Seducing Cinderella (17 page)

Reid quickly swung himself off the chair. “I’d like that.”

Stan pulled up just short of the door and looked back with something that almost resembled relief, but then covered it with a stiff nod in Reid’s direction. “Good luck tonight.”

“Thanks, Pop.”

Reid wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing alone in the room after his father had walked out, but it must have been a while because his teammates actually had to come in and tell him it was time to glove up and go.

Thinking he must have slipped into some sort of daydreaming twilight zone, Reid turned to one of his buddies and said, “Punch me.” When all he got was a raised eyebrow in response, Reid slapped his stomach with both hands. “Come on!”

The guy shrugged and nailed him a good one right to the abs. He’d been ready for it, but Adam had a sledgehammer for a fist so it still pushed the air from his lungs.
Nope. Definitely not dreaming.
Rubbing his stomach, Reid grunted, “Thanks. I think.”

“Anytime, man. You ready to do this?”

Reid nodded and accepted the red gloves held out to him. As he made his way down the long hall toward the arena and the roar of the crowd, Reid felt like he’d already won one fight tonight. His dad had extended an olive branch of sorts and said he was proud of him. Un-fucking-believable.

Now all that was left was to get through the fight with Diaz and go talk to Lucie. Sounded simple enough, but they were both going to be the fight of his life in their own way. One, he could stand to lose. A loss on the other would crush him utterly and completely, leaving him broken.

But like his dad said, Reid had never been a quitter, and his wins practically eclipsed his losses. So he’d do what he always did. He’d fight like his life depended on it. Because this time, it very well might.

Chapter Nineteen

The ballroom resembled a starlit winter night in the middle of August. The committee had certainly outdone themselves, Lucie noted. Thousands of tiny lights twinkled among yards and yards of white tulle draped in graceful arcs along the ceiling with dozens of white paper lanterns hung in the spaces the netted lights had left open.

Tables were draped in linens, topped with fine china, and surrounded by linen covered chairs; all in white. Even the floral arrangements in the center of the tables and placed around the room were white roses, cut to several inches from the bloom and placed in shallow glass bowls until the entire surface area was filled. No greenery necessary.

The only colors in the entire room were the dresses of the guests. Moving among the white backdrop they sparkled like gemstones of every color, with the exception of the men in their black tuxes. Lucie watched them congregate and move in packs and almost shot punch from her nose when she realized they looked like penguins waddling on the ice of the Antarctic.

“Are you okay?” Vanessa asked as she patted Lucie on the back. “I told you not to drink the red punch when you’re wearing a white dress. It’s too risky. You should be drinking club soda or water.”

Lucie set the punch on the table in front of her and glanced down at her floor-length satin sheath dress with a sigh. Next year she’d have to make friends with someone on the decorations committee so she wouldn’t end up looking like part of the furnishings. Good thing she’d picked up a bit of color at the beach last weekend so at least she was visible above the strapless bodice. Still, she felt indistinguishable from her snow-white surroundings, blending in where others shined.

And wasn’t that just a metaphor for her life.

She looked over at her best friend who’d been kind enough to come as her date since Lucie had purchased two tickets a month ago with the hope of bringing Reid. Vanessa was of course radiant with her wild red-gold hair tamed in a French twist and an emerald gown that looked dyed to match the exact shade of her eyes. She drew the attention of every man in the room effortlessly. Ever the yin to her yang.

“Remind me again why you couldn’t just use my ticket and bring one of the guys from the firm with you?” Lucie asked as she scanned the room dejectedly.

“Ah. That, my dear, is because you have an inherent inability to say ‘no’ to people and agreed to be put up for auction like a piece of meat,” she said a little too cheerfully.

“Oh right. That.”

At the mention of the Date-A-Doc Auction Lucie’s stomach performed acrobatics worthy of an Olympic Gold. The auction—where guests at the ball could bid on members of the hospital staff for a date—was always the biggest fundraiser of the entire event. Lucie had never been asked to participate before, nor had she wanted to be. Unfortunately, one of the female residents came down with mono the week before and Sandy, the head nurse who embodied every depiction of Mrs. Claus ever known, begged Lucie to take her place.

The sound of a microphone clicking on and being tapped a few times poured from the large speakers at the head of the room where a stage had been erected for the event. “Can I have everyone’s attention?”

