More than a Mistress(3)

Travis felt his body tighten. The sounds of the cheering women, the drone of the auctioneer, faded to a dull roar.

He imagined himself coming down off that stage. Going to her. Taking her  in his arms. No words. No niceties. Just taking her in his arms,  carrying her out of the ballroom to a place where they'd be atone,  ripping that piece of dark red silk from her body and burying himself  deep inside her while she wrapped her arms and legs around him...

Oh, hell.

He was standing in front of hundreds of people, thinking things that  could only bring a man public humiliation. Stop it, lie told himself  fiercely, and he tore his gaze from her, thought about cold showers and  forced himself to focus on the delighted faces of the crowd.

"I have five thousand," the auctioneer shouted. "Do I hear six?"

"Six," the lady in the front yelled.

Travis fixed his attention on her. He flashed a sexy smile. She  squealed. He turned his back to the audience, looked over his shoulder  and pretended he was going to slip his jacket off.

The crowd whooped and cheered.

"Six-five", a brunette shouted. Travis turned and blew her a kiss.

He didn't need the blonde Ice Princess. He had a trio of women in a frenzied bidding war over him. What more could a guy ask'?

"Seven." a stunning redhead said.
                       
       
           



       
"Hey." he shouted, "I'm worth a lot more than that!"

The crowd stamped its well-shod feet in approval. The brunette laughed,  and another redhead shot to her feet. "Seven-five," she called, and  everybody cheered and applauded.

Travis grinned. The guy from Hannan and Murphy had gone for five.

"I'm worth more than that, too," he yelled. The crowd loved it.

"Eight," the lady in the front said.

"Eight-five," the brunette shouted.

"Nine!"

Travis laughed. The evening he'd dreaded was turning out to be fun. One  more glance at the blonde, that was all, before the gavel swung down.  Not that it mattered. He'd probably overestimated her looks. If she'd  walked farther into the room so that she was closer to the stage, he'd  have seen her flaws.

What flaws`?

She had come closer, while the bidding was raging. She was almost at the  stage and Lord, she wasn't beautiful, she was spectacular.

And she was looking at him. Her expression was difficult to read. Interested, yes, but it seemed...

Speculative. As if she were appraising him. And finding him wanting.

Travis's hands knotted at his sides as the woman turned swiftly and started back up the aisle.

Who did this babe think she was, to check him out and then walk away? Turn around, he thought furiously, turn around!

The woman's pace increased.

Travis took a step forward. To hell with the auction! "Nine thousand,"  the auctioneer shouted, and the crowd roared. "Nine thousand once. Nine  thousand twice..."

"Ten," the brunette screamed.

The blonde woman stopped. That's it, baby, Travis thought. Turn around. Look at me.

And she did. Her eyes met his. Their gazes locked, and held. For one  breathless moment, there was no one else in the room, no one else in the  universe. It was only them. Travis, and the woman.

She knew it, too.

He saw her acknowledge it as her eyes widened, saw the impact of the  understanding in the sudden, rapid rise and fall of her breasts. The tip  of her tongue a pale, silken pink slipped over her soft-looking mouth.

Travis's eyes bored into hers. Do it, he thought. Do it, do it...

"Going once," the auctioneer said, "to the lady at table three, for ten thousand dollars. Going twice. Going-"

"Twenty thousand dollars."

The crowd gasped. Every head swiveled toward the woman with the blond hair. Even the auctioneer leaned for forward.

"Would you repeat your bid, please, madam'?"

The woman took a deep breath. Travis thought he saw her tremble but he  knew he must have been mistaken, because when she spoke again, her voice  was cool, controlled, and touched with something that bordered on  amusement.

"I said, I bid twenty thousand dollars."

Bang went the gavel. "Sold," the auctioneer said, triumphantly, "to the lady in red."

And the crowd in the ballroom of the Hotel Paradise went wild.





CHAPTER TWO




THE bang of the gavel echoed through the ballroom, but it wasn't as loud as the sudden thump of Alexandra Thorpe's heart.

