She opens my envelope first and looks at me. “Nice.”
I nod and find myself praying that the other two are lower. Looking out at Petra as she stands there, waiting to see who will get her, I can’t stand that she has to go through this. This doesn’t come naturally to her. She’s trying so damn hard, but her expression gives away the fear she’s having.
And who could blame her?
Never have I felt so much empathy for any woman here, or anywhere else for that matter. Her big brown eyes droop only slightly at the outer corners as she holds a tight smile on her gorgeous face.
I wonder how hard it is for her to keep herself together while she waits. I wonder if she has high expectations for what she’s about to do. Will she like the way I handle her body? Will she enjoy her time alone? Will she be happy when I come back to her?
Shaking my head, I try not to think of her in the terms that she’s already mine. There are two others who’ve placed money on the table for her after all.
Isabel opens the second envelope and looks at the new man as she says, “Another generous bid.”
She gives no hint if it was higher than mine or not as she opens the third and final envelope. Before she can say a thing, mustache man is back, waving an envelope and shouting, “I won’t make her do the things on her hard limits list. I’ll take her as she is. I want her that much! Here, take my bid too.”
Rubbing my temples, as the man is working my nerves, I almost shout at him to leave her alone. Looking out at her, I want to walk out there, grab her up, and take her away with me. Fuck the other bidders.
I want her!
Isabel takes the other envelope and looks at the old guy as she nods. “Another good bid for Petra Bakari.” She puts it at the back of the stack she’s holding and opens the last one that was just given to her. I watch her eyes as they move over all four of us. “Gentlemen, we have four generous bids, and we also have one tie for the top bid. If you will all write new bids for me, we can get this woman to her new owner.”
I groan as her assistant hands us new envelopes with the small pieces of paper inside of them. With no idea, which number was the top one, I have no idea how much higher to go.
With a glance at Petra, who looks ashen as she waits, I make a daring bid, one that I pray will see her as mine for the summer. I close the envelope and hand it back to Isabel.
Sitting back, I look at Petra as the others seem to agonize over their offers. I’ve never paid this much for a woman before, but I have a feeling Petra will be worth it.
“Hey, I want in,” some man from the back says.
I look back and see a tall, pretty good looking guy, and he has a giant diamond ring on his finger, telling me he’s most likely a billionaire. Now I’m worried. Isabel holds out her hand for his envelope and gives me a little look that says she’s sorry about this.
That tells me she knows how much this dude is worth and my chances have drastically declined. So, I take a moment to dig into the new guy’s brain as to what he wants my Petra for. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’re your kinks?”
His eyes are dark as night and so is his short, wavy, black hair. I think he’s Greek and probably owns his own island or something. “I have a few of them. But with her, I’m thinking how much I want to show her off. And share her with my wife.” He leans in to whisper. “I enjoy fucking my bottoms, then watching my wife punish them for doing it. After the woman is punished, then my wife makes her take care of her needs while I watch. Then I punish the other woman and she has to sleep in a cage in our bedroom and watch my wife and I fuck. It’s an intricate thing, something my wife and I splurge on every few years. It’s our fifth anniversary, so I want to get her something special.”
The way my stomach rumbles isn’t from hunger, but disgust. I can’t believe there are so many fucking perverts in this world!
Then I realize I’m not exactly far from one. I want to restrict her and fuck her myself. Somehow, I’ve made my kink a lot less fucked up than everyone else’s. In my mind, at least.
When the man reaches out to shake my hand, I have to do it. Gentlemen’s rules and all that jazz. “Good luck,” I say, even though I don’t mean it at all.
Isabel looks around the room. “Are there any more bidders for Petra Bakari?”
Thankfully, no one else bothers, as it’s pretty fucking obvious that moneybags pervert will win her. All I can do is stare out the glass at the woman who has filled my thoughts for a while now, and I don’t think she’ll stop filling them just because she’s in this asshole’s cage somewhere.
Actually, I think she’ll be even more in my mind and I’ll be devising plans to rescue her from him and his fucked-up wife. “Hey, where are you from?” I ask him, so I can have an idea of where I can find her if he does take her away from me.
With a laugh, he says, “I’m from New York. Why?”
“Oh, just curious,” I say, then look at Isabel who has the first envelope open.
She nods, puts it at the back, and opens the next one. One by one, she opens them all, then sets all but one of them down. With a wink, she holds out her hand for the microphone and gives us no hint as to who has won. “Petra Bakari, you are to be taken to apartment twenty-two. Your owner will meet you there when he’s ready.”
I almost faint as I finally hear that I’ve won her. My hands are shaking as I get up and the others just glare at me. “I did it,” I mumble. “I got her.”
Isabel gives me a huge smile as she takes my hand, leading to where I’ll sign the contract for her. “That was touch and go there for a while, wasn’t it, Mr. Cantrell?”
“I’ve never been more nervous about anything in my life,” I confess. “Shit!”
Her assistant hands me a glass of champagne as I take a seat to sign the papers that will bind us together for the next three months. “Congratulations,” he tells me as I try to sign the paper with my shaking hand. “You looked worried.”
