Miriam, of course, always threatened her with ending their friendship if she didn’t bet on a guy and take him home, but she never carried out her threat to completion.Adrienne was just not built for fun and games.
Her first boyfriend broke up with her before he got to kiss her because he thought she was cold and stuck up.The only reason she knew what he’d been thinking was because he told her she was cold and stuck up.She was seventeen.She didn’t know why it shocked her that he mistook her reserved nature for coldness and snobbery.
There were twelve to fifteen attractive men on the stage, all dressed in designer suits and looking as well-groomed as money could buy.Some were bachelors, most were married, and their wives would bid on them, all in good fun.Everyone on the stage was recognizable, within her circle.
Exceptthem.
She knew all their names now from the name tags that hung around their necks.Darien Price, who she met, Austin Brown, who she bumped into, and the third guy who had looked at her like he was undressing her, Emerson Foley.
All the other single ladies fell over themselves bidding for the three of them, but Adrienne was out.Complete seclusion was calling her name, and she was ready, taking her virginity with her.
She had already started to envision what it would take to wrap everything up.Her staff was hand-picked and trained by herself.They could run her whole operation without her being there.She supposed she just needed to decide if she wanted to sell up or keep her company.The idea grew more vibrant in her head.Selling up would mean complete detachment from the outside world.
It hadn’t been a bad life.So she hadn’t fallen in love and had babies, but that was okay.She could live with it.Alone.
Bored with the auction and desperate to get home, where she could just breathe and start planning her new life, Adrienne paid little attention to the bidding wars happening around her.
She had also stuck to her guns and not once allowed her gaze to vacillate at all toward the three mysterious men.They were going up last for auction.
When her purse buzzed softly against her thigh, from inside her purse, she was glad for the distraction.
But the text message drained her blood and left her cold.She turned uncomfortably in her seat, expecting to see the monster behind her.
“You okay?”Miriam asked beside her, sensing her entire body freeze up.She nodded a little too enthusiastically.
“Just work.”
“It’s not just work.What was that about?”
“Nothing.I’m fine,” Adrienne said softly, smiling broadly.
“You sure?”Miriam gave her that look.The one she issued when she knew Adrienne was lying.
“Of course.”Another lie.
“Something is wrong, but I know you well enough to know that you’re only going to tell me when you want to or need to.So, I’m going to wait, okay?”Miriam patted her hand, looking at her with genuine concern in her eyes.
“Okay,” Adrienne whispered, biting the side of her cheek to stop herself from crying.She didn’t cry.It had been something she learned from Miriam.
Unless you’re watering revenge plans, your tears are wasted.
That had been Miriam’s mantra.
She wiped at a single drop that fell onto her cheek before she could suck it up.Her life flashed past her, coming to a stop on that one decision that was now going to change her life forever.
It was a stupid epiphany to be experiencing at a charity auction where socialites got to spend vast amounts of money bidding on men they were either married to or had never seen in their lives before.
She quickly righted herself and calmed her mind.But the letters of the text kept swimming before her like eye-floaters buzzing behind her vision before they formed the words that made her want to scream.She was far too displaced and off-balanced to regain her signature equilibrium.Miriam’s hand tightened on hers.
“Do you want to leave?”
She shook her head.She was not having a panic attack over that text.That would give the other person in question more power than they deserved.
She was not having a panic attack right there at Cassie’s charity auctions.Not when there were those three men on the stage, looking directly at her as if they were still undressing her.
She bit her lip, something she hadn’t done since she was a teenager.Her body became a flustered mess.Her nipples ached, and she wanted fresh underwear immediately, but ...but ...
“Three hundred thousand dollars,” she said, raising her paddle when Emerson Foley came onto the stage.
