Page 29 of Come in with the Rain
“Sold! Tonight’s record! Twelve hundred dollars!”
The words pull me away from Adam’s eyes. A woman in the crowd is whooping and celebrating, and I feel something sickening at the bottom of my gut. She’s pretty. Very pretty. Tall and well built, in a dress that has a slit all the way up one of her shapely thighs. By the time I look back at Adam, he’s gone, replaced by Ford.
“And last but not least, by any stretch of the imagination, our fearless leader, Ford Armstrong! Ford is also an ex-Marine, and, as you all know, the co-owner of Berserkr Gym. He’s more brawn than brains, but that brawn is pretty impressive. Since he’s a one-of-a-kind, premium treat, a first-class specimen, I think we need to up our starting price. Let’s start the bidding at five hundred dollars!”
As she finally gets to the number, in an act of true showmanship, Ford rips his shirt off over his head, and the room erupts.
CHAPTER29
STELLA
My second glass of bourbon is nothing but ice when Adam finds me. I’m sequestered in a corner, my belly warm and my fingers tingling, watching various people claim the men they’ve won for the evening. I see Adam coming long before he gets to me.
“Having a good time?” he asks, raising an eyebrow in the direction of my glass.
I let it dangle from my fingertips, feeling bold. “I don’t know. I got asked on a date, and now my date is about to leave with someone prettier.”
His eyes go wide, and a bright red blush rises up along his neck. “This isn’t a—she isn’t—”
I bend and set my empty glass down on a nearby mat. “Relax. I’m joking.”
He lets out a heavy sigh, and I smile because I feel certain that whatever I’m feeling right now, whatever I’ve been trying to ignore for the last who knows how long? He feels it, too.
“I’m just sorry I couldn’t afford to bid on you.”
His eyes travel up to mine, and it’s only then that I realize he’s been staring at my mouth. “You would have bid on me?”
I’m feeling courageous, feeling light-headed, feeling suddenly like the world isn’t so bad after all. “I would have bid a million dollars to make sure I was the only one leaving here with you.”
He looks like he swallowed his tongue, and I hope he can see that I’m not joking anymore. I want to feel his hands on me. If I thought every dollar in my bank account would have accomplished that, it would all be his.
His pale cheeks flush, and when his mouth finally opens in response, someone behind me says, “You ready to go, handsome?”
I turn to find Adam’s beautiful bidder. She of the perfect make-up and waist-high slit. Her eyes slide to me, and Adam starts to sputter. “Stella, I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.”
When I turn back to him, he looks like someone who’s been told their goldfish is dead. “Of course,” I say as cheerfully as I can manage. “She did pay, after all.”
Adam’s eyebrows pucker in, and his jaw muscles protrude from his cheek in an obvious expression of annoyance. But all he says is, “Yeah.”
This is the part where I’m supposed to turn and walk away, where I leave this beautiful man to this beautiful woman and go back to my silent, empty home. But I feel stuck here, like someone has handcuffed me to Adam, and to walk away now, I’ll have to chew my own arm off.
But then the woman who bought Adam steps up next to him and smiles a friendly smile at me. “Do you need a ride home?” she asks.
It’s not even something I considered. I’m definitely far beyond the limit of being able to drive, but there’s absolutely no way that I’m getting into a car with Adam and his date. That idea alone is all I need to finally take a step back, putting distance between Adam and me.
“No, thanks. I’ll get an Uber.”
“Stella, come on. We’ll take you home,” Adam insists, reaching toward me.
“Adam,” I snap, without meaning to.
He stops, his hand dropping to his side, and I’m out in the parking lot before I can stop myself. I call an Uber and sit in my car while I wait for it, and from the darkness of my front seat, I watch Adam get into his truck, the beautiful woman in tow, and the two of them drive off.
CHAPTER30
ADAM
Sitting across from Jennifer at a bar in Hanover, all I can think about is Stella. Something is different. I don’t know what, but the way she looked at me like I’d just knocked her down, it was something. And that comment about bidding on me. What the hell did that mean?
