Ember took several deep breaths trying to calm her rollercoaster of emotions. On one hand she was more excited than she had been in longer than she could remember and on the other hand she was scared to death. She’d been about to blow it big time when she first grabbed the microphone, or attempted to grab it would be a better description. It was like her whole body was partially paralyzed. Her throat tightened, her fingers wouldn’t close properly around the microphone, and she was having trouble walking straight.

But as soon as the crowd began to cheer it all changed, especially when she saw Zander looking at her. After she left him to go backstage she began to whip herself up into a panic because she hadn’t told him specifically that she was there for the auction. She hoped he had picked up the hint but judging by his face when she walked on the stage he had no idea. What would he think? Would he feel less towards her? She hoped she wasn’t wrong in picking up an attraction vibe when they were chatting earlier. The conversation had been very easy going with no intentions, no objectives, or motives really. It was just two people enjoying each other’s company and having a good time. It was a real connection. Ember couldn’t remember ever feeling a connection that strongly to a man she’d just met. And it wasn’t just that he was the best piece of eye candy she’d ever laid eyes on. It wasn’t the fact that he had more money than God. She honestly didn’t know what it was. Whatever that thing was that drew two people together and made them both twice as good as they were on their own was happening between the two of them. She hoped that she was not the only one who felt that way. Zander was a bit hard to read. He had that sexy mysterious thing going to the hilt.

As she relaxed back onto the end of the line after giving her speech she concentrated on slowing her breathing and just calming down as the nerves threatened to return with a vengeance. She no longer felt the support she had just a moment ago for some reason.

And Zander was gone. She searched the space he was in just a moment ago and he wasn’t there, was he? The bright lights were shining in her eyes making it very difficult to really see the crowd. She tried not to squint (that was the last thing these guys wanted to see) and stay smiling but she desperately wanted to find Zander. Would he bid on her? Would he be able to outbid the others? She had no idea how high these bids could go. As far as she knew there really wasn’t a limit.

“You look nervous,” Violet whispered beside her.

“Do I? Well there is a reason for that,” Ember joked.

“Just relax, you are doing fine,” Violet replied. “These guys love you in case you couldn’t tell.”

Ember smiled. “Thanks,” she said. It was nice having Violet helping her through all this. In lieu of Liza not being able to be there she was the next best thing. Ember wasn’t sure she would have made it through the night and actually gone through with all of this otherwise. Well, until she met Zander that was. She had a feeling that she would have stood up there hoping to end up with that man at any cost.

There he was!

Zander was returning from the bar with a new drink in hand. He made his way around the outer edge of the stage until he was now standing very close to where she was. He was still staring right at her and only her with that sexy smirk of his. Butterflies collided repeatedly in Ember’s stomach.

“You know he comes here all the time,” Violet said.

“What? He gave me the impression he didn’t,” Ember replied. Had she totally misread him? Was he being serious when she thought he was being coy?

“Yeah, the guy is a real player. He is loaded like nobody’s business. All the girls are in love with him; I mean how can you not be? He always picks someone different.”

Ember felt a bit of resentment growing inside of her. “Is that so? Have you been with him yet?”

“No, not yet. I’ve heard he is a bit of a jerk and has a cruel streak, so I’m not really waiting for him. I’m hoping he doesn’t bid on me actually.”

“You could have told me this earlier when I was flirting with him,” Ember said. “I feel stupid.”

“I’m sorry. I thought you were just having fun. Besides harmless flirting never hurt anyone. I figured you knew who he was. He has a bit of reputation around town as one of the hotshot rich, young, New York City tycoons. You can google all about him.”

“I might just have to do that,” Ember said. A pit was now growing in her stomach. Was Violet right? What had she gotten herself into?

She just needed to relax. Even if he did bid on her the she could just go out and have fun, see for herself what he was like and if she decided that she did not want it to go farther then it wouldn’t. Except she knew that this man could easily have the kind of seductive power over her that she had only read about before. She had felt it the moment she was in his presence and held that steely, cold, yet warm and sexy gaze. That man was so naturally dominant without being domineering. It was a natural alpha male in his element and she could not resist it. Could she? Oh, what was a girl to do?

