The Marriage Auction: Book One(35)
She swallowed and clutched her small bag to her chest as though she needed something, anything to hold on to. “W-where?” she asked as I ushered her to the door.
“My resort. The Alexandra.”
Her gaze continued to flutter around the room. “The, uh, new one?”
“Yeah, I own it. You’ll be surrounded by my security team and kept safe by me personally until you share with me what’s going on.”
“I can’t. I’m not ready to talk about it. I need a little time. This is so messed up…” She rubbed at her temples with her thumb and fingers.
I shook my head and turned to her before opening the door. “The moment you signed on that dotted line, Faith, you became mine. My fiancée. My future wife. Mine to protect and keep safe. If someone is threatening something that’s mine, I take care of it.”
“You don’t understand…” she croaked, her eyes filling with tears. “He has eyes everywhere. The minute we leave this building, he’ll find me.”
I smiled and took her hand, interlacing our fingers. She clung to my hand like a life preserver. I closed my eyes for a moment to soak in the trust it must have taken her to accept my touch.
“Any man who thinks he can threaten a woman under my protection will find out within minutes that he is no threat to me or my team.” I cupped her cheek and let my thumb trail over her tears, wiping them away.
“I’m sorry, Joel. You don’t deserve to be dragged into any of this.” Her words were a pained whisper.
I dipped my head and stole those words right from her lips. She reciprocated immediately, and once again, we got lost in our chemistry. We kissed for so long, I didn’t realize I’d pinned her up against the door until there was a sudden knock that broke our connection.
Faith jolted in my hold, her gaze frightened once more and blazing into mine.
“Mr. Castellanos,” my lead bodyguard called through the door. I’d been gone longer than anticipated and already Bruno was checking things out. Just as expected.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s my bodyguard,” I whispered for her ears only. “I’ll be out in a moment,” I said loudly enough for him to hear.
One of my hands was resting flat against the door, holding my body weight. The other was curled around Faith’s nape. Her lips were a swollen berry color after our heated kisses, and I vowed to make that color appear as often as possible.
“Now listen to me, Faith. I willingly entered into this auction and chose you. That means whatever situation you have outside of tonight becomes part of my life. And I am not sorry. Especially if that means I can help a fearful woman who looks like a goddess and kisses like a siren find her way to a beautiful life. With me. And my daughter.”
Her eyes widened and her face paled. “Daughter,” she sputtered out.
I smiled wide. “You’re gonna love her. It will be a match made in Heaven. I can already tell.”
With those parting words, I tucked Faith against my side, opened the door, and let my bodyguard lead us out of the building and into the waiting limo where we sped off down the Las Vegas Strip toward The Alexandra.
Episode 18
Ruby in the Sky with Diamonds
RUBY
“So, what happens next?” I twisted my fingers together in front of me and worried my bottom lip.
“We take you home to London,” Nile announced.
“London as in Europe?” I gasped.
Nile tilted his head and cocked a haughty eyebrow. “As in Great Britain or England the country within the continent of Europe. Where the city of London resides. It seems you’ve not traveled much… I gather.”
Crap. My World History teacher taught us all about other countries and the major cities within them. I just didn’t pay a lot of attention, being that at sixteen I was more worried about making money so that I could pay off my mother for room and board than I was about high school. The alternative was allowing the parade of “stepdaddies” to continue to defile me, or worse, start in on my sister. I spent years protecting Opal from being abused more than she already had been. I wasn’t going to focus my attention on studying when the only way out of the nightly torture was paying off my junkie mother .
“No, I haven’t. The flight to Las Vegas was the first plane I’d ever been on,” I admitted, lifting my chin and standing as tall as I could. Feeling very thankful for the sky-high stiletto heels the stylist put me in. I may not have been on even ground in the smarts department, but with my natural height and heels, I stood nose to nose with the identical twins, daring them to say anything more.
“Well, we can’t go to London until after the meeting tomorrow with Madam Alana.” Noah approached his brother. He put an arm around his shoulders in a brotherly gesture that relaxed my own shoulders a bit.
“Such a waste of time.” Nile’s lips pursed as he lifted his arm and looked at his watch. “I have a call with a business associate in Tokyo that I must take in a couple hours. I’d planned on doing it from the plane.” He sighed. “Since we can’t leave, why don’t we retire for the evening. Allow Ms. Dawson to pack her things and prepare to depart for London after the meeting tomorrow.”
Noah clapped his brother on the back a few times. “Sounds like a plan. Ruby?”