“You talking about how hot Kodi looks?” Sosa cut in and I turned to him in a panic, glaring like I was daring him to keep going. But the guy had the gall to laugh and say, “Guess that’s a yes.”
“And now for the big prizes,” the announcer cheered. “Ladies get your paddles ready, because it’s time to bid on a date with one of our Dastards.”
The crowd applauded as we all stepped up, some women whistling and hollering.
“Oof, not a fan of this energy,” Brooker mumbled to himself.
“What’re you talking about?” Marshall said with a little huff. “This is the exact kind of energy you should expect as hot athletes.”
Brooker made a noise of discontent and Marshall rolled his eyes but didn’t take the disagreement any further.
“We’ll start with the team’s goalkeeper, Olli Kean! This is Kean’s first time up for auction and we’re super excited to have him here. He’s …”
I stepped up next to the announcer and tuned them out as I walked to the edge of the stage. They’d told us during the line up to softly gaze out over the audience. But I didn’t have a clue what a soft gaze meant and the only person I wanted to look at was Kodi. So that’s what I did. I kept my eyes on her, watching as she looked me over, licking her lips.
If she gave me a sign, I was going to kiss her tonight. I had to. Ineededto. If I didn’t, the gaping hole in my chest would only get worse.
So when I got to the edge of the stage, I mouthed ‘please’ to Kodi. Please bid on me. Please kiss me. Please remember me. Please stop this ache in my chest. Justplease.
Then I turned to walk back to the announcer and the bidding began.
A Bid
Kodi
When Kean mouthed something to me, my brain went offline. I couldn’t even understand what he ‘said,’ I was too distracted by thewayhis lips moved. I know I told Rosa it wouldn’t take much for me to crack, butfuck,I didn’t think ‘not much’ was gonna be intense eye contact while he was in a suit and saying something only for me.
Honestly, it was insane for him to say whatever it was and expect me to understand him. I hope it wasn’t important, because as he walked back to the announcer, I could not take my eyes off that perfectly firm ass.
“If you don’t fuck him tonight, I’m gonna kick your ass,” Rosa whispered to me with a hiss. “That look was probably the closest thing that man gets to begging.”
“What’re you saying?” Jimenez asked, leaning over his wife’s shoulders. She turned to give him a sharp look and a little shove.
“None of your business,” she said before focusing back on me. “You’re gonna bid on him, right?”
“I …” Fuck, I really wanted to. Especially since it’d be all on his dime. But could I really do that? Here? In front of all these people? “If nobody bids on him, I will.”
“But only then?” Rosa asked, looking at some lady a table away from me.
“Well, yeah. That’s what makes sense, right? It wouldn’t look weird if his PA bailed him out when it gets awkward.”
“But what happens when someone else bids on him?” She was still looking at that one lady, so I turned my focus to her, too. The woman was around my age, maybe a tad older, but you could only tell that based on how hard she worked tolookyoung. But she was pretty, long blonde hair, nice cheekbones. And she waseyeingKean. Like damn near eye-fucking him.
“That probably won’t happen,” I said, even as I lost certainty of that. “No one really likes him and his resting bitch face.”
“Sure, but you’ve spent a lot of time and energy making him look good on socials. Also he doesn’t have his resting bitch face on right now.”
“No way,” I nearly shouted because there was no way Kean wasn’t making his grumpy bitch face. He didn’t want to be here and he certainly wasn’t the type to enjoy being put on display.
But when I turned to look at him, Rosa was right. He wasn’t frowning, his brow wasn’t furrowed, his eyes weren’t narrowed. Instead, he was looking … soft. There was a small, kind of sad smile on his face that made everything about him feel gentler.
And his focus was all on me.
“And we’ll start the bidding for an evening with Mr. Kean at one thousand.”
Immediately the blonde lady’s paddle went up.
“One thousand going once, going —”
