The Highest Bidder (4 page)

‘So that is what I did. And you felt something. And you made a pit stop on your way to my place. And you, my darling fucked him,’ Annie growled. But thank God she was keeping her voice low.

Startling Casey, she dropped to her knees, her bright blue full skirt swirling around her dainty legs. ‘And good for you, honey! Good for you! But don’t twist it all up in your head. I didn’t set that man up to be anything other than a pretty face for charity. And you feel something for him. I can see it on your face.’

Casey shook her head, blinked away some tears, but she couldn’t quite manage to refute what her friend was saying.

‘And as irrational and maybe even crazy as that is – go for it! Don’t run from it. Sweetie …’ Annie patted her knee and sighed. ‘You deserve it. Let yourself be happy for God’s sake. It might not go anywhere, but at least it’ll be a step in the right direction.’

Saved by the hunks. She saw three of her men file past down the hall. Nick came along a few minutes later, a garment bag slung over his arm. She imagined him naked and smiling and feared she might pass out because she couldn’t get any air.

He glanced their way and waved. It was a tentative shy wave but his smile warmed her.

‘Did you hear me?’ Annie demanded.

‘Yes.’

‘Will you stop this nonsense?’

‘I’ll try,’ she said.

And she would. Casey promised herself that much.

Chapter Six

‘OK, GENTLEMAN!’ SHE MANAGED. Her voice cracked just a wee bit and Casey tried not to let it rile her. Her gaze ricocheted around, making her feel damn near dizzy, as she tried to look at anyone, anything but Nick.

But it was useless and when her gaze settled on his, he looked concerned and still sleepy and yes, sexy as hell. She sighed without meaning to and he cocked his head, giving her a little half smile that said they had a shared secret.

A shared, sensual, naughty … naked secret.

‘Careful, your cheeks are so red I think I might need to go get a fire extinguisher,’ Annie said out the side of her mouth. Her lips barely moved and somehow she managed to laugh without her face moving.

‘We’re going to do a final run-through. We’ll go and then the other ladies’ teams will go and then when that’s happened we’ll do a walk-through extravaganza!’ She tried to smile and it felt like her face was going to split.

His eyes were on her. She could feel his gaze and it was wonderful and terrible at the same time. Casey was afraid she wouldn’t be able to think at all with Nick in the room.

Her eyes settled on him again and he grinned. That grin went straight through her from the top of her head, zinging a trail through her gut, her girly bits and down to her toes. She cleared her throat. ‘We’re only going to do the patter – which will be talking you up, your stats and all that jazz – for the final run-through. Those things are often abs–’ Her tongue stalled out and Casey heard her best friend snicker as if from a long distance away.

She clenched her ass to keep herself from passing out, a trick an ex boyfriend who flew fighter planes had taught her. Nick looked amused, too and Casey forced herself to rush on. Even with the flickering image of him thrusting up hard from beneath her. Even when she remembered that shared explosive moment of release.

She shook her head. ‘Ad-libbed, is what I meant to say,’ she barrelled on. ‘We’ll just sort of wing it while making sure to give your appropriate info. Height, job, length–’

Damn.

Annie was damn near choking next to her, covering her mouth with her hand. But her shoulders were shaking and a few of the guys laughed too and Nick – well Nick blushed a lovely shade of tomato but smiled.

‘Weight!’ she barked.

Fuck-fuck-fuck.

‘In this order please: Matthew; Sam; Robert; Bobby; Brian and Nick coming in the rear.’

Annie squawked and this time a full-blown ripple of laughter worked its way down the line. Even the other group of men who were near the far end of the room working with another leader were listening and laughing.

Casey, bit her tongue and tried to breathe. ‘Bringing up the rear, coming up in the rear, whatever!’ she said, and actually groaned. ‘He will be last is what I’m trying to say and if everyone is done being in Kindergarten we can–’

‘Easy,’ Annie warned. ‘They volunteered for this.’

