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Surrender My Love(8)

By:Melissa Foster


Sam’s shit-eating grin made Cole want to pound it off of him.

“Everyone needs a little fun in their life. Besides, it wasn’t all me. It was Shannon’s idea, too.” Sam’s eyes shifted toward Leesa, who was serving a table of guys while they ogled her.

Cole’s hands fisted by his sides as he turned back toward his brother. “This isn’t my type of fun, Sam. This is your type of fun.” He looked at Nate. “Why are you up here? You think Jewel wants you being won by some other woman?”

Nate winked. “I filled her purse with hundred-dollar bills. There’s no chance she’ll lose, and the homeless get a good donation from us.”

Cole was beat and he knew it. His name was on the brochure; there was no backing out now.

“I’ll be right back.” He went to the hallway where the ATM machine was located and withdrew cash from two of his accounts, taking the max limit from each. Then he waited until Leesa was done serving the leering men and pulled her aside.

“Hi. Do you want me to get you a drink?” she asked with a teasing smile.

“No.” He shoved the money into her hand. “But you can win me so I don’t have to go out with someone else.”

“What?” Her eyes widened. “No. I told you I can’t go out with you.”

That wasn’t the response he’d hoped for. “You don’t have to,” he said, even though he hoped she’d change her mind. “Just save me from going out with someone else. I grew up with most of the women here. Trust me. You’re saving me from a date I don’t want. I’ll owe you one.” He squeezed her hand and walked away with a smile on his lips, leaving her with a gaping jaw and giving him a little more hope than he’d had when he’d arrived.

“What was that about?” Jon asked when he stepped in line with the rest of the men on the auction stage.

“That was about getting back in the game.”

Leesa looked down at the cash in her hands and then back up at him. She shook her head, and he nodded and mouthed, Please?

A slow smile spread across her lips as she shook her head again, this time with less determination. She shoved the money in her pocket and turned away.

Ten minutes later his father stepped to the front of the crowd and held up a hand as he spoke. “Welcome to Mr. B’s. We’re proud to be hosting the twelfth annual Bachelor Auction for the Homeless.”

Everyone clapped, women hooted and hollered, and guys whistled and cheered. Cole watched Jon and Sam hamming it up, waving to the crowd, flexing their biceps and flirting with the women in the front, who were waving money in the air. Nate blew a kiss to his girlfriend, Jewel, and Cole tried to locate Leesa, who was nowhere in sight.

“Tonight we’re starting off with my own flesh and blood, Sam Braden.” Ace motioned for Sam to step forward.

Sam made a show of whipping off his shirt and tossing it toward the outstretched hands of the women standing at the front of the crowd, who squealed with delight.

Ace shook his head and grinned, pride and amusement battling in his dark eyes.

“This is Sam’s sixth auction, so most of you ladies are probably familiar with my boy here. Sam owns Rough Riders, a rafting and adventure company.” His father read from a pad of paper, and Cole wondered what information had been given about him. “When he’s not on the water, he’s taking clients on wilderness trips or living the good life, as evident from his year-round tan and muscular physique.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw and mumbled, “Christ, Sammy.”

The crowd laughed.

“Just telling it like it is,” Sam said.

“What did he write about me?” Cole whispered to Nate.

Nate shrugged, but the glint of humor in his eyes told him he did know.

“We’re opening the bidding at fifty dollars,” Ace said. “Do I hear fifty?”

“Fifty!” a redheaded woman yelled.

“Fifty-five!” yelled a blonde.

“Seventy-five!” the redhead hollered.

Sam flexed his muscles, then turned his back to the crowd and wiggled his ass.

Cole laughed and mumbled, “Christ.”

“He’s just bumping up the bids,” Jon said as the crowd cheered.

“One hundred dollars!” a blonde yelled.

Sam’s bidding ended at five hundred dollars, and the blonde who won a date with him ran up to the stage wearing the tiniest miniskirt Cole had ever seen, a tank top, and a smile as wide as Texas. She dragged Sam away by a belt loop, accompanied by a loud round of applause.

“Lucky bastard,” Jon said as Ace called his name.

Jon took off his shirt and spun it around over his head before tossing it into the crowd. He immediately began posing, as if he were in a bodybuilding competition.

“There’s no shyness here, ladies. This is Dr. Jon Butterscotch’s fifth auction. Jon is…” Ace consulted the paper again and furrowed his brow. “Who writes this stuff? Dr. Butterscotch is into medicine, fitness, and late-night fun.”

