Highest Bidder (A Bad Boy Romance)

by Mia Carson

  Her fingers worked at the buttons on his shirt, and he removed it quickly as she undid his pants and pulled them down his legs. When she straightened, she grabbed him in her hand and squeezed until his whole body trembled. She released him and stepped into the steaming water of the tub, sinking below the bubbles. He turned the faucets off and stepped in after her. His ass had barely touched the bottom of the tub before she straddled his lap and he crushed her to him. Her full breasts were too tantalizing to ignore, and he lowered his mouth to her luscious mounds, seeking the pert nipples he wanted to suckle until she moaned with pleasure.

  The taste of her sweet flesh in his mouth made him swell even more, and his hips bucked on instinct. She shifted her hips until her slick folds rubbed against his cock hard, teasing him. He licked and sucked as her hands drove through his hair and the steam hovered around their wet bodies. Each little gasp spurred him on until he wanted nothing more than to penetrate and possess this woman in his arms, the woman he loved without any doubt whatsoever. Nuzzling her neck and nipping the soft skin, he grabbed her ass and lifted her up over his hardened cock. He spread her cleft, letting her only feel the tip of his arousal as she whimpered and gasped for more. Her nails dug into his shoulders, and he lowered her agonizingly slowly over his shaft. She cried out when he stretched her and she sank down on him, cradling him perfectly.

  “Sam,” she pleaded on a breath as her head fell back.

  “Ride me,” he whispered, and his thumb pressed against her clit, spreading her wetness from her swollen lips further back, swirling his finger around her ass as her hips rose and fell against him. “Jesus, Harley.”

  He groaned with each move she made and the way she bit her lip hard as the pleasure built between them. His hand slipped to her ass and pressed his finger against the one place they both enjoyed. As she took him fully within her hot sheath, he slipped his finger into that forbidden depth and she cried out sharply, clutching hard at his shoulders. She rode him harder and faster as he filled her with his cock and fingers, his tongue plundering her mouth, filling her until she could take no more.

  She gasped for air as her inner muscles clenched around his cock, milking him dry as she let out a scream of ecstasy. His hands moved to her hips and he thrust inside her until his bellow of release joined hers. He held himself deep within her, marking her for all time as his.

  Their bodies went limp, and she slouched against his chest. His head fell back against the edge of the tub, and the only sound was their gasping and the water lapping at their bodies.

  “So,” she murmured a few moments later, looking at him with a wicked grin.

  “So?” he repeated slowly. “Harley?” His chest tightened with sudden worry that he might have harmed the baby, but she giggled and leaned back, letting him slip out of her. They both shuddered at the loss, and she scooted back across the tub.

  “What would you say to late night tacos?” she asked.

  “Tacos.” He shook his head and slouched even lower in the water. “I think I can manage tacos.”

  “Good, just get a ton,” she told him. “Like twenty.”

  “Twenty?” He sat up straighter and laughed to see her cringing.

  “Maybe thirty?”

  “You want some nachos to go with them?” he joked, but when she slipped up to her chin in the tub, he lost it and leaned across the tub to kiss her warmly. “Tacos and nachos. As soon as I can walk again.”

  “Sam?” she asked quietly, and he frowned at the sudden change in her voice. “Are you…are you happy with me? With all of this?”

  “Of course I am,” he said quickly. “Why, do you think I’m not?”

  “I just wanted to be sure. I mean, we met in a not so great place and things happened and I…I want to make sure you’re really happy and not trying to be happy out of guilt for the baby.” Her hands moved below the water to hold her stomach, and she sniffed hard as tears glistened in her eyes. “I don’t want you to resent me.”

  Sam sat confused for a solid ten seconds before he pulled her gently into the cradle of his arms and held her close. “I could never resent you, and I don’t feel guilty. I’m not lying when I say I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life right now, and it’s all because of you, Harley,” he said quietly as he lifted her chin so he could stare into her eyes. “Don’t you ever think for one second I don’t want a life with you, or that you’re not good enough.”

  She nodded and wiped her face. “Sorry. It must be the hormones or something.”

  “Are you happy?” he asked, realizing all that night he hadn’t even stopped to think if she was.

  “I’ve been happy since the night you gave me your business card.” She wiped away the rest of her tears and sighed. “I guess I’m just worried it’s too much good happening in my life and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  “Well, I’m not going anywhere,” he promised. “I want this life with you.” He held the nape of her neck as he kissed her long and slow, showing her the best he could what she did to him and for him. He was happy again, and he could laugh again. No matter what the future might throw at them, he would never let Harley go.

  Harley parked her new truck—courtesy of Sam—against the curb of her old apartment building and shut it off. She just had a call from the doctor confirming she was indeed pregnant, and so far, everything looked good. She texted Sam the good news, and he sent her back several exclamation points after telling her again how much he loved her and how happy he was. He was at the office, getting ready to leave, and she wouldn’t see him until tomorrow when he returned from his trip.

