Page 112 of Rogue Romeo
He presses his fingers to his lips. “She was chef’s kiss perfection, Alex. Big brown eyes and lips just made to be wrapped around my cock—”
I push past him, Vaughn hot on my heels as Jules calls after us. “What’d I say?”
Neither of us replies as we march across the staff floor, Vaughn pulling out his cell to quickly dial Lucia, who readies the clients for auction.
“She’s not fucking answering!”
I break out into a run, my gut telling me that it’s her.
My Reyna.
I round the corner intoRisquéand run smack into a shocked Ford.
“I was just on my way to find you.”
I don’t preamble. “Is Rey with you?”
His forehead puckers. “She’s…outside.”
My stomach dips. “She’s inRavish. She’s been mistaken as a lot in tonight's auction!”
Horror fills Ford’s face, and the three of us rush towardRavishin single-minded determination.
Rather than entering through the usual door, Vaughn ducks to the side, leading us into an empty room packed with minuscule undergarments and wigs in every shade known to man.
“She’s already gone with Lucia. Otherwise, she’d be here.”
He leads us through the room and out into a backstage area that’s interspersed with scantily clad girls, some giggling softly between themselves, others sitting silently in wait.
All of them willingly selling themselves for their own reasons.
My eyes scan the area, almost instantly finding the woman I’m looking for wearing a hot pink wig and matching negligee while she argues with a clearly irate Lucia.
“Take me to Vaughnnow!” I can hear the frantic tone in her voice escalate with each word she speaks while Lucia looks on in blatant disbelief.
“Nice try, but no one gets to Mr. Burton unless he bids for them.” She folds her arms with a self-satisfied smirk. “And heneverbids, sweetie.”
“Lucia!”
Vaughn barks the single word, and his second-in-command snaps her head up. “Vaughn! What are you doing here?”
Rey spots me and dashes headlong into my waiting arms. “Oh, thank God, you’re here.”
I bury my nose in the top of her head, inhaling her sweet fragrance, filling my lungs in the hope of quieting my palpitating heart.
If she’d been sent out onto that stage, there’d have been no takebacks. She would have been fair game, and only attendees with a bidder’s paddle would have been able to win the lot.
Those are the rules.
Bidding wars aren’t uncommon, from what Vaughn has told me. And there’s no doubt in my mind that a woman as stunning as my wife would have instigated one in a heartbeat.
Vaughn turns apologetic eyes to me, and I hold up a quelling palm. “No harm, no foul, Burton. Is there somewhere we can—”
He cuts me off. “Come with me.”
Then turns to Lucia with a dangerous scowl. “I’ll deal with this shit in a minute. Don’t you worry about that.”
He brings us out through another door and down a long corridor that I’ve visited before in my early days at Rogue.