“I was. I haven’t thought of much else but her since the first day she was up on the site. I had no backup plan.” I finish signing the contract and see her signature on it.
Petra Bakari is mine!
As I leave, I see the men who were making my life miserable have all moved on to the next woman. Thank God I made the highest bid. Petra will be one happy woman when she gets her reward for being my bottom. If she does the right thing with it, she’ll be wealthy the rest of her life. She’ll never have to do this again if she doesn’t want to.
Tossing the drink down my throat, I go to find one of the staff to ready my new bottom for me. I find a young woman who might help Petra feel calmer and ask, “Do you think you can do something for me?”
“Anything,” she says, with the helpful tone all the staff seems to have.
Taking her by the arm, I lead her to the apartment Petra was taken to. “I think that you might be a better person to get my new bottom ready for me. She looked a little nervous and I don’t want her to be afraid. But I’m not going to talk to her that much.” I pull the letter I’ve written to her out of my pocket and put it into the girl’s hand. “Give her this and let her read it. It’ll help her understand what I’m going to do with her. After she reads it, give her a drink if she wants one. Only one, though. I don’t like lushes. Then I want her arms bound with the monoglove I laid out on the bed. Her ankles need to be cuffed to the hooks in the floor and she should be in a sitting position. And just before you leave her, put the blindfold I’ve also laid out on her. Then tell her I’ll be there whenever I get ready.”
“Okay,” she says as we get to the door to the apartment. “Oh! Should I have her dressed in anything special?”
“There’s a robe on the bed. I want her in that and nothing else.”
With a nod, she goes inside and I head to the bar to get a drink. I need to calm the fuck down and get my head on straight. This woman is rattling me more than I like.
Taking a seat next to a man with salt-and-pepper-colored hair, I give him
a nod in greeting and order a Scotch neat. Taking the drink, I don’t chug it the way I want to. Instead, I take a sip and sit back.
“Did you gain a bottom in that auction they had tonight?” the guy asks me.
“I did,” I tell him and decide to be a bit friendlier. “I’m Owen.”
“Nice to meet you, Owen. I’m Grant.” He nods back at me as he lifts his glass to his lips.
“I didn’t see you in there,” I say as I look at him. “No contract for you?”
With a shake of his head, he says, “I’m not into anything permanent right now.”
“Oh, neither am I. I mean, I’m not looking for a relationship.” I take another sip and watch him grin.
“If you were, this would be the wrong place for you.” He chuckles a little. “Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I have known of love blossoming within these dark walls. Not a lot, but it has happened on occasion. The Dungeon of Decorum isn’t a place one comes to when searching for love, but it can spring up between people every now and then.”
“I’m not worried about that happening. My bottom will never even see me or touch me. I make sure of that. I’m keeping her here and she’ll stay right where I put her until the end of summer.”
Grant laughs and looks me over. “Wow, that’s kind of drastic. Do women fall for you easily? Is that why you have to go to all this trouble?”
“It might be hard to believe, but this face, body, my bank account, and my celebrity status makes me kind of easy to fall for. But I don’t want any woman who’d only fall for those parts of me. If I could find a woman to love me for me, then I might give her half a chance. But then again, I might not. My parents have kind of sullied my ideas about relationships.”
“Ah, they made it look like a fiasco instead of the bliss we’re all told of?” he asks as he looks at me over his glass.
“A psychotic fiasco with five little pawns they created to use against each other. I’ve often thought they had us only for the purpose of gaining troosps behind each of them. Unfortunately for them, we all dropped out of their individual armies. But it hasn’t stopped their battles. You’d think their divorce would’ve ended their feud over who did who more wrong in their marriage, but no such luck.”
“Why don’t they just leave each other alone?” Grant asks me, like I have a fucking clue.
“That’s something none of us can figure out. Our father moved out of the house when he filed for divorce. He left mom the house and all five kids to take care of,” I tell him as I think about my horrible past. “Mom wasn’t about to be stuck with us while dad lived the life of a childless bachelor. So, she sold the house and bought one right across the street from the house my father had bought.”
“She sure showed him,” Grant says with a smirk.
“Yeah, and then the real wars began as they pushed us all back and forth. Then that switched to pulling us back and forth. A real cluster fuck of shit went on. One by one, my siblings and I left them alone to deal with each other.”
“A loving family can really screw up one’s head,” he comments, then places his empty glass on the bar. “Another, please. I have a father who’s a real winner. My mother is in the local cemetery and dad’s still walking around a free man.”
Nearly choking on the drink, I just took, I gasp, “He killed her?”
“A story for another time, Owen,” he says with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be getting to your new purchase?”
“Um, yeah. I should. See you around, Grant. It was nice to meet you.”
As I walk away, I look over my shoulder and see the man slumping in his chair. I feel badly for dredging up memories I’m sure he tries to forget exists.
And I thought I had a bad past!
Petra
My entire body is shaking as I walk behind the trainer who’s taking me to apartment twenty-two, the place I’ll be spending all summer in. I have no idea if the man I was emailed about is my buyer or if it’s someone else. All I know is that I’m scared shitless!
“Who won me?”
