Page 213 of Double or Nothing

“Then nobody bids.” He shrugs.

“What if Camilla laughs?”

“She won’t. I’ve researched every sale she’s handled for the past five years. I know who attends, what they buy and which collectors will keep bidding because someone they dislike wants the same thing.” He gestures towards the triptych. “This belongs in that room. Trust me.”

Alice stares at the form.

“Come on,” Jack says. “Type in the reserve price. Three hundred.”

She stares at the pieces, so beautiful on the stand, and I see the nerves sparking, still there under her smile.

“You do it,” she says to him. “Please, just type it in, my fingers are shaking.”

“My pleasure. But you have to hit send.”

He taps at the screen with a smirk then hands it back to her. Her eyebrows raise higher than I’ve ever seen.

“Are you fucking serious?! I feel sick! I can’t send that.”

She shows me the screen. Three hundred and fifty grand.

“Do it,” he says. “Trust yourself, and just press send.”

“Oh my God,” she replies, and shuts her eyes.

Then she does it. Soul Girl actually heeds his instructions and presses send.

He looks so fucking proud of her, I could cry.

“That’s faith,” he says. “It feels remarkably similar to insanity at first, but trust me, I know the difference. I promise you.”

He stares at her. So real. So true. So him, that something seems to change inside her.

Not absolute confidence. But something growing. Shifting.

Belief in herself.

Just like he gave me in the office today.

Pure adoration rises through me. Jack claims to care only about sex, money and the thrill of a game, yet he’s spent hours doing this for her. Researching collectors and artists and the bidding process, because Alice doubted whether she belonged in the room.

His eyes flick towards me. “What is it, BT?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re looking at me strangely.”

It would be so easy to answer him with gushes of affection. Three simple words on the end of my tongue. But I don’t do it. I don’t want to lose him on the retreat back towards casual, so I keep my poker face up high.

Except it’s no poker face. Not for Jack.

His smile is pure devilish as he gives a mwah in my direction.

His eyes light up my whole fucking world.

“Love you too, BT,” he says. “Nearly as much as I love fucking your ass.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE