Sold to the Hottest Bidder

by Layla Valentine

  Alice

  What was I doing here? Back at the pond I hadn’t swum in last time and wouldn’t swim in this time. It didn’t matter that my hand was in the clasp of the most incredible man I’d ever met in my life; I couldn’t do this. But as I turned to him with the “no” on my lips, he was already nodding. He already understood.

  “Hey, babe, it’s okay. It’s all right. You don’t have to go in,” Jake said, tracing my jawline with his pointer finger.

  I nodded, but as I gazed into his mossy green eyes, the thought came to me.

  “What if I did?”

  Jake cocked his head at me, but already I was stepping away from him, my hand slipping out of his. In this dreamlike state, I took off Jake’s shirt and his boxers. Then I was stepping into the water. Everything was quiet and cool. The pond was so clear I could see my pink-polished toes sinking into the dirt below.

  Seeing me join her, Pip did half leaps of jubilation, while, behind me, Jake didn’t move. He knew. I had to do this by myself. And, one foot after the other, one deep breath after the next, I did. Step by step, I walked toward the middle of the pond and kept walking until the ground was out of reach, the water too deep. Until I was swimming.

  As the forest burst into sudden celebration, the birds tweeting, the wind whooshing, the trees swaying, I did it. I swam, floated, and smiled.

  Next thing I knew, Jake was bounding in after me, scooping me up in his arms and twirling me around.

  “I knew you could,” he said, and I could only laugh in response.

  Because I had never known, still couldn’t believe, that I had been capable of it. My fear dribbled off me in watery beads, and he and I laughed, this man who had been my greatest fear and was proving to be my greatest salvation. My past, present, and maybe even future all wrapped up into one extraordinary package.

  Jake dunked me and I splashed him. Pip barked her approval before darting off into the forest after some ducks. And it was funny: Here we were in the same place, the same people with the same dog—hell, with the same ducks—and yet nothing at all was the same. Everything was different.

  I didn’t know how long we spent there, swimming and kissing and swimming some more. I didn’t know how many times Jake paused to peer into my eyes or kissed my smile. All I knew was that when the sun started to set, Jake scooped me up out of the water.

  “Dinnertime,” he murmured in my ear as he carried me out.

  “Didn’t know my tummy had been that loud,” I commented with a grin.

  He stopped to pat it, and then we were off. While the walk the first time had been long, and the second time nice but still long, this time it seemed to last only a second. After an instant of glancing up at the stubbly, still-smiling, handsome face of the man carrying me and our clothes, we were back at the cabin.

  He put me down and said, “Don’t move. I’ll just be getting dinner now.”

  I didn’t. No, I slumped on my back and watched him walk outside. Through the side window, I saw him take out his phone. I sat up. Something told me he wasn’t just getting dinner ready. As he spoke into the small black thing, I made my way to the door. As I creaked it open, Jake walked in.

  Patting my cheek, he smiled affectionately.

  “You’re really not one for following orders, are you?”

  I drew back. Scrutinizing his face, I said, “So, you were getting dinner ready, huh?”

  His face fell.

  “Yeah, I was, actually.”

  I scoffed.

  “On the phone.”

  Jake only smiled.

  “Wait thirty minutes, and then you’ll see.”

  For my second search of his face, he still wore the same calm, open expression, so I stalked over to the couch and flopped down. Pip ran up to me, and I absently ran my hands through her fur. Coming over to me, Jake lifted the container of our recent finds.

  “Almost forgot. Want to help feed the little guys?”

  I shook my head, and he shrugged.

  “Suit yourself. See you in five.”

  My anxiety only increased once the door shut behind him.

  How could Jake have been getting food on the phone? It wasn’t like there was a Pizza Palace just around the corner. He had to be lying, had to have been talking to someone he didn’t want me knowing about—his employer, “Sunshine,” maybe.

  Pip put her paw on my leg, and I sighed. Together, we walked out of the door and toward the shed. Through a hole in the shed door, I watched the blue-shirted man bend over the cages, smile at the baby marmot, and coax the pika into eating some flowers. When he turned to go, I stepped away from the door and hurried back to the cabin.

  I wasn’t fast enough, however. His gently mocking voice followed me to the door.

  “Spying on me, huh?”

  I paused. Then I felt his hand on my back.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  I stiffened and didn’t, couldn’t, let myself relax under the familiar, welcome touch. How could I trust a man who had kidnapped me, tied me up, acted like he cared about me, and yet still wouldn’t tell me who he was working for? Breaking away, I hurried to the door.

  “Just leave me alone.”

  “Hey! Alice, what’s wrong?”

  Slamming the door didn’t stop him. It just prolonged him from coming over to me on the couch and leaning in. There was a nervous tension in his voice and a quiet pleading in his eyes.

  “Babe, please, please—I don’t understand. What’s the matter?”

  I lifted my gaze and looked him in the eye straight on. My handsome savior, my dangerous captor, my biggest surprise and worst mistake.

  “Who are you working for, Jake?”

  The question slapped him across the face. He jerked back; his eyes fell; he turned away.

  “That’s what I thought,” I said.

  He shook his head and walked to the stairs.

  “You don’t understand…”

  I stood up.

  “Then make me understand.”

  He only shook his head again.

  “Alice, please, you know I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

  I walked to the door and opened it.

  “This coming from the man who tied me up and kidnapped me. Please, no more lies, Jake. I can’t take it.”

  Then I was outside, going somewhere—anywhere. I didn’t care as long as it was away.

  As I walked away, my hand was grabbed.

  “Paul. It’s Paul.”

  I froze, and Jake said, “Alice, I am so sorry.”

  I didn’t look at him as I said one word: “No.”

  His voice came out low and jerky, as if he had to force each statement out of himself.

  “We’ve worked together for a while. Mostly beating guys up, a few robberies, but this was the first big job.”

  I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. He had been working with Paul, my fiancé. And yet, it couldn’t be true. Not Paul. Not the sweet Paul who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Not the Paul who had pursued me day and night, who had cared for me like no one had before. Not the man I had been going to marry less than a week ago.

  “Alice, I’m so sorry. But I wasn’t going to go through with it. Not since that first night. I couldn’t. Alice, please, you have to believe me.”

  His hand clasped around my wrist. I ripped my arm away.

  “Liar.”

  “Alice—”

  I turned to him, wiping away the tears that were already streaming down my face.

  “Don’t you understand, Jake? How can I ever trust you after this? The whole reason we met was because you kidnapped me, for God’s sake—a kidnapping that was commissioned by my fiancé of all people. How can I even trust myself after almost marrying a con artist?”

  Jake stepped forward.

  “Please, Alice. You said yourself that it didn’t feel right with Paul. Now tell me.” He clasped both my hands. “Does this feel right?”

  I didn’t tell him my answer. My whole body was trem
bling with it, from my clasped fingers all the way up to my lips, to the smile and kiss fighting their way up.

  My gaze flicked to the still-visible rope sores on my wrists, and I ripped myself free.

  “I can’t, Jake.”

  Even as I walked off, he followed me, his words coming out in harried bursts.

  “Please, Alice—please. Let me prove it to you. Anything—I’ll do anything. Please.”

  I paused and then whirled around to spit my answer in his face, the one he wouldn’t take me up on.

  “Call him then. Papa. Mr. Heston Pryce. Right now. Call him and tell him that it’s off, that I’m safe and he doesn’t owe you a penny. Then turn yourself in to the police, take ownership of what you’ve done—the bank robbery, the kidnapping, everything. For once in your life, Jake, take responsibility for what you’ve done.”

  I stared into his face, at the clenched jaw, the eyes intent on something in the distance, something that couldn’t be seen by me or anybody else but him. It was some sort of mash of the past, present, and future, of yelling voices, balled-up fists, and dead eyes. Something that had already decided what he was going to do, what I had known he was going to do as soon as I had asked him to do the right thing.

