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It was Max’s turn to look at her now, scowling. “You didn’t tell me any of this shit.”
“It’s all a joke,” Kelsey quickly said. “Those cuffs aren’t even real. They just… it’s a fun thing they do. Totally harmless.”
“Like pictures of panties texted to my phone, harmless?”
She almost yelped it. “Uncle Max!”
“These were details you probably should have disclosed a long time ago, don’t you think?” He shook his head. “I should have known you’d pull something like this.”
Catherine held up another piece of paper, looking out over the crowd.
“Number eleven?”
Her heart was pounding with her anxiousness, but another part of her, a much bigger part of her, loved seeing Max get angry—especially when he directed said anger toward her.
You’re hopeless.
Kelsey winced, gently pushing on his shoulder with a hand, urging him forward. “I’ll make it up to you?”
His strong jaw twitched as he gave her one last look before heading toward the stairs. “Oh, you’ll be doing a lot more than that, Kelsey.”
Chapter 7
“And here we have Max,” Catherine said, winking up at him. “Brought to us by our own Kelsey Burke!”
The crowd burst into applause again, a few more hoots and whistles mixed in.
Being ‘auctioned’ was quite a bit less surreal than he’d imagined. Mostly, what he was struck by was how absurd the whole thing was.
And how young most of the girls he saw out in the living room anxiously awaiting the next auction really were.
“What are we bid?” Catherine said cheerfully, sweeping toward the crowd, seeming to be getting more into the role with each man sent up the steep stairs.
At first, there was silence, and he had to suppress a self-conscious wince at the tiny hit his ego took at the prospect of there potentially being crickets when it came time to bid on the old man.
Then a girl, a dark-haired, pink-cheeked young woman wearing a salmon-colored tank top that read UT SWIM in fine white lettering across the swell of her breasts, held up a hand.
“One hundred.”
A quiet gasp or two could be heard in the otherwise silent throng. That amount was more than twice the opening bid for Liam.
He wasn’t sure what to make of that, but the crowd seemed to believe that was somehow important, because almost immediately, more bids began to be shouted out.
In less than a minute, the amount was… rather shocking.
He caught Kelsey’s eye, eventually, and what he saw left him confused. She wasn’t even watching, instead chatting out the corner of her mouth to her friend Amber—whom he’d met right before being ushered over to see Catherine after the woman had called out his number.
That Kelsey wasn’t paying attention to the bidding was a bit of a surprise, though he couldn’t put his finger on just why. In truth, it was easier, less complicated.
What’s that supposed to mean, Max?
That all changed though when Cassandra, the girl with the big tits—and the even bigger ego—raised her hand. Unlike the other bidders, Cassandra’s eyes, an admittedly remarkable blue, remained fixed rather intently upon him as she called out her number. That intensity should have been exciting, but in someone so young—she looked to be about the same age as Kelsey—it was more amusing than anything else. A bold, but inexperienced woman trying on the magnetic vixen role, and finding the shoes didn’t quite fit, the dress still a little too roomy.
Since when have you started constructing metaphors like that? Mr. Continental now? You’re not fooling anyone, asshole.
Then a familiar voice piped up, and his mouth dropped open.
“One thousand.” Kelsey said, her gaze directed toward the clearly flummoxed emcee calling for more bids.
