Page 58 of Hope's Highest Bidders

He walks to the counter that’s been set up. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not leaving with you.”

He lifts his hand and strokes it through his beard while he looks at me. “Yes, you are. Because I’m not leaving you here.”

The man at the counter clears his throat. “Ma’am, you signed the contract. If you have changed your mind, you will need to talk to Coco about it.” I’m about to nod my head when he continues, “But you’d be wasting your time. Unless you have eight million dollars, the contract is binding. Of course, you’re free to do whatever, but you will be the one paying the bill.”

Eight million dollars. I don’t have eight million dollars. Heck, I don’t even have eight thousand dollars. “Fine,” I say.

Ben transfers the money, and when the cashier asks if we want the marriage option, I tell him no, absolutely not.

Ben doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t seem happy, and I can’t say I blame him.

We finally get out the door, and Ben is leading me to his truck. As I climb in, I ask him, “Did Elana send you?”

He slams the door and walks around to the driver’s side and gets in. “No, Elana didn’t send me.”

I dig through my bag and pull my phone out. I dial Elana’s number, and she answers on the first ring. “You okay?”

Instead of answering her, I ask my own question. “Why did you send your brother to get me?”

She gasps. “Eddie’s there?”

“No, Ben is here.”

She’s quiet for a second and then blurts out, “Ben is there? My brother Ben… is at the auction?”

My voice drops a little. Elana is good, but she really does sound like she doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. “Yes. Ben is here, and he bid on me.”

“He what?”

I look over at Ben, and he’s holding on to the steering wheel with white knuckles. “You didn’t know?”

Elana gasps into the phone. “No, I didn’t know. How did he even know you were there? I didn’t tell him.”

“I’ll call you back,” I tell her and then hang up.

I turn in my seat and face him. “What is going on, Ben? Why did you come?”

He enunciates each word. “Because I wasn’t going to let you sell yourself to some stranger, that’s why.”

“What do you care? You hate me.”

His rigid jaw softens along with his voice. “I don’t hate you.”

“Right. I’m just a hot piece of ass to you.” He doesn’t say anything, but I’m not going to stop until I get to the bottom of this. “How did you know… oh shit, you were there to bid on someone. You saw me and felt you needed to save me or something. You were there for someone else.”

He looks at me with a tight expression on his face. “No.”

Exasperated, I throw my hand up. “No what?”

He turns back to the road in front of us. “No, I wasn’t there for someone else.”

My body quivers. If he wasn’t there for someone else, does that mean he really was there for me? No. There’s no way. “Why then?”

His voice is hard. “Because I wasn’t going to stand by while you sold yourself to some stranger. Fuck, Maggie. You have no idea how much I hated seeing you up there.”

Has he thought of me at all these last few weeks? Is he doing this because I work for him? Why does he care when all he wanted was a piece of ass?

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