by Lindsey Hart
Lord, it’s because she’s my friend that I’m even here. Yes, a curse would be really appropriate at the moment. Unfortunately, he had no witchy powers, no spellcasting ability, no cauldron and no book of spells, no broomstick, and no black cat. Do warlocks have any of that? Is that even the right word? Warlock? It sounded strange. He was probably wrong.
It was better to think about hexes and curses than to watch what was going on. One by one the men were called up. They received their bids and exited back behind the other side of the curtain. The hall stage, unfortunately, was huge.
Maybe it was just nerves churning his stomach up. He’d felt that way for days. He didn’t know if it was nerves about the date or actually standing on stage. Probably the stage. He hated drama. Hated it. He hated being on stage, always had and always would. He hated being the center of attention and people looking at him. No, it definitely wasn’t the date. He’d been on hundreds of those. Not that they ever amounted to anything. His longest relationship was probably a few months. People couldn’t stand that he just didn’t want what everyone else wanted. He didn’t buy into the fairy tale, storybook notion of love. If that made him an asshole, hey, he was happy to be one.
CHAPTER 3
Rayvn
The hall where Nina and Chet’s date auction was being held was absolutely packed. It was decorated nice, like a wedding would be. Strings of white lights were hung along the walls. The tables were round with white tablecloths and black table runners. There were even centerpieces, black rocks with a large white candle. It was nice and classy, even if people were being auctioned off left and right.
No, not people. Their time.
It was fun. Rayvn had to admit she was having a good time. She, Laney, Charlotte, Ben, and a few others had been lucky enough to get a table near the back. She felt safer there, protected, out of the spotlight, unnoticed.
Not that I need to feel safe. It’s not like I’m going to be forced to bid on anyone.
She watched the men come out when their number was called. They stood on stage, some proud, some nervous, some laughing and cracking jokes. They all wore the same tuxedo, black with a white dress shirt and a black tie.
Nina and Chet stood near the front, writing things down. Their auctioneer, an elderly man who clearly thought that being asked to auction off dates was the most spectacular thing in the world, was having a great time with it. He really got going after the first guy, cracking jokes here and there and encouraging members of the audience to bid.
Despite all the talk earlier that week, Laney wasn’t brave enough to bid. One by one, the men went by. The prices the dates were going for was insane. Some of them were over a thousand dollars.
“You’re going to miss your chance.” Rayvn leaned over and poked Laney in the ribs. Laney nearly jumped out of her chair.
“What?” She turned large, green eyes her way.
“On bidding. This is the last guy coming up. Number ten. I think there are only ten…”
“Yeah, I think so too. Oh well, who is going to spend a thousand dollars on a date? I’d rather buy antiques.” Laney stuck out her lip in a pretend pout.
“I agree.” Rayvn crossed her arms. “There hasn’t been anyone you’ve seen that you think would make for a good date?”
“Not really. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not as into giving up being single as I thought I was. It definitely has its perks. And if I’m going out on a date, shouldn’t he be the one to pay?”
“I’m glad it’s guys up there,” Rayvn admitted. “If it was women it would seem just wrong.”
“Maybe next time. Nina can double up if she has girls up there too.”
“I don’t know… she probably didn’t even think of it. It wouldn’t be classy.”
“What’s the difference with guys?”
“I don’t know. It just would seem- I- uh- okay, never mind. Maybe it’s not classy whether it’s guys or girls. But it is funny. Some of those guys look like they’d do anything not to be up there.”
“They seem happy enough when people bid on them.”
“It’s probably a big ego boost, knowing your time is worth a grand.”
“I bet. I wonder how Nina knows everyone…”
“I don’t know. It would be interesting to find out. Next time she’s in the shop we should ask her.”
Rayvn nodded slowly. She watched as the auctioneer got set up and then he called out Number Ten. The room went silent. People actually leaned forward in anticipation. Rayvn resisted the urge to laugh at the reactions around the room. Everyone thought the last guy was saved for last for a reason. Maybe he was something special. She found herself leaning forward just an inch as well.
