This was like a slap in the face.
How could I be so stupid?
I trusted her, and now I find out she’s just like all the other women who are out to make a buck off a billionaire.
But I can’t deal with all that right now. What she decides to do with her life is her own business. There are plenty of wealthy men who would be only too happy to get mixed up with a girl like that. I mean, she really is hot as hell.
I can only imagine the sensation of her pussy wrapped tightly around my shaft.
But I don’t have that luxury. After the court hearing, even if it was fake, I have to be really careful where Brady’s nanny is concerned. I promised the court I’d have her thoroughly vetted. If they ever found out I’d hired a girl who was listed on a virginity auction, they might decide I was an unfit father after all. I definitely can’t risk letting that happen.
She’ll have to go.
It will break Brady’s heart, but it can’t be helped.
The real fucking issue is Clint. Yet again, he’s royally fucked me.
I can’t believe he actually allowed Brady to be dragged into this. We’re ruthless when it comes to business, but we do have rules. One of those rules is you never, ever mess with another man’s family. Of course, Clint has no family. So what does he care?
Getting Child Protective Services involved, that was just so much lower than I ever thought he’d stoop.
And he’s going to pay.
I’m going to fuck him twice as hard as he fucked me.
And step one, I’m going to get back Dairy Technics. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ll figure it out, one way or another.
“Lucy,” I call.
She enters the office with a look of apprehension on her face. She knows I’m upset, and she’s worried I’ll take it out on whoever happens to be standing closest.
“Yes, sir.”
“Get me everything you can on Clint’s Dairy Technics operation. I want to know who the accountant is. Who the lawyer is. Who’s financing the deal. What instruments they’re using. If he’s having the windows of the Dairy Technics buildings cleaned, I want to know who’s doing it. I want to know the name of the man mowing the fucking lawn. Leave no detail uncovered.”
“Right away, sir.”
“Get everyone on it. That deal’s not dead yet. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
She leaves me and as soon as she’s gone, I feel painfully alone in the office.
I have yet to sort out the mess Cherri has caused. I don’t even want to think about how disappointed Brady’s going to be. And I don’t want to think about how disappointed I am either.
I open my email and find the details that I’ve been sent about her.
Prestige Virginity Auctions. I open the site.
I have to pay $1,000 just to browse their offerings. I get out a credit card and fill in the number.
And there she is.
Cherri.
Bidding is tonight!
Jesus, she’s been a busy girl.
I open the pictures they have of her. All of them are decent. No pussy and ass. Just her pretty, smiling face. My cock throbs and begins to stiffen as I look at her picture.
Fuck me, I think, looking at that face, those heavenly eyes, those delicious lips.
I’m hard just from looking at her.
I get up from my seat and walk over to the door of my office. I lock it.
Then I go back to my seat and open my pants, pulling out my erect cock.
I don’t usually do this at work, but today I can’t stop myself. I grab my erection in my fist and begin pumping, my hand moving up and down the shaft, as I picture Cherri’s perfect lips sliding up and down on me. I picture her taking my head into her mouth and running her tongue around it in a perfect circle. I imagine her sitting on my lap and wrapping her legs around my torso as my cock slides deep into her body, exploding inside her.
My cock is pumping semen into my hand. I grab a tissue and clean up.
Then I fix my pants and make sure I’m all tidied up.
I unlock the door and go back to my computer.
Apart from the auction site, there’s other information in the email Lucy sent me.
I scroll down and keep reading.
Medical bills. Her grandfather. He was admitted last night.
There seems to be more to this situation than I’d realized. I look at the admission time on her grandfather’s hospital record. Then I go back to the auction site and see what time her offering went live.
It’s exactly the same time.
That can’t be a coincidence.
So she’s not quite the gold digger I thought. I feel a pang of guilt as I think back to how quickly I’d judged her. I felt certain she was just another greedy chick trying to nab her billionaire. This medical file paints a very different picture. She’s been paying most of her income for his medical bills for months. Now, there’s an outstanding bill for twenty grand, and there’s just hours before the surgery slot is assigned to a different patient.
No wonder her auction’s going live so soon.
She’s fighting to save her grandfather’s life.
This isn’t a greedy girl trying to give herself a life of luxury. This is life and death. She’s fighting for family.
That’s something I can respect.
I hold off on calling the nanny agency and having her fired.
Instead, I go back to the Prestige Virginity Auction site and take down the address of tonight’s event.
As I write the address on the back of one of my business cards, Lucy comes in without knocking.
“Sir, you’re not going to believe this.”
I think, thank god I wasn’t still jerking off, but I just look up at her silently.
“The financing,” she says.
“What about it?”
“Clive is using City Bank to finance all of Dairy Technics’ assets.”
“What? Don’t we still own a controlling stake in City?”
