Prescription:love

pensive suits, and jeweled fingers wrapped around glasses of wine. The air

her. The black dress she wore was borrowed, too tight across her chest, and the cheap heels bit into her toes. Sh

omach

n't bel

n't who

had no

ather lying on a hospital bed. His face was pale, his eyes tired but still warm whenever he look

f becoming a nurse, the one who held her hand after her mother died of cancer and promised that,

higher than anything she had

was here. At an u

could afford them. Nora had laughed it off then. She was a student, not a prostitute. But when she saw her father coughi

the auctioneer's

eyes fl

ain jerk

tlight

omed, "a new face. Fresh. Pure

lammed agai

cing her forward. Her legs shook as

oom e

, stripping her bare without touching her. She kept her

s per

ng. Even

her for t

she didn't flinch. If she showed

enter of the stage, though each step

ing?" the auctioneer gri

first number, a deep, calm

a wa

m fell

head t

breath catchin

im. He wasn't like the others. His suit was perfectly tailored, his posture relaxed but co

r still. Cold, gray eyes, sharp

but carrying easily. "Too beautiful to sell

aughed. Others scowled, annoyed that the bidding w

dare

't know her pain, her reaso

t a sleek black pen, and opened a checkbook. The scratch of

with slow, deliberate steps. The crowd parted for hi

handed the slip of paper-not t

," he said sim

illed t

ney and the angry faces of bidders. But the man's stare wa

that, it

awkwardly. "Lot Twenty-One is...

. The man hadn't spared her another look. He simply turned, wa

stuck to her s

perate

fast. She didn't know wh

was that sh

--------

away, but its burn still lingered on her skin. Her ears rang with the echo of

perate

m the assistant's grip the

ispered, her voice shaking with

sistant cut her off, eyes wide. "You

o. He ruined me. That was my only chance. M

le. "Doesn't matter. Once he speaks, n

Without another word, she stormed toward the exit, t

ors. She breathed deeply, hoping it would steady her racing heart

father's sake-and in less than five minutes, a stranger ha

e blinked them away. She wouldn't

g lot, wrapping her arms around herself

en-she

ady footsteps ec

She turned, and

was

from the

ting. Tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp features that seemed carved from stone. Hi

d, but she forced he

she snapped, her voice h

ds in his pockets, his expressi

fell open.

your life," he said simply, as if his words we

know me. You don't know what I need, what I've been through. And

omething flickered in his eyes-annoyance

ot meant to be sold to men like them. If you have any

at she hadn't gone there for herself, that every humiliating step she had taken was for her father. But

her chin, forcing st

" she said coldly. "And I d

t toward the bus stop a

er, low and firm, sendin

t this path,

if she did, she was afraid she'd see those s

was that sh

she would never