The trainer shakes his head as he keeps walking without looking back at me. “That’s not for me to say. You’ll be given the money that he paid for you, minus the twenty percent the club gets, at the end of the period. Until then, it’s up to your new owner to feed, clothe, and house you. So be good, do what he wants, and things usually go well. And don’t forget that you can always call that emergency number you were given if at any time you want to end this. You’re always in charge, Petra. Don’t forget that.” He looks back at me and gives me a brilliant smile, as if that’s supposed to comfort me.
Anytime now some man will come to me and ask me to do God knows what. If I want the money he shelled out to use me as he wants to, then I will do as he asks. How badly do I want the money though?
“Do you know how much money I’ll be getting?”
“No. And neither will you, unless your owner tells you. You shouldn’t ask. It’s considered rude. If he doesn’t tell you on his own, then you won’t find out until the end of the contract when you go to Isabel to gather your reward for a job well done.” He glances at me over his shoulder, then tugs on the leash he’s leading me with. “If you’re very good, most of the owners leave generous bonuses on top of what they’ve already paid.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. I’ll do my best to be what my owner wants.” I bite my lip as we walk through a crowded room full of men and women wearing masks. It’s a meet and greet of some kind, but that’s not the thing I’m here for.
I lower my head as we go through the people who openly stare at me. Bought woman coming through!
Humiliation fills me as I hear little whispers about me and how beautiful I am. One would think you wouldn’t find such things that bothersome to your psyche, but I’m feeling it pretty badly.
I’ve done this to myself. I’ve traded my body for money and this is how it feels. Leticia warned me about this. She told me the shame wouldn’t last. No one here is looking down on me. They all are a part of the same thing as I’m doing—trading energies that include using their bodies to do that.
Leticia said that I should look at what I do, with the man who bought me for the summer, as an exchange of energy. I have some and he needs some. He’s paid handsomely for the energy I will give him and I should feel proud of myself for being so compassionate to a fellow human being.
I suppose the pride will filter in later, because it’s not in me right now!
Thankfully, we leave the people-filled room and end up in a long, dark hallway. The only light comes from the red lights that are next to each door. I see a few green ones too and ask, “What happens here?”
“These are private rooms the members can come to. The green lights indicate that the rooms are unoccupied and the red ones have people in them.” He stops and turns around to look at me. “Care for a peek?”
“Is that okay to do?” I ask. “I mean, won’t that be like an invasion of their privacy?”
“They don’t mind, I promise you,” he says with a grin. “Here, let me open the little window and you can look in to see what’s happening.” He pulls open a small slot on the door and I can see a dim yellow light coming from it. “Go ahead. Look.”
Stepping up to the door, I gulp, then close my eyes and put my face into the opening. When I open them, I see a man has a woman all strung up with ropes. He’s using a whip. Not on her, though. He’s whipping the air all around her and she’s writhing in her bonds. They both glisten with sweat and my body heats.
“That’s kind of erotic,” I mumble.
“It is, isn’t it?” he says to me, then pulls my leash. “Come on now. We can’t keep your owner waiting.”
I close the window and follow him again. We walk until we leave that hallway and come to a door. He opens it using a card and in we go. It’s well-lit and charming. Ornate sconces hang on the wall, lighting the wide hallway. “Are these the apartments?”
“Yes, they are. This area is very secure. You don
’t have a thing to worry about. At the far end of this hallway is the restaurant that’s generally used by our renters. But make sure you talk to your owner about where you’re allowed to go before you go anywhere. Some don’t care at all, while others can be stricter. As always, do what he says and things will go well.”
I nod as we stop at a door with the number 22 on it. The gold plate is shiny and I think I’ll see this in my memory for years to come. The moment I saw the door I will be doing insane things behind!
He opens the door without stepping a foot inside. Unhooking the leash, he sets me free in my new home. There’s a nice-sized living room, complete with lavish furnishings.
I turn back to look at the man who brought me here as he says, “This is where I’ll leave you, Miss Bakari. Enjoy your stay with us. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
“Maybe,” I say. “Thanks.” I’m not sure what I’m thanking him for, but it seems like the thing to say to the man whose face will permanently be etched in my brain as they guy who took me to the apartment I lost my soul in.
He closes the door and I’m left alone in my new abode. Making my way around looking at everything before my man gets here, I find only two doors leading off from the living room. Opening one, I find a bathroom that’s huge. A stand-up shower and a deep bathtub that takes up one side. There’s your basic toilet and sink, then another door. I go inside and open it to find it’s a closet, filled with all kinds of clothes.
Upon closer inspection, I see it’s all lingerie. Nothing to wear to go out in. The man who won me must be that man who intends on keeping me locked away. Otherwise, there would be clothes to wear outside of the bedroom in here too, I bet.
There’s another door and I open it to find a normal-looking bedroom, except for the things that are lying on the bed. A red monoglove, two sets of red furry cuffs, a red blindfold, and a gag are lying on the black, silk-covered bed. I shudder as chills race over my body. “I’ll be completely immobile and unable to see or speak. But I’ll be able to hear. That’s not going to be fun.”
Dr. Orgasm (A Holiday Romance Collection Book 2) Page 12
