Sold to the Hottest Bidder

by Layla Valentine

  Well, simple doesn't quite cover it.

  Joel's kiss was electrifying. He immobilized me with the shock of it, crushed the air from my lungs and filled me with such a deep longing that I thought I might cave in like a sinkhole. His mouth stroked mine reverently, teasing and licking until my knees wobbled. The only thing holding me up was his strong arms around my back. The only thing keeping me present was the tang of wine on his lips and the feel of his mouth gliding over mine.

  The kiss was everything, and as he began to pull away; I started to wonder if maybe that kiss had meant something in particular. I began to wonder if maybe it had been a goodbye kiss.

  “I don't want you to go,” I said breathlessly, not caring how desperate it made me sound.

  Joel stroked a finger down my cheek and I shivered.

  “I have to go,” he said. “You've got a flight tomorrow. Your mother would kill me if I kept you up later.”

  “That's not what I meant.” I stepped closer to him, gripping the front of his shirt in trembling hands. “I don't want you to go from my life forever. I want to keep you.”

  “You want to keep me?” he asked, evidently amused. “Like a lost puppy you found on the street?”

  I rolled my eyes but couldn't hold back my smile. “Like a...well, like a person that I'm dating. Or something.”

  The smile that crossed Joel's face could have powered half the state. He took my face in his hands and kissed me again, this time short, but sweet. When he pulled away, he kissed my forehead.

  “You'll see me again, darling, don't you worry.”

  I watched him walk back to his SUV, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean. Did he not have an ETA of when I was going to see him again? It might be nice to have some notice.

  Just as Joel was about to open his car door, he turned back to me. “Hey, do you know much about Los Angeles real estate?”

  I blinked, shocked, the words not quite settling in. “Uh, no. I rent.”

  “Hmm.” Joel opened the door. “Guess I'll have to consult somebody in the business.”

  With that, Joel closed the door and backed out of the driveway.

  I watched him go, uncertain of what had just happened. Was Joel moving to L.A.? Would he do that? Could he do that? L.A. would be a long way to go for his patients, and truth be told, I wasn't sure the city needed any more plastic surgeons.

  Not that it mattered whether they were in need or not. Joel had something up his sleeve, and I couldn't wait to find out what it was.

  Epilogue

  One year later

  The plane dipped low over the surf, and I could practically feel the salty spray across my skin. I shrieked with joy and smacked Joel lightly on the arm the second he pulled us back up to a suitable cruising altitude.

  “You're showing off,” I scolded.

  He laughed. “Am I not allowed to show off my insane pilot skills to my wife from time to time?”

  “Insane is definitely the correct word,” I shrieked playfully. “One of these days you're going to kill us!”

  Joel laughed and I turned my gaze to the side window so he couldn't see me smile.

  We were flying along an atoll in the South Pacific, exploring all the little islands that were difficult to get to otherwise. When your husband owned a plane, however, you could just pick a spot on the map and go. It was one of the many things I enjoyed about living with Joel, though that was an incredibly long list.

  “Look at that one,” Joel said, pointing off to the left at a little island. I looked over and smiled, loving the way the sapphire sea licked at the edges of the white sand beach, surrounding it in its cool embrace like a lover. The view from up here was always spectacular, but the view inside the cockpit was unparalleled.

  “You know,” I said. “I had a crazy thought the first time I came up in the plane with you.”

  Joel looked over at me, and I saw my reflection mirrored in his aviators. “Oh yeah? What kind of crazy thought?”

  I grinned. “It was more of a desire.” I nibbled on my lower lip, and Joel watched as long as possible before he was forced to turn back to look at the sky.

  “Tell me.” It was a command and a plea rolled into one. I had his full attention, or as much of it as he could afford to spare while piloting the steel bird.

  “I thought about how much I would love to make love to you in here,” I said, stroking my fingers along the cool metal interior reverently. “I had this mental image that was so hot, I blushed like crazy. And you had no idea.”

  The plane's nose immediately tipped downward. My eyes widened with concern.

  “Joel? What are you doing?”

  He grinned but kept his gaze straight ahead. “I'm landing.”

  “Are we there yet?”

  “Nope.” He chuckled. “But I think you've waited long enough for your fantasy to be fulfilled. Don't you?”

  Excitement rippled through my body. We descended so quickly that my heart flew up into my throat. It was a bit like going downhill on a rollercoaster, except I knew what waited for me at the bottom wasn't a loop. It was an incredibly sexy man.

  “Aye aye, captain,” I said, stripping off my shirt.

  Joel groaned, and I could tell it was because he had to keep both hands on the wheel and thus couldn't reach over and touch me. To that end, I touched myself, running my hands along my stomach, over the front of my bra, and up my neck. I wasn't sure if it was particularly wise, given the fact that Joel had to land the plane, but I was too turned-on to care, and my husband certainly wasn't complaining.

