The Marriage Auction: Book One(22)

A stranger.

A handsome, golden stranger willing to pay eight million dollars for a marriage commitment of three years to me—a woman he’d only just laid eyes on.

What had I gotten myself into?

Regret warred with the thrill of securing such a huge number.

Eight million dollars.

It was a ridiculous amount of money that didn’t even seem real. Though it was money that was desperately needed in order to do what I came here to do. Save the farm. Protect the land from the greedy hands of our neighbors. Buy out my father so the land would be in the family for generations to come. Just as our granddaddy had worked and bled for his entire life. If he could give everything of himself, so could I.

Three years was nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I stared at what I could see of my future husband and prayed that he’d be as kind as his gaze I felt boring into mine.

“Thank you, Savannah. You may leave the stage,” Madam Alana stated.

I waved stupidly at the crowd and turned to where I knew my future husband was sitting. I could feel his gaze running over my body like a brand.

A flush stole across my skin, and my heart pounded against my chest. I’d just been bought and sold to the highest bidder, much like the cattle we auctioned off back home.

Once we both signed on the dotted line… Mr. Golden owned me.





Episode 12B


Twenty Million Dollars (Bonus Scene)



FAITH

I stood at the back of the line of women and one hunky Black man who were ready to be auctioned. I still had trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that I was about to willingly put myself into a situation where I’d be bid on for millions of dollars in order to become some rich man’s wife for three years. No matter how many times I told myself this was my last resort, my salvation, it freaked me way the hell out.

Would I be getting into another bad situation? Trading one problem for another?

I gritted my teeth and shook my head, steeling my spine as I stared at the staircase leading up to the stage. I watched the line move. Up first were the two giggling women who had come late to the party. We’d barely been introduced to them during our fittings, but they seemed to be old hands at this process, which probably meant they’d been in the auction before.

My heart started to pound at the thought that if they hadn’t been picked previously, and this was their second or who knew how many times entering, that it was definitely possible to not get a bidder. I clenched my teeth as I kept my position behind the darker redheaded cowgirl named Savannah. She seemed sweet and had an innocence about her that I feared would be ruined once she went through with this.

Me, I’d already been ruined.

As much as I feared selling my hand in marriage, especially with the possibility of getting a bad match, I feared the alternative more.

Being caught in Vegas by the devil himself.

Just as Dakota passed through the black drapes to the stage, a commotion from the other side of the room blasted through my thoughts.

Jade was running down the stairs, holding her dress bunched up around her legs. It didn’t help because when she hit the bottom of the stairs and carpet, one of her stiletto heels caught, and her body arched and catapulted forward, her arms flailing as her knees smashed to the ground.

“Oh my goodness!” I bolted in her direction without even thinking it through.

“Jade!” Memphis, the lone male member of our Candidates Club, called out, his lumbering form quickly following at my heels.

The delicate, gorgeous woman had her hands covering her face and her head pointed at her chest as she sobbed loudly.

“Jesus, woman, what happened?” Memphis knelt beside her and touched the ball of her shoulder. She immediately flinched, jerking from his hold.

“Go away! Both of you, just go away!” she cried, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Jade, honey, you have to tell us what’s wrong. Are you hurt?” I asked gently, crouching as low as my designer dress would allow. The velvet didn’t have a lot of give, but I did my best to get close and reach for her wrist to pull it away from her face. “Hey, we’re here for you. Talk to us,” I urged.

“It was awful.” She wept, swiping the tears away as they fell.

“The auction?” I swallowed down my own fear.

She nodded. “I-I… They asked right away for the bidders to indicate if they were interested and…and…I… There were only a few that said yes.”

“A few is good,” I tried to soothe.

Her face crumpled into a miserable expression the likes of which I deeply recognized. Mostly because I’d seen that expression on my own face in the mirror more times than I was willing to admit.

Life was hard. It was messy. It was complicated. And sometimes it was all of those things for the same person at the same time.

Jade shook her head. “You don’t understand.” She hiccupped through her tears. “When you get only a few votes, she makes you remove your dress. Right there on the stage. I…I couldn’t do it. I knew it was coming and I was supposed to do whatever she said, but I’d built myself up about the second round. That if we didn’t get a ton of bidders, we would go for a second round, and everyone would go out in their robes and show the goods. Safety in numbers and all that. I was prepared to do it as a group. At least I thought I was.”