“Yes we do,” she says, a wide smile spreading across her face. “And he’s just submitted the paperwork.”
“What’s the structure?”
“We can take possession of everything,” she says. “He’ll own the name, but we can take all the equipment. All the facilities. All the employees.”
“Basically everything that matters.”
“Yes, sir. Everything.”
I stand up and throw my arms around her.
“Do it,” I say, my eyes filling with tears. “Put it all in a holding company. Halt all the layoffs and asset sales.”
“Right away, sir. Do you care what we call the company?”
I look at her. We usually just use numbered corporations for this kind of thing, but Dairy Technics needs a name. If we’re essentially saving the company, people will need to call it something.
“Call it, Madison Dairy.”
“Madison?”
“After this patient,” I say, pointing to the medical records for Cherri’s grandfather. “And see to it that his operation is paid for immediately. Call the hospital personally. I don’t want that treatment delayed another second.”
Chapter 18
Cherri
I take a deep breath.
I’m so overwhelmed I can hardly breathe.
I’m in a fancy dressing room, all satin and velvet, and have been given expensive lingerie of black lace to put on. I look at myself in the mirror, all dolled up like a plaything, and hardly recognize myself. I know instinctively that whatever happens tonight, my life will be altered forever. Nothing will ever be the same after this.
I’m about to sell my body to the highest bidder, and if my grandfather ever found out, it would break his heart.
I know he’d rather die, to miss out on his surgery, than see me go through with something like this.
But I also know that if he never finds out about it, he’ll be able to go on and live many happy years. He’ll be stressed out about the farm,
he might even lose it, but at least he’ll be alive.
The usher knocks on the door.
“Yes,”
“They’re ready for you, Ms. Madison.”
I look at myself again in the mirror. My makeup is perfect. My hair is hanging down appealingly around my shoulders. The lingerie presents all of my assets in the best possible light. This is about as good as I’ll ever look, I tell myself. I just pray my body, my virginity, is worth more than twenty thousand dollars to someone. That’s the cost of the surgery and that’s the only reason I’m doing this.
My mind jumps back to Clive, the man who examined me to check that I was a virgin.
Could I live with him as the highest bidder?
I’m not sure. There was a time when I’d have said yes, but after meeting Wes, after spending time with him and Brady, I feel like I’m not as single as I once was. I’ve committed something to Wes. It’s hard to say what, exactly, because I know if he found out about this he’d probably fire me on the spot, but there’s something between us.
On the other hand, I could do a lot worse than Clive.
At least he’s hot. He’s in his thirties but that’s still young.
At least he’s not just some rich old man.
“If you’ll follow me, please,” the usher says.
He’s wearing a black tuxedo with white shirt and as I follow him down the long corridor, I’m again taken aback by the opulence and wealth of my surroundings. The crystal chandeliers, the rich red carpeting, the velvet curtains, all serve to give the night and this situation a surreal feeling.
The usher leads me through some thick black curtains and immediately I have to squint.
Bright spotlights are shining on me from every direction and I raise my hands to shield my eyes.
I’m on some sort of stage, raised up, and as my eyes grow accustomed to the light, I can see that there are men sitting in chairs around the stage, looking up at me.
This is it, I think to myself.
This is the moment.
The usher leaves the stage through the curtain we just entered on. From somewhere above me, a voice sounds through a speaker.
“Gentlemen, I present to you one of the finest specimens we’ve had on offer in a very long time. There’s already been quite a buzz about this offering.”
There’s a murmur of appreciation from the men in the seats, who I still can’t make out in any detail because of the brightness of the spotlights.
“Ms. Madison,” the voice says. “If you’d be so kind as to move your hands away from your face.”
I lower my hands to my sides and instantly feel more exposed.
I can see the men are out there, like movie watchers in a darkened theater. They’re being given a chance to look at the merchandise before deciding how much they want to bid.
“Please step forward toward the front of the stage,” the voice says.
I look up to see that there’s a man in a booth up there, sort of like a DJ at a night club. I can make out his face faintly as he’s got a light on. There’s a microphone in front of his face.
“At this point,” the voice says, hesitating slightly, “we ask that you remove the lingerie.”
I gasp.
I hadn’t been expecting this and I know that’s why the voice hesitated.
I have a sense that there are about twenty or thirty men in the audience, and I feel very uncomfortable about removing the lingerie. Even coming out here with it on was already pushing me to my limit.
Then I think of my grandfather and the fact that I need a full twenty thousand dollars for this deal, or it will all have been for nothing. Twenty thousand is a lot to ask for a single night with a girl, even if the men are super rich and even if I am a virgin.
I’ve got to do my part to sell this.