Speak of the devil.

A jovial Sandy in a lovely pale blue gown stood center stage with the auction program in hand.

“Oh, God,” Lucie muttered while holding a hand to her stomach.

“Come on,” Vanessa said, grabbing her by the hand. “Let’s go find Kyle and Eric, hold up the bar, and get you well and properly buzzed on clear alcohol until your number’s up.”

“Until my number’s up?” she repeated, incredulous, then relaxed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, you mean until it’s my turn.”

“Duh-uh,” Vanessa said with a giggle.

“Actually, what you said is a rather appropriate turn of phrase considering how I feel. Lead the way, oh, wise one.”

For the next half hour Vanessa and the guys stood with Lucie and watched as men and women were called up one by one to the stage and asked to stand there as a short bio was read of their interests and hobbies like a cheesy rendition of
Love Connection
.

All night Lucie had managed to steer clear of Stephen. After Reid had broken her heart and solidified her theory that incompatible couples were doomed, she’d gone on one more date with him. Though she knew it was more out of spite than still believing she loved the handsome surgeon, she’d done her best to note his good qualities to prove that she could be at the very least content with him as a partner in marriage and life, should things go that far.

But by the end of the night, all she’d managed was comparing every little thing he did or said to Reid. And as she expected, Stephen fell woefully short on every level. She’d even let him kiss her at the end, hoping that a spark of chemistry would make up for other areas where he lacked. But it had only proved that kissing Stephen Mann was as exciting as pressing her lips to a CPR mannequin, which had also reminded her that her certification was due for a re-up. So at least it hadn’t been a total loss.

Despite how badly it hurt, Lucie couldn’t bring herself to regret falling in love with Reid. The few weeks they’d spent together had been the best weeks of her life. He’d taught her so much about herself and how to live life instead of simply watching from the sidelines. She was more confident, more comfortable in her own skin, and she owed that all to him.

So after a full week of crying into countless pints of Cherry Garcia ice cream—and a home intervention by Nessie and the boys—she’d picked herself up, brushed herself off, and looked to the future with her head held high.

Her biggest problem now was that she and Stephen had done a complete role reversal. After that date she’d told him that it just wasn’t going to work out. He countered with ideas of grandeur of what their life could be like and asked her on another date. To the hospital ball. The very thing she’d wanted from the beginning.

And now she was at the ball, alone, and wishing she was curled up in her apartment with the one person she’d been certain was all wrong for her.

Yep, she thought as she downed the last of her drink. Her life was now the very definition of irony.

“Last but not least we have a wonderful young lady who stepped in at the last minute when Stacy fell ill, Miss Lucinda Miller. Come on up, dear.”

The crowd applauded the calling of their final victim. Lucie pinned a glare on Eric and Kyle and poked each of them in the chest discreetly. With a fake smile plastered on her face she said, “If one of you aren’t the highest bidders, I will personally see that you’re both eunuchs by the end of the night.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they answered together, glasses raised and all smiles.

She mentally scoffed as she made her way to the stage. They weren’t taking her seriously, but they’d better come through. They’d promised they’d make sure no one else won her. That way she did her part, the hospital got money, and she didn’t have to go on a date with anyone creepy, crotchety, or any other bad words that started with a “cr” blend.

Several minutes later, she stood next to Sandy as she finished reading a bio Lucie couldn’t even remember writing. And then it began.

“Okay,” Sandy said into the mic, “let’s start the bids at five hundred dollars.”

“Five hundred,” Kyle said from over by the bar.

Sandy gestured in his direction. “Excellent! Can I get seven fifty? Seven fifty?

From the left corner of her eye Lucie saw a man raise his hand. “Seven fifty.”

Stephen.
“Ah fuck.” Lucie froze and barely refrained from slapping a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud! Damn alcohol loosed her bar tongue at a fancy event. Wonderful.

Sandy moved the microphone away from her mouth and whispered, “I’m sorry, dear, did you say something?”

“Um, I said ‘what luck.’” Lucie gave her what she hoped was a sheepish grin. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get any takers.”

“Nonsense, honey, you’re a beautiful young woman.” Then she returned to her role as auctioneer and raised the price to a cool grand.

For the next several minutes she watched anxiously as her price kept getting higher and higher, driven up by Stephen’s bottomless checkbook. Lucie had assured the guys she’d pay anything over their budget, but in her wildest imagination she hadn’t thought Stephen would hang on this long.

