The Marriage Auction: Season One, Volume Three by Audrey Carlan

Author:Audrey Carlan [Carlan, Audrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Audrey Carlan, contemporary romance, The Marriage Auction
Publisher: Blue Box Press
Published: 2023-01-23T18:30:00+00:00

Episode 82

I Need You

DAKOTA

I woke to the sound of the shower in our master bath turning on. Shortly following it was the distinct noise of a belt buckle hitting the floor.

Sutton was finally home from the hospital.

I closed my eyes for a moment as my stomach tightened. He’d left for the hospital shortly after his mother overheard my admission about The Marriage Auction. The memory flooded my mind with what had occurred earlier today.

“I’m sorry, Sutton. I’m so sorry I brought this to your life. You should have never bought me in The Marriage Auction. Your life would be so much easier if you hadn’t.”

He’d rubbed the back of my neck, attempting to knead the building tension. “Dakota, don’t you start that talk. The day I bought you was the best day of my life.”

The way he’d said it, with such love and loyalty in his expression, melted my heart where I stood. I couldn’t have loved him more than I did in that moment.

Until I heard the distinct timbre of his mother’s voice from not far behind us.

“Bought you?” Linda’s tone was not only breathy and shocked, but achingly filled with confusion. “You bought Dakota in an auction? A marriage auction. What does that even mean?”

Sutton curled an arm around my waist, holding me close.

“Ma, don’t worry about it,” he’d grumbled.

“Son, don’t take that tone with me. Dakota just stated you bought her in some type of marriage auction. Is that like when you bid on a date at a charity event?” She pressed her hand over her chest, clearly concerned.

“Yeah, Ma. Somethin’ like that. Don’t worry about it,” he’d added, his frustration rising with every minute that passed.

“Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t worry about. Brody is at the hospital dying from a gunshot wound he sustained on the McAllister land. Everett has been cuffed and taken to jail. I came over here to check on my daughter-in-law after seeing her tossing her cookies into the bushes, and now I hear you bought your wife in some type of game auction. What in the world is going on!” she screeched.

“Nuthin’ for you to worry your head about. This is my business. Dakota is my wife. The love of my life. That’s all you need to know. You hear?”

“Son…”

He’d shaken his head and lifted his hand. “I’ll not hear another word about it, Ma. I’m taking Dakota back home so she can see to her sister and the rest of her extended family. Then I need to get to the hospital and talk to Brody’s wife. What I will ask is that my mother, the good woman I know her to be, help me in that effort and not hinder the progress we’ve made.”

Linda clamped her mouth shut. “This isn’t over, son.” Her gaze flicked to mine. “Dakota.”

I kept my mouth shut. I’d already messed up by spewing the truth out in the open, but now was most certainly not the time to address how Sutton and I came to be married.

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