‘Would everyone please line up?’ she chirped. ‘Thank you.’

Annie started to say something and Casey shoved the clipboard at her. ‘Start.’

Then she rushed into the coat room and put her forehead to the cool wall. Maybe she would save them all the embarrassment of the rest of the day and simply drop dead.

‘Hey.’

Casey jumped but then his hands were on her and she settled, going from spooked to calm in such a short amount of time it startled her. Nick wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled the back of her neck, the side of her face.

Casey shut her eyes, liking the feel of his embrace, the steady pound of his heart against her back, his breath in her hair. ‘You OK?’

‘You should be out there,’ she said. But even as she said it she arched her bottom back against him. She felt the first tentative stirring of his cock. Her mind’s eye showed her Nick flipping her skirt up, yanking her panties to the side and slamming his co–

‘I’m coming up in the rear,’ he chuckled and pressed himself against her.

Casey’s breath died in her lungs even as she started to laugh with him. She really did want him. Desperately. And beyond wanting him, she needed him. A troubling and yet honest urge to be with him had taken root in her gut and wouldn’t release her.

‘Can you please …’ She shook her head.

He bent his head a bit lower and said, ‘Pardon?’

‘Can you … can we … is the door locked?’

He moaned softly in her ear and his fingers slid a bit lower on her waist, the tips of his fingers grazing the top of her mound through her skirt and panties.

‘It is locked. So we could talk without intrusion. Annie’s out there getting everyone in line and fixing some stuff and –’

Casey cut him off by turning in the cage of his arms and grabbing his dark hair. She kissed him, her mouth open and needy, her fingers playing along his belt buckle trying to find the end of his belt so she could tug him free.

Nick’s fingers warred with hers as she helped him and finally, lacking patience, Casey batted his hands away once he’d undone his button. She shoved her hand into his pants and found him long and hard and hot in her palm.

‘I dreamed about you,’ she frantically confessed.

‘Was it dirty?’ He kissed down her neck and nibbled the place where her pulse jumped beneath her skin.

‘Filthy.’

‘Did I–’

‘You did it all,’ she informed him and shoved, completely unladylike, she knew, his pants down around his knees.

‘And …’

Casey pulled back and stared at him. His blue eyes were sweetly intrusive and he made her heart skip around erratically. She told him the truth while stroking his cock. ‘I woke up and got myself off.’

‘Turn around. Turn around,’ he ordered. His face unreadable and starkly handsome in the coatroom’s dim light.

She obeyed, feeling a thrill tumble in her belly and a heat unfurl in her cunt. He was going to take her. Just like in the dream. The world seemed to spin and Nick reached around her, slamming one of her hands and then the other to the cool painted cinderblock wall.

‘Spread your legs,’ he demanded.

She widened her stance even as he hiked her skirt up and groaned roughly when he saw her grey silk panties. His hands smoothed over the sinful fabric and Casey was aware of goose bumps blossoming along her thighs. He fingered the elastic leg bands and whispered, his lips pressed to her ear, ‘I’d rip these things but I like them, Casey. And I’d like to see you in them again. When we can take our time. So for now …’

Nick shoved them down and she stayed there, panties keeping her lower legs about a hip width apart. It would work. It would work … she thought frantically. Casey titled her hips forward to present her ass and open herself to him. So he could slide into her.

So he can penetrate you …

She shivered joyfully at that dirty random thought.

And then he was running the balmy tip of his cock to her opening. Her pussy flexed eagerly. Nick pressed his mouth to her ear again and said, ‘We have to hurry. But later, I won’t want to hurry.’

She nodded, mindlessly, over and over again. His fingers dug into her waist and he thrust slowly, entering her inch by inch. Stretching her gorgeously so that she panted and chewed her bottom lip to keep herself quiet. She needed to be quiet. She needed to keep herself together.

Casey scratched her nails along the wall, pushing herself back every single time Nick thrust. Driving him deeper with her motion, getting him exactly where she needed him to be. He rumbled and it was the most amazing sound she’d heard in a long time. There was such a raw and animal quality to it that she felt a quiver crawl up her back.

