Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Thirty days is all I have to raise the money to help my sister. At the auction, I expect to be bought to service a rich man’s every desire. But instead, I’m sold to a prison warden—and his debts become mine to repay.
Now, I’m trapped in a maximum-security prison, tasked with ‘servicing’ three dangerous men for the next month.
Kinkaid is the brooding leader with a body as hard as steel and a need to control that borders on obsessive.
Hyde is unpredictable and haunted by his demons, flipping between gentle and cruel faster than I can handle.
And Rock is a quiet giant who hides his pain beneath his imposing form and whose needs I struggle to determine.
They take what they want from me, hungry for release, human contact, and the simple reminder of the men they were outside the high walls. They’re supposed to be criminals, but beneath their tough exteriors, I see something more—loyalty, vulnerability, even kindness. And, to my shock, I find myself falling for all three of them.
With each day that passes, the lines blur between freedom and captivity, desire and love. As our connection deepens, I’m faced with an impossible leave them behind when my time is up, or risk everything to be with the men I never expected to love.
But prison walls aren’t the only barriers between us—and in this world, the most dangerous thing you can lose is your heart.
Auctioned to the Prisoners is a standalone romance in the Auctioned Series.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
LORY
ENDS OF THE EARTH
“I need to raise money fast.” My hands shake as I clutch the sweating beer bottle, relishing the cold against my clammy skin.
“What’s going on?” Evelyn’s dark, overdrawn eyebrows furrow as she assesses me across the tiny wooden pub table. It’s gloomy here and smells of stale carpets and sour booze, and we’re surrounded by leering men who’re hoping they’ll get laid tonight.
“My sister’s got herself mixed up with an asshole. He’s terrorizing her. She needs cash to move out of state with her kids, so he won’t be able to come after her.”
“And that’s your problem, why?”
Evelyn’s chewing gum while drinking her gin and tonic and the combination of flavors makes me queasy, but she never takes the gum out, even when kissing the skeevy guys who frequent this place. She’s fifteen years older than me, but still dresses and acts like she’s sixteen. At least three of her exes are banged up, and her brother runs with one of the criminal biker gangs that are tearing this town to shreds. If anyone can help me work out how to get the money I need, it’ll be her.
“If it was just her,” I say, “I’d tell her to make her own way home. She could crash with me.”
Evelyn widens her eyes in disbelief. She’s seen my place. It’s a tiny room with a corner kitchenette and a shower where a closet used to be. It’s barely habitable for me, let alone for two. “But those kids…”
My niece is eleven months old, and my nephew is three. They’re innocent and probably already experienced enough trauma to fuck their lives up for good. Me and my sister saw enough of it growing up, and I don’t want them to go through the same as we did.
“You’re too soft,” she says, knocking back her drink. She bites the corner of her fuchsia pink lips. “You could borrow from a loan shark. I can ask Josh for a contact number?”
“And then I’d be in the hands of a violent man.” I peel the label from the bottle and drop it on the table, remembering those kinds of men and the weight of their fists on our flimsy trailer door when they came to collect. No, thank you.
“There’s prostitution,” she says with a grin, knowing full well I’d never survive on the streets. The pimps in this town have the girl trade on lockdown. No way I want to get involved with one of those bloodsuckers, and anyway, my tits are too flat.
“Sell a kidney?”
She’s treating this as a joke, but it isn’t for me. Kennedy is tough but she sounded broken on the phone. Worrying about her keeps me up at night.
“I think I’d like to keep all my body parts.” I grimace. “There’s blood, though. Shame I’m not a dude. I could jack off in a cup daily for cash, but it wouldn’t be enough.”
“What about the auction?” she says as an afterthought.
“What auction?”
Leaning across the table, she cups her hand around her mouth. “Girls,” she says softly. “Josh was telling me about it. Last month, a girl sold her virginity for twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“That ship has sailed.” I nibble my nail, considering the dirtbag I wasted it on and how he wasn’t worth shit, let alone the gift of something that could be worth twenty-five grand. “And I’m hardly salable.” I look down at myself. In scruffy jeans and a thrifted shirt, I look like a college reject. I haven’t been able to afford a haircut for my long dark hair in over a year, and my nails are bitten to the quick.
“I could work on you,” she says, rubbing her lips. “And you set the terms if you’re putting yourself up for auction.”
“Is there an alternative?” As the words leave my mouth, sickness rises in my stomach. Of course, there’s an alternative. Violent men are everywhere, just waiting to prey on a desperate woman like me. “I don’t need twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“Everyone needs twenty-five thousand dollars.” She takes her chewing gum out and wraps it in my beer label, then fishes for a new stick in her purse, chewing it frantically until it’s molded to her mouth. “Could you do it, though? Fuck someone for money… someone you don’t know?” It’s kind of rich coming from Evelyn. Most Saturday nights, she ends up under someone she’s just met. She might not fuck for money, but she fucks for drinks and dinner, and the chance of a new purse. She fucks to be less alone or less washed up. She fucks, still dreaming that a happily-ever-after ending might emerge from the grunting and sweating.
Could I fuck a stranger?
I’ve had plenty of sex, much of it underwhelming. Daddy issues do that to a person. I’ve looked for love in all the wrong places, often with men I didn’t have a connection with. I’m always attracted to damaged men, and they’re always looking to damage me. How different would this be? At least I’d get something out of it besides carpet burn, a UTI, and an awkward goodbye.