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We eat dinner all together, Eve sitting between Fox-Face and one of the female bidders and across from the man in the maroon mask.
While I have kept my distance all day, the man in the maroon mask has made his intentions quite obvious. He wants Eve, almost exclusively. And I realize how much he wants at the bidding that night.
The price soars to over eight thousand before the man bows out and lets me leave with my wife. As we pass, however, he bows at the waist.
“I hope you two have a pleasant evening,” he says, his exposed mouth pulled back in a wicked smile. “With the way you are spending your money, it may very well be your last.”
With that thought burning a hole in my head, I lead Eve up the stairs to my room.
14
Eve
Luka doesn’t talk to me as we walk to his room, and even once we are inside, he walks straight into the bathroom, pulls his mask off, and rinses his face in the sink.
The day was long without being able to talk to him.
I could feel the tension rolling from him all day, dark and ominous like an impending storm cloud. I expected him to release his rage in a torrential downpour at any moment, but he managed to keep it together.
Still, it seems to have worn on him.
When he comes out of the bathroom, I am sitting on the edge of the bed, my hands folded in my lap. I want to reach out and touch him. I want things to feel the way they did this morning when we could barely function without our bodies being pressed together. But things feel different now, and I don’t want to push Luka if he isn’t ready.
He stands a few feet away, looking at me with his head tilted to the side.
“Today was shitty.”
I laugh out of surprise. “It really was.”
“Not being near you felt like torture,” he says. “Plus, your little friend wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“That was the only thing that made me feel better. Seeing you taking care of her left me with one less thing to worry about,” I say. “Thank you.”
Luka pinches his lips together and looks down at the floor. “She wants me to buy her.”
“What?” I ask, trying to imagine Maddie wanting anyone at all to buy her. The day before, she nearly had a breakdown at the idea. “Did she say that?”
He nods. “Several times. Quite explicitly.”
I shrug. “Well, I mean, who can blame her? You are obviously the best man in the room. She’d be foolish not to try for you.”
“I don’t want to get her hopes up.”
I know what he means. We won’t be saving her. Luka won’t pay for her, not if it means he won’t have enough money to buy me. And since Maddie is earlier on the roster than I am, Luka won’t risk bidding on her at all.
I want to talk more about saving the rest of the women so it won’t matter how much money Luka has, but I know there is no point. We won’t reach an agreement. Not right now. Before we can have that discussion, I need to ease the tension building between his shoulders. We both need to be reassured in who we are together before I can press him to give anything more of himself.
“It is just stress,” I say, standing up and moving towards him. I gently lay a hand on his shoulder, loving the hard feel of his body beneath my fingers after a day without it. “She is doing whatever she can to make this situation bearable for herself, and part of that is trying to ensure she is sold to a man who, at the very least, isn’t a monster.”
Luka wraps an arm around my waist and draws me close to his body. He looks down at me, his lips parted in a breath. “The rest of these men are monsters.”
“No argument here,” I say softly, unable to catch my breath. Even after being together so long, touching Luka and being pressed up against him never fails to make me feel weak in the knees.
He curves both arms around my back, arching my body into his. “Especially the man in the maroon mask.”
My cheeks flush, and I look away. “He is persistent.”