And then he stepped out.
And she forgot to breathe.
“Our last gentleman for tonight, ladies, so get your bids in. Don’t be shy and don’t go home with regrets. Our last gentleman is Shane Rempel. He’s twenty-eight years old and spends his days making the yards of Houston as pretty as they can be…” the auctioneer went on, listing other details about Shane, but Rayvn completely zoned out.
She was entirely captivated by the guy up there. He was a year younger than her. Was that wrong? Am I actually considering bidding? She nearly fell over in shock as she realized that she was.
Shane Rempel. He had to be Nina’s brother in law. Or maybe he was a cousin of Chet with the same last name. They didn’t look anything alike, so that could be possible. Whoever he was he looked- incredible. A few other choice words ran through her brain. Gorgeous. God-like. Statue. Adonis. Bronzed. Wild. Untamed.
She knew nothing about him, but she wanted to. Not so much about him, but more about his physique. She didn’t care what he did for a living or even what he was like. No, what she wanted to learn was the feel of his skin under her palms, the silk of his wheat-colored hair, which spilled down well below his shoulders. She wanted to trace the breadth of his shoulders and run her hands over what was sure to be tight abs. She wanted to feel the crisp hairs of his chest below her fingertips and…
Jesus. This is not me.
The Rayvn she knew didn’t sit there considering what a glorious man like Shane Rempel looked like under his clothes. She didn’t imagine men naked in general. She was so done with men. Most men… or at least, she thought she was. After Alex, she sure as hell hadn’t wanted to go out and find anyone else. She was done with people trying to make all her decisions for her. She was over the control, jealousy and heart-breaking callousness. She was done with taking risks and chances and putting herself out there. She certainly hadn’t wanted to give up her body to anyone. If she wasn’t willing to risk her heart, she sure as hell wasn’t in the right headspace for a one-night stand.
Unless it was with Shane Rempel. With him… lord, she could imagine doing anything with him. Just for one night. Would it really be so bad?
Would it really be wrong to bid on him? Absolutely. The date probably wouldn’t even get that far along. It would be totally inappropriate for one. Paying for a date was one thing. Hoping it would progress into a sexual encounter was another.
I’m like a fucking predator sitting over here. Jesus. She hated men who eyed up women, the kind that only wanted one thing. She’d always found it to be such a turn-off.
Then again, if Shane Rempel wanted to look at her like that, she’d let him.
Rayvn gave her head a shake. She didn’t know what was wrong with her or why, as the bidding started, her brain suddenly switched off and her body chemistry switched on. It had been a long time since she was even attracted to anyone. She’d been divorced for nearly two years and hadn’t been on one date. She hadn’t even considered the possibility.
She leaned back in her chair and exhaled quietly. She wanted to wince at herself, for being so ridiculous. She couldn’t just sit there and think things like that. It was wrong. It was impolite and… and… she didn’t even know what word to fill in there. It was just wrong. Period.
She reached for her glass of water
and brought it to her lips, forcing a sip down her incredibly dry throat. She felt cold and sweaty and hot and achy all at once. She cast a furtive glance at Laney and then on at Charlotte, but they were both looking forward towards the stage, engrossed in what was going on.
The bidding was up to nine hundred dollars. Rayvn held her breath. It was an insane amount, but then again, Shane Rempel was clearly worth it. Stop it.
As if her thoughts magically drew him, Shane’s head slowly turned her direction. His piercing blue eyes scanned the crowd. She tried to look away, but she wasn’t fast enough. Their gazes locked and held.
She nearly gasped at the intensity of his eyes. She’d never seen eyes like that before. They were so blue, bluer than a clear sky or deep water or any other clichéd descriptor she could think of. They were like ice, like a frozen lake in winter. She’d once been to Colorado with Alex, skiing in the winter even though she hated it. They had passed a frozen lake and stopped to take a photo. She remembered looking down at the ice from the shore. The wind was whipping so hard that the snow had cleared right off it and the sun shone down on it. It was irregular but polished. A strange almost translucent blue since it was so close to the shallow area where they stood at the bank’s edge.
