Page 64 of Auctioned To Be Mine

I heard glass clinking and then he was beside me. He handed me wine. I sipped it and thought about the view from my shitty apartment. I could admit I did miss the million-dollar views of my old life.

But I was also very content with this new life and the things it offered me. Things that didn’t have a price tag.

We finished our drinks and set them on the table. I turned to face him at the same time he looked at me.

He reached out and tucked a curl behind my ear. His fingers barely grazed my cheek and my whole body responded to that single, light touch like it was a signal I’d been waiting for.

“I love your hair,” he said.

I smiled. “It’s unruly.”

He kissed me slowly, and his hands came up to cradle my face. It was tender. Gentle. And so beautiful. I kissed him back the same way.

When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine and took my hand. I let him lead me through the house I was starting to know.

We walked into his bedroom. We didn’t have to talk about it. We both knew what we wanted. His hands moved from my waist to my back, drawing me in. I sank into him and let him take me to bed.

23

CALLUM

Cleo sat across from me with her reading glasses on, which she only wore when she was being serious. We were sitting at her kitchen table instead of the store where there would be too many distractions. My office was even worse for distractions.

We’d been going over budgets and projected profits for the wedding business. Overseeing the store would have to wait. We were running numbers, determining whether we had room for a new line of dresses before the end of the year.

“Okay,” she said finally, pulling one of the invoices toward her. “It looks like we have the time and the budget for a new line. And the store will almost certainly start sending customers and clients our way.”

I nodded and smiled. “Victoria thinks seeing options in person will give us more work than we can handle.”

“Victoria, huh?”

I looked up and found her grinning at me. “What?” I asked.

“I’ve seen that smile before,” Cleo said.

“What smile?”

“The one you get whenever you say her name. Which happens to be a lot.” She put her glasses back on and picked up her pen like she was going to go back to work, but she was still looking at me over the rims. “You get this look, like you’re somewhere else for about two seconds.”

I frowned at her. It was probably true, but I wasn’t ready to discuss it with anyone. Victoria had awoken a lot of feelings in me, and I was still trying to process them all. “Can we focus? We have a lot to get through.”

It was quiet while we worked for all of two minutes.

“She fit right in with everyone,” Cleo said. “Have you ever brought a woman home before?”

“I’ve introduced past girlfriends,” I said.

She snorted. “In high school. I mean since you were old enough to shave.”

“Most of the women I went out with weren’t the type you bring home,” I said. “But, yeah, Victoria liked everyone. She had a really good time.”

“She told me a bit about her own situation,” my sister said. “With her family. And being cut off completely. Fucking vicious.”

I nodded but I wasn’t going to gossip about Victoria behind her back. “Yep.”

“Mimi texted me after we left,” Cleo continued. “She said she really liked Victoria. Said she was a breath of fresh air and she hoped we’d see more of her.”

“That’s nice.”