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A flash of pink washes into her cheeks, and I can’t help but see it in my mind, all the way to her belly button.
“Are we going to do it again?” There’s a note of hope in her tone that I don’t have it in me to squash.
“Not right now. I have to get some work done. Busy day today.”
She wiggles in my lap suggestively, and I still her hips in my hands. “Are you sure? We could go back to bed right now? I’ll—”
“As much as I would enjoy spending the morning in bed with you, I can’t.” I try to keep my tone gentle. Knowing that the moment she realizes I’m still selling her, she’ll start hating me again. I’ll deal with it, but it doesn’t mean I want to hasten the moment.
She slumps and then quickly scrambles off my lap.
Sarah walks in a beat later and deposits a tray of food on my desk, staring between us. “Everything is ready for tonight. Just let me know who is doing the driving and who you want as servers.”
I glance at Celia, who stares between us in confusion. “What’s going on?”
Sarah clears her throat, casts me a look, and leaves. The woman always has impeccable timing, both for good and bad situations.
Celia puts her hands on her hips and then grabs a piece of toast off the plate. “I’m eating. Tell me what’s going on before I imagine the worst.”
With no other choice, I shrug and answer, knowing this is it, the moment she shuts down and closes me out again. “Today’s the day. The auction is tonight. My staff are preparing, just like they do for every single one of my events.”
Her hand holding the toast freezes, hanging inches away from her lips. “The auction?”
I lock down all the warm and tender shit that I let run rampant through me for the past day and meet her eyes with the stone-cold expression I give every other bastard on the street. “You knew this was coming. It shouldn’t be a surprise. At least now you can get back to existing outside of these walls.”
Her eyes fly wide, and she throws the toast onto the plate. “Did you just say ‘get back to existing’ like the moment I walk out of your little party, I won’t belong to another human being? Like they won’t use me and throw me away the second I bore them?”
I keep steady eye contact with her and lean back in the desk chair. “You want out of this house, and you’ll be getting out tonight.”
Some part, deep down, hates the hurt flashing across her face and how she keeps trying to master it and failing.
“We had sex yesterday. I’m not a virgin. Can’t you find some other woman to put up for sale, another virgin even?”
Now who is lying to herself? “You’re telling me you’d be fine if I went out, plucked another virgin off the street, and sold her in your stead? You wouldn’t feel one bit of guilt for me doing that?”
“Then cancel the event altogether.”
“I can’t, and I won’t. Did you really think last night would change anything?”
She stays quiet for long enough that I don’t even need an answer. I grab the piece of toast she’d been eating and shove it in my mouth. If only to keep from getting up and offering comfort. Something I don’t even do for my own brother.
“I guess I should have made things more clear yesterday. What we did was fucking, and it was more of a punishment to get you back in line than anything else.”
Her eyes narrow, and she stalks forward. “And me waking up in your bed, was that part punishment too?”
I surge out of the chair. Something more than anger, more than my need to dominate my emotions, bubbles up inside me. When I meet her anger with my own, she stumbles backward until I press her into the wall. “Listen, princess, you mean nothing more to me than revenge. Yesterday was nice. It felt good, but don’t think a little sex is going to sway me from my goals. Nothing on this planet has that power. Especially not you.”
She trembles against me, her chin held high despite the sheen of tears coating her eyes. “Well, thank you for clarifying that for me. I see now that I mean nothing to you, despite the evidence to the contrary. I wouldn’t want to put a dent in that masculine pride of yours.” She shoves me away from her, and I allow it, if only to put some distance between her body and mine.
I watch her carefully, waiting for another outburst, but she picks up the mug of coffee and takes a sip. Using the food as an excuse, I shove the tray toward her. “Take it with you back to your room. I’ll have someone bring you some clothes later today so you can prepare yourself.”
