pensive suits, and jeweled fingers wrapped around glasses of wine. The air
her. The black dress she wore was borrowed, too tight across her chest, and the cheap heels bit into her toes. Sh
omach
n't bel
n't who
had no
ather lying on a hospital bed. His face was pale, his eyes tired but still warm whenever he look
f becoming a nurse, the one who held her hand after her mother died of cancer and promised that,
higher than anything she had
was here. At an u
could afford them. Nora had laughed it off then. She was a student, not a prostitute. But when she saw her father coughi
the auctioneer's
eyes fl
ain jerk
tlight
omed, "a new face. Fresh. Pure
lammed agai
cing her forward. Her legs shook as
oom e
, stripping her bare without touching her. She kept her
s per
ng. Even
her for t
she didn't flinch. If she showed
enter of the stage, though each step
ing?" the auctioneer gri
first number, a deep, calm
a wa
m fell
head t
breath catchin
im. He wasn't like the others. His suit was perfectly tailored, his posture relaxed but co
r still. Cold, gray eyes, sharp
but carrying easily. "Too beautiful to sell
aughed. Others scowled, annoyed that the bidding w
dare
't know her pain, her reaso
t a sleek black pen, and opened a checkbook. The scratch of
with slow, deliberate steps. The crowd parted for hi
handed the slip of paper-not t
," he said sim
illed t
ney and the angry faces of bidders. But the man's stare wa
that, it
awkwardly. "Lot Twenty-One is...
. The man hadn't spared her another look. He simply turned, wa
stuck to her s
perate
fast. She didn't know wh
was that sh
--------
away, but its burn still lingered on her skin. Her ears rang with the echo of
perate
m the assistant's grip the
ispered, her voice shaking with
sistant cut her off, eyes wide. "You
o. He ruined me. That was my only chance. M
le. "Doesn't matter. Once he speaks, n
Without another word, she stormed toward the exit, t
ors. She breathed deeply, hoping it would steady her racing heart
father's sake-and in less than five minutes, a stranger ha
e blinked them away. She wouldn't
g lot, wrapping her arms around herself
en-she
ady footsteps ec
She turned, and
was
from the
ting. Tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp features that seemed carved from stone. Hi
d, but she forced he
she snapped, her voice h
ds in his pockets, his expressi
fell open.
your life," he said simply, as if his words we
know me. You don't know what I need, what I've been through. And
omething flickered in his eyes-annoyance
ot meant to be sold to men like them. If you have any
at she hadn't gone there for herself, that every humiliating step she had taken was for her father. But
her chin, forcing st
" she said coldly. "And I d
t toward the bus stop a
er, low and firm, sendin
t this path,
if she did, she was afraid she'd see those s
was that sh
she would never