Madam Alana called out numbers, but I paid no attention. My entire focus captivated by the golden god.
“Do we have six million?” I finally heard Madam Alana announce.
“Six?” I blurted, coming back to the present. “What happened to four and five?” I gasped, pressing my hand to my chest.
Madam Alana laughed heartily as did many of the bachelors in the audience, but not Mr. Golden. His intense stare didn’t waver, as if calling me into his hypnotic vortex and holding me captive there. Daring me to look away.
Challenge accepted.
I licked my lips and gave what I got from him, forcing a well of confidence to the surface that I rarely tapped. Placing my hands on my hips, I dipped my body forward and gave the audience a saucy view of the tops of my large breasts as I blew Mr. Golden a kiss.
“Deary me,” Madam Alana tutted as the bids increased again.
Still, my focus was on one man.
Eventually, the other lights went dark until there was only one left lit up.
Mr. Golden.
Madam Alana’s voice rose, and I listened as she stated, “ Sold. For eight million dollars to bachelor number fifty.”
I smiled wide and gave a jaunty little curtsy.
Mr. Golden finally smiled, and I was taken aback at his beauty. Golden waves of hair, what looked to be hazel eyes, and a light beard-mustache combo that accentuated a pair of lips I suddenly wanted to kiss.
I stepped back in shock—the same physical reaction I’d had in the past to another man’s interest. Only this time, I wouldn’t be backing away. I’d be walking forward, down an aisle, to marry Mr. Golden.
Not Jarod.
Not the man I’d loved since I learned what romantic love was.
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.