Page 46 of The Auction

“That’s very sweet, Daniel, but I just stole your wallet.”

Eleanor held up his wallet.

Daniel rolled his eyes and took it back from her. “Come on,” he said.

The two of them mounted the stairs and headed up to the top floor. Kingsley had a glass-enclosed rooftop garden and as usual the auction would take place there, illuminated both by candlelight and city-light.

The auction had just begun by the time they arrived. Eleanor waited at his side under an orange tree. On the opposite side of the garden, Eleanor’s owner stood next to Kingsley and watched them both intently.

“Are you really going to get into trouble for helping me?” Daniel whispered to Eleanor.

“Well, you’re not his favorite person, but I think I’ll come out of it with my head still attached to my body.”

“You sure you want to go through with it?”

“Daniel.” She looked up at him and grinned. “Do you even have to ask?”

He smiled back. “I’m glad you dumped me. You terrify me.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

Boisterous applause and wolf-whistling erupted as Kingsley came to stand on the small stage at the center of the crowd. Daniel barely heard a word of Kingsley’s welcome speech and his thank you’s to everyone for helping support his King’s Trust charity with their bids tonight.

“I love you, Kingsley,” a woman shouted out in the middle of his speech.

“Your taste is impeccable,” he replied without missing a beat. “See me after the auction.”

The first submissive took the stage and the auctioneer, a handsome older gentleman with silver hair, began the bidding.

“Oh, hello there,” Eleanor purred.

“Are you lusting after the auctioneer?” Daniel whispered.

“No, him.” She nodded toward the person on the stage—a tall young man who looked about twenty. He had tan skin that made his blue eyes look even brighter. His shaggy dark brown hair fell across his forehead and he nervously swiped it to the side.

“Buy him for me,” Eleanor begged, turning her pouting face up to him.

Daniel glanced down at the auction program—Antonio, age twenty. Beside his name was a tiny, lower-caseS.

“He’s a submissive, Elle. Not your type.”

Eleanor’s eyes narrowed at the young man and for a moment she looked genuinely dangerous, almost predatory. “Oh. Right. Not my type.”

She didn’t sound the least bit disappointed.

The submissive sold to a man in the audience for an impressive ninety thousand dollars. Daniel could only imagine what the young man would have to submit to that night to justify that ninety grand.

The auction continued and the next three submissives sold between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

“Wow. Big spenders tonight,” Eleanor said. “This is more than they made last year in the entire auction. Hope you’re ready to pay up.”

“I’m ready,” Daniel said.

“You do realize this might not work, right?” Eleanor asked, looking at him with genuine concern in her green-black eyes. “Anya might still hate you.”

He nodded. “I’m not buying her to win her forgiveness. I just want her to be safe.”

Eleanor rose up on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek. “She’s an idiot, too, if she doesn’t love you back.”

---