to sink in. The tears prick behind my eyes, and I try my best to stem the tide, but it’s absolutely no use. They cascade down my cheeks, and I raise my hand to wipe them, but he is way too quick. “They’re not ever going to touch you,” Damian says, wiping the tears that have filled my eyes and are hurriedly spilling down my face.

“Damian, I know who you are. You work for Brian Carrington, and he may have money, but these people are incredibly rich, and where the hell are we?” I ask, looking around the room which has four white walls and not one window.

His eyebrows raise, and his deep blue eyes take on a look of amusement. “You ask a lot of questions and know more than you should. Come on, up you go. We were lucky enough to find a room in the club, but we need to get you to the car.” Damian scoops me into his arms and gently places me on my feet.

“Ready?” Damian asks, taking my hand and guiding me out of the room and down a short hall to an exit sign. It can’t be this easy to walk away from the people who abducted me, because it is a huge network, and they know where my family lives.

As soon as the door opens and the fresh air hits my face, my heart starts racing, slowly at first and then faster, and each second that passes causes my anxiety to grow until my feet dig into the ground beneath me. There is no way, after all that my captors have gone through to secure me, that they will just let me or my family go like this. “You don’t understand. I can’t go with you.”

Damian’s eyebrows raise in question as he takes my wrists in his hand. “I understand completely, and you’re still coming with me.”

The thought of my niece and nephew tortured like these men threatened is more than I can take. “You can’t hold me against my will! What if I want to stay here?” I ask, even as he scoops me into his arms and smothers me tight against his chest.

If he gets me into that car it’s all over. He still doesn’t understand. This isn’t about me. He thinks he’s saved me, but he doesn’t know that by taking me he’s not only killed me, but my entire family. The men who grabbed me promised me to a certain man, and Damian is not that man, and they know exactly where my niece and nephew live; they’ve shown me the proof. They know where they go to preschool, where they go to the doctor, and where my mom lives and cares for them.

I can’t control the tears that fall. I’ve heard from my aunt how these security men work. Whatever it takes to get the job done, but Damian hasn’t ever met the lepers who want to sell me to a man rumored to have more money than anyone on earth. The one who pays people to threaten me with the most horrific torture of my family in order to bed a virgin of his choice.

Damian’s hold is so tight I can barely move. I do the only thing possible, trying to grasp his chest in my teeth, anything to loosen his hold, but his arms only tighten like iron around me. “You bite me, Bryanna, and I’m going to spank your ass so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week,” Damian says, squeezing me against him even harder.

I squirm, struggling to get free, trying to yell at the top of my lungs, but it is no use. Damian is too strong and keeps me pressed tightly against the rock-hard wall of his chest. “Scream all you want, Doll, but you’re still coming home with me. Settle down and quit fighting me, and your first spanking will go much easier.”

Damian lowers me into a car, and as much as I squirm to get free, he’s too strong to overcome. He settles me into his lap, and the car door to the left of us closes. Only when a sequence of locks in the car engage, and the driver pulls away from the entrance does his hold on me loosen, but barely. He turns to me and tilts my chin upward so that I have no choice but to either close my eyes or look into the ones gazing down at me as the vehicle begins to move. “I will explain all of this to you when we get out of here. Until then, you’re going to behave yourself while we get through these gates. When we get closer, I’m going to pull you into my arms and act like I’m kissing you. Pretend like you’re enjoying it so our men can get us out of here. Understand, Doll?” Damian says in that husky voice of his.

I should not trust anyone, absolutely no one, but Damian has kept me safe, and he’s had so many chances to hurt me, and he hasn’t. He’s given me so many assurances that he will keep my family safe. I’ve heard the stories about these bodyguards from my aunt, how extremely courageous they are, and I want to believe so very badly, but my mind just can’t shut down the fear.

“Trust me, Bryanna. You and your family are safe.”

Something about the way Damian says it, in absolute control, while he keeps me pressed so close that I can feel the heat of his skin through the material of his clothes, penetrates the side of my brain that acknowledges just how attracted to him I am, and just how exciting it is to be in his arms, and just how courageous he is. “I’m not an actress. If you want me to enjoy it, you should actually kiss me instead of pretending.”

Damian’s eyebrows raise, and his hand snakes out, grasps the back of my neck, and pulls me close, so close that I can feel the warmth of his breath against my own. “You don’t want to test me, Bryanna.”

The raspiness of his voice sends shivers of excitement down my spine. I shouldn’t be so attracted to him, but the way he looksat me, calls me Doll, and threatens to take me over his knee sets every neuron in my body alive with unleashed need.

“Yes, I do.”

Damian’s eyes flash, and he holds me firm while capturing my lips. The warmth of his hot-blooded kiss sends shivers down my spine and leaves me breathless, panting against him while he devours me. When he’s made his point, he doesn’t end the kiss quickly; instead, he licks along my lips, continuing to explore, coaxing my lips to part for him, and a wave of unbridled desire and heat course through my body and straight to my center. The scent of his skin permeates all of my senses, and I breathe it in deeply, completely overwhelmed by just how attracted I am to this man.

Damian explores deeply, his tongue tangling in a seductive dance with my own, until I find it incredibly hard to breathe. When he finally lets me go, it’s long past the time we’ve passed the gates. He caresses my cheek, a flicker of emotion passing over his features as he continues to watch me.

I can feel the heat of my cheeks and try to broach a topic of some sense of normalness. “If the man responsible for this isn’t dead or behind bars, I need to go back. You know that.”

Damian’s deep blue eyes don’t waver. “Bryanna, you’re completely safe. Look at me,” he says, grasping my chin. “We are working extremely hard to ensure that your family is safe.”

I glance up, but he must see the concern, the doubt, and the fear to actually let go and trust someone to take the reins with the lives of my family. He runs his finger down my cheek. “Trust me, Doll.”

“I do trust you, but you know as well as I do that they’ll come for me.”

Chapter 17

Damian

Bryanna’s deep green eyes settle on mine, still hazy with desire, but still questioning and wary, and all I want to do is wipe the deep creases of worry from her beautiful face.

I try to constrain myself, but the desire to touch and calm Bryanna’s anxiety is an almost overpowering need, a feeling that I’ve never had with any other woman. A need to protect her that supersedes all the jobs I’ve ever had before. My finger reaches out and strokes her smooth skin, sliding down the length of her high cheekbones and trailing to the taut, delicate creaminess of her neck. The feel of her pulse beating against my hand, while her eyes dilate as she looks at me causes my cock to push uncomfortably against my trousers.

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