I don’t move. I can’t.
“Please welcome—Douglas.”
And then he steps onto the stage. Everything else fades away.
He’s not in uniform, though his job description suggests he has one hanging at home in his closet.
Tonight, he’s gone another route. Dark jeans and a fitted black button-down, sleeves rolled up to his forearms like he’s trying to downplay the fact that he looks likethat.
Tall.
Broad.
There’s a stillness to him. A grounded, steady presence that makes the men before him feel… boyish.
And when he lifts his gaze?—
It lands right on me.
I suck in a breath.
“That’s the one,” Elizabeth whispers.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
I tear my eyes away, looking down at my booklet like it suddenly holds the secrets of the universe.
My heart is beating way too fast. This is ridiculous.
It’s just a man. A man I don’t even know.
A man who will, at most, take me out for a few hours and then go back to his life.
“Bidding will start at five hundred dollars.”
Paddles go up immediately.
Voices call out numbers.
It climbs quickly. Too quickly.
I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t go this high.
“It’s now or never,” Elizabeth says under her breath.
“I’m thinking?—”
My fingers tighten around my paddle.
He’s still looking out into the crowd. My belly does a backflip.
“Do it,” Elizabeth whispers.
My paddle is in the air before I fully register the decision.
Elizabeth makes a strangled noise beside me. “Oh my God.”