  I turned away, and he said, “Hello? Heston Pryce?”

  I turned around. He had a phone pressed to his ear.

  “Yes?” Papa said, and Jake handed the phone to me.

  “Papa? It’s me, Alice. I’m all right.”

  “Alice?” his tense voice said. “Is he there with you? Did you get away?”

  “No, and I can’t explain right now, but I’m okay. I love you.”

  “Alice, tell him I have the money. Tell him I’ll give it to him now, whenever, however he likes it.”

  Jake took the phone.

  “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Pryce. You’ll see your daughter again in a few days. She won’t be harmed, and you don’t need to transfer any money. This was a mistake, and I apologize.”

  There was a shocked silence, and then Jake handed the phone back to me.

  “Papa, I have to go now, but I just want you to know that I love you so much, and that I’m so thankful for everything you’ve done for me over the years.”

  Another silence, then: “Alice, thank God you’re all right, but what’s going on? Is he really going to let you go?”

  I glanced at Jake. Smiling slightly, he nodded.

  “Yes, Papa. Yes, he is.”

  Papa and I laughed and cried as the good-bye slipped out of my lips. Then I hung up, because I had to embrace the man before me—the one who had more than proven himself.

  Just as his strong arms closed around me, a car pulled up in front of the cabin. I strained to look over, and Jake patted my hand.

  “Wow, even faster than I thought.”

  “Hey, sexy,” Jake called to the bald, stout man getting out of his car.

  “Nah, it’s just Bob,” the ball-capped man said as he walked up to us, two pizza boxes in hand.

  Seeing their name, “Sexy Pizza,” I laughed. Jake accepted the boxes and clapped the man on the back.

  “Thanks, man. I’ll be seeing you.”

  As the short man walked away, he pumped up a fist.

  “You know it!”

  And then it was just me, Jake, and two steaming-hot boxes of pizza.

  I turned to him with a quizzical look, and he grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the cabin.

  “Pizza first, questions later.”

  As we walked in, I poked his ribs.

  “So, all this time we’ve had such sad meals of hot dogs and eggs, we could’ve been having pizza?”

  Jake poked me back.

  “No, princess. We’re not exactly in the usual pizza radius way the hell out here. I was saving it for a special occasion. A guy owed me a favor.”

  As Jake placed the two boxes on the counter, I ran my fingers through his hair.

  “And what exactly is the special occasion?”

  Turning, Jake kissed me full on the lips. His hands sliding to my hips and drawing me to him, he said, “You.”

  My lips slid to his ear, and I murmured, “Well, I can eat to that.”

  And we did. As each pepperoni, olive, green pepper, and mushroom filled slice slid down our throats, as we ate with one hand and clasped fingers with the other, as we wiped off each other’s faces with napkins and licked each other’s stray sauce off our lips, we were blissfully, perfectly happy.

  This man beside me was all I needed, all I would ever need. And as we slumped on the couch, in a mid-pizza, full-of-love daze, the words slid out of us.

  “We’re in this together, you know,” I said.

  “You’re the only one who truly has my best interests at heart.”

  “You’ve more than shown me that you’re worthy of my trust.”

  And Jake, my darling, handsome Jake, took my face in his hands and gave me a long, pizza-delicious kiss.

  Then he said, “Thank you. I’m so happy I met you.”

  We curled up into each other, passing the last slice back and forth, kissing each other once we were finished, our hands clasping and unclasping, thanking our lucky stars for our paths crossing, even if in the most bizarre of ways.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Alice

  I awoke to voices in the kitchen. It was Jake on the phone again, and the other voice I could just make out on the line was…Paul’s.

  My stomach twisted sickly, but I forced myself to keep still.

  “No, Paul. I told you the deal’s off. I don’t care if you double what you’re paying me.”

