Page 10 of Hacker Auction

The waitress walked over and set fresh bread down. I grabbed the top one and smothered butter across the warm bread. The sourdough bread tasted amazing, but when I took my second bite, I paused. The remarks Calvin spewed a month ago rushed back. My mom raised a brow as I put the piece of bread back down on the plate. “Mom, I already told you I did it because he looked so miserable. Furthermore, do you think he would really want to go on a date with me?”

“Yes.” The man who starred in my fantasy at night growled behind me.

I was pretty sure I broke a record of how many times a person could embarrass themselves in one day.

Mom got out of her chair and wrapped Wes in a hug. “Thank you so much for helping my Rachelle. I know my daughter could have handled things at the hospital, but it was nice of you to step in.”

Wes pulled out the chair and took the seat next to me. His knee brushed against my leg as he slid himself closer to the table. I wanted him to reach out and touch me like the night on the path when he ran his fingers down the side of my face. The slight trace of his touch down my skin had me on edge, and I wanted him to continue his journey down my body, but he stopped. I shook my head to listen to the conversation Wes, and my mom were having.

I must’ve missed something important because Mom stood and grabbed her purse. “I’ll see you tonight at dinner. Don’t worry about rushing I’ll get Sage from the nanny. I know you don’t like to leave him alone too long.” She leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. My heart was beating against my chest as she took another step away, leaving me with the man who occupied way too much time in my mind.

“Mom—”

She stopped and turned back to us. “Oh, I almost forgot. This doesn’t count toward the date. That was what I wanted to discuss, dear. We can’t be exempt from the rules because we run the charity. That wouldn’t look good on our family.” She tapped her finger on her phone. “And don’t forget about the penalties for not completing the date within thirty days or without a written extension for more time. Since it’s cutting it close, I’ll let a couple more weeks extension be okay, but no more than that.”

“Mom, we need to talk about this.” I was running the rules through my mind, but I couldn’t remember them. Mostly because I never dealt with the auction. Now I wondered if there was a rule, or my mom was doing this to make me spend more time with him.

“I’m sorry you got roped into this, and that my mom left. You know she’s trying to push this. All I wanted was you to not have to deal with Ms. Pacheco.”

“Which one was she?”

Helena Pacheco never earned a dollar she had in her bank account, but she married four billionaires over the years, all when they were only a few years from death. Each one had no family either. “She tends to snatch a few of the men. Then uses them for sex until the next event,” I whispered. Hoping nobody around heard me talking about the woman. It seemed she had spies everywhere. Not a single thing I said was untrue. With the money she had, she would fund projects or hand over millions. In return, they would live with her for a year. At least a couple of the men would do it each year. Some joined the auction just to become part of her harem.

Wes tilted his head to the side. “Never thought you would be one to believe rumors.”

“Oh, I know this for a fact. She’d called over to the house and asked me to come and help. Helena didn’t want to call the ambulance when one of the guy’s dicks wouldn’t go down. They decided to have a weekend-long orgy, but he took too many pills.” She’d answered the door in her robe when I came to the house. The woman escorted me through a maze of doors to a locked one. She typed in a code, and I stepped into a sex dungeon at her house. Three men from the year before were on the bed naked. One of the men was on the lounge chair with an ice pack on his crotch. The smell of sex filled the room. During my residency, I’d spent time in the Emergency Room and done a few procedures to assist men who had an erection for longer than eight hours.

“Um…” Wes blinked a couple of times. “Part of me knows I should not ask my next question, but another part of me wants to know if you helped the poor man.”

“I’d told her she needed to call an ambulance. Draining the blood from the penis is one option, but he might have had underlying issues. My face turned bright red as I told them different options. One was jogging. The man jumped off the bed stark naked and jogged in place. His dick flapped in the air. After about ten minutes, it went down, and I never could look Helena in the face again.” My cheeks felt like they were on fire.

“Good to know. So if I have an erection lasting too long, I need to run?”

Lucky for me, the waitress walked back over to take our orders.

“Mom left. There is no reason for us to stay. Nobody will know.”

“I will, and I’m hungry.”Okay.” I glanced down at the steak and mashed potatoes but knew I needed to watch my intake, so I ordered the salad with some tuna.

Wes stared at me a second longer as if the man could read my thoughts. “Your mom clearly stated this wasn’t our date. So why not order what you really want and not what you think I want you to order.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called out, but I also wanted the steak. “Fine, I’ll have the Cowboy medium rare with potatoes, and can you put a molten cake in, so it’s done when I’m finished.”

“Yes, and for you, sir?”

Wes rambled off his order, and the waitress walked away.

“You haven’t called,” Wes pointed out. “Yes, you gave me a three word sticky note, and told me outside that you weren’t going to call. Maybe I hoped you would have changed your mind.”

I wasn’t sure I could believe my ears. The sexiest man I’d ever seen was wondering why I didn’t call. “I thought you were being nice and wanted me to feel good.”

“I don’t say things unless I mean them. Do you remember the conversation we had?”

His declaration about spanking my ass had me imagine him bending me over my bed, desk, and even the counter as he ran his hands over my body. “Vaguely.”

“Oh, from the color of your cheeks, I think you remember exactly what I said.”

I glanced around the room to see if anyone was paying attention to us, but nobody was nearby. “Not once did I mention my weight.”

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