Page 29 of Auctioned To Be Mine

It was a deep purple. A power color. Royal. The dress had a fitted bodice and a flowing skirt that hit just above my knees. It was elegant and sexy, not too revealing.

“Try it on,” Betty urged.

I took the dress into the fitting room, half expecting it to look terrible on me. But when I zipped it up and looked in the mirror, I barely recognized myself. It made my boobs look amazing, showing just enough cleavage to tease while hiding some of the extra padding around my mid-section and hips. I looked sophisticated. Confident. Like someone who could absolutely hold her own across the dinner table from Callum Blackwell.

I stepped out of the fitting room and Betty’s jaw dropped.

“Winner, winner,” she said.

“You think?”

“I know. Trust me, Vic. That dress is perfect.”

I looked at myself in the mirror. She was right. It looked great.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said quietly. “Sitting across from him for two hours, making small talk, pretending like I don’t want to throw my drink in his face.”

Betty came and stood beside me, meeting my eyes in the mirror. “You can do this. You help families navigate the worst moments of their lives. You can handle one dinner with an arrogant rich guy.”

“What if I say something stupid?”

“Obviously, the world will end.” She chuckled and squeezed my shoulder. “Make the best of it. And remember, it’s two hundred thousand dollars. That’s a hundred thousand dollars an hour for your time.”

I laughed despite myself. “Well, when you put it that way.”

“Exactly.” She grinned at me in the mirror. “Now let’s get you some shoes to go with that dress. If you’re going to do this, you might as well look absolutely killer while you’re doing it.”

I took one more look at myself in the mirror. The woman looking back at me looked ready for anything. Even Callum Blackwell.

11

CALLUM

Iseriously contemplated faking my own death. It would be easier than sitting through dinner with Chantilly. Less painful too.

“You look like someone just told you your dog died,” Drew said from where he was sprawled across my bed, tossing a tennis ball up and catching it repeatedly.

I held up two ties, one silver and one black. I realized I looked like I was dressing for a funeral.

I turned away from the mirror and looked at him. “Can’t you just go in my place? Tell her I had a family emergency.”

“Absolutely not.” He caught the ball and sat up. “That woman is certifiably insane. Did you see the way she was bidding? She looked possessed.”

“That’s because Victoria was whispering in her ear the entire time.”

“It was hilarious,” Cleo said from the doorway. She walked in carrying what looked like a gin and tonic. “I like her.”

“Of course you do.” I pulled off the tie I’d been attempting to knot and tossed it onto the bed. “She orchestrated my public humiliation.”

“You deserved it,” Cleo said matter-of-factly. She settled into the chair by the window and crossed her legs. “You set off a fire alarm to escape a date. That’s psychotic behavior.”

“Drew set off the fire alarm. Why does everyone keep blaming me! He did it!”

“At your request,” Drew pointed out.

I grabbed another tie from my closet, a dark blue silk one. I started looping it around my neck when Cleo made a sound that stopped me mid-motion.

“What are you doing?”