Page 43 of Auctioned To Be Mine

I pulled my dress back on. He found my underwear somewhere near the door and brought them to me without comment, holding them out with two fingers and a perfectly straight face. I took them from him and he turned around to give me privacy, which made me laugh despite everything.

“A gentleman,” I said.

“Occasionally,” he said.

I stepped into them and smoothed the dress down. I found my shoes near the front door where he’d taken them off me. I slipped them on and picked up my purse from the entryway table.

He’d gotten dressed while I was gathering my things. He looked almost exactly as ridiculous as he had when he’d shown up at my door.

“I’ll drive you home,” he said.

I nodded, appreciating that he wasn’t just sending me off on my way. We didn’t talk much on the ride over, although we shared the occasional smile.

Before I knew it, he pulled up in front of my building and put the car in park.

“Thank you for dinner,” I said. “And for the view.” I paused. “And the other things.”

The corner of his mouth curved. “Happy to oblige.”

I laughed before I opened the door and got out, then leaned back in before closing it. “Goodnight, Callum.”

“Goodnight, Victoria.”

I shut the door and walked up the stairs to my building. I made myself not look back. As soon as I was inside, I went to the window and peered through the blinds.

He hadn’t moved. He was just sitting at the curb in front of my building. I watched him before he finally pulled away.

Holy shit. That was not how I expected the night to go. And damn, it was a night I would never forget.

15

CALLUM

Icranked the treadmill up to nine and focused on the wall in front of me. The basement gym was all rubber flooring and mirrored walls. I was a frequent flyer on the equipment. It didn’t just sit and get dusty.

My home gym had seen me through a lot. It was like having an in-house therapist. The gym was usually the one place in my life where everything went quiet. No business decisions, no family obligations, no charity auctions, no decisions about the store opening. Just me running from all the stress in my world. Usually, it worked.

Not today.

I turned it up to ten.

I could still feel her fingers in my hair. The way she’d grabbed me with both hands like she needed something to hold on to. The sound she made when my tongue ran over her clit.

I punched the speed up to eleven.

The treadmill belt was screaming beneath me. My lungs were screaming too. I kept going. My arms pumped like I was trying to outrun the hounds of hell.

Over the years, I’d had plenty of evenings with women I found attractive, women I enjoyed spending time with, women who were interesting for a night or two before the whole thing dissolved naturally into nothing. I’d enjoyed sex with those women. That was the system. Clean exits, no complications, no one gets hurt.

But that was not what happened with Victoria. She had gotten under my skin and into the very fiber of my being. It’d been a week and I swore I could still taste her. Feel her body wrapped around mine. I was caught up and I didn’t think I liked it.

I finally hit stop on the treadmill and stood there with my hands on the rails, chest heaving, sweat dripping off my nose onto the rubber belt. I’d been at it for almost an hour. My legs were burning. My lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of peanuts.

I still couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Most women I spent time with were trying to impress me. Victoria seemed entirely unbothered by that pressure. She said what she thought. She called me out but not to be cruel. She was shooting me straight, which was a rare thing in my world.

I grabbed my towel from the hook on the wall and pressed it to my face. I needed a reason to see her again. A legitimate one. Something real.