Page 9

Raeann

“ J ust make sure I don’t go home with someone the likes of Jasmine Esperanza…when I’ve been dreaming about going home with you.”

His proximity, the tone of his voice. A brush fire takes hold and the whole of my body is inflamed. “Micah…” I mutter to myself. His lips move, but I don’t process what he’s saying. “This is crazy.”

Then he’s gone, leaving my body taut with heat. Did I understand him correctly? Maybe I didn’t.

A few moments later, though, he’s on stage. He waves good-naturedly at the attendees, performs a three-sixty spin, making sure to hold my gaze. The women in the crowd whistle and taunt.

He’d said I’d be saving him. I’m almost certain that’s what he said, anyway. With him so near, I get drunk off his aura.

“We’ll start the bidding at five thousand,” Peggy, the president of The Pet Coalition, announces.

Five thousand?

My stomach drops. I’m totally out of my league. Surrounded by fancy couples and more diamonds than I’ve ever seen in one place, I let the pad of my finger trace Micah’s credit card. His credit card .

A woman near the front with sparkly triangle-shaped earrings, who is partially obscured by the other guests, yells out, “Fifteen thousand!”

The crowd gasps, and I nearly faint. Five thousand was bad enough, but fifteen thousand ? I can’t spend that much money. That would literally pay my portion of the rent for over a year.

His credit card burns in my hand. Real quick, I do a calculation in my head. He’s a pro football player. He probably makes millions. To him, fifteen thousand is a day out. Maybe? My skin starts to crawl, and then a hand on my back makes me jump.

“Whoa, you okay?” Tab asks.

“No, I am not okay!”

Her eyes widen when tables a few feet from us turn to look. On stage, Peggy is pumping Micah up. I only hear bits and pieces, but she’s asking him dating game questions.

Tab’s gaze wanders up there, and then she grabs her chest. “Is that Micah Freeman?”

“Yes!”

“Shh,” she chastises as more people peer back at us. She sits at the extra seat at the table that we saved for her.

Peggy asks for other bids. She counts down as if it’s my last chance to do something, and of its own volition, my hand shoots in the air. “Fifteen thousand one hundred dollars.”

Tab’s “ What the fuck are you doing ?” almost drowns out the woman in the front who counters with “Twenty thousand!”

Tab grabs my hand and forces it to the table, but then I flash Micah’s black card at her. “He told me to bid on him. Whatever it took to save him.”

Her eyes go from crazy to sappy in a flash. She covers her mouth with her hands. “Oh my God, are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m freaking out.”

She swallows about half my water then sets the glass down too forcefully, water sloshing over the side.

“Twenty-five thousand!”

I peer over to see who bid, and it’s Jasmine Esperanza. Why, though? She’s married, and how did Micah know she would end up bidding on him? My stomach clenches.

“Bid!” Tab whispers vehemently.

“It’s so much money!”

“It’s not your money.”

“Thirty thousand!” I yell, my heart dropping into an empty cavern that’s filled with nothing but frayed nerves and agitation.

Jesus, hell, I have no business spending this kind of money. But then my eyes connect with Micah’s again. He looks pleased. The cocky smirk that graces his face must spur the other women to bid, though, because a sudden flurry of activity means we’re up to fifty thousand within thirty seconds.

I grip the table, heart pounding. It feels like it’s going to come right out of my chest, like a drummer is pounding on it from the inside.

Tab squeezes my free hand. “You can do this, Rae-bae.”

“Fifty-five!” I shout.

The woman in the front peers over her shoulder at me. I want to shrink back into my chair when the snarky grin that crosses her face is filled with venom.

“Seventy-five thousand dollars.” Her bid slides off her tongue with a confidence I’ve rarely heard, and it’s obvious she thinks she’s putting the nail in the coffin.

All my life, people have treated me like dirt. I had to hide away from who I was. Made fun of by other kids because I couldn’t afford to buy school lunch or my clothes were secondhand. They would ride their bikes by my trailer and call me trash.

I don’t know what comes over me, but a fierce wave of passion and the same will to fight that used to overwhelm me when I was a child forces my hand into the air. “One hundred thousand dollars!”

I hold my breath, then release it in an audible shock when the last few seconds repeat in my head. In the front, the woman raises her chin and crosses her arms across her chest.

“One hundred thousand,” Peggy gushes. “We have a bid for one hundred thousand.”