His fingers pulled away from her only to be replaced by one big forearm looped around her waist. With his other hand he stroked her leg, her side, her ass almost restlessly before finally bringing it around to find her throbbing clit with his fingers.

‘Come for me, Casey. Come for me and know it’s OK, and Christ, don’t run from me this time. You damn near broke my heart. Crazy just 24 hours in … but true.’

He grunted with raw need, his rhythm growing chaotic. His finger pinched and plucked and swirled until she had to bite her tongue so hard she saw stars because she was coming. Drawn-out damp contractions milking his cock so he slammed hard and high into her once more and came. Gripping her so tight around the middle she almost wheezed. Casey heard herself laughing softly as they peaked and her cunt continued to ripple around him until she felt like she was no more than warm blood and soft bone.

If not for her arms steadying them by bracing against the wall, she was almost sure they’d have dropped to the floor right there.

A tentative knock sounded and she had to steady her breath before calling out, ‘Yes?’

And she still sounded flighty and twittery.

‘Um … we’re ready for him. And you. We have been. I hope you’re …’ the words trailed off and then Annie snorted and mumbled, ‘done’.

‘If I blush any harder, I’m going to burst into flames,’ she told Nick. And then she pulled her knickers up.

He didn’t say anything, just tugged the ends of her hair so she was forced to take a step toward him, her skirt drifting back down around her hips and then her knees.

‘Don’t run,’ he whispered, kissing her. ‘Don’t run.’

Nick watched her as he waited for his turn. Twin spots of colour still decorated her pale cheeks and made the caramel coloured freckles on her nose stand out all the more. He had to shake off the thoughts now cavorting in his mind. How desperate she had sounded. Desperate for him, a realisation so startling it was like a punch in the face. How she’d bent to his will, presented herself, taken him with her willing backward thrusts. How she’d sounded as she tried to stifle her noises. Her fingernails whispering on the wall. The thick and prolonged spasms in that sweet pussy as she came.

He’d loved the way she kissed him before and the way she kissed him back after.

The smell of her still filled his nose and if he inhaled deeply, he could smell the mingled scent of them. He smelled like sex. Which meant she did too.

He caught her looking, her intelligent brown eyes still sparkling with leftover arousal and the glow of release. My God, how gorgeous could one woman be? Her hair was a wild perfect mess and he remembered it tickling his chin as she moved under him, her orgasm driving her clit against his fingers.

He lifted a finger to his face as she watched and smelled it. The scent of her was all over his skin. She blushed and smiled and looked away – but not for long. She looked back quickly, biting her lip as she called out the next bachelor’s name for him to walk.

Her nipples were hard buttons pressing up from beneath the thin material of her blouse. He could see them spiking the fabric and even with a bra on, they were so hard that his mind was suddenly full of the image of rolling them over his tongue before biting the tips.

You’re going to give yourself a hard-on, genius …

She finally called his name and Nick moved forward on feet that felt numb and heavy. He could hear her, stumbling over her words, cut at first but then what she was saying leaked into his head.

‘Nick is an … um … he’s a refurbisher. He’s six foot three, one hundred and ninety-eight pounds with gorgeous blue eyes …’

She blushed and he nearly stopped on the stupid runway. He felt like an idiot but he was doing it for a good cause as Annie had pounded into his head about a zillion times while trying to convince him to do it. How her friend was so awesome and really needed this and it would make her so happy and …

‘He deals in taking not so beautiful things and making them beautiful. In nostalgia.’

She smiled at him and his stomach dropped. The five other guys were much more accomplished than him. There was a doctor, a neurosurgeon, an attorney, a fireman and a dentist.

I redo furniture. Sometimes houses. Sometimes art … but …

He was going to let her down. There was no way he’d garner the kind of money these guys did. He felt like a horse’s ass and it was all Nick could do to finish what he was supposed to do on stage and not flee the scene as it were.

