Page 75 of Shared By the Highest Bidder

When I’m tucked neatly on the bench seat, and he gets inside, I turn to him.

“I’m sorry I put you on the spot about Ford. Youdon’t have to tell me more.”

“We both like women.” Ash faces me. “But things got extremely intense for us. Neither of us had ever fallen so hard for someone the way we fell for each other.” His eyes rake down my body. “But something was missing. Ford started suggesting we add a woman to what we had and make the arrangementpermanent.” The way his voice lifts saying permanent, spikes my heart. “And out in the open.”

“You didn’t want that?”

“Not the open part.” He pinches the bridge of his nose, stress coming off him in waves. “I left him. I fucked up what we had. I was so scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“That my family would find out who I really was. Am.” He shakes his head like it’s blurry for him. “But Ford outed me to them anyway.”

“Oh.” I clear my throat. “Were you and he friends first?”

“We met at the club. Bid on the same woman, but some big spender wiped the floor with us.”

Hearing I’m not the first person they fought over crushes me a little bit.

Big Spender...

“Did Emery win the woman?”

“Big Spender gave it away, huh?” Ash laughs.

Uneasiness settles over me, and I have to remind myself these men do auctions all the time because they don’t want relationships. They don’t want commitments.

But Ford did want one. With Ash. A man. Ash didn’t want what Ford was offering if it was out in the open.

“Did you and Ford bid on someone else?”

“No.” He stares at me, and that one-word answer makes my heart pound.

“Then did you and he...”

“He fucked me in the bathroom.”

His face heats, like he’s remembering Ford in an expensive suit, pants down around his ankles bending him over in a toilet stall.

The image sure as hell heats mine.

“I don’t even know what the heck I said to him that made him drag me in there and take me so damn hard.” He laughs again. “We were sitting at the bar and our legs were touching. It was like something lit a match between us.”

“Was that your first time with a man?” I expect him to say yes.

“No. It was his.”

Now my mind is blown.

And when Ash says that Ford fuckedhim, that means Ford, who had never been with a guy, got so hard at the thought of fucking Ash, that he barreled out of his comfort zone and did him in the men’s room.

Couldn’t even wait to get home.

That’shot as fuck.

Ford couldn’t wait with me either. Almost did me in the elevator.

“I’ve been bi since college. But I’ve only been in relationships with women. Until Ford. Bernadette, my family doesn’t understand. Doesn’tcareto understand. About that and how I would rather work for free. What I do, as the Ives Crown Prince, how I publicly refute them, puts a target on my back. The way my family sees it, my life choices compromise their standing in the medical business. Finding out about Ford gave them ammunition to take me down.”

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