AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My first year, I didn’t bother going out because I was trying to find Cee and then if you remember some of you all started questioning my preferences. I thought about digging up the articles and putting Cee’s face out there, but I knew it would hurt her and I’d already done enough of that. So, your all’s questions and comments ticked me off but not enough to let her go.”
“So, you bring out some playboy persona, what did you think it’d accomplish?” Dan asked.
“Got you all off my back for the last six years and I thought it’d piss Cee off, and it did but not enough to come yell at me.”
“But how much of it was lies?” Beau asked.
“Ninety-nine percent of it, none of them ever made it to my bedroom and I don’t care who knows that anymore. Call me stupid, whipped, pathetic I don’t care anymore—there’s only one woman I want and it’s the one that’s refusing to let me back in completely.”
“Hold on,” Gary said staring at him. “You’re saying that you haven’t slept with anyone since the breakup?”
“It’d get to the point where it should progress and I’d shut down because I knew I was betraying the woman I love, the woman I’ve always loved, and I wasn’t going to do that to her. I made a colossal mistake letting her go and this time she’ll have to throw me in jail before I leave her.”
“Dude, you are so whipped, but tonight that might just work in your favor,” Beau said.
“How is that?” he questioned eyeing his teammate intently.
“When you go out there you focus on her, you ignore everyone but her and the others will up their bids. Find her when you get onto the stage and show her that she owns you,” Beau replied.
“Emma said…”
“You’ve done enough groundwork. Now’s the time to reel her in,” Gary stated. “We all saw the two of you after the bomb thing and that was not a girl who’s just sleeping with you. She might be the biggest heartbreaker in town but you’re the one who broke hers eight years ago. Man up to it and get her back.”
“Because we’d like to keep our winning streak going,” Dan said pointedly.
“And if you’re thinking about her all the time that’s not gonna happen,” Beau added.
“She’s always in my head; I just finally know where she is.”
“Then do your thing and bring her back with you,” Dan stated.
“Yeah, I’ll bring her back to me,” Jake replied wondering how Cameron was doing on the trade. He said he was making progress but maybe it was time for him to take the lead with it all.
Chapter 8
Stacey took a deep breath and pushed aside the feelings that were coursing through her as Jake took the stage. He was the final bachelor of the evening and there were hundreds of women still around waiting to bid on him. She saw Angie sit up straighter and tried to tame the feelings that shot through her. She was in trouble. She didn’t want to feel this way.
Ten years ago, she hadn’t stood up for herself when it came to her and Jake but now…now she wanted to as far as other women were concerned. Every time one of them looked him over, she wanted to walk over, wrap her arms around his neck and declare that he was hers. It didn’t help her resolve to let them end. She didn’t want to leave Seattle and her life here, but she was barely holding herself together.
It’d been three nights since she’d been with him and already, she felt the need to have him close again. How was she going to make it through the rest of her life without him? He wanted her, she knew that but there were thousands of others he could be with, so she was back to her original quandary why her and when would it end?
Earlier it’d seemed like he’d finally given up and Angie had swooped in and went to work making him smile. That was her job that was her thing not anyone else’s, but did she really want him to be hers again? To risk the chance that one day he was going to walk away and leave her with a shattered heart and no way to pick up the pieces.
She looked up and found his gaze directly on her despite the other women calling out for his attention. He sent her the look he wore when he came in and found her half-dressed and she felt her body respond. She wanted him and right now, he wanted her. The emcee began the bidding, and she listened as it went higher and higher as the other women tried to get him to notice them, but he stayed locked on her.
“Four thousand,” Angie called out and the others quieted.
“Four thousand, do I hear four and a half or five?”
No one spoke and she bit on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from bidding.
“Four thousand going once…four thousand going twice…alright for four thousand…”
“Five thousand,” she said over him, and Jake sent her another of his looks.
“Six thousand,” Angie countered.
“Seven,” she replied not taking her eyes off of Jake.