Vienna was now opening the bidding on her. Ember felt her heart beating wildly in her chest as she tried to relax, tried to calm down. She was starting to sweat profusely. She wanted to wipe at it but she knew that it would only attract the wrong kind of attention. Hopefully nobody could really tell.

Maybe Zander wasn’t even here for dating purposes. He might have had some business engagement going on. She did see him talking to some fancy looking business executive earlier didn’t she? But it was very brief. Perhaps Violet was all wrong about him? It was easy to get the wrong idea about someone. And as for a rich and somewhat famous guy in this town, the media could be vicious and could just tear people apart.

“Let’s start the bidding at five thousand dollars,” Vienna said.

Ember tried to pay attention to what she was saying, but she kept getting distracted by her spinning thoughts. She had to concentrate though. She took another deep breath and forced her mouth to smile widely, added some batting eyelashes, and pretty much tried to look as cheesy and clichéd sexy as she could.

Zander was still eying her strongly. He had yet to make a wager. Maybe he was toying with her? Did he really have a bad streak like Violet was saying? Or maybe he was just biding his time to wait until almost the end and sweep through with some high priced bid in a dramatic fashion. She could see a guy like Zander having a flair for theatrics.

“Five thousand!” A voice from the crowd.

“We have five thousand, how about ten? Anyone for ten thousand?” Vienna said, her voice rising to higher inflections as she became more excited. The woman really loved what she did and Ember had to admit she was really good at working a crowd. She was starting to gain some respect for Vienna’s talents, but she doubted she would ever have much respect for her as a person. She was just too fake.

“Ten thousand!” Another voice.

Ember tried to see into the crowd who was actually making these bids but the lights were too bright. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was almost right in front of the stage now she wouldn’t have seen him either. He was still standing there with that rakish grin of his that made her heart flutter every time she saw it.

“How about twenty thousand? Do we hear twenty thousand?” Vienna asked.

Ember was getting excited now. Imagine if someone paid that much for her. She would not have to worry about any of her bills for a while. It was all surreal. Just yesterday she’d been down in the dumps worrying about her uncertain future with a mountain of bills looming in front of her and now she was poised to make thousands for doing practically nothing. And if she was popular she might be invited back, possibly regularly. Hell, if she kept this up for a year or so she could save enough to quit her day job and just do whatever she wanted to make her happy. She could think about what kind of a business she wanted to start and run things her own way. She realized that was still the dream; it was very much alive and kicking deeply inside of her subconscious. It might be time to grab that dream off the shelf and dust it off. Let it stretch its legs.

“Twenty thousand!” A voice from the back called.

Ember’s eyes widened and she glanced down at Zander who was laughing hard. What was he laughing at? That someone would pay that much for her company or because he could do so much better. Ember was a bit confused by his behavior and she desperately wanted to know what he was up to.

“Thirty thousand? Do we have thirty thousand dollars?” Vienna asked.

Ember gasped. No one had received more than a twenty thousand dollar bid all night. Were these rich guys really willing to pay that much money for women when they could get any woman they wanted practically for free? She just did not get the psychology of it, the mindset. It seemed ridiculous, but she was smart enough not to look a gift horse in the mouth. No reason to question the gifts we are given in this life.

“Thirty thousand!”  A man in the back shouted.

“We have thirty thousand! Thirty thousand going once… going twice…” Vienna began closing the deal.

“One hundred thousand dollars!”

It was like someone had taken a giant vacuum and sucked all of the air out of the room. Everyone was looking at each other in total shock and awe. Someone had just bid a hundred thousand dollars for her. She couldn’t believe it, but she had heard it with her own ears.

The crowd began to cheer now and applaud this person who was willing to make that insane leap in price on this bid.

“Wow, that is amazing everyone! This is officially the highest bid we’ve ever had in the Club Privaat auction!”

Ember remembered how to breathe and began to focus on what was happening. After a moment the shock started to wear off that someone was actually bidding one hundred thousand dollars and Ember finally realized who had called out that bid.

It was Zander.