Page 56 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon

She looked up at me, and the look on her face had to mirror my own. There was shock, happiness, relief—so many emotions there right now. “Yes. I’ve stayed here the past couple of nights by myself.”

I nodded. We got off the elevator at her floor, walked to the condo, and I waited as she used her key card to get in. I was holding the contracts in my hand, in a large manila envelope. I could feel something hard and rectangular there, so I assumed it was the key card Carmen mentioned.

She had gone over everything in the contract so quickly, I would have to read back over it at my leisure. Not because I wanted to change anything. But because I didn’t want to screw anything up. I wanted this whole thing to go how Jelly wanted it to.

We walked in, and I was impressed with the space. It wasa partially open floor plan with a sunken living room, a huge kitchen with a large island and bar, a dining area, and a hallway on either side of the living room that I assumed led to bedrooms and bathrooms. It was nice. There were floor to ceiling windows on one side with a view of the bay down below. On the side that overlooked the city, there were French doors that led to a nice-sized balcony with patio furniture on it.

“This is great, no?”

“It is,” she nodded with a big smile. “I really like it. I can’t really believe it’s mine for the next four months.”

I frowned. “Yeah, let’s talk about that. Why is it just four months? I know your internship lasts six months.”

She shrugged. “I only wanted to commit to four months with a… what do I call you? My Cinnamon Daddy?”

“Oh, please don’t. That makes me sound like some sort of pervert who lures young girls to him.”

“With what? Cinnamon? That’s kinda weird, Paolo.”

I laughed. “I don’t know. It’s just… creepy sounding.”

“Okay, well, I only wanted to commit to four months with my auction winner. After that, I want to move into my new house or condo, and I’ll finish up my internship while I’m living there.” She stepped forward and messed with my tie. “After we’re done with this.” She looked up at me, and I swear her big blue eyes made my heart skip a beat. I wanted to grab her and tell her I never wanted to be done with this. That I wanted to come home to her forever.

But I knew that was crazy. I was sure I’d be ready to leave her, too, after four months. “Do I get to help you pick out a house?”

“If you want to.”

I nodded and put my hands in my pockets looking around. Then my eyes centered back on her. “I get to be with you as much as I want over the next four months, right?”

“Within reason,” she smiled up at me. “Obviously, I have to work…”

“Not at Sugar,” I protested.

“No,” she laughed. “But would that be so awful? You’ve seen me there almost every night for well over a year.”

I ran a hand over my jaw. “I’m tired of sharing you.”

The smiled dropped from her face at my serious tone. “Really?”

“Yeah. I hated watching you with other men. It felt like you were giving them what was mine.”

“But we weren’t even…”

I held up a hand. “I didn’t say it made sense. I’m just telling you how I felt. Every time you left my table and went to someone else’s, I wanted to grab you and throw you over my shoulder. I was ready to go full caveman.”

“I didn’t know.”

I gave her a look. “Come on.Everyoneknew. How could you miss that?”

She gave me a coy look. “I mean, I knew I was your favorite hostess because you always asked for me. But I didn’t think that much about you watching me with the other tables of men. I was too busy working. I assumed you were watching the girls onstage.”

I shook my head, a smile playing at my lips. “You were clueless. I’ve had eyes only for you for months. I didn’t look at the strippers. I quit going to Cayenne. I just had to be near you.”

“Why’d you quit going to Cayenne? I thought you went there first with Nico then came to Sugar each night.”

“It was like that for a while. But then I started getting impatient. I wanted whoever I was with to hurry up and finish. I found myself only thinking about you when I was with… anyone else. So, I quit going.”

“And why did you change your mind about the auction?”