Total pages in book: 7
Estimated words: 6249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 31(@200wpm)___ 25(@250wpm)___ 21(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 6249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 31(@200wpm)___ 25(@250wpm)___ 21(@300wpm)
I tap the screen on the tablet, and it comes to life. I swipe right and realize what’s going on immediately. This is an auction to buy women aged eighteen to sixty. I’m just about to get up to leave, unable to be a part of this… criminal activity but instead I keep swiping until I find her, the girl from the street.
Item number, 1269.
The beautiful, frazzled girl is selling herself. Her biography tells me nothing I want to know about her, like why she is doing this. The “hard no” section of her bio is blank and that means she’s up for anything, but I’d be willing to bet a million dollars, she has no idea what a hard no entails. She looks too pure and innocent to be selling herself. I tell myself this is a last resort for her, but the truth is I don’t know anything about her, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting her. I flip through her pictures on the tablet. In one, she’s wrapped in a sheet. In another, she’s wearing a school uniform. Newcastle Prep. I don’t think the picture is meant to be provocative, but it damn sure is to me. The rest of the pictures are more of the same. It’s her eyes. They are icy blue and stare right into my soul. I have to have her.
Deep in my bones and my heart, I know I am the one to save her.
Save her from other men.
Save her from herself.
Save her from what will become of her if she does this.
But who will save her from me? I’ve never wanted to own someone as much as I want to own her, but at the same time, I want to love her, and no one will ever love another as much I’ll love her.
The curtain blocking my view from the stage opens and the auction gets underway. One by one women parade out on the state, but none of those women are meant to be mine.
I wait patiently, like a predator until I finally hear it.
“Item number 1269 is up for bid. 1269 is still in school and hopes to be a paediatrician one day. My notes tell me she’s a virgin too. Let’s start the bidding at twenty-five thousand, shall we?”
She makes my fucking cock hard as a rock, which it hasn’t been for quite some time. I bid, as do several others.
“Thirty.”
“Forty.”
“Sixty.”
“A hundred thousand.”
Up and up, it goes, but I’ve had enough of this shit. I will do anything, pay any amount to make sure she is mine.
“One million dollars,” I stand and shout. I can’t see the other bidders, but I can hear them grumble.
“Going once, going twice, sold to His Grace,”
“What?” my lass asks from the stage.
“His Grace, the Duke of Sutherland has purchased you, girl,” I hear the auctioneer say, loudly. So much for anonymity, though I doubt anyone here will say a word about it. They’d have to incriminate themselves for being here as well.
Our eyes lock and finally she nods.
“Right this way,” the hostess says, opening the door. I hesitate for just a moment. “Unless you are looking to make a second purchase?”
“No. Of course not. Take me to her.”
Lord, save us both, I pray as I make my way to her.
TWO
CHRISTINA
I’ve been bought by gorgeous man. A duke no less, but I didn’t expect this. The bursar’s office is right by the door I came in earlier, late as hell. I had to get Julie, my seven-year-old sister off to school. When our parent’s died last year in a train accident, I was seventeen. I kept waiting for someone from the government to show up at our flat and take her away from me, but they never did. Thankfully, the flat is paid for and they left us plenty of money to pay the bills, but that money is quickly running out. I didn’t expect to be Julie’s mother, but we do what we must for family, and I’d do anything for her, including selling myself to a man. I can do one night with a man and live comfortably for a while. I got a job, but it’s not enough. Waitressing will never provide us with everything we need. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Julie.
As I am still in school, I have to get through my exams and figure out to pay for college. I have no idea what this man in going to want from me but for almost a million dollars, minus the auction house’s fifteen percent fee, he can have whatever he wants. I can do whatever he wants for one night.
I wait impatiently for him to come into the room. When he does, all he does is stare at me. His stare goes all through me and I realize that I like him looking at me. The air in the room has changed, it’s almost electrified.