“We will discussthatrelationship later.” Lance bent over and said quietly in her ear while the others were occupied. His long fingers curled over her thigh. The material of the dress easily stretched to accommodate them.
“There never was one. He’s not interested in me,” she whispered back keeping a smile in case anyone got suspicious.
“I’ll be the judge of that. He looks at you like Richard does—like all men do. You don’t even know your own desirability.”
He seemed a little angry. Her eyes went over his handsome profile as he straightened to answer a question the mayor asked him. To her own surprise his mood didn’t bother her like she thought. For some reason she believed she’d be feeling a little insecure, but instead she bit her lip to keep from smiling. Lance Hartley wasjealous!She could certainly get used that. Just then his eyes flicked to her seeing her restrained smile. He gave a very subtle, almost undetectable, shake of his head before angling it just enough for a look of warning. She grinned this time unable to hold it back any longer. Then, she suddenly dropped her grin to stifle a gasp as his warm hand slid through the slit of her dress, over her thigh and up between her legs.
He leaned close to her. “I will make you pay for finding amusement at my expense.”
She met his eyes. “It’s well deserved. I seem to remember a familiar situation with roles reversed, and you had little sympathy for me. In fact, you found it just as amusing.”
“Refreshing,” he corrected. “I found it very refreshing coming from you.”
She chuckled. “That doesn’t sound much different. Perhaps you need to reserve that alpha male for someone who’ll listen. You don’t scare me Councilor Hartley. ” She knew she was pushing his patience, but this was so much fun.
He cocked his head. “Is that right? I seem to remember taking you home and reminding you of who I was with for the three hours following that dinner. I was on top, alpha male and all.”
Oh she couldn’t forgetthat. Her pelvis reacted instantly and contracted.
“I have more than just ties in my wardrobe Tammy. Be careful.
She blushed bright red.
“See? You will lose this game darling. I have more experience.”
“I may enjoy losing this one,” she breathed as his fingers caressed the inside of her thighs.
He chuckled and leaned back shaking his head in disbelief. “You never cease to surprise me Miss Easler.”
The night progressed quickly and Tammy actually had a lot of fun. The auction started and she found herself laughing at the friendly competition among people. Once or twice Lance leaned over to speak to Marianne, and Tammy decided early on not to let it bother her, even when the woman put a hand on his shoulder in an obvious flirtation or brush up to him sort-of-not-accidently way when he made her laugh. Tammy was doing her best to put faith in what he’d told her even though it was proving difficult. Then she reminded herself that it was her legs wrapped around his hips, his gorgeous hips, just a few short hours ago making him late meeting the woman. She smiled, wide.
The master of ceremonies introduced Marianne. Everyone stood and applauded. She sashayed up to the front podium and gave a wonderful speech on how the money has helped victims in the past, present and future. Then she spent the next ten minutes talking about how Lance launched the charity after his own personal tragedy and, after some brief history, how he was passing the reigns to her this year. She motioned to their table. Suddenly there was a spotlight on him. There was more applause as he stood and waved. People cheered. Tammy couldn’t believe how calm he was with all of the attention. He was being treated like a celebrity andgosh, he looked heavenly under that bright light. Marianne continued to explain that in the first year the charity raised just over a hundred thousand. However it made over a million to help victims of crime. She humorously dared the audience to surpass that to show Lance she could do a good job with his ‘baby’. Laughter reverberated in the room. She then went on and thanked the mayor, who Tammy found out, was another person responsible for helping Lance get the charity going. She should have expected it, but Marianne gave the mayor of New York less airtime than Lance. Tammy watched him but he didn’t seem to care about that too much, or maybe he didn’t notice. He stood like everyone else and clapped as Marianne left the podium.
Lance stood and gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek. “Great speech.”
“I was so nervous,” she placed her hands on his chest and leaned into him.
Okay, this was getting ridiculous. Tammy was doing her best to stay positive, but Marianne was breaching that line of propriety.
Then the MC appeared again and asked for all the non-married women to raise their hands. Well, Tammy noticed there were about a dozen. Suddenly Marianne jumped up and grabbed her hand and raised it with her own. “There’s two, right here!” Tammy stared wide-eyed at Lance, who just looked amused.
“Let’s give them a round of applause and get them up here! Who wouldn’t want the rest of the evening out with these beautiful women?”
The place erupted in applause, but no one moved.
“Remember ladies, this is for charity. If your man loves you enough, he’ll buy you back. If not, I guess you are better off.” A wave of laughter went through the crowd.
Marianne half dragged Tammy out of her seat and Lance still looked completely amused.
She already knew this was going to turn into a bachelorette auction. Oh why didn’t she take some time to look at the program that was on the table?
“Really Lance. You’re engaged. Are you going to let her get up there?”
“He said non-married Elizabeth. Tammy is not yet my wife,” answered Lance in his legendary calm and ever controlled tone.
Tammy heard her mother scold him again, but it was her father that told her to hold on and just watch. She felt her heart soar at her mother’s defense of her. Did she really mean it, or was she just putting on a display?
The lights were so bright on the stage that she couldn’t see anything beyond it. When the bidding started, she was shocked to hear digits in the five figure range followed by humorous coaxing from the MC and the loud ‘SOLD!’. She and Marianne were soon the last two. Marianne went first, sashaying out on the stage like she owned it. There were cat calls emitting from the hall. If Lance dared, she’d kill him. Too bad she couldn’t see him. To her utter surprise, Marianne got a few hundred shy of twenty thousand. It helped that she moved back and forth across the stage enticing the men with that beautiful body in blue sequin. She whispered to the MC who announced, she came with no one. The bidding increased quickly after that. Apparently Doctor Anderson wasn’t the only single man to show up there that night.