  All that was left to do was get over this last hurdle in her life. Brianna and Karen were both home today, and she wanted to tell them her good news in person. After they had a chance to take it in, they would get to the other reason for her visit: figuring out what to do about Ricky. Harley had managed to convince the bastard this whole time she was still going to go through with it, but she never would and risk hurting Sam like that. She didn’t ever want to see Ricky again, but she was at a loss as to what to do that wouldn’t wind up with her sister facing down this nightmare alone. Saturday was only four days away, and they were quickly running out of time.

  Last night, as she sat up with Sam, talking quietly about their future, she almost admitted then what the auction was really about for her and how it wasn’t over. But she already knew what he would do, and seeing him hurt by that bastard Ricky was not something she could let happen. One way or another, she would figure out a way to get through this in one piece.

  “Harley!” Brianna shouted when she opened the door and hugged her sister.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked as she hugged her sister and glanced, confused, at Karen. “Bri? Are you crying?”

  Karen didn’t smile as she closed the door behind the sisters. “Ricky was here.”

  “What? Why?” she asked and set Bri back so she could look at her. “Bri, what’s going on?”

  “He told us that Mr. Devois no longer wants only one Smith sister,” Bri said through her tears as she wiped angrily at her face. “He’s decided he wants both, and Ricky promised to give him both of us.”

  “That wasn’t the deal,” Harley snapped. “He can’t do that.”

  “He threatened to come after Karen and Sam,” Bri sputtered. “Harley, I’m so sorry! I know you’re happy with him and I’ve put you both at risk! I’m so sorry!”

  Numb, Harley sank into the kitchen chair and hung her head. “I was never going to sleep with him,” she finally admitted. “I was going to have us run, but now…now I’m not sure.”

  “Harley, what’s going on?” Karen asked as she held her hand.

  “I came over here to tell you both that I’m…I’m pregnant. I had a plan weeks ago for us to run, get away from here on the night I would meet Devois, but now…shit, now I don’t know what to do, but I won’t play his fucking games,” she snarled. “Bri, we have to tell the cops. We have to tell someone.”<
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  “We can’t,” Bri told her in earnest. “He’s watching us again—he showed me pictures. And those guys watching us? They’re cops, Harley! He’s got fucking cops watching us like we’re damn criminals!”

  Harley glared at the floor. This wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she watched everything she’d created with Sam vanish in an instance. All her life, she played by the rules other people set for her and watched her mother disappear into a world of drugs and who knew what else. Watched her father slip away and die. Watched her sister go down that same road, and all because of men like Ricky.

  “We’re leaving the city,” she announced as she straightened. “The second Sam lands tomorrow, the four of us are going far away, and we’ll figure out what to do with Ricky.”

  “You want all of us to run?” Bri asked.

  “I’m not going to watch him tear our family apart. I’ll tell Sam everything and we’ll leave, we’ll get out of here, go live in the middle of fucking nowhere if we have to.” She pushed to her feet and paced the tiny kitchen. “We’ll get out of his reach and we’ll send the cops or FBI or whoever after him. If we’re out of the city, he can’t touch us.”

  “He has a whole network of people,” her sister argued. “What if he finds us?”

  “Then we make sure he doesn’t. We’ll get far enough away so we’re out of his reach. We’ll figure this out, Bri, but I’m not going to watch my sister go down the same damn road as our mom did. Ricky is not going to win.” She hugged her sister tightly.

  Once Sam was home, she would admit everything to him and pray to God he understood the severity of the situation and was still ready to spend the rest of his life with her. Her hands covered her belly and she smiled sadly down at the little boy or girl there.

  Don’t worry, kid, she thought. Momma’s not going to let anything happen to you or your daddy. Not now, and not ever.

  Ricky would have to find another way to land his deal with Mr. Devois, and it was not going to involve her or her sister having sex with that man. She would get them out of that world once and for all, even if she had to run across the country to do it. With Sam by her side, she could do anything. They would make it. They had to.

  Chapter 12

  Sam knew something was wrong when he’d texted Harley a few more times before his flight and her replies were short. He tried calling, but when she answered, she sounded out of breath and his chest ached to hear guilt in her words. He asked her about the baby, but she assured him the baby was fine and so was she. She told him to have a good trip and she would see him the second he got back. He tucked his cell away with a frown and grabbed his leather jacket before making ready to catch the flight out to LA to visit Stan. As Sam walked, he worried Harley wasn’t as happy as she claimed to be, but when he asked her again in a text, she assured him she was and sent him a picture of her grinning, showing off her still-flat belly. Except her smile didn’t reach her eyes, and Sam’s anxiety grew. Whatever bugged her made him sick to his stomach with worry by the time they landed and he slipped into the back of the limo.

  “Is everything all right?” Betty asked him.

  “Yeah, I’m thinking, is all. Do we have everything in order for Stan? You know how he likes to ask a thousand unnecessary questions.”

  “Everything is organized and ready to go. He really has nothing to worry about,” Betty said on a sigh. She hadn’t looked at Sam during the entire flight and the tension in the limo rose until he could hardly breathe.

  “Betty, can we talk for a minute? Before we see Stan?”

  “About what?” she asked sharply.

  Sam reached over and took her cell out of her hands so she would stop texting for five seconds and look at him. “I realize now that I may have overlooked a particular situation involving you and me.”

