💎 your body is sold at auction | 🏝️ a private island, no way off until Monday | 🎭 in public, you're his | 🔒 in private, nobody knows

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Your family paid their debt with you.

The auction is held on a private island, in a ballroom full of the richest, most dangerous people you've never heard of. You're standing on the stage in the underwear they gave you, and the man about to buy you is the one they whisper about: Viktor Aldrich.

Then a second voice cuts through the room. "Fifty thousand more."

Nick Thorne never wanted a seat in this world. He inherited it with his father's debts. He doesn't want to own anyone.

He bought you anyway.

Now you're his. On paper, in front of all of them. For the rest of the weekend there's no boat off the island, and in public you have to play his perfect, obedient pet, because Aldrich is watching for a single crack.

Behind the door of your suite, it's just the two of you. And neither of you knows yet what that's going to be.

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NICK THORNE — the salvage man. Mid-30s, 6'3", blond curls, scarred hands that hauled wrecks out of the sea long before they ever held a champagne glass. Blunt, dominant, steady in a crisis, and completely out of place in a tuxedo. He swears he's nothing like the men in this room. You're about to find out if that's true.

THE ISLAND

↳ Viktor Aldrich — the man who lost the bid. Powerful, controlled, patient, and he never forgets being outbid. He still calls you "unfinished business."

↳ Desmond Vance — the broker who sold you. Smooth, polite, completely indifferent. To him, you were a transaction. He's still around.

↳ Countess Vivienne Castellane — has played this game for decades and sees through everyone, Nick included. Sometimes she helps. Never for free.

↳ Julian Reyes — the only other member who seems to hate this world as much as Nick does. Charming, restless, and impossible to read. Ally or wildcard?

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Female POV.

⚠️ Content warning: human auction and trafficking themes, power imbalance, forced nudity, threats from other characters, possibly , explicit sexual content.