He wanted to make her happy and he’d probably be lucky to earn enough for a dinner, let alone enough to make a difference to research.

He fisted his hands to keep him calm. He’d have to think it over. There had to be a way to make things right.

Chapter Seven

THE THOUGHT OF AUCTIONING him off to another woman, even for a night, was enough to make her see red.

‘You need to get over that, you dingus.’ Casey fit her key into the door.

It was just past three and she hadn’t eaten all day. Annie and everyone else had eaten at the hotel and then Annie had headed off to her shift at the book store. Casey, once again, found herself grateful that Brendan’s life insurance had left her in a position to do charity work for now. She wanted to work but wasn’t sure at what just yet. This gave her time to think and be productive.

One of her dreams had always been to open an antique store or just a second hand store. When she pondered it, the Jiminy Cricket in her head said, and then Nick can refurbish things for you and you can live happily ever af–

‘Shut it, Jiminy.’

She pulled a container of parmesan noodles from the fridge and put the leftovers in the toaster oven. She washed her hands and started making a small salad as her stomach growled angrily.

She’d have to auction him off. It was for charity, it wasn’t like she was pimping him out for stud service. Casey snorted and rolled her eyes. ‘You have gone mental,’ she said.

She sat in front of the afternoon talk shows and ate her noodles and salad. Then she kicked off her heels and pulled off her thigh highs. Her body still thumped and quivered whenever she let herself remember him moving behind her, flipping her skirt up, fucking her as she pushed her hands to those rough cinderblocks.

Casey took a long hot shower and then dressed in leggings and thick wool socks. The fall weather was truly turning toward cold because the house read 67 degrees. Her favourite navy blue pullover swathed her in warm thick cotton from neck to mid thigh and she decided that a salted caramel hot chocolate was just what the chill weather ordered.

With whipped cream.

She’d taken her first salty-sweet sip when the doorbell rang. Casey hurried to answer. ‘You’re here!’ she said, licking her lips.

‘Annie gave me your address,’ he muttered. His gaze was locked on her lips.

Nick leaned in and licked her upper lip with the tip of his tongue and her heart quickened. ‘Sorry,’ he whispered, running his thumb along her lower lip. ‘You had something …’He licked his lips and looked intent. ‘Whipped cream? It was on your lip.’

‘It is whipped cream. I just made a hot chocolate. Want one?’

‘Can I come in for it?’

She gasped and took a step back, letting a bit of the rain and a few dead leaves sweep in with him. ‘Sorry – sorry. You turn my brain to mush, you know.’ She said it to her wool socks. It was too big a statement to say it right to him.

‘You pretty much do the same thing to me. And I’d love a hot chocolate.’

‘Walk this way.’ She led him to the kitchen and when Casey turned he was behind her mimicking her walk by swaying his hips like a woman. Lean hips shimmying and his upper body rotating and his stance a bit girlish.

Casey covered her mouth as hysterical laughter bubbled out of her. ‘Oh God.’

‘You said, walk this way.’ He grinned and she felt the urge to smash herself up against him and kiss him until their clothes fell off.

Casey turned from him, rattled by her urgent need to touch and kiss him. She set the water on to boil and measured out the dark cocoa, the sea salt, a few squirts of caramel. She added a touch of cream to give it that really decadent richness and waited for the water.

‘Are you OK with the auction? You often look like you want to run away.’ She wanted him to feel comfortable and here was as good a chance as any to let him off the hook.

‘Well,’ he sighed, seating himself on one of the high stools. ‘I came here to ask you a favour.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Will you bid on me if no one does?’

‘What do you mean if no one does?’ she asked, laughing. Casey could hear the water starting to jump and simmer in the pot.

‘I’m not … I’m not like the other guys. I’m a restorer, basically. I work with furniture and fabric and upholstery. Some people would call it junk.’

‘Well those people are morons.’ She mixed her concoction put his drink in front of him. Steam curled and danced around his face.

