It’s almost scary how vividly I can craft the scene. I shake my head.
This isn’t a movie, Lucy. This isn’t a romance novel. You’re not actually Cinderella.
Yet as I drive back to Cashmere Cove, my brain whirs as I replay every moment of tonight, and my body still sings with the echo of being in TJ’s arms.
I’d be lying if I said he didn’t feel a little like Prince Charming.
Chapter 8
TJ
“Sold to paddle number 444! Congratulations, young lady!” Scott beams in the direction of the older woman who just forked over ten thousand dollars for a night with me.
I give the white-haired granny an overdone bow from the stage, playing the part of happy-go-lucky charmer, but my mind is on my Cinderella, who just fled the Atrium.
She bid on me. Seven thousand dollars, to be exact.Aftershe said all she wanted was tonight. That has to mean something, right?
I follow my teammates off the dais, and Anton approaches with Rose. He slaps me on the back. “We’re never going to hear the end of this, are we?”
“What?”
He laughs. “Your date going for over five grand more than anyone else’s. Come on, man. You know you’re going to be insufferable about this.”
“Oh, yeah.” I force a chuckle. “You know me.”
I stand on my tiptoes, trying to spot Cinderella. She went toward the coat check, but if she comes back into the Atrium, maybe I can talk to her again before she leaves. I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that a woman like her—someone funny and adorable and stunning and smart—has never been kissed. I don’t know if I made the right call in not kissing her. She seemed like she wanted me to. Was that the kind of inspiration she was hoping for? I didn’t want to rush it. I didn’t want something sosignificant to take place when I couldn’t even see her face, when I didn’t even know her name.
“Dude, are you even listening?”
My gaze snaps back to where Anton has been joined by Del and Poe.
“What? Sorry.” I sink down to my heels again, keeping my eyes fixed on the back of the ballroom.
“Who was she?” Rose pipes up.
I glance at her out of my peripheral vision. “Who?”
She gestures over her shoulder. “The woman who bid on you. You were with her before the auction started, weren’t you?”
Leave it to Rose. Freakishly observant Rose. She was Anton’s secret bodyguard before they got together … or maybe it was while they were getting together? The details are sketchy. I’m not surprised she picked up on my weird behavior. Since she and Anton reconnected, she’s around the guys a lot, which means she’s gotten familiar with us. She knows our tells. Right now, she’s looking at me like she can see right through me, to the deepest part of my heart. The part that I don’t let anyone see because it’s a mess in there.
“Who? The woman in the white dress?” Ned Norbertson joins our circle. He’s holding his cell phone. I’m guessing he was filming clips of the auction for our social media pages. “I was wondering that too. I saw you leave with her earlier.”
Five pairs of eyes pin me in place, waiting for an answer. I rake a hand through my hair. “I don’t know who she is. She didn’t tell me her name.”
“You like her, though, don’t you?” Rose presses.
“What? I don’t … I—” If Rose saw me with Cinderella at the top of the steps, then she definitely saw me lean in. There’s no use trying to bluff my way out of this. “Yeah. I do. She was”—I search for the right word—“intriguing. Funny and bold and—” I cut myself off. “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”
“Bull!” Del raises his voice, and we all flinch. He’s a gentle giant. Oversized, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly … except on the football field, where, as our center, he’s like a brick wall who takes pleasure in pancaking anyone who tries to get past him to tackle Anton. “You’re basically frantic,” he continues, pointing at me before hooking his thumb over the door. “Go after her already!”
“I can’t believe you didn’t ask her name,” Poe grumbles. “Dude, that’s like Getting To Know You 101.”
“I asked,” I tell him. “She wouldn’t answer. I called her Cinderella all night.”
“Oh my word, this is straight out of a book,” Rose says under her breath. And then, more loudly, she adds, “You should definitely go after her. Girls like to be chased.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Anton says, nuzzling his nose into her neck. She swats at him, but her lips twitch and her cheeks blaze.