A new rush runs through me. That’s a lot of homeless pets helped. A lot of cuddly animals that can get medical assistance and food and a warm place to stay.

My belly flips and elation fills me. I did that.

Well, Micah did that. Micah’s money, to be exact.

“Do we have any other bids?” Peggy asks, her eyebrows permanently stitched in her hairline. “Going once. Twice?” She peers around the large room, and it falls silent. “Sold to Raeann Gorman of Pet Threads.”

Tab squeals next to me, and my chest fills. I like the sound of that. Raeann Gorman of Pet Threads. Like I have a purpose. Like I have an identity.

Below that, though, a darker, more pleasureful satisfaction fits into place. Sold to Raeann Gorman. Initially, I can’t tell if it’s because of the implication that I own Micah Freeman, or because of the power rush that followed after I pushed through my anxiety to accomplish Micah’s task.

Peggy hands the microphone to another person who starts auctioning off the other items. After catching my gaze, she points to the side of the stage, and I lift to my feet, ask Tab if she’ll watch over Athena, and then walk on shaky high heels with Micah’s credit card to the other side of the room.

Peering over at the stage, I scan the area to see where he is, or if he’s following her, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

Panic claws at my chest. I hope he’s not mad about the amount.

Suddenly, I picture him popping up when I offer Peggy the card and telling her it was all a joke.

The embarrassment that would come over me.

It would be absolute degradation personified.

Peggy does her own squealing when I meet her at the side of the room ensconced in shadows.

She hugs me, her arms tight. “Oh my goodness, Raeann! I had no idea the store has been doing so well. I know the donations have been growing and growing, but one hundred thousand dollars ! Success couldn’t have happened to a better person. I am so happy for you!”

“Oh, I…” I can’t find the words to say, so I just smile. “Thank you, Peggy. You know how much Tab and I love what you guys do.”

“Well, the good thing is, it’s a tax write-off!”

She produces a small electronic receptacle from her purse and starts pressing buttons. The screen lights up, and then she holds it out to me.

“Tap your card right there.”

I do, then watch the little circle complete with the word Success following shortly after.

“Thank you for your donation, Raeann. I’m sure your date with Micah will be super special!” She cranes her neck to search the room. “Where is he? I wanted to thank him.”

She takes off, leaving me in the corner by myself. On the brightly lit side of the room, people are still calling out bid amounts, though at a much more reasonable price point. Still out of my range.

I take a deep breath. I’ve never seen so many zeros on a credit card swipe. The worry that it wouldn’t go through was Mount Everest–level high.

Arms surround me from behind, but as soon as my brain registers the danger, the smell of Micah hits—woodsy with a hint of rain. “Micah…”

“Mmm,” he murmurs. His right arm bands around my stomach while his left trails up my arm, leaving goose bumps in its wake. “I want you to feel something.”

My chest rises and falls erratically. I press my hand to my chest, feeling it jump beneath my palm. His breath hits my neck, and I close my eyes as heat envelops me.

Immediately, he shifts his hips into my ass, and the telltale outline of his cock rubs against the soft fabric of my dress. A gasp rips from my throat, and I find myself melting back into him, as if drawn by supernatural forces.

He walks me backward. In the far corner of the room, I can barely see the outline of Tab as she watches the auctions, stealing the last bit of my dessert.

Eventually, Micah stops, his left hand squeezing my hip, kneading it. “When you made the last bid, I was so proud of you. How did it feel?” he rasps.

“Good,” I answer, breathless, his touch a siren’s cry to the heat coiling in my stomach. I barely recognize the sound of my own voice.

“How good?”

At that moment, he angles his hips into me, sending his cock into the deep tissue of my ass again. Liquid warmth pools in my core that has me clenching my teeth.

He rubs against me, and my mouth falls open. “Powerful,” I manage to say, my voice inching higher, tighter.

He licks the shell of my ear, and goose bumps sprout over my skin. “That’s incredibly hot.”

“So many…animals…” I swallow, closing my eyes to steady myself so I don’t get carried away. “So many animals helped.”

His dark chuckle implants naughty thoughts into my head. Thoughts I shouldn’t be having in a room filled with people, let alone thoughts spurred by a man I’ve only met three times.

“Oh, is that all?” he asks.

I try to hand his credit card back to him, but he closes my fingers around it, then guides them down the front of my dress and over my cleavage, where his fingers skim along the cut of the material.

“Keep it.”

“That’s…crazy.”