‘I just want to make sure we save face.’

‘You will be bid on, Nick,’ she assured him. Casey allowed herself to stroke her fingernail along his knuckles, one at a time. The colour came up in his cheeks and he shifted just a bit in his seat. ‘I promise,’ she said.

He ran his fingers over the lip of the counter and Casey tried not to be distracted by it. ‘Mmm,’ he said, licking his lips. ‘Good stuff.’

‘The trick is the salt. Are you sure you’re OK? I thought I was the only one freaking out.’ Her fingers tickled a bit higher, stroking his wrist and then up under the cuff of his blue button down.

Nick reached into his back pocket and tossed an envelope on the counter. ‘There’s the money.’

‘Money? What money?’ For a split second she thought he was offering her money for sex. And she almost hit him. Hard. But then he shook his head looking as worried as ever.

‘The money for me. The money to bid on me so I’m not the dud.’

‘Dud, my ass,’ she said, pushing the money back. ‘You’re the hottest guy there.’

‘That’s because you slept with me. You have to think that.’

‘Nonsense.’ She went around to hug him and when she got close, that magnetic pull he had on her became overwhelming.

‘I’m the filler. I’m the bread crumbs in the crab cake,’ he laughed, running a strong, nicked-up hand through his thick short hair.

‘I’m the pity fuck,’ she blurted.

Nick’s eyes flashed, icy and assessing. ‘What? What the hell are you talking about?’

She swallowed hard; here came all those pesky fucking emotions. ‘Annie asked you to … and you … and we …’ She shook her head. That had been effective. ‘I’m the pity fuck,’ she repeated as if that explained it all.

‘You’re no such thing.’ He grabbed her wrist, squeezing it hard enough to grind the fine bones and make her wince. But there was also a sparkle-flare of arousal under the lancet of pain.

‘Are you sure?’ she sighed, feeling suddenly exhausted. ‘Because it’s OK if I am.’

‘No, it’s not.’ He looked pissed. ‘And the fact that you would think that makes me feel like I haven’t really explained to you what I think of you.’

‘You have but–’

‘I think you’re amazing.’ He ran his finger over the purplish blue veins on the inside of her wrist. Then he tugged her forward so he could kiss her. ‘I think you’re sexy and sweet and funny and smart and you obviously have a big heart.’

‘And a dead husband, hence the pity fuck.’

‘Casey!’ he said, shaking her.

‘I’m just saying … Hey!’ She let him yank her gently into his lap and there, waiting for her after their shared kiss, was the hard hump of his erection beneath her ass. ‘You’re the one who’s worried you won’t get bid on.’

‘So maybe we both need to work on our self esteem. What do you want to do, Casey?’

‘Fuck you,’ she said, the words tearing free of her lips before she could think about it.

Nick groaned. He took her face in his hands, his fingers sweeping along her cheekbones. When he kissed her, he nipped her lower lip so she startled and sighed. ‘I meant with your life,’ he said.

‘I like the charity stuff,’ she muttered, unbuckling his belt. ‘But I really like antiques, used treasures, I’d like a store, I think.’

He kissed her again, sliding his slick tongue inside her mouth, making her breath shake in her lungs. ‘Are you messing with me?’

‘No, why?’ She curled her fingers around him, rubbing her thumb over the slit at the tip of him. A small jewel of pre-come lubricated her skin over his and he groaned a second time.

‘Because it sounds so much like what I …’ He shook his head, letting his eyes drift shut. Lost in her touch and what they were doing.

‘Now bear with me,’ she whispered against his jaw before kissing him once more. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve done this.’

Casey dropped to her knees between his splayed thighs. His jeans were open, his cock out. She nuzzled her cheek to the warmth of his flesh. Her tongue darted out to gather the sweet and salty dot of fluid on his skin. She sucked the head of his cock into her mouth and licked him, keeping her eyes on his face. The look he got, the way his jaw clenched and his eyes kept drifting shut only for him to wrench them open. Amazing.

