Anya blushed and giggled as she rested her chin on his shoulder. “Ask me again in ten minutes.”
With a fierce slap, Daniel brought his hand down hard on Anya’s bottom. “Respect your elders, young lady.”
She yelped in pain before dissolving into laughter. “It was worth every cent of your money, sir.”
“Better answer.”
Daniel ran his hands up and down her back as Anya nestled into him, her arms still cuffed to the headboard. Maybe he’d leave her there for a little while longer.
“I want you in my collar. I want to own you,” he said into her hair. “I want to love you, too.”
“Yes, I want that. Please.”
He felt something on his shoulder, something wet. Tears. Anya’s tears. “Good.”
“But under one condition,” she said, pulling back to face him.
Daniel gripped her chin and gave her a stern look. “And what is that condition?”
Anya returned the stern stare with one of her one, one fierce enough to rival even The Ouch.
“We burn the jeans.”
12
Eleanor mounted the back stairs as she headed toward the guest bedroom where she’d sleep tonight. Kingsley would probably be joining them as Daniel and Anya had apparently commandeered the master suite for their own use. Good for them. Kingsley deserved getting kicked out on his ass sometimes. She and Kingsley fought like siblings outside the bedroom, which led to some rather intense encounters inside it. Especially intense since a certain someone took great pleasure in sharing her with his best friend.
Not that she minded. Not one bit.
At the first floor landing she paused when she heard the sound of tears. Downstairs on the main floor she saw Tessa wiping tears off her face as she displayed for a few of the other submissives a black bruise on the back of her thigh.
“Suck it up, Tessa,” Eleanor shouted down at her. “It’s just a bruise. If you can’t handle the beat, get out of the kitchen.”
“Eleanor…”
She turned and there was Søren standing behind her at the landing.
He covered her lips with one finger. “Inside voice.”
“Yes, sir.” She kissed his finger.
The submissives retreated and Eleanor heard a familiar laugh. Two familiar laughs. Daniel and Anya walked through the hallway hand in hand and toward the front of the townhouse. Anya, she noted, walked a little gingerly. Eleanor could only smile at them. They were probably on their way to Daniel’s gorgeous apartment, in a hurry to start their lives together.
“Any regrets, Little One?” Søren asked as Eleanor leaned back against him.
“About Daniel? No. Not at all. I care about him, of course. But I know who I belong to, what I want. And he and Anya are great together. He wants kids. So does she. They’ll have a good life.”
Leaving Daniel after that week together had been unbelievably hard. But as soon as she returned to her life and to Søren’s strong arms, she knew that she hadn’t really been in love with Daniel, just a little infatuated with the idea of being with someone who could give himself to her completely. She hadn’t told Søren how much it hurt that they could only spend one or two nights together a week, if that. But she didn’t have to tell him. He’d seen it on her face. And after that week with Daniel, her owner had done everything in his power to give more of his time to her. Sacrificing sleep, risking his calling…all for her.
“They do seem well-suited. A good match. They’ll be married in six months. And I’ve no doubt he’ll take all her siblings in.”
Eleanor shook her head at the thought of Daniel trying to tame a houseful of five Quebecois kids by day and his feisty French-Canadian submissive wife by night.
“You know,” she said turning to face him, “you could have warned me you were going to bid on Anya.”
“And ruin the surprise? Little One, the look on your face was truly priceless.”
“It would have ruined everything if I’d landed on my ass laughing at you, sir.”
It had nearly killed her holding back her laughter when her owner, the Underground’s most infamous sadist, had bid on sweet little Anya. She’d had to slap a hand over her mouth just to hold it in. She knew he’d only bid on Anya to help Daniel put on a good show for the woman he loved. Not that Daniel or Anya would ever know that.
She’d started to think of Him lately as some kind of dark angel—terrifying as the angels in the Bible were described but ultimately a force of good. But if He was an angel, what did that make Kingsley?
“Mon Dieu…”
Eleanor smiled as Kingsley sauntered down the stairs looking resplendent as ever in his coat, tails, and riding boots. “What a night. I never should have let Anya keep my fifteen-percent.”
Kingsley released a disgusted little French sigh. “It was very sweet of you. Daniel and Anya will be very happy together, because of you.”
“Happy and boring,” Kingsley corrected. “That man takes all my best submissives and turns them into wives. He’s banned from my house.”
“Be nice. Daniel deserves a little happiness.”
Kingsley reached out and cupped the side of her face. Inhaling she closed her eyes as Kingsley traced the outline of her lips with his thumb.
“I deserve a little happiness. Come, ma petite…you can make me very happy tonight.”
“Talk to you-know-who,” she said, glancing up at Søren.
“We have talked.”
Well, so much for her plan to get a little sleep tonight. Anya’s besotted laugh carried up to the landing and they watched as she and Daniel disappeared down the hall.
For a moment the three of them stood in silence. Eleanor gazed at Kingsley out of the corner of her eyes. Though they looked nothing alike, only the man she called her owner rivaled Kingsley for male beauty. Kingsley had black eyes that contrasted with her owner’s gray ones. Rich tan skin contrasted against pale. Long black untamed hair contrasted to perfectly restrained porcelain blond. But they were quite a team, those two. Especially alone with her. The dark angel hovered her left shoulder. Hell’s most charming devil grinned on her right.