Slowly, I reach back behind me and unclasp the bra. It falls to the ground and there’s a murmur from the crowd. I walk around on the stage like an animal in a zoo being watched by tourists. They seem to be waiting for more, so I pull down my panties and step out of them, doing so as gracefully as I can manage. Now I’m just wearing the garter and stockings, but I feel like they’re more flattering if I leave them on, so I don’t remove them. I walk along the edge of the stage and as my eyes adjust to the light, try to make out the men in the crowd.
And that’s when I see him. The man from the virginity exam. He’s watching me intently, leering up at me, and suddenly, I forget how I ever could have found him attractive. In the splendor of his apartment, I had been taken in by his appearance and wealth, but now that I see him sitting here with a bunch of perverts, I realize that there’s no part of me that wants him to win this auction.
Clive was his name. I’ll never forget it.
Then the voice says, “Gentlemen, I’m going to open the bidding at one thousand dollars.”
Some man, by his voice I can tell he’s older, speaks up.
“One thousand,” he says.
I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I don’t want Clive to win me, but I know that in all likelihood, the other men in this room are going to be even worse and more revolting than he is. I mean, what kind of man would attend an event like this?
“Two thousand,” another voice says, and I notice that it’s Clive.
I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified.
“Three thousand,” a third man says.
“Four thousand,” Clive chimes in again.
“Five thousand,” another man says.
The bidding is taking off now, going up in thousand dollar increments as I strut around the stage, being careful not to twist my ankle in the exceptionally high heels they’ve given me.
The numbers pass ten thousand, and then fifteen thousand, and when Clive raises his hand and says, “Twenty thousand,” I let out a huge sigh of relief.
I know what that bid means. It means my grandfather isn’t going to die.
It’s worked.
I did it.
I almost feel like jumping in the air in celebration.
Which is ridiculous because this thing is just beginning. I’m at the very start of my journey, not the finish line. I was in this to get twenty grand, but now that I’ve got it, I realize that the hard part isn’t going to be the money, it’s going to be delivering the goods. I still have no idea who’s going to win this auction, and no matter who it is, I’m going to have to go home with him and give him everything he wants.
The bidding passes twenty-five thousand dollars. Then it passes fifty thousand.
I’m still walking around the stage, trying to look attractive, and the numbers are getting a little bit surreal.
When Clive calls out that he’s bidding seventy-five thousand, to beat out yet another bid from one particularly gross old guy in the back row, even the announcer starts to show his surprise.
“Seventy-five thousand dollars,” he says, his voice giving away an excitement that as an auctioneer he should probably be better at hiding.
There’s a slight murmur from the audience, and I can tell they weren’t expecting the price to go anywhere near this high. With this much money I’ll be able to pay for grandfather’s treatment, and pay off the debts he owes on the farm.
“Seventy-five thousand dollars,” the announcer repeats. “Going once.”
He waits for a higher bid but no one says a word. Looks like we’ve hit the limit.
“Seventy-five thousand dollars, going twice.”
Clive is getting up out of his seat, getting ready to come and claim his prize no doubt.
I take a deep breath as I realize he’s the one I’ll be losing my virginity to after all.
It’s not the way I always imagined I’d be having my first time, but sometimes you have to take life as it’s dealt.
“One million dollars,” a calm, clear voice says from somewhere at the back of the room.
There’s a collective gasp and everyone turns to see where the outrageous bid came from.
A man
is entering the auditorium and walking toward the stage. There’s a sound of ruffling papers up in the announcer’s box, no doubt as they’re seeking to check if the bid is real.
“Please identify yourself,” the announcer says to the bidder.
Into the light steps none other than Wes Eastwood.
My stomach does a backflip. I can’t believe it.
“One million dollars, going once,” the announcer says, and the entire room turns to Clive to see if he’s going to defend his bid.
He says nothing.
“Going twice.”
The pause seems to last forever.
“Sold.”
Chapter 19
Wes
I wasn’t exactly sure of my feelings, but one thing I was certain of, Cherri was too important to me to let her simply go. In the short time I’d known her, my heart had become attached to her in a way that had never happened to me before.
The way she was with Brady, and the way she made both of us feel, was real. It was powerful. I owed it to both of us to try and find out what had led to the situation we were in. And it was with that intention that I’d entered the auction. I had no idea what came over me when I bid that price! I guess a part of me wanted to know for sure. If she was in this for the money, there it was. A million dollars. If she was in it for love, then I’d know once she stuck around.
When I found out about the situation her grandfather was in, I’d decided to give her another chance.
“Wes,” she gasps when she sees me.
I stand beneath the stage and look up at her. She’s topless, her breasts perfection, wearing the sexiest lingerie I’ve ever seen, but I only look straight into her eyes.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say.
A few minutes later she’s coming out of her dressing room. She still has on the high heels and lingerie that the auction company dressed her in, but she is also wearing a silk gown that gives her a little cover.
The Bidding War (69th St. Bad Boys Book 2) Page 9
