Page 30 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Stalker

Plus, the extra money I’d earn this week would come in very handy for me. I exchanged a quick look with Jelly. She and I hadn’t known each other as long as Nia and I had, but we’d worked together at Sugar for the past few months and were roommates at Cinnamon House. I’d been surprised at how quickly we’d gotten close despite our opposite personalities. People said we balanced each other out; if I was too sweet, and she was too sour, then put us together and we equaled one perfect woman.

I could tell she was having the same thoughts about Leo that I was. We had thought he was just a very handsome, very sexy, playboy. Or fuckboy, whatever you wanted to call it. But it was apparent he wasn’t just a pretty face after all.

“Your job will be very similar to what it is here,” he continued. “You’ll waitress at the rooftop bar, taking drinks from the bartenders to the tables. If customers want to eat up there, you’ll punch in their orders to your iPad, but that’s all. Someone will bring it to the tables from the lower floors. You’ll close out their tabs, accept tips, whatever, the same way you do here. But,” he paused and looked very serious suddenly, “while you can flirt and interact with the customers, donotlet them get handsy with you. That’s not part of the job at Bahia Del Sol. There are a couple of bouncers on the rooftop, so don’t worry. You’ll be very safe. They’re mainly there to make sure there are no fights and help the bartenders make sure no one drives home drunk. But they’re also there to make sure y’all aren’t bothered by grabby customers.” He clapped his hands together, looked at his watch, and headed to the door. “I have to go. If y’all have any questions, just ask the maître d’ when you arrive for work. See you later.” He grinned and started to leave.

And almost ran into a small, brunette woman coming in the door. He grabbed her by the upper arms to keep from knocking her back against the wall. She blinked up at him through the lenses of her large glasses.

“Sorry, darlin’,” he said andwinked at her.

Her lips parted and her face flushed. I looked at Jelly and could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. Another woman was falling hard for Leo right in front of our very eyes.

“Oh, good,” Carmen sat up straighter. “I wanted y’all to meet Ardley. She’s my new assistant.

“Ardley, huh?” Leo chucked her under the chin and gave her a wide, devilish grin. “I’m sure we’ll get to know each othervery well.” He made the words sound filthy, and her cheeks went from pink to beet red.

“Sorry, Ms. Salazar. I didn’t realize you weren’t alone.”

“Oh my,” Leo exclaimed in fake horror. “Ardley, you’re only a few days on the job and you’re already making mistakes? Doesn’t bode well for you, darlin’.”

Ardley’s mouth dropped open, but she didn’t seem able to string a sentence together in her defense.

With that, he swept out of the room, turning around to check out Ardley’s ass. Seemingly unimpressed, he lifted his eyes, grinned at us, and said, “See you tonight, ladies. Make sure you’re on time. I sure as hell don’t want to have to wait the tables myself. Lord knows the men won’t be happy to see my ugly mug when they could be seeing all of this beauty.” He gestured to Jelly and me. Even though weknewhe was full of shit, we both colored slightly at the compliment, and I ducked my head a little.

Carmen laughed at the looks on our faces after Leo left the room, taking his tremendous presence with him. “He’s more than just a pretty face, huh?”

“Definitely,” Jelly said, an almost confused look on her face.

He wasn’t just the affable, fun guy who was the face of the restaurants, coming out to greet everyone, often sitting to talk with society’s cream of the crop. I had assumed he was just a PR kind of guy while his twin handled all the business details. I’d been wrong about him. He’d gotten the same savvy business skills as his brothers and sister.

He just hid it well.

“Yeah, he’s a special guy.” She saw the look on Ardley’s face. “Sorry, Ardley. I hope he didn’t upset you. That’s just Leo. He doesn’t have much of a filter. Leo wasn’t raised in polite society like the rest of the Salazar siblings. Mom found him roaming the woods one day when he was five. He was feral; raised by wolves.” Her eyes glittered at the way Ardley narrowed her eyes at her new boss as if wondering if she could possibly be serious.

She turned back to us. “Okay, ladies. As long as you’re okay with it, I’ll see you in a week.” She focused on me. “Daisy, we need to talk about the auction the next time you’re here.” She flipped her calendar open. “In fact, let’s just make an appointment.”

Oh, shit.

***

“Let’s go get the uniforms before we leave. I don’t want to wait until five, and I don’t want to have to get ready any earlier than I absolutely have to.” I had an issue with being on time. Don’t get me wrong; I was never late. Just always on the verge of it.

“Hey,” I said, remembering Carmen’s comment about the auction, “you didn’t tell me you were signing up for the auction soon.”

Jelly got a resigned look on her face. “Yeah, well, I’m not excited about it.” She shrugged. “But I talked to Carmen about it recently. She’s planning to feature me in one of the upcoming auctions. I’m just not exactly sure when. I don’t want to have to pay all my school loans back, and I don’t ever want to have to go back to my grandparents.”

Jelly, who was studying to be a physician’s assistant, had been raised by her grandparents. I wasn’t sure what all had gone wrong between them, but I knew it hadn’t been good. I also knew better than to ask too many questions. Nadine, who’d grown up best friends with Jelly, didn’t even know much about Jelly’s personal life. She’d told me she’d learned early on that Jelly didn’t share those kinds of things about herself.

“I know you,” Jelly snapped her gum andchanged the subject. “Are you thinking of doing the auction because of the stalker or because you need money?”

I whipped my head around, hoping no one had heard her. “You’ve got to keep quiet about that, Jelly,” I hissed. “And both. I figured if I moved locations it would throw him off.” All the girls who participated in the Cinnamon Auction were moved into one of the luxurious condos at Salazar Heights. I knew from talking with Nadine about it that it had a top-of-the-line security system in place. I didn’t think the stalker could get to me while I was living there. And I planned to move from the condo at Salazar Heights directly back to Crosston after graduation in December.

And moving out of Cinnamon House would keep my roommates safe. A couple of strange things had happened around the house, making me think my stalker knew exactly where I lived. I didn’t want him to hurt any of my friends. I’d grown close to all the women living there. I knew there was a high turnover rate at Cinnamon House and that soon there would be a whole new group of women living there. Once you were in the auction, you no longer needed to work at Salazar’s or live in Cinnamon House. Usually. There was a rumor that Madeline might have done the auction before, but she kept details about her personal life to herself.

And Nadine worked for the Salazars, but it was in their real estate division.

But the point was to get him away from Cinnamon House. Then he wouldn’t hurt any of the beautiful women living there now, or those who would come in the future.

Jelly cocked an eyebrow. “Pretty sure he knows where all your classes are.”