Buy Me 2 (Mistress Auctions, #2)(5)

When I turned eighteen, my father, Howard Townsend, offered me my trust fund. He was a wealthy man, having opened and operated five casinos in Vegas by the time I was ten. I was a punk kid, but I knew one thing—I wanted to make it on my own. I signed my rights away to my inheritance and went to college to get my MBA. I ended up getting a PhD in business development, but most people don’t know that. I got a loan and opened my baby, the Snake Eyes casino the day I turned thirty. Five years later we are at nearly one hundred percent capacity every day of the year.

My casino isn’t affiliated with any other Townsend properties, and it’s important to me that it stays that way. I appreciate how hard my father worked to give me the life he never had, but that didn’t mean I wanted to leach off him. I wanted to make a life of my own, and if my name was on the building, I wanted to be able to do whatever the f*ck I wanted to do.

I look down at my costume and think about how I’ve gotten where I am now. The only way anyone could be in this room was if they had a costume on. Samantha does have a flair for the dramatic. I grit my teeth, thinking again that there’s only one person I would ever do this for.

Mandy.

The first time I saw her, I was getting into a car outside Echo, having just finished a business dinner there. Cupid had the door open for me, and I looked over my shoulder and saw her. I literally stopped moving and just stared at her. She looked like a model with her slim body, long legs, and her hair pulled back from her face, but her features were soft and angelic. She was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I was struck dumb by her soft beauty.

“That’s Mandy Burch, assistant to the Cortez brothers,” Cupid whispered without my even having to ask.

I started to walk over, but at that moment the brothers came out of the restaurant, each of them wrapping an arm around her. I could have breathed fire I was so angry at seeing them with her. I whirled around and got into the back of the car, letting Cupid get in after me. Once he shut the door, the driver pulled away. I chewed on my fingernail as I stared out the window, seething with jealousy. She belonged to them. I was angry with myself for having this reaction to a woman. It had never happened before. These emotions were hitting me all at once, and I felt like I was going to explode.

“She seems quite fond of the brothers, wouldn’t you agree?”

Cupid is trying to make me commit murder, I just know it.

“You know, we could always use some extra help around the casino. Maybe I should get her number just in case she ever decides to leave.”

“Yes.” It was all I could say. The thought of having some connection to her made me start to think. Maybe I could somehow lure her away. Maybe somehow I could get her to talk to me, and then I could make her see. See what, though? I doubt a stunning woman like her would have anything to do with someone like me. But I’m a selfish bastard and I play dirty. “Get her number. I’ll take care of this personally.”

“Perfect,” Cupid confirms, and then I hear him tapping away on his phone.

I shake off the memory, hating that I didn’t act sooner. Instead I just called her number to hear her voice on the phone before quickly hanging up. I was terrified. What would I say to a woman like her? My tastes are dark, and so are my desires. I didn’t know then how to tell her what I want to do to her. I thought bringing her into my casino and making her work with me would give me the opportunity to see if we could be together in that way. I had hoped that after thirty days of working with her, I would have found out if she could handle my demands.

But after a month together, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ruin her with my desires. I tried every day to control the beast inside me, but seeing her, smelling her sweetness, I wanted to ruin her. It didn't matter if she met my needs, I had to find a way for it to work.

She complained that I micromanaged her, that I was always hovering over her. It’s true, and it’s because I couldn’t stand to be more than a few feet from her. Having her in my office drove me insane, but if she wasn’t in my sights, I would go crazy.

The Snake Eyes specializes in more selective needs for a more selective clientele. We have rooms outfitted for your kinkiest desires, and knowing what could happen if Mandy went to the wrong room had me on edge. What if she saw something that disgusted her, and then she never came back? What if she went into one of our group rooms and decided I was some kind of sexual pervert? I couldn’t risk it, so I kept her under lock and key while she was working for me. Her room was right next to mine, and I had cameras installed in hers so I could watch her, despite her being just on the other side of the wall from me.

I should probably feel guilty about that, but not an inch of me does. Especially not the ten inches in my pants. I can’t tell you how many times I watched her sleep. Just sleep. I must really be f*cked up in the head if watching her sleep turns me on.

But some nights she did more than sleep.

The first night she touched herself, I was taken by surprise. I was sitting in my home office, and all three monitors on my desk were showing Mandy laid out on her bed. I installed these cameras myself, and I was the only one with the feed. I didn’t want anyone else to see her like this, it was just for me.

She was hot that night, and it may have had something to do with me setting the temperature in her room to the eighties. I wanted to see her sweat and possibly remove some clothes in an effort to cool down. What I saw her do was far more than I bargained for.