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ChapterThree
MANDY
“Oh, hell no,” I mumbled to myself as I took my place on the stage, smiling at the applause that greeted me despite the anxiety that took hold of my jaw. Brian was in the crowd and the bastard had the nerve to wink at me as I took up my position by Ginger.
The auction was almost over. I was the last ‘item’ on the list. Ginger had put a podium in the middle of the stage, dimmed the lights a little so we would be blinded, and held a microphone in her hand.
I stood there, dressed in a black sweater dress with high-heeled black leather knee-boots, waiting on a man to buy me. It sounded ridiculous, but that was my life. I tried not to roll my brown eyes as I scanned the crowd of men still sitting at the tables below the stage. Brian had a smug look on his face like he was about to completely wreck my life, and I had a feeling he meant it.
I glanced over at Ginger, my arms now wrapped around my waist, hoping that she’d somehow fix this. That bastard was going to bid on me, I just knew he was. I’d known he wanted to sleep with me since the first time he walked into my life. He’d made it clear that even though he thought I was stuck up, he’d fuck me any day of the week if I’d let him.
Not that he was a perv, he wasn’t, he just rubbed me the wrong way and fucking him would be like peeling my own skin off.
“Fuck,” I whispered, glaring at him. I hoped that was enough to discourage him but as soon as Ginger announced that the bidding was open, he lifted his hand.
“Alright, gents, you all know Mandy and love her. Sorry, ladies, Mandy’s a men-only kind of girl so we can’t take bids from you, for her. I’ll start the bidding at $500.”
I watched as a variety of men bid for me for a few minutes, my eyes going wide as the bidding went higher. Most of the bids stopped around two grand but there were still three men bidding for me once we reached that point. I was also freaking out because, so far, Brian had always topped the highest offer. Damn, this wasn’t good.
“That’s $2,000 bid, fellas, Brian has the highest bid so far, do I have any other offers?” Ginger asked, moving away from the podium to see the crowd better.
“3,000, Ginger,” another man called out, his eye shooting daggers at the back of Brian’s head. This was Gabe, one of the mafia guys with the most expensive suit on in the place. Three grand would barely cover the cost of a new suit for Gabe, it was change to him.
“Five thousand, Ginger,” Brian said blithely, as if five grand wasn’t a huge amount of money.
Gabe glared at Brian once again, determined to have me, but was he determined enough, I worried. I’d take Gabe and his sexy smile any day of the week over Brian.
“8,500, Ginger,” Gabe said with a flick of his ring covered fingers, as if he was dismissing any other offers Brian might make.
My eyes flicked to Brian, hoping he’d give up now that Gabe had bid an eye-watering amount of money. I saw Brian nod, as if acknowledging his opponent, run a hand across his chin, and then grin the most devilish grin I’ve ever seen. “12.5K, Ginger.”
The crowd gasped, including me. I also felt the pall of doom coming over me. No, I can’t spend a week with that absolute asshole, I just can’t. I was shaking my head without realizing it, my eyes now on Gabe, pleading with him to go just a little higher.
But Gabe shook his head, shrugged and threw his hands out. “That’s enough for me.”
Noooooo, the word screeched out in my head, but I managed to hold it in. This isn’t happening. I couldn’t have dreamed a nightmare this bad. Maybe I could play sick all year, hide from him, tell him I’d suddenly caught gonorrhea, anything to get out of spending a week with him. I stared at Ginger in horror, wanting her to refuse the bid, but she was grinning like she’d just discovered how awesome chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake really was. Fuck.
Oh fuck.
This was happening.
“Any other bids? I see you dropped out there, kind of early, Eddie. You have anything to add to this dog fight?” Ginger spoke into the microphone flirtatiously, winking at Eddie. The guy was quiet, overweight, but still an attractive man with a great personality. Eddie could save me, but no, he’d just lost his job as CEO of some tech company. He couldn’t afford to throw away the kind of money Brian was forcing others to bid.
Please, Eddie? I thought the words at him, hoping he had some secret funds stashed away somewhere, but his blond head shook in the negative and my last hope was dashed.
“That’s it, then, gentlemen. Brian, you are the highest bidder.” Ginger didn’t look at me on purpose. She knew Brian and I had a love to hate relationship, and she knew I was about to strangle her, so she knew better than to look at me. I’d kill her.
For fuck’s sake. A week with the biggest asshole in the world. Just great.
Alright, I’d entered the auction because it was for a good cause and because I was lonely, but I wasn’tthatlonely. A week with that miserable bastard would have me pulling my own hair out and questioning my sanity. Add in the secluded kind of places I’d listed, thinking a week with a man’s total attention would soothe my loneliness for a little while, and I was about to go straight to Hell.
What had I gotten myself into? I had to wonder, staring out at Brian, his face wreathed in a look that I couldn’t interpret. Satisfaction? Self-congratulations? Maybe a promise of how much he was going to drive me crazy on this vacation from hell? It could be any or all of those, I didn’t know. All I knew was, I wanted out of the promise I’d made.
“Not happening, sweety. You agreed to it, now you have to pay the piper,” Ginger mumbled to me when she leaned close to my head, her lips right beside my ear. “You can’t run away, even if he is the world’s biggest bastard, I’m afraid.”
I was so fucked.