Eleanor rolled her eyes. Angel? Devil? Maybe Daniel had been right—maybe she should become a writer. She really needed to start doing something with all these bizarre thoughts in her head. If she did write, it would have to be fiction. No one would ever believe the truth.
Another laugh echoed from the first floor up to the landing. Irina, Kingsley’s beautiful Russian dominatrix, strode down the hall with her fingers tucked tight in the collar of a handsome young man. With a small grunt she thrust the young man hard against the wall and shoved her hand down his pants. He closed his eyes as she whispered a vicious order into his ear.
“Daniel…” Eleanor began and then stopped.
“Yes, Little One?”
She swallowed. “Daniel said the craziest thing to me. He said he thought I’d make a great dominatrix. That’s crazy, right?”
Her heart pounded hard against her ribcage as Irina brought her mouth to the male submissive’s lips and kissed him hard and deep. She pulled away, snapped her fingers, and the young man dropped to the floor. Irina took a step back. The young man crawled forward.
“Don’t get any ideas, Little One. Now come to bed.”
He kissed the top of her head and started off. Kingsley ran a possessive finger down the side of her face before he followed her owner.
Below in the hall Irina crooked her finger at the young submissive, and he followed her on hands and knees.
“Oh, Blondie,” Eleanor purred the words, her eyes narrowing with desire at the sight of the man on his knees for Irina. “I’ve got nothing but ideas…”
Eleanor’s heart nearly stopped when she realized she’d spoken those dangerous words aloud. But her owner was still walking away, up the steps.
She sagged with relief. Thank God, her dark angel hadn’t heard that.
But an infuriatingly French laugh, low and intimate, echoed
down the hall, and she knew exactly what that laugh meant.
The devil had heard.
FIN
About the Author
Tiffany Reisz is the USA Today bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America RITA®-winning Original Sinners series.
Her erotic fantasy The Red—the first entry in the Godwicks series, self-published under the banner 8th Circle Press—was named an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Goodreads Best Romance of the Month.
Tiffany lives in Kentucky with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, and two cats. The cats are not writers.
Subscribe to the Tiffany Reisz email newsletter to stay up-to-date with new releases, ebook discounts, and signed books:
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This FREE ebook sampler features excerpts from seven Original Sinners Pulp Library titles. Download at www.tiffanyreisz.com or wherever ebooks are sold.
It’s lust at first sight when Mistress Nora encounters Lance, a sexy newcomer to The 8th Circle, New York’s premiere private kink club…
The Mistress Files collects five of Mistress Nora’s favorite client stories from Kingsley’s files, from a rock star with a secret to a male “switch” with an itch for more than just pain.
Previously released as two separate novellas, Immersed In Pleasure and Submit To Desire are now available in one book.
More Books by Tiffany Reisz
The Original Sinners Pulp Library
THE AUCTION
IMMERSED IN PLEASURE/SUBMIT TO DESIRE
THE LAST GOOD KNIGHT
LITTLE RED RIDING CROP: ADULT TOY STORIES
MISCHIEF: A HALLOWEEN NOVELLA
THE MISTRESS FILES
Full-length Original Sinners Novels
THE SIREN (Book #1)
THE ANGEL (Book #2)
THE PRINCE (Book #3)
THE MISTRESS (Book #4)
THE SAINT (Book #5)
THE KING (Book #6)
THE VIRGIN (Book #7)
THE QUEEN (Book #8)
THE PRIEST (Book #9)
The Original Sinners — The Chateau
THE CHATEAU (Book #1)
THE RETURN (Book #2)
The Original Sinners — Stories
THE GIFT (previously published as SEVEN DAY LOAN)*
A MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM
PICTURE PERFECT COWBOY: AN EROTIC WESTERN ROMANCE
SOMETHING NICE*
A WINTER SYMPHONY: THE MISTRESS EPILOGUE
The Original Sinners — Collections
THE CONFESSIONS: COMPANION TO THE QUEEN
MICHAEL’S WINGS: COMPANION TO THE ANGEL
WINTER TALES: A CHRISTMAS ANTHOLOGY
Gothic Romances
THE BOURBON THIEF
THE HEADMASTER*
THE LUCKY ONES
THE NIGHT MARK
The Godwicks
THE PEARL
THE RED
THE ROSE
Men At Work
HER HALLOWEEN TREAT
HER NAUGHTY HOLIDAY
IAN’S FORBIDDEN DREAM GIRL*
ONE HOT DECEMBER
Cosmo Red-Hot Reads
MISBEHAVING*
SEIZE THE NIGHT**
* ebook only
** out of print
The Auction copyright © 2021 Tiffany Reisz
All rights reserved. No part of this publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, 8th Circle Press, a division of 8th Circle, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, or dead, is purely coincidental.
Un-edited, rough draft parts of this book were previously made available for preview as Daniel Part Two on TiffanyReisz.com
Cover design by Andrew Shaffer
Front cover image contains a photo used under license from iStock by Getty Images. Interior images licensed from Shutterstock.com.
Mass-Market Paperback ISBN: 978-1-949769-22-7
Audiobook available from 8th Circle Press
First Edition
The Auction (The Original Sinners Pulp Library) Page 13
