Benedetto did not.
Every ounce of his being was concentrated on the woman.
She was so likehim.
Oh, she was beautiful and feminine and were it not for her unpalatable family connection he might have found her desirable enough. But there was something about her that would forever remind him of the man he’d sworn to ruin.
The bidding started at a lowly sum but escalated quickly. Kate did her best to look embarrassed but Benedetto suspected she had always believed she would be the hit of the event. Why else would someone like her agree to be auctioned off in a manner such as this?
As bidding began to slow, he leaned further forward. Her smile was so self-satisfied. She looked inordinately pleased with herself.
She had no idea, he surmised, that her world was about to come crashing down around her ears.
“All bids are final, ladies and gentleman. If you are looking for an organisational wunderkind to streamline your life, then don’t let this opportunity pass you by.” The auctioneer’s small eyes flitted around the room. “Going once, for eighty-seven thousand pounds.” Another scan of the room. “Going twice.”
Benedetto lifted his hand casually; just a small gesture that drew the trained eyes of the auctioneer nonetheless.
“A bid, sir?”
Benedetto’s attention remained pinned to his prize. “Two hundred thousand pounds.”
The room was silent. Not a single person spoke. Even the auctioneer seemed momentarily knocked off balance by this unexpected increase in bidding price.
“The bid is for two hundred thousand pounds for two days of Miss Jones’s time;did I hear you correctly, sir?”
Benedetto indicated with the smallest nod that his bid was in earnest.
The auctioneer scanned the room but it was a formality now. “Very well. Any further offers?” A nervous laugh amongst the other guests.
For her part, Kate could barely think. Her eyes were locked to the direction of the voice, but all she could see was a large shadow. A man, sitting, who’d spoken with a thick accent was all she could make out.
That, and the fact he was obviously obscenely wealthy. Her stomach sank with disapproval. That kind of overt wealth had never interested her. It reminded her too much of the world she’d grown up in; the world she’d spent the last few years running as far and as fast from as she could.
“Going once, going twice,” the auctioneer sprinted through the final countdown. After all, who in their right mind would increase this bid?
“Sold!”
And though it had been the whole purpose of the exercise, a shiver of anticipation ran down Kate’s spine.
Sold.
Only she wasn’t. It was just a couple of days. Like the temp jobs she’d done when she’d first left home. She could do that.
With a deep breath, she sent one last smile into the audience and moved elegantly from the stage. Only once in the relative privacy of the anteroom beyond the main hall did she give in to her anxiety. She pressed her back against a thickly papered wall and lifted her hands to cover her eyes. She breathed in deeply, but her body was shaking.
What the heck had just happened? How could anyone have bid that amount on her? And what would they do when they realised she wasn't exactly the organisational genius she’d been made out to be? What if they wanted her to redesign their software storage solution or to implement a new book-keeping protocol? She had no skills beyond being able to joke and laugh her way through just about anything.
A knotted feeling was pooling in her stomach.
But it was done.
She couldn’t get out of it.
And so she straightened off the wall, peeling herself back to normal height, andsquared her shoulders. It was only two days.
Somehow, she’d get through it. Just like always.
* * *