“You’ve got that right,” Jon said, laughing as he pointed to the women in the crowd. “Come on, ladies, bid me up!”

Cole spotted Leesa walking out of the kitchen carrying a tray of food. He lost sight of her again as the women in the crowd moved closer to the front, waving money and hollering out their bids.

“And we have a winner, for six hundred and fifty dollars!” Ace clapped as a brunette Cole recognized as having gone to school with Nate ran up to Jon and pulled him toward her table.

His father auctioned off two of the other guys, and by the time he got to Cole, Cole was stressing out. He hadn’t imagined that bidding would go so high, and he’d only given Leesa six hundred bucks. He stepped up to the front, and the women screamed his name and crowded in around him. Cole stepped back, trying to put space between him and the handsy women, while eagerly searching the crowd for Leesa.

“For the first time ever, my eldest son is on the auction box, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.” Ace smiled at Cole.

“Me either,” Cole mumbled. He recognized most of the women who were waving cash and reaching for him, and although they were attractive, none of them held a candle to Leesa. He finally spotted her standing by Shannon and Tempe, rubbing her hand over the pocket where she’d stowed the cash he’d given her. He silently pled for her to do as he’d asked.

Ace consulted the paper and began reading. “Dr. Braden enjoys sailing, reading, and—”

“Two hundred dollars!” a woman Cole couldn’t see yelled from the back of the restaurant, but her voice sent a shiver of memory down his spine. Kenna.

He saw Shannon and Tempe both whip their heads in the direction of the voice, and Shannon’s narrowing eyes told him he was right.

Another woman yelled, “Two fifty!”

Kenna pushed through the crowd, heading directly for the front, eyes locked on Cole. “Four hundred.”

She was just as beautiful as she’d always been, with long auburn hair and big green eyes. Cole’s gut ached, because he knew all too well what lay beneath that pretty exterior. A soul that knew nothing about love and loyalty. He searched for Leesa and saw her talking with Tegan.

“Four fifty!” another woman called out.

“Five hundred and fifty dollars.” Kenna narrowed her eyes, and the right side of her crimson lips lifted in a smirk that would probably make another man fill with anticipation. It made Cole want to walk off the stage.

Shannon and Tempe pushed to the front of the crowd, looking at him with a question in their eyes. He knew they’d bid on him if he gave them a nod, but there was only one woman he wanted to win this auction, and she was still leaning over the table talking with Tegan and the other girls.

Cole needed to get her attention, and he knew of one sure way to do it. He gripped his shirt just beneath the collar and tore it off, sending buttons flying into the crowd and causing a ruckus of squeals and lewd comments that couldn’t be ignored.

Perfect.

Leesa whipped her head around, and Cole grinned at the awestruck look in her eyes. He’d never had to resort to using his body to get a woman’s attention, but hell if he wasn’t about to do whatever it took. She walked nervously along the edge of the crowd. Cole’s pulse kicked up with every step. God, she was gorgeous. She outshined every woman in the place, and she didn’t even have to try, but apparently he did. He wasn’t the posing type and couldn’t stifle laughing at himself as he flexed his biceps and made his pecs dance. He kept his eyes locked on Leesa, so no other woman could mistake who he was posing for.

Leesa, now standing beside Shannon, gripped Shannon’s arm, as if she needed to stabilize herself, and when she spoke, her voice was shaky. “Seven hundred and seventy-five dollars.”

Kenna turned a venomous stare on Leesa and said, “Eight. Hundred. Dollars.”


***

LEESA’S EYES FLICKED to Cole, standing before the group of hungry women with his Greek-god body on display, a face that should be on the cover of People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue, and a look of hope in his eyes meant just for her. Jewel had clued her in on his ex-girlfriend, Mackenna Klein, a few minutes earlier. She didn’t know all the details about their long-term relationship or why they’d broken up, but she said there was no way in hell Cole would want to be won by that woman. When Cole had asked Leesa to bid on him, she hadn’t been sure she would actually follow through, but after watching him up there in front of all those women and feeling his eyes on her, looking at her like she was the only woman in the room, she could hardly breathe. She hated the idea of not going out with him almost as much as she hated the idea of seeing his happiness deflate when she revealed her past, which she’d have to do if they went out. She couldn’t keep something like that from him.