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Chapter One
“Jerry, I can’t do it,” Alexa said as she tried to hold the top of the red dress he’d put her in to keep her bra from showing.
“You don’t have a choice. You promised me. Look, all you’ll have to do is take the guy to dinner. You don’t have to sleep with him, for God’s sake. I’ll even give you money for the meal.”
“But, you know how shy I am. How am I going to talk to a stranger over dinner? I’ll puke it up all over him.”
“You better not. Come on, Alexa. I need you. I wouldn’t put you into this position if Clara showed up. Besides, there’s a possibility that you won’t even get bought.”
She’d been terrified a moment ago. Now, a deep sense of shame was added.
He must have seen the look in her eyes becausehe patted her shoulder.“It’s not that you’re not pretty because you are, but many men don’t go for women with … curves.”
She nodded. Alexa had tried for years to lose weight, but nothing she did besides starving herself took the weight off. She wasn’t fat, but she definitely had more curves and boobs than a model or most women she knew had.
“I know.”
“So, you’ll do it?”
She sighed. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”
Her uncle chuckled. “Not really. I wouldn’t use you if I weren’t desperate.”
She rolled her eyes. Hell, could he get any more insulting? “Oh, wow, thanks.”
He laughed and patted her on the head. “You know what I mean. Now, stop messing with the top of the dress.”
“But you can see the top of my bra and a lot of cleavage.”
“Men do like that, so don’t mess with it. Okay, you’re on next.”
The panic inside of her instantly grew. “Oh, my God, so soon.” She could feel herself start to lose it and made herself calm down.
He snorted. “Yeah, I distracted you as much as I could.”
She frowned at him.
Jerry grinned. “Just remember, this is a charity auction. This is not a whore house but a classy joint, and some of this money goes toward those mangy animals you love so much.”
Alexa snorted. She’d worked in her uncle’s bar for a few years, andclassywasn’t a word she’d use to describe it. The auction wasn’t anything to brag about either. Her uncle did it once a month because it brought in a ton of money. Willing women would be auctioned off, and a fraction, like a really small fraction of the proceeds, went to the animal shelter.
That was one of the reasons she’d gotten into the predicament. She’d begged her uncle to give the money to the place she spent a lot of time volunteering. Her passion was animals. She’d never been able to have one of her own, so she found other ways to be around them. Besides, they seemed to understand her better than other people did and didn’t care about her figure. They loved her no matter what.
Her uncle urged her out on stage because she promised that if he were in a bind, she’d step in to help. Now, here she was.
“Let’s go.” Jerry took ahold of her arm and pushed her out onto the stage.
She turned back to him and put her hands on her hips. “You don’t have to push me.”
He flapped his hands at her. “Go. Stanley is waiting for you.”
She turned to look for Stanley when whistles started. Looking around, she put her hand up to shade her eyes against the glare of the lights.
“Alexa, girl. Come on,” Stanley said and waved her over. Stanley had worked for Jerry for as long as she could remember, and she adored him. He’d always been nice to her.
She took a few steps and wobbled but threw her arms out and caught her balance. She’d never worn three-inch heels in her life, and she was terrified she was going to trip and humiliate herself even more. Knowing she wasn’t pretty like the other girls who did the auction, so that night she’d spent more time curling her hair and putting lip gloss and mascara on, but she still thought she didn’t fall under the title ofpretty.
Stanley grabbed her arms and lifted her onto a padded stool they had on stage for her.
