My head was pounding, and my lids felt heavy. I had been up all night trying to get work done, but my mind had been occupied by Addi.

After the stairs, she had retired to her room for the night, not coming out once. My memory went back to years before, when she tempted me more than once. I fantasized about going to her room and taking her. Slipping into her bed while she was sleeping and fucking her into the mattress. Waking her up with my lips on her cunt and my name on her lips.

But it would never happen.

Fucking work.

Unfortunately, making the kind of money I made came with a lot of responsibility. And work. Taking time off for the auction and to play with Addi cost me a good few hours of getting shit done.

But goddamn, was it worth it.

I didn’t care that I stayed up for hours on end. That I stared at my inbox still full even as I answered as many emails as I could.

Not when I could still taste how sinfully sweet Addi was on the tip of my tongue.

My cock twitched to life at the thought of Addi the night before. Her moans had been so delicious, her wet cunt just begging for me to fuck it even more so.

She had wanted to act like a brat, but she bent to my will so easily, even though she was different from the young, impressionable girl she had been all those years ago.

Back then, she had been pliant, just like her father raised her to be. A good little girl who would listen to her father and later her husband.

Not anymore. Now, she held firm. Brattier than ever before. She wanted me to know that while I might own her for a month, she was going to make it hard on me.

While I wanted more than anything to make her beg, I knew it’d take a lot of work for that to happen. It should have annoyed me, but the prospect of a challenge excited me even more instead.

I’ve always enjoyed the chase anyway.

“Mercer’s daughter keeping you up?” Ares teased, coming through the door right after Maxwell. Of course he knew already. It was hard to hide something so newsworthy, especially from someone like Ares, who prided himself on knowing everything.

Nice of him to finally show up.

His presence was hard to miss. But his annoyingly playful attitude wasn’t.

I accepted the coffee from Maxwell and took a sip. I leaned back in my chair to enjoy a moment of peace before⁠—

“It’s leaked that you bought her,” Ares said, his tone getting on my nerves. “The Rogue Enquirer published this.”

Ares handed me an iPad, and on it was a headline in big, bold letters.

“ALEC MERCER’S DAUGHTER PURCHASED BY ENEMY IN SEX AUCTION.”

I let out an annoyed huff.