  The plane bumped over the surface of the water, jolting the cabin. My breasts jiggled enticingly with the motion, and I noticed Joel giving me the side-eye as they did.

  I loved how one look from him could make my insides burn, could light a fire in my belly that only he could put out. Every day with him was an adventure, whether we were at our house in L.A., or the one in Miami, or the cute little cabana in Nassau. I couldn't believe that everything I loved about my life today was the unanticipated result of my sister stealing a bunch of money from her employer. It was so surreal.

  Joel killed the plane's engine, tossed his sunglasses onto the dash, and grabbed my hand.

  “Come on,” he said.

  I hopped into his lap, heart hammering in my chest. He opened the door to let in some air, then started to undress.

  “You're not going to romance me a little first?” I whined jokingly.

  Joel's eyes flashed with lust. “I'll spend the whole night romancing you if that's what you want,” he growled. “But right here, right now, I can't wait another second to have you. Any questions?”

  My body grew heavy with desire, nipples pressing against the lace of my bra. “No questions.”

  “Good.” Joel pressed his mouth on mine in a passionate, heart-stopping kiss. It was demanding and unrelenting, like being caught in a storm that sucked the breath from my lungs and made me feel wild. I hung onto him for dear life, hands roaming over his taut muscles, nails digging into the skin of his back.

  Joel lowered me onto the cool metal floor and began to undress me, tearing my clothes away more than undressing, really. My core burned for him. I kissed him as though I was dying and he was the only thing that could keep me alive for one more second on this earth.

  “I love you,” I murmured between kisses.

  Joel, completely naked now, nipped at my lower lip. “I love you, too.”

  There were no more words. We tumbled together across the floor, and I couldn't tell whether the plane rocked from the passing swells beneath its pontoons, or our energetic lovemaking.

  My fantasy had finally come to life. Being with Joel was like existing on the final page of a fairytale. There was always that feeling that pure happiness would continue until the end of time, even if it was impossible to read beyond the pages we'd been allotted.

  “What am I going to do with you?” Joel gasped an hour later, his naked body half-draped across me.

&nb
sp; “You make it sound like I'm some sort of trouble maker,” I replied.

  Joel chuckled. “You are a troublemaker.” He nuzzled into my neck, kissing the spot against my pulse. “But you're my troublemaker.”

  “Well, in that case,” I sighed. “I suppose you'll just have to keep me in line.”

  The man I loved look deeply into my eyes. “Count on it.”

  The End

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  Fake It For Me

  Layla Valentine & Ana Sparks

  Ready for a story that’s naughty and nice?

  Here is mine and Ana’s previous book, Fake It For Me, in full!

  Copyright 2017 by Layla Valentine and Ana Sparks

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author. All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  This book was previously published under another pen name, Evelyn Troy.

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  Chapter One

  Eva tilted her head back against the ergonomic support at the top of her chair, stretching against the tightness she could feel in her neck and shoulders. A glance at the clock on her desk phone told her that she only had two more hours left in her shift; the rush had soon tapered off into the mid-afternoon slump. By the time she clocked out, there would be another rush—people calling in right after work to take care of their business with the bank—and Eva wanted to make sure that she clocked out exactly on time to avoid being roped into staying “on the floor” as they called it.

  She closed her eyes, imagining fleeting memories of better days: the Louis Vuitton handbag she’d had to give up, along with the Louboutin shoes, and the vacation she’d taken to Cancun. How the mighty have fallen, she thought bitterly, opening her eyes once more.

  Eva blinked a few times, scrubbing at her face with her hands. Just two more hours and I’ll be out of here, she reminded herself, glancing at the time once more. She could hear Jana, one cubicle down, patiently explaining something to a customer. Eva gritted her teeth and took a slow breath.

  She had known it would be a bad day as soon as she’d arrived on the floor, stepping off of the elevator and into the cacophony of a rush. Eva had quickly learned the apparent cause of the influx of calls: there had been a system issue the night before, which had made twenty-five thousand accounts reflect “past due” status. The tech team didn’t have an ETA on when the issue would be resolved, but had simply told everyone to flag the accounts in question.

  Same as always, Eva had thought bitterly. She had been through two similar incidents with the company within about six months after training; and generally speaking, unless there was an issue that the higher-ups thought really merited a “mea culpa” from the company, any and all customer satisfaction surveys that came in during those incidents still counted against the metrics that all the call center employees had to meet. “We trust that you have the resources and intelligence to turn a negative moment into a positive branding opportunity,” they always said.

