Page 64 of Ruled By Rivalry

“She’d do that?” Bidding on your ex-boyfriend seemed . . . a tad too humiliating. I hadn’t expected her to take initiative like that.

“As a joke. Sure. They’d love it.” A look at the watch around his wrist, and he sighed. “But I want you to win. Not some old lady, not my ex-girlfriend. Not her parents, either.”

That made me snort, though I sobered quickly. “I don’t have the kind of money you’ll be worth, Ashwood.”

“Thank you for saying that,” he teased. A knock on the door let us know he was probably needed back on stage. “I’ll be funding your elaborate purchase. A girl’s gotta indulge sometimes.”

Indulging in Elliot Ashwood seemed like one hell of a luxury.

“You don’t have any money, either,” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry about my finances, Maeve. Just win me.”

Then he opened the door, and without another word, he was whisked toward the stage by one of the foundation assistants. I followed, tried to swallow the nerves coming up as I got to my seat in sync with his first words. “Alright, back for the grand finale!”

Every trace of the anxious wreck in the backroom was gone, almost like that version of Elliot had never existed. Suddenly, I was wondering whether it had happened at all. He seemed so different, I couldn’t be sure.

“This one might be particularly interesting for the bachelorettes among you.” Rogue whistles startled me out of my trance, eyes snapping up from the paddle previously untouched in front of me.

Rowen leaned toward me, bumping his shoulder against mine the way Elliot always did. It sent a fluttery feeling from my chest down into my stomach. “You good?”

“Peachy!” I sounded as bad as Mimi when that southern accent slipped. A clear sign I was nervous. Incredibly fucking nervous.

“Alright.” Elliot’s eyes snapped to our table again. “He doesn’t know of his luck yet, but could my brother Rowen please join me on stage?”

He stilled beside me, looked around like he’d just been caught stealing a three-carat diamond. It seemed to click a second later. Rowen muttered, “That bastard,” under his breath, then got up with a big smile, waving as he made his way onto the stage.

Despite their contrasting hair colors, when looking at them side by side, their resemblance was uncanny. Same nose, same cheekbones, and same jawline that could cut glass. Same mannerisms, above all else. Rowen crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned toward the microphone in Elliot’s hand.

“I’m scared,” Rowen deadpanned. And apparently, they shared that ability to make a room full of the most influential people of the city laugh effortlessly, too.

Elliot slung his arm around Rowen’s shoulder, patting his chest. “Would you look at that smile,” he teased. “Those ocean-blue eyes. Handsome face. And I’m not just saying that because we look alike.”

Even I was laughing, despite the ever-present nervous flutter in my stomach. “Brother, you are so humble,” Rowen retorted.

“Keep the flattery for the next item.” A single wink in my direction, but the way Allegra threw her head back in a laugh, maybe it was for her, after all. “Because tonight, as a little treat from all of us at the Ashwood Foundation, you can buy yourself into Rowen Ashwood’s scandalous love life. One evening, one date. And who knows? Maybe he’ll agree to a second.”

Like Rowen hadn’t assumed as much, his head fell back in a laugh, shaking in amusement. He leaned closer to the microphone again. “I did not agree to this.”

The crowd went wild. Young guys whooping, older ladies reaching for their paddles faster than lightning, completely ignoring the husbands beside them. “Let’s start at 250.”

Oh, to have the ego of an attractive white guy, auctioning himself off for a quarter of a million dollars.

I couldn’t count how many paddles shot up in the air—but there were a lot. Laughing and snickering while Elliot brought the bid up to $500,000. Rowen hid behind his hands, head still shaking. I don’t think it had stopped since he’d gotten on stage.

“Five hundred and fifty” was when the last paddles started to fall. “To the beautiful lady in red. Going once, going twice—”

A new hand shot up. Murmurs wove through the crowd, anticipation and excitement in the air. Opposite me, Allegra gasped. Like she recognized the perfectly manicured hand around the paddle from here, when the action was happening all the way in the back. “She’s not supposed to be here,” she muttered in her mother’s direction.

I wished I knew who she was.

The space between the dinner tables granted me a perfect view of her across my shoulder. Pin-straight black hair tucked behind her ears, a simple black dress, and a diamond around her neck that looked like it cost the sum total of my student debt. Red lipstick to really seal the deal.

For the first time tonight, Elliot stumbled over his words. He caught himself quickly, but it was still noticeable that he scrambled for the right thing to say and was, for a moment, speechless.

He must’ve recognized her too. “Five hundred and eighty!”

The older lady in red stayed persistent, sending a glare at the new player in the game, who was much younger than her, and held her paddle higher. Meanwhile, the other girl’s paddle never came down.