  Betty stiffened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t lie, okay? I saw the way you looked at Harley the other day and the way you’ve been treating me,” he muttered. “I didn’t realize you had feelings for me, but before this gets awkward and I have to fire you or move you somewhere else in the company, I love Harley and that’s not going to change anytime soon.”

  She sucked in her cheeks and pursed her lips, still not talking.

  “What I’m trying to say,” he continued, “is that you have always been there for me when I needed you—as a friend and one of my best employees. I would hate to lose you in that regard.” He waited impatiently, wondering what she would do.

  She sagged against the leather seat and held out her hand for her cell phone. “I understand and I’m sorry.” Sam handed her cell back, and she tucked it into her purse. “She seems like a great person, and as long as you’re happy, then I’ll be happy, too.”

  Sam let out a sigh of relief. “Good, that makes this a little less awkward.”

  “Were you worried I would do something?”

  He grimaced. “It might have crossed my mind.”

  “Wow, now I’m a little offended,” she told him in disbelief. “I’d be more worried about Marcus getting jealous and pulling some stupid stunt rather than me.”

  “I’m actually waiting for that to happen.”

  He drew out his cell and checked it for any more messages from Harley, but his screen was empty. He bounced his phone on his thigh and stared out the window as they drove deeper into the city and eventually reached Stan’s office in the heart of downtown LA. The car stopped and Betty opened the door, but Sam didn’t move to get out with her.

  “Sam? What’s wrong?”

  “I’m giving you a promotion,” he said slowly and handed her the briefcase. “Everything you need is in there, and if Stan has an issue with you taking point, tell him to call me. Or to find another company to take care of his marketing.”

  Betty took the briefcase slowly as worry creased her forehead. “Are you sure about this? Stan is one of our biggest clients.”

  “I trust you. I have to get home. Call me if you need anything, Betty.”

  She stepped back, clearly confused, but closed the door, and Sam told the driver to take him back to the airport. By the time he arrived, he already had another ticket purchased for a flight leaving in three hours. In four hours, he’d be back in Vegas to figure out why every instinct in him screamed that something was wrong and Harley was at the heart of it.

  Brianna sat on the couch with Karen at Sam’s penthouse while Harley paced around the kitchen, unable to sit still for long before the panic settled in again and she had to do something. She ran over their option for calling the cops again, but what was to stop the cops on Ricky’s payroll being the ones to show up at Sam’s place? She smacked her palm on the countertop and yelled in aggravation, hanging her head and on the verge of losing what little sanity she clung to. The TV’s sound cut off and she glanced up to see Brianna and Karen watching her from the couch.

  “I’m fine,” she grunted.

  “No, you’re not, and it’s all my fault,” Brianna exclaimed. She rushed around the couch and took Harley by the shoulder’s. “I’m going to Ricky and I’ll tell him Devois gets me, and if he doesn’t accept that, then I’ll work the debt off and make sure he leaves you out of it.”

  “What? No!”

  “Yes, this is my problem and I’m going to take care of it,” she argued, but Harley snatched her sister’s arm and yanked her back. “Harley, let me go.”

  “No, damn it! I’m not going to watch you disappear into that fucking club and never leave again! We’re family, which means we get through whatever shit comes our way together,” she yelled. “You got it? You are not leaving this penthouse! I screwed up! I was never supposed to fall in love with Sam, but I did. This is my fault.”

  Brianna tried to pry Harley’s hand off her arm as tears glistened in her eyes. “You have to let me do this!”

  “I will duct tape your ass to a chair if I have to!” Harley warned.

  Karen clambered to her feet
and rushed to them as the lock slid back on the door and a second later, Sam stepped inside. He paused, glancing at each woman in turn as his confusion grew. He straightened, and Brianna’s arm slipped out of Harley’s grasp.

  “Harley? What’s going on—what is this?” Sam asked.

  Brianna tried to slip past him. “No! Stop her!”

  Sam shut the door quickly and pressed his back to it. “Is this your sister?”

  “Yes, I am, and you are going to move your ass right now,” Brianna ordered, trying to shove Sam out of the way.

  He stared at Harley over Brianna’s head. “Can someone please explain what’s happening?”

  “Why are you home a day early?” Harley replied, picking at her nails, swallowing hard as she realized the time had come to tell Sam the truth—the whole truth. Tears burned in her eyes, and she cursed, wiping them away. “Sam, just sit down, please? And Brianna, if you walk out that door, pregnant or not, I will kick your ass and drag you right back inside.”

  “Harley,” Sam started, but she held up her hand. His lips thinned, but he moved to the kitchen table. Brianna tried to slip past him to the door, but he blocked her way again. “All right, ladies, someone better tell me what the fuck is going on right now.” He guided Brianna to a seat, and once she was sitting, he sat beside her, staring expectantly at Harley.

  She picked at her nails, breaking three before Sam growled her name. “All right! I have something to tell you and you’re not going to like it and it’s bad—it’s really bad. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  Sam was on his feet with her hands in his in seconds. “You’re rambling and you’re freaking me out here. What aren’t you telling me?”