The bid was now up to twenty grand, and it was Stephen’s. Lucie made eye contact with Kyle and gave a slight shake of her head as Sandy asked for another five hundred from him. Going on another date with the man wasn’t the end of the world. It certainly wasn’t worth putting herself and her friends in the poorhouse over.

But if she were being completely honest with herself, it was less about going on a third pointless date with Stephen, and more about the date being a painful reminder of what she would never have with Reid.

Sandy perked up beside her, “Okay then, twenty thousand going once…twenty thousand going—”

“One hundred thousand,” called a deep voice from the back of the room. A voice Lucie knew as intimately as her own.

Gasps and whispers filled the hall and the crowd twisted in their chairs in almost perfect unison. Reid stepped farther into the room until he came to stand in the center of the tables. All eyes were on him, and yet his were trained fully on hers and never once waivered.

On some subconscious level, Lucie knew she was staring wide-eyed and stunned like a deer in headlights, but she’d never seen anyone so sexy before in her life. Reid stood out like a giant among men. The tuxedo hugged his large frame perfectly, no doubt because it had been tailored to do so, unlike most of the men who probably rented their ill-fitting outfits.

He was perfection personified. She drank in the sight of his bad boy looks that set him even further apart from the sea of average males surrounding him. Suntanned skin and the pointed tips of his tribal tattoo snaking up his neck stood out against the stark white of his shirt. A shirt that lay open at the throat, his bow tie hanging loose around the collar like he’d been in too much of a hurry to do himself up properly.

His hair was styled in the barely there faux-hawk she loved and the trimmed growth of his beard made her miss having whisker rash in delicate places. His bottom lip sported a healing cut and an angry red abrasion highlighted one of his cheekbones giving his refined look a feral edge.

But it was the way his hazel eyes bore straight through to her soul that awakened the butterflies in her stomach to fan the embers of her desire that had her knees weakening.

Sandy cleared her throat and practically squeaked, “I beg your pardon?”

“I bid one hundred thousand dollars, for one date, with the stunningly beautiful woman on stage.” Then he turned his head to pin Stephen with a challenging glare. “Unless of course someone raises the bid, in which case, I’ll raise mine as well.”

Lucie bit her lip while she waited for Stephen’s reaction. After several moments of looking between her and Reid, he finally shook his head. Lucie blew out the breath that had been burning her lungs as Sandy announced Reid the highest bidder. It was either that or the woman just found out she won a trip to Disney World. It was hard to tell with the excitable, high-pitched, mile-a-minute way she was talking.

Whatever the cause for Sandy’s excitement, Lucie wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were glued to the devilishly handsome man walking toward the stage as the band struck up their first song of the evening.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he held out his hand. Her body moved without encouragement from her brain, as if the simple act of holding out his hand affected her with a gravitational pull she had no hope of fighting.

But she preferred to think of it as avoiding a scene if she were to throw a drink in his face, which is what she really wanted to do. Right? Of course right.

The moment her hand slipped into his, an almost imperceptible tingling sensation traveled up her arm and spread through the whole of her body. Without speaking a word he led her onto the dance floor where couples started to gather. He pulled her into his body, fitting her against him as though they were two halves of the same whole. One large hand slid around, settling at the base of her spine and warming her skin through the thin material of her dress. The other held her hand in a proper dance hold level with his shoulder.

As they swayed to the music, Lucie fought her duplicitous impulses of kissing him madly and stomping on his foot before exiting the ballroom.

“You just spent an awful lot of money to get something you claimed you didn’t even want,” she finally said.

“I know.”

She studied him, trying to solve the puzzle without having to ask for the answers, but the normal clues were absent. There was no smug smile. No jaw muscle jumping in irritation. Not a disapproving frown or even a challenging hitch of one brow. For the first time ever, Reid Andrews was utterly unreadable.

“Why?”

“Because you refused to take my calls, and I know you’re too honorable to back out of a date that some poor schmuck has shelled out an exorbitant amount of money for.”

Averting her eyes she said, “So this is all fun and games to you. That’s comforting.”

“Hell, no, this isn’t a game.” With the tips of his fingers he brought her face front and center. “I had to see you. Damn, I’ve missed you, sweetheart.”