"Sold," the auctioneer shouted. "Sold to the lady in red." The lady in red, she thought numbly...

Alex thought, for an instant, her legs would buckle. She bowed her head  and gripped the chair in front of her. She'd come here to buy a man, and  she had. A man named Travis Baron.

A stud named Travis Baron, a little voice inside her said coldly. It was  true. The man onstage was every inch a stud, if looks and attitude were  anything to go by...

And now, she owned him.

Why on earth had she done something so stupid? Carl's words had hurt,  yes, but so what? Their divorce was two years old. She didn't miss Carl,  or love him; she knew now that she never really had. So, why should  anything he said, anything, still haunt her? And the rest of her plan,  if you could call it that, was not just stupid but sick. A woman didn't  just-a woman couldn't just-

Awareness sizzled thought her blood.

He was looking at her. Every nerve ending in her body was screaming it.

Don't, Alex told herself, don't lift your head....

Stopping the rotation of the planet would have been easier. Alex caught  her bottom lip between her teeth and slowly raised her eyes to the  stage.

Her heart did it again, just as it had when he'd first looked at her. It  took that leap within her breast that made the room spin. Travis Baron  hadn't moved. Those hot green eyes were still fixed on her as if he was a  hawk and she was his prey. There was a smile of pure masculine  satisfaction, tilting across his mouth-that sensual mouth-she could  almost feel on her own. Everything about him, from the set of his broad  shoulders, the way he stood, with his long legs planted slightly apart,  sent a message, and the message was unmistakable.

I am a man, he was saying. And you are a woman. And when you and I are alone...                       
       
           



       

Panic whispered along Alex's skin. She would never be alone with this  man, or with any other. She had learned that much from her marriage.  Forgetting that lesson, tonight, had been an aberration, a foolish  reaction to an overheard whisper that had called back painful memories.

What did she give a damn, if Carl had told his new wife she was frigid?  Let him say what he liked, so long as he was no longer saying it to her.

Alex tore her gaze from Travis Baron's. People were crowding around her, offering congratulations.

"What will you do with that gorgeous hunk for an entire weekend?" a woman said, and a roar of laughter went up.

She knew it was only a joke. The auction was a legitimate fund-raiser.  What the winners did with their bachelors was play tennis, or golf, go  dancing or to dinner...

Except, that wasn't what she'd intended to do with him.

The thought was enough to send another wave of panic rolling through her  blood. Alex smiled. She hoped she smiled, anyway, and laughed, and said  she'd think of something...

With the laughter still ringing in her ears, she fled up the aisle toward the double doors that led to the lobby, and to sanity.

"Mrs. Stuart?"

Just keep walking, Alex. Smile, and keep...

"Mrs. Stuart." A hand clasped her arm.

Alex shook off the hand. "No," she said ...and looked into the puzzled face of a gray-haired woman.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Stuart. I didn't mean to startle you."

Alex swallowed, pulled her lips into another parody of a smile. "I'm sorry. I don't-"

The woman smiled, too, and looped her arm through Alex's. "We've met  before, Mrs. Stuart. Perhaps you'll recall? I'm Barbara Rhodes. Our  husbands served on the water conservation committee together."

"My ex-husband," Alex said. "I use my maiden name. I' m Alexandra Thorpe now."

The woman winced. "Yes, of course. Sorry. I'd forgotten."

"That's quite all right. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

"Oh, I know you're in a hurry to pay for your purchase."

"My purchase," Alex said, and felt the color shoot into her face.

"Yes. We've set up a desk, in the lobby." The woman led Alex toward the  double doors. "But I wanted to take a moment to thank you, personally,  for making tonight's high bid."

"Ah." Alex smiled again and wondered if it were possible for your lips  to stick to your teeth. "No need," she said brightly. "I'm more than  happy to-help out."

"If only everyone felt that way. But let me tell you, Ms. Thorpe, they  don't. As chairperson of the auction these last two years, I know how  rarely people make such generous donations."