Free Taming the Dragon (Loved by the Dragon, #3) by Vivienne Savage

a fool to trust him. Still, tears streamed down her cheeks until she and Chloe attempted to dab them away.
    The next item went on the block, followed by another outside of Marcy’s range. Eventually, she raised her hand for a necklace once owned by Italian actress Sophia Loren but the price jumped above her budget within five bids.
    “Do you want it?” Chloe whispered.
    “Not enough to empty my entire savings account,” she replied.
    One hundred thousand. Two hundred and fifty thousand.
    Chloe raised her hand. A woman adorned in a fur stole shot them both a dirty look and raised her own bidding paddle. Jewels gleamed from her ears, wrists, and neck.
    “Chloe, no.”
    “You love her.” She raised her hand again. “We used to spend entire nights watching the same movies over and over during sleepovers.”
    “Chloe, we were like twelve. I don’t love her enough to spend a half million dollars. I liked the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, but I don’t see you buying me Lance Bass as my manservant. He’s probably cheaper than—”
    “One million dollars. Do we have another bid from Mrs. Drakenstone?” the auctioneer asked.
    Their wealthy opponent’s husband nudged his wife in the ribs and shook his head. She gave him an offended look in return, her mouth falling open.
    “Guess they realized who they were up against.” Chloe raised her hand again.
    “Sold, to the lovely Mrs. Drakenstone!”
    “You can consider this your birthday present. I had a peek in advance at the auction list and phoned Saul about it a couple hours ago. It’s from both of us.”
    Kekoa approached with a wrapped jewelry box. He bowed to the women, placed it in Chloe’s hands, and left after a polite greeting. Chloe passed the square box to her friend and kissed her cheek.
    “Love you. Now let’s pluck some food from those little hors d'oeuvres trays the servers are carrying.”
    Marcy clutched her new necklace close to her chest, still in a state of disbelief. Chloe had spent an exorbitant amount of money on her without batting an eye. “I can’t believe you did this.”
    “Pfft. I can’t believe our time is over. This has been an awesome time, Marce. I’m glad you came with me.”
    Sniffling, the Latina tried to fumble a cloth from her handbag to dab the tears from her cheeks. “Only you would make a million dollar purchase seem like buying a box of Skittles. I’m glad I came along, too. We need to do this again sometime, but uh, somewhere different.”
    “Paris?” Chloe suggested.
    “Forget Paris. Florence, Italy.”
    Chloe’s grin widened. “You wanna go wine tasting.”
    “That and I’m a sucker for a good pasta. You see these hips? They didn’t get this size on their own,” Marcy joked.
    “So, we’ll do some research to see when the best time of the year is to visit Italy. We’ll make it another girls’ week out,” Chloe decided as they meandered toward a server. Once they helped themselves to the delicious, savory finger food, they continued on their rounds to hob nob.
    “Saul wants me to pretend to like the people here. He encouraged a lot of film makers and studio execs to come for this, so I’m doing his work for him,” Chloe explained.
    “How’s he holding up anyway since he’s without his favorite ladies?”
    Chloe rolled her eyes. “He texts every night to say how much he misses us. Astrid is going to totally be a daddy’s girl when we return. I’ll cease to exist.”
    “I can’t believe you didn’t have Mahasti take you back for a romp or two.”
    Chloe shook her head. “You know what they say. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. We have a long time ahead of us.”
    “Yeah. You do.” And I’ll be gone. The morose thought threatened to ruin her mood, so Marcy shook it away.
    The remainder of the auction took less than an hour. Marcy had never seen so much money waved about in all her life. Their table companions from the first night, Archibald and Helena Galway, walked out with a Ming