“You didn’t notice the name on it, did you?”

“What?”

“On the card? It’s yours, Raeann Gorman.”

“You…got me a credit card?”

“I added you to my account, and you can use it whenever you want, for whatever you want.” His fingers slip beyond the edge of the fabric, sneaking closer to my nipple. Just when I think he might touch or tease or tweak, he pulls his hands away. “Do you understand?”

My breaths come out in a short stutter. I can barely inhale with his scent everywhere on me.

The pulse in my wrist beats erratically. The swarm of panic that I’m all too familiar with rises from the shadows like a sinister shroud. I wait for it to come, my body prepping to be completely overtaken by the assault…but it never happens.

It’s soon quelled when Micah walks his fingers up my thigh, pulling the hem of my dress higher inch by inch.

“Have you thought about us? I haven’t gotten you out of my head.

During practice, during a game. Nearly every waking moment, my brain wants to know where you are and what you’re doing.

I’ve imagined you naked in my bed, in my shower, and just now, when you bid on me, I imagined thrusting into you with a need I haven’t felt before. What I wouldn’t give…”

My legs tremble, but I’m molded to his body, taking on his form. My head rests on his expansive chest while he slides his cock over the curve of my ass.

“Well, have you?” he asks, voice gruffer than before. Barely controlled.

“I am right now,” I tell him honestly.

He groans into my ear. Hands at my panty line now, he traces the lace leading to my core, and again, just when I think he might touch my sensitive skin, he reverses his direction.

Groaning, his fingers grip me where they are. A sort of desperate clenching.

“I better stop now before I embarrass myself.” His mouth moves to my ear. “I’m so close to coming in my pants like a prepubescent teen. Know it’s all because of you, Raeann. God help me.”

He drops the hem of my dress, and the fabric swishes around my thighs again.

With two firm hands on my hips, he moves me forward.

I nearly stumble, but he rights me with a strong grip on my shoulder before whispering in my ear, “Someday soon.” Then all at once, his heat leaves.

He walks past, brushing his suit from chest to final seam.

Even from the rear, he’s a specimen. It takes a few minutes for my brain to catch up with my body. Micah Freeman is a tantalizing seducer. Weaving his web for me to fall into.

On the other side of the room, he greets Tab like he wasn’t over here feeling me up and making me think and want things that are beyond my norm. It’s as if he’s in my brain, altering its chemistry.

Even now, I can feel the hard plastic of his credit card against the soft tissue of my breast. What am I supposed to do with this? Give it back? Reprimand him? I reach up and tuck it into a place more comfortable before exhaling and shaking out my hands until a sense of normalcy returns.

I know what another woman would do. Use it. She would buy herself things. Shower herself with gifts. I’ve never really wanted much, though. A decent home to come back to and food that isn’t past its expiration date.

I’m already living that life.

Admittedly, the thrill that ran through me when I bid a hundred thousand dollars on him is—in other ways—nearly as intoxicating as Micah himself.

It feels wrong to want to do it again, but the dogs? The cats? It can give them shelter and food to survive on. Every animal deserves that. No matter what their current situation.

I want to be that person. Like Micah, who can drop a sizable amount on a whim. I want to do good things with money.

After straightening my dress and making sure the skirt isn’t tucked in anywhere unseemly, I walk back to the table. Tab reaches out her hand, and I take it and squeeze.

Micah’s gaze holds mine, heat transferring between us like a live wire.

“So, Micah,” I start, “do you have any accountant recommendations?”

“Oh yes,” Tab says, sitting up straight. Her eyes shine as she puts on her business hat. “Good idea.”

“I can give you the name of mine.”

“That would be awesome,” Tab remarks. “Also, if you know anyone who wants to work at a pet fashion store?”

He smirks. “Back end or front end?”

I break his gaze to look at Tab, and we both shrug before I turn and say, “Both.”

“I have people.” The way he says it is sexy, importance and power wrapped into a sultry tone.

“Hear that?” Tab asks. “Your date has people.”

My first instinct is to deny that he’s my date, but Micah holds my stare as if daring me to. I can almost read the implication that if I deny it, he’ll make me wish I hadn’t. By what means, I’m not sure. Right here, right now, in front of Tab? Or when we’re alone again?

I press my lips together. I didn’t come here with a date, but I am leaving with one. To deny it would just be empty words.

Micah Freeman has done the one thing I never thought he would bother to do: charm his way into my life.