Sold to the Highest Bidder Read Free Page A

clothes and prissy hair, he hated her for her arrogance. He was hers for forty-eight hours. He’d received the papers often enough to know what she was buying wasn’t reconciliation or burying the hatchet—unless it was in his back. But he’d be damned if he’d make it easy for her. He intended to make it as difficult as possible. Just like she’d made it for him.
    His eyes captured hers across the room. No one here could afford to outbid that kind of money and they both knew it. For a moment he was annoyed that she would show off that she could. Her eyes glinted with triumph and he smiled thinly, knowing for now she thought she’d won. But she didn’t know who she was dealing with. He wasn’t a callow youth down on his luck any longer.
    In the next moment, her tongue snuck out and wet her lips, and he knew this was a once in a lifetime chance. Because if he was hers for forty-eight hours, she was also his. She’d get what she paid for and more. And he’d get his pound of flesh. All for the bargain price of two grand towards Betty’s chemo.
    “Going once…going twice…sold to the highest bidder, Ella Turner, for two thousand dollars.”
    Dev bent and retrieved his shirt from the floor and hopped down off the stage. He squeezed Kate’s arm on the way by, a kind of thanks-for-trying gesture. He forced what he hoped was a good-natured laugh at the catcalls from those that knew very well he had a history a mile long with Ella.
    And then he walked out of the bar.

Chapter Two

    Ella scrambled to write her check and hurry outside, her heels clicking furiously on the scratched wood floor. The article had slipped to a corner of her mind. She knew Ruby Shoes and its patrons well enough to fudge that part of the article. She ignored the calls from old neighbors and long-ago acquaintances. What she really wanted to know was where Dev had gone. And how on earth she could convince him to sign the papers so she could leave this backwoods town behind her forever. He owed her now. She had just made sure of it by buying him off the stage. He was at her beck and call for forty-eight hours. What she wanted would only take a few seconds.
    The air outside had cooled and it kissed her skin, damp from the close atmosphere inside the bar. Her feet halted abruptly. Dev was leaning against the tailgate of his pickup truck, the same two-tone brown Lariat he’d driven to the courthouse on their wedding day. It had several more dents and rust spots now. He’d put his shirt back on. Thank God. Because seeing all those planes and angles while he’d flashed that knowing dimple at her had been torture. It had brought back memories she’d rather stayed buried.
    She didn’t want to be married to him any more. That had nothing to do with the fact that seeing him strip off his shirt had made her want to touch him. Taste him. Make love to him. It was plumb crazy, but her libido had spoken loud and clear—it was listening to her memory, not her head.
    A small grin curled up the side of his mouth and her breasts tightened. She needed him to sign the decree. Now. So she’d never have to see him and his sexy grin again. So she could finally move on.
    “What are you doing here, Ella?”
    His voice was a little soft, a little rough, and it rode the endings of her nerves, sending shivers up her spine. She straightened her shoulders. There was no way on God’s green earth she would let him know he got to her in any way. And he sure didn’t want to spend two days with her. Not once in twelve years had he made any effort to see her whatsoever. She’d let him off the hook all for the price of his name beside the X.
    She lifted her chin, tucked her notebook more firmly into her handbag. “Does it matter?”
    He nodded, slowly. “You bet your designer bag it does. And I’m pretty sure paying two thousand dollars for two days with me wasn’t the reason. Though we could have a lot of fun in two days, don’t you think? For old times’