Miriam’s gasp echoed around her, riddled with shock, but Adrienne ignored her for a little while.She wasn’t even listening to Cassie, who was acting as the auctioneer as well.
“Four hundred thousand dollars,” someone else said behind her.
“Five hundred thousand,” Adrienne said before Cassie could say anything else.
“Six hundred thousand.”Someone else shouted.
“Ten million dollars for the three of them,” Adrienne said, using her paddle to point to Emerson, Darien, and Austin.She wasn’t prepared to enter a bidding war.She wanted to annihilate her enemies and leave the battlefield with her spoils.
...Before she changed her mind.
Chapter Three
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While everyone aroundAdrienne cheered her on, Miriam narrowed her eyes at her.No one dared to outbid her after that.Ten million dollars to a billionaire was nothing.She’d unequivocally lost her mind; this just confirmed it.
“Going once,” Cassie shouted, overly excited, knowing she would be the talk of the town for raising that amount of money at a charity auction.“Sold to Ms.Adrienne Palmer.Emerson Foley, Darien Price, and Austin Brown for a whopping ten million dollars.”Cassie skipped over thegoing twicepart.“Adrienne, they’re all yours.Enjoy.”Cassie’s husband, Scott, hurried over to Adrienne with a key card to the hotel suite where they would have dinner.
Right.
Miriam still hadn’t lifted her jaw off the floor, but her eyes wavered between concern and pride.
“What?”Adrienne asked innocently, resisting the urge to bite her lip again but failing.“I decided I needed some...”
“Threesome?”Miriam asked in a hoarse voice.
“You know me.I don’t put all my eggs in one basket.Three, in case two of them don’t work out.”Who was she even?She had never in all her life acted out of character.But did it matter?Did anything matter anymore?
“You know what you’re doing, queen?”Miriam asked seriously.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.“See you soon.”She kissed Miriam’s cheek and allowed herself to be escorted to the hotel room upstairs by one of the staff.
Surprisingly, she managed to stride across the hall confidently despite the tremor in her whole body.
Once inside the presidential suite, she stood quietly in the middle of the living room.The aroma of food wafted to her from the dining area, where two servers waited in attendance.
She dismissed them and made a mental note of their names so she could tip them at the front desk before she left.
Alone, she pulled out her phone and read the text again, then, nodding once, slipped it back into her purse and laid it down on a marble side table.
She took a deep breath when a knock sounded on the door, then, with purpose and borrowed composure, strode to open it.
She turned her back on them as they entered, desperately needing a second to collect herself at the sight of them.All three of them.
“Gentlemen.”She spun around to face them.It was now or never.
She was going to have a one-night stand with one of them and get rid of her virginity since the chances of her seeing any one of them ever again were zero.No one was going to find her off-grid.
She started to mull things over.Should she, shouldn’t she?She should.Fate decided for her the instant she got that damn text.
“You’re probably wondering why all three of you are here.It’s very simple.I always have a plan B or plan C even, in case two of you don’t work out.”
Good.
If she treated it like a business arrangement, she’d automatically revert to her tough-as-nails persona.She needed that right now because, as a trio standing next to each other, they were disgustingly and unreasonably beautiful.They disrupted her train of thought consistently, and she had to dig deep into her brain to sound coherent.
They had no idea what it cost her not to start trembling like some teen meeting a movie star.