Shane blinked. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. Something wild and dark swept through her, a shiver of straight lust that she couldn’t deny. Worse, she felt… strangely like she knew Shane. Like they’d known each other before, somewhere. She’d heard about instant connection, but sure as hell didn’t believe in it, especially not after Alex. She’d never met a single person she felt instantly strong about. She’d never met a single guy she felt instantly anything for. Not even Alex. No, when they’d met, he’d pursued her for weeks before she finally gave in and went out with him.
With Shane though, when he looked at her, she felt… everything. She felt alive.
Rayvn tried to take a breath to calm herself, to banish the crazy wild fluttering of her heart, but it was trapped in her burning lungs. It refused to come out just like the insane feeling of connection refused to be banished.
The bidding went on while Shane looked at her. He never tore his eyes away. They remained on her face, holding her, enchanting her, driving her wild on the inside.
Twelve hundred, thirteen hundred, fourteen… the bids kept climbing and climbing and climbing.
Shane never looked away. He blinked slowly, when he had to, but his eyes stayed there. Those ultramarine blue depths claimed her with a single look.
“Do I hear fifteen hundred? Going once, going twice…”
The auctioneer literally had his little gavel thing in his hand, ready to strike the sold blow to a lady in the front, when Rayvn lifted her hand in the air. She hadn’t even grabbed her bidder card.
Everyone in the room turned to look at her. The auctioneer flushed with pleasure.
“Thank you, in the back, fifteen hundred. Do I hear sixteen? Sixteen hundred. Going once, twice, sold. Fifteen hundred to the woman at table eighteen. Do you have your bidder card?”
Rayvn knew she was scarlet to the roots of her dark black hair. She could literally feel the fire creeping up and taking hold. Laney and Charlotte turned to her, mouths hanging open and eyes wide with shock. As Rayvn reached for her bidder card, she moved like she’d been thrust into the middle of a slow-motion video. Every action seemed to take a thousand years. She lifted it for the auctioneer to see and just like that, she’d bought herself a date with Shane Rempel.
A man who made her feel something, who made her feel a hell of a lot, was dangerous. She didn’t want it. She didn’t want to feel anything at all. She wasn’t ready. And there she was, in a hole she couldn’t get out of. The auction was over and she couldn’t change the fact that what was done was done.
CHAPTER 4
Shane
He didn’t think about women. It wasn’t something he had ever done- dwell on another person. There hadn’t been a single woman in his life who had ever had that kind of impact.
Until her. Rayvn Whittaker. The woman who bid on him at the date auction.
Unfortunately, she’d been busy for a week. Or she’d put him off for a week. He wasn’t sure which. He did know that ever since he’d looked around that room from up on stage and spotted her, he hadn’t wanted to look away. He hadn’t been able to. Annoying enough, he hadn’t been able to stop seeing her since that night.
He was tortured by images of her jet-black hair, her dark black eyes, thick lashes, high cheekbones, full lips that were red just by nature. She was captivating. Bewitching. A single look at her had done something to him that he couldn’t undo.
He wanted to undo it. He didn’t like being tortured day and night.
The ball was in her court since she had his number, not the other way around. When she finally contacted him, she asked for something simple. Somehow, he knew she would. Somehow it was more romantic to envision an evening picnic in the park than something that cost a virtual fortune. He’d gone with that. He’d actually borrowed his mother’s hand-sewn quilt, purchased a picnic basket and assembled the food inside. Sandwiches, a bottle of wine, truffles he’d purchased at a chocolate store downtown.
He’d made a real effort and he never made an effort.
He wondered if he’d blown things out of proportion. If he’d made Rayvn out in his mind to be something that she wasn’t. If her ghost was far more intriguing than the real deal.