  Eva was certain that her surveys—if any went out for that day—would all come back with solid negatives. No matter how she explained the issue, using the script provided in the update in her own words, none of the callers had sounded satisfied at the end of the conversation. They had—almost to a one—wanted a statement credit to compensate them for the inconvenience of having to see a big, red, Account Overdue on their homepage online. Of course, Eva—as a first-tier representative—didn’t have the clearance to do that, and even if she had, she knew she probably wouldn’t have done it for more than maybe three of the thirty calls she had taken that day.

  Beset by mind-numbing boredom, she reached out for the water bottle she kept on her desk, pushing her chair back enough to look down the line of cubicles that extended across the entire floor of the office. There were easily a hundred people just in her section, though at night there would be less than fifty. Eva sipped her water and debated putting herself in Aux to run to the bathroom; she didn’t really have to go, but even the threat of being reprimanded for “aux overage” wasn’t quite enough to remove the temptation of getting away from the desk for five minutes. Her last break had been an hour before, and even if there were fewer than two hours left in Eva’s shift, that seemed like entirely too long a time.

  “How you hanging in there, Johansen?” Eva turned her head and saw one of the other team leads, Rebecka, walking up the aisle.

  “Glad we finally slowed down a bit,” Eva admitted. “That was a brutal first half.”

  “Well, at least it wasn’t boring,” Rebecka said, beaming with the kind of fake brightness that Eva immediately recognized. She wouldn’t last ten minutes in a real game, she thought, returning the woman’s smile with her own best fake grin.

  “I’m glad of a little boredom right now,” Eva quipped.

  “See? There you go: the bright side to that rush this morning.”

  Eva simpered at the team leader as Rebecka walked past, heading over to another section of the immense cubicle farm. Eva pushed her chair back into place, wiggling her mouse to keep the screensaver from coming up. A bleep in her headset announced an incoming instant message, and Eva opened up the application, glancing at the screen to see who was messaging her.

  When do you think they’re going to learn not to mess with things outside of their understanding?

  Eva snorted at the message; it had come from Clarence, a member of her team who had recently moved up to Online Services Specialty. It wasn’t a real promotion—he only earned about a dollar fifty an hour more than she did—but it had given him at least a little prestige, and a little bit of clout in the cubicle farm.

  Right about the time the asteroid hits the planet and wipes us all out, Eva wrote back.

  The running joke in the call center was that tech were all people who had come in with fake resumes, who managed to screw up more than they actually fixed. It wasn’t entirely true; Eva assumed that they made plenty of repairs to the system without incident. But the issues with the system—ranging from the payment system going down, to the website itself going offline—were legion, and they always seemed to happen at the worst possible time.

  You doing anything after? came the reply.

  Eva considered that, pressing her lips together.

  Clarence wasn’t a bad guy, but he wasn’t her type at all; if he were asking her out personally, she would have to think of a way to decline him without ruffling feathers. It was harder than she would have assumed—especially in the cramped and confined environment of the call center.

  She’d been asked out by three men in her short time at the company, and the first two had come completely unhinged as soon as she’d said no; the third, Eva was convinced, had gone to her supervisor about something that most of the other employees generally agreed to look the other way on, whenever it happened; certainly, she’d gotten a “random call monitoring” session within days of turning Richard down; she hadn’t been slated for one for another week or two. The “random” in the call monitoring sessions was less accurate than the assertion her employee packet had made that the company valued its employees even more than its customers.

  The sound of a call coming in—two steady beeps in her headset—cut through Eva’s thoughts. She took a deep breath and tapped the “unmute” button on her phone base.

  “Good afternoon, and t
hank you for calling DigiFinancial. My name is Eva. How may I help you today?” She heard the roar of wind over the other line and rolled her eyes to herself, waiting for the caller to speak.

  “This is DigiFinancial?”

  Eva pressed her lips together to resist the retort that rose up on her tongue.

  “Yes, sir, it is. How can I help you today?”

  “You can help me by telling your company to stop illegally charging me fees!”

  Eva closed her eyes. The man’s account—or so she assumed—had come up on her screen.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean, sir,” Eva said, as calmly and as coolly as she could.

  “Your stupid company keeps charging me an ‘account maintenance fee’ which is totally illegal and I want the fees for the last six months credited to my account right now.”

  Eva counted to three mentally.

  “Let’s look at your account and see what we have going on, shall we?”

  The man made a noise that sounded weirdly like a growl on the other end of the line.

  “Fine. Do you have my account up?”

  “I believe so—but in order to access your information I’m going to need for you to confirm the answers to a few security questions,” Eva explained, sitting up straighter in her chair.

  “Those goddam questions…why do you even ask them? I’m clearly the account holder.”

  “Unfortunately sir, since I do not know you personally, there’s no way for me to know who you are. You have not even provided me with your name—much less verified that you are that person,” Eva pointed out. She pressed her lips together to prevent herself from speaking further; she counted to five in her mind, slowly. Don’t let the rude ass get to you.