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Surprising... because Alexander is the one known for his attention to detail.
But then Gabriel is a bit of a playboy. The handsome geek who stormed through Wall Street. There was a stretch there where he’d been at every party, in every paper, always with a different woman on his arm.
Not that I was watching.
I was totally watching.
The auctioneer clears her throat.
“Five hundred thousand.”
Gabriel tosses the number into the middle of the ballroom like a grenade, and boy does it get a reaction.
Every set of eyes in the cavernous, sparkling space turns to look at the brainiac billionaire.
The auctioneer, for all her fast-talking, is momentarily at a loss for words.
Pleasure and fear twine around each other and zip through my veins.
If only I could go back and tell my fourteen-year-old self with the acne-covered skin and not-in-vogue hair that one day, one day a handsome man (a man she’d long thought her enemy) would offer half a million dollars for a single date with her.
“Mr. Rothburn, thank you for the bid. Any other bids?” Of course she knows who he is.
Her gaze sweeps the room. She’s getting back into her rhythm now, and I can almost feel her composing herself behind the lectern.
She glances my way, but I’m turning back to Alexander, struck dumb. That dark chocolate gaze locks on me again. He can’t match that bid. Right? That’d be insanity.
“Mr. Hunt?”
Gabriel’s lips curve up, and he half turns, waiting to see what his friend will do. The murmurs grow louder, and I know that the auctioneer is giving them extra time to sort out... whatever the hell it is they’re sorting out.
For some reason, it feels important that both of them save face.
“Two dates,” I whisper to the woman behind the lectern.
From the corner of my eye, I see her jaw drop, and her head swivels in my direction.
Then she grins.
“One million,” Alexander Hunt says and Gabriel gives his friend a look that could slice ham.
The crowd loses their marbles and my knees give out. I wobble before quickly righting myself. But it’s too late. Alex and Gabriel noticed, and now, heaven help me; they wear matching smirks.
My jaw is on the floor saying hello to my new shoes, but luckily, no one’s looking at me anymore. They’re looking at the gorgeous man in the back of the room. And even though everyone is staring at Alex, his attention is now on his best friend.
Your turn, that look seems to say.
“Perhaps if Mr. Rothburn cared to match Mr. Hunt’s bid, Miss Montgomery would agree to a date with each of you,” the auctioneer says, her cute little gavel poised in her hand.
“Absolutely,” I agree, finding my voice. I sound way more calm than I feel. Inside, I’m gelatin.
“Done,” Gabriel calls out.
Two million dollars.
They paid two million dollars to date me.
7