They’d agreed to meet and when she walked into the park wearing a breezy red dress and black strappy sandals, hair trailing down her back, loose and free, eyes sparkling with life, the sun at her back, framing her gorgeous tall, yet curvy silhouette, he knew he hadn’t imagined anything.
He was so tongue-tied he couldn’t even get anything out past a hello. She didn’t seem to mind. She seemed completely unflustered and unfazed by him. She took a seat next to him on the blanket he’d spread out and he marveled that his palms were sweating, his heart beating a mile a minute.
“You know, this is actually pretty romantic.” Rayvn raised a dark brow. She turned to him like it was the most natural thing to lead off the conversation, and the entire date, with a sentence that sounded completely skeptical. She looked at him like she saw straight through him, like she already knew he didn’t believe in romantic gestures, grand or small.
Her jet-black hair, so shiny that it almost glowed blue under the setting sun, cascaded down her back in a thick mass. Shane’s hands actually ached. It started as an itch in his fingertips and only got worse from there. His hands vibrated with the need to touch her, to caress that silken mass. He wanted to hold a strand up to his nose and inhale deeply.
This is insane. He’d never been attracted to a woman’s hair before. It was the sad truth that he’d been with so many women, even just on dates, that he rarely found anything about someone attractive. The whole connection thing- he hadn’t felt that in a very long time. When he dated, it was just going through the motions because he thought he should. It didn’t really mean anything. He couldn’t actually remember the last time it did.
Ravyn was different. He’d actually been excited. He couldn’t sleep knowing that he was taking her out. She was… he didn’t really know what she was. She was dazzling, captivating. She was mysterious, not like any other woman he’d ever met.
Ravyn was complicated. She was undefinable. She was that feeling in his chest that he hadn’t experienced in years. Just the sight of her stirred something in him that he’d thought was pretty much dead. She’s dangerous. That’s what she is.
“So- uh- do you normally just sit and stare at people all night and not say anything or is that just me that brings out the best in you.” She smiled sarcastically, as though making fun of herself too.
He snapped out of his trance at the same time he sensed that Rayvn was the kind of woman who didn’t take anything too seriously, least of all herself. That was an attractive quality. Humor. He liked the light, airy quality that shone from inside of her. Lord, h
e liked it far too much.
“I- sorry.” Shane tried to ignore the wild pounding of his heart and the way his pulse leaped at his throat. He didn’t want to be that guy, that guy who was pathetic and tongue-tied and entirely… smitten. That’s not who I am. That’s never been who I am.
“You don’t have to apologize,” she assured him, eyes twinkling. “I know you probably didn’t want to go on this date anyway. You didn’t exactly get a choice.”
“No,” he tried to protest. “I- uh- I did want to go on it.”
“You don’t have to lie to me. I know I paid to get you here. Which is kind of shady in a way. It was for charity though, right? It can’t all be bad if the money went to a good place. At least that’s how I rationalized buying a date.”
Shane’s mouth nearly fell open. He ground his teeth together just to make sure that it stayed shut. “You’re not the kind of girl who doesn’t get dates,” he blurted. He was aware that he sounded like a moron. What the hell is wrong with me? Normally he was the smooth one who ran laps around everyone else.
Rayvn shrugged. “I haven’t been out in a while. I guess that was my choice though.”
She looked like she was going to say more, but out of nowhere, a pink plastic disk entered Shane’s field of vision. He saw it on the periphery, screeching its way over towards them.
“Look out!” He yelled. He was already moving even as the words came tumbling out. He put out a hand and leaned forward, blocking the Frisbee at the last second. It had been on a crash course for Rayvn’s face.
The hard-plastic disk hit his hand painfully, but bounced away, down to land on the quilt. He breathed a sigh of relief, even as pain bloomed in his knuckles. He turned to the side as excited screams announced that the owners of the errant Frisbee were there to retrieve it.