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“She’s not your girl. She doesn’t belong to either of you.” I hear myself snap out the words, but I don’t care.
“Mandy is like a sister to us.” Aaron has a hard look on his face, but I can see that it comes from a place of love. I think it’s great they see her that way, but it means nothing to me. They need to get it through their thick heads she isn't theirs.
“She’s about to be mine.”
Justin leans back in his chair, takes a drink of his beer and exchanges a look with Aaron. Neither of them say a word.
I have to have her, no matter what it takes. And if suffering through an auction with the two of them is the only way to do it, then so be it. The lights dim a bit lower, and the auctioneer's voice fills the room.
“Good evening, gentlemen. Let’s begin.”Chapter ThreeMandy“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I half-whisper into the phone, practically hiding in the corner of the dressing room while everyone else runs around getting ready for the auction. I should be doing the same, but I needed a pep talk from the person who helped talk me into doing this.
I don’t know what came over me the other morning. After I woke up from my drunken night, I knew it was time for a change. I called Justin and Aaron, only to have Stella answer the phone. I wasn’t sure if I needed to come back right away to their casino to work or if I could take some time to myself. I thought maybe I could go away for a while and try to take some time for myself. I can’t remember a time in my life when I slowed down enough just to enjoy myself. No, I always kept moving. I was always on to the next task.
Maybe I was still a little drunk that morning, because I found myself rambling on and on to Stella all morning about wishing I had someone in my life. This wasn't normal for me. I tend to keep to myself, burying my emotions deep inside and focusing on solving others’ problems. It was part of what I did for a living—jumping from one fire to another, but never asking others for help in putting out my own.
I had Don and the Cortez brothers, but I wanted someone who was mine. I wanted to be treated the way Aaron and Justin treat Stella. Like I was somebody’s everything. The lengths they went to to have her might have seemed a little crazy, extreme and over the top, but to me it was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. I wanted that so bad lately, I could almost taste it.
I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit part of this has been because of Charles. This newfound need to search for my ‘one’, as Aaron and Justin call it. When I first saw Charles, desire like nothing I’d ever felt before shot through my body. It felt like I was waking up for the first time, and maybe I was. He was male perfection in its roughest form. I never thought I had a type before him, but it seems I do now. He has this dark cloud around him, and I find myself wanting to see how close I can get to him. Then I found out who he was. His name wasn’t unknown, but somehow I’d never run into him before. Maybe I’d seen his face online before, but it hadn't caught my eye. Being in his presence, there was no missing him now. But all that desire fled my body when I realized this was the man who was holding something against Justin and Aaron. For some reason I had an inkling it had to do with Stella too, which only pissed me off further. I don’t have a lot of people in my life, and part of that is probably my own fault. I’m not the most social person in the world, but the people I do have in my life, I would do whatever was necessary to protect them. Charles was a threat to my little makeshift family, and in my eyes he became the enemy.
When that desire left my body, it was almost like an ache began. Now there’s this hole that’s wishing to be filled again. A hole he put there and that I have to fill or the ache will consume me. Maybe a little passion in my life would do that.
“It’s fine! I was so flipping scared when I did it, and look! It turned out perfectly,” Stella says dreamily, breaking into my thoughts. It’s like she’s part of a fairytale or something. Well, maybe she is, but definitely an R-rated version of one.