‘I don’t think you’ve forgotten anything.’ Nick put his hand on the back of her head, gently pushing her just enough that she was forced to take him deeper into her throat.

She sucked him hard, tasting the soap and sweat and cotton on his skin. His other hand joined the fray and she got a jolt of electricity low in her gut when she felt him thrusting up under her. He’d lost his firm grasp on manners and mores and was fucking her mouth.

Casey stroked his balls with her fingertips curled against that paper-thin skin. Nick shifted just enough to give her better access and she took that moment to draw the firm tip of her tongue along the blushing blue veins of his cock. She licked hard against the small gaping slit at the top of his erection and then swallowed him down.

She was mildly confused when he pushed her back, pulling free of her mouth, shoving her back only to yank down her leggings and wrestle her socks. He turned, shoved, lifted and she found herself airborne, hair flying, gasping.

Casey’s ass hit the counter and he said, ‘I’ll clean your counter, I swear. I swear. Clean, clean,’ he repeated like mantra and then he dropped to his knees between her legs, spread her wide with rough hands and latched his mouth to her slick cunt.

‘Oh,’ she said like it was all a big surprise.

It only took him a few good licks, a flat brandishing of his heated tongue to her clit and the plump labia that framed it. On the final drag of his tongue over her, she came, fingers gripping the cool edge of the counter to steady herself.

He stood fast – his movement urgent – and positioned himself at her opening. Keeping his eyes on her face, he slid into her with a lazy kind of reserve. She could tell by the dancing bunching muscles at his jaw that it was taking all his strength to keep his body calm and slow.

‘Keeping yourself on a tight leash?’ Casey whispered. She pressed her palms to his strong chest, feeling the gallop of his heartbeat under her hand. ‘I wish this was gone. I wish I could feel your skin.’

He ripped the button down over his head without using the buttons. The white tee he wore underneath, that simply said MARYLAND WINE FESTIVAL, went sailing across the room next. And she was pushing the pads of her fingers and the palms of her hands to his quite alive, quite hot flesh.

He buried into her to his root, the soft slap of his balls against her ass, made her smile and she wrapped her legs around his waist to part herself even more for him. To open to him – get him deeper.

Nick claimed her mouth with his, his tongue brutal and insistent and sweet.

‘Is this what you wanted,’ he rasped, driving into her.

‘Yes.’

‘And you’ll bid on me?’

‘You’ll get bid on,’ she said, her voice turning wispy as she got closer to orgasm.

‘You’ll bid on me,’ he repeated. He thrust deep and very unexpectedly pinched her ass cheek so her cunt clenched tight around him with adrenaline and surprise.

She nodded stupidly, fighting the rising orgasm. She didn’t want to come yet. ‘Yes, I’ll bid on you. I will. I promise. If you …’

She broke off there, because he’d leaned back just enough to watch his cock sliding in and out of her. He watched attentively as her body ate his up an inch at a time and then let him go when he withdrew. His thumb pressed the thumping knot of her clit and he applied pressure and slow circles until she was panting, hooking her ankles behind his hips and letting her head fall back as she came. The overhead kitchen lights spurring sparkles and shimmers in her eyes.

A fine tremor had started in her entire body and he sprawled over her, sucked her nipple hard enough to make her heart skip. ‘Come for me again. God, I love to watch you come. You look so … untamed when you come.

He gripped her hips tighter, losing his control – his rhythm growing as untamed as he claimed she looked. Casey pushed herself forward in short little burst to take him and when he growled, ‘Fuck,’ she knew he’d lost his control.

And that was what tipped her over the edge again. Him losing his steely strong tether to control.

She came with her arms wrapped around his neck, legs wrapped around his waist, body clamping and spasming around his as he emptied into her.

Casey pushed her lips to his neck, feeling his pulse thundering under her lips. She wondered if she bid enough if she could keep him. Just for a little while.