  There was the sound of Paul’s angry yet hard to make out reply. Then Jake said, “No. For the last time, no, Paul. You want to know what you can’t double? That incredible woman you were trying to screw over.”

  A laugh, then: “Yeah. I guess you could say she got to me. Good-bye, Paul.”

  When I opened my eyes, Jake was looking straight at me.

  “You heard that, huh?”

  I nodded, and he shrugged and then smiled.

  “Good. Now I don’t have to tell you. It’s over, for good—all of it.”

  His face darkened.

  “Though we may be on the run for a bit.”

  I still couldn’t quite speak.

  I had already known it, but seeing proof of it so irrefutably like this was dumbfounding. So it had really been true. The man who’d had me kidnapped, who had ruined my wedding, had nearly scared me half to death, was the very man I had been concerned about worrying and betraying this whole time. My husband-to-be. Paul. How could he have done this to me?

  “If it’s any consolation, he had made me promise to take it easy on you during the kidnapping,” Jake said.

  I said nothing. That wasn’t any consolation at all. The man I had been about to join my life with had been ransoming me to get money out of my father.

  “He wasn’t doing it just to earn some extra cash,” Jake said. “A recent deal of his fell through.”

  I scrutinized the equivocal expression on his face.

  “Are you…defending him?”

  Jake shook his head.

  “No. I just…” He put his hand on my shoulder. “I just wanted to make this easier.”

  I shrugged him off.

  “And you…”

  He put his hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off again.

  “I what?”

  I whipped around, staring into the face of the man I thought I knew.

  “You knew all this time. After everything that’s happened, after all our talks…you only told me a few hours ago. And like this?”

  Jake’s head was hung, his eyes dull and lowered.

  “What if I had escaped?” I continued. “Or what if I had wanted to be taken back home? Would you have let me? Has any of this been real? Would you have let me go back to him?”

  Jake’s head whipped up. Now his eyes were fiery.

  “Never.” He grasped both my shoulders, directing
his words straight to me. “No. I would’ve followed you until I could’ve told you. Kidnapped you again if I had to. Alice, I tried to tell you; I did.”

  Every part of his face was alive, pulsing with tension. God, he was so angry…and so sexy. Despite my best efforts, laughter bubbled out of me.

  “Would you have actually kidnapped me again?”

  Jake kissed me.

  “Maybe.”

  He picked me up and twirled me around. Placing me down, he directed his plea to my already-lowering smile.

  “The important thing is that I wouldn’t have just sat there and let you ruin your life, just how I’m not going to sit here now and let you question for a second what we have—the most real feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”

  His eyes were so earnest, so wide and such a deep green that it seemed as if I could see into his heart, his soul, which told me just how much he meant the words he’d just said.

  “Now,” Jake said, his hand around my waist, “are you going to make me lift you and spin you again until you give me an answer?”

  Drawing back, I couldn’t hold back another smile.

  “Isn’t that blackmail?”

  Jake kissed me.

  “That would be one of my lesser crimes, and one I’d gladly commit for you.”

  We laughed and he did it; he scooped me up and spun me around and around until the world around me disappeared into one laughing blur. I was howling for him to stop, and he was asking me if I’d made up my mind yet. And then, all of a sudden, he stopped. Disoriented, I was about to turn to him when he hurried past me, his face a white mask.

  Knocking. Someone was knocking on the door—loudly. Peering through the window, Jake sighed and then opened it.

  “Tom, you fucker, I nearly shit myself I was so scared!”

  Laughter, then: “Jesus Christ. You’re actually here, Jake. You crazy motherfucker!”

  The speaker, a beefy man sporting an old black T-shirt with a smiley face and middle finger on it, sauntered in, casting a look around the place.

  “Saw the news, even had several guys tell me themselves, and still I couldn’t believe it. Had to see for myself.”

  He flopped onto the couch, which gave a sort of gasp at its new hefty occupant.

  “Well, here the fuck you are,” he said, throwing a tan, beefy arm out.