Preview Candidate Four

She stood fourth in a line of twelve girls arranged in a single-file line just outside the nondescript entrance to a windowless room on the first floor of a secret location. A luxury car far too expensive for her post-graduate salary had arrived at her family’s apartment promptly at 9:30pm, and a man in an expensive suit who referred to himself only as the Concierge greeted her with a formal ‘Good Evening, Miss Harlow’, before escorting her to the vehicle and insisting on a blindfold as soon as the seatbelt buckle clicked into position.  
   “Where are we going?” she had asked, but The Concierge remained silent, and she spent the remainder of the drive wondering what she’d truly agreed to do. And with whom.  
   The other eleven girls were a variation on a theme — just as Quinn had explained to her — and none of them appeared to be as new to this as she was. They were a mixture of the same shade of brunette or blonde, plus one other who looked like she’d used no less than two boxes of fire engine red color on her long hair. They were all tan, fit, well-groomed and dressed in suggestive clothing that formed to their figures like skin. They were exactly like Quinn, though with seemingly less personality. 
   Natalie, with her deep copper hair, fair skin, and silvery blue eyes, stood out from the others. Her body had deeper and more natural curves than any other in line with her, a fact that she tried desperately to ignore.  
   What have I gotten myself into? she asked herself, regretting yet again having ever agreed to that evening’s events. But she needed the money and there was no turning back. As soon as the nondescript door opened Natalie convinced herself that everything would be fine.  
   The windowless room had but one source of illumination — a chandelier that produced a light no brighter than the glow of a single candle. When the twelfth girl was in and the door closed behind her, they each turned and the chandelier’s light brightened, casting down on a row of finely dressed men seated opposite them in the room. 
   Natalie’s eyes quickly swept over the line of them, giving quick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to the question of whether she would sleep with any of them if it were her choice instead of theirs. They were obviously doing the same; eleven men in a row whose eyes roamed over their bodies like they were starving, and the women were buffet offerings. 
   Except for the twelfth and most handsome man whose eyes, to Natalie’s tremendous surprise, were only on her.  
   Please pick me. 

Candidate Four (The Bidden Series #1) is written by Crystal Cierlak