Chapter Six
Blake almost couldn’t believe he’d actually gone through with it, but he had. After Amanda had left his place last week, he’d wanted her so bad he could hardly see straight. He’ d gone inside and placed the bid, knowing that it wouldn’t be topped. Then he had waited through the longest week of his life, feeling more desperate for Amanda’s touch by the hour. Now, the day had finally come that he would arrange when and where he would claim her, and he was about to climb out of his damn skin.
They were meeting at Little Italy, an Italian restaurant that was the only one in town that could even come close to fine dining. It was, he mused, a very romantic setting for what was actually happening. Still, he couldn’t blame Amanda for wanting a public setting. She could have ended up with a real psycho, selling herself online the way she had. So the public venue was smart. He secretly wondered if she didn’t crave some semblance of the romance that should accompany every young woman’s first time. If so, he didn’t mind doing his best to oblige.
He had, as agreed, brought a single yellow rose to replace the usual red ones in the crystal vase on his table. The entire town had known of the arrangements from Amanda’s webpage. Everyone had been avoiding eye contact with him, but that wasn’t the case at all when Amanda walked in. Every eye in the place was on her. The women, for the most part, looked on her with the snide disgust that is reserved only for the most beautiful and carefree of women. He knew without a doubt that they either envied her or hated her because they knew that the men they loved lusted after her just as badly as he did. The men either tried to purposefully ignore her or looked her up and down with bold, condescending leers. Every single gaze was filled with lust.
Amanda took their looks in and held her head high, her eyes challenging when she made eye contact by chance as she scanned the room for him. He saw the moment her eyes found the yellow rose. He watched as she focused on his face and her jaw dropped with shock. He couldn’t hold back the crooked smile that rose to his face.
She recovered her composure and made her way toward him. Her strides were purposeful, but she still oozed sensuality. You couldn’t walk without looking like sex with curves like hers. He waited until she was close enough that only those closest to them could hear them conversing.
“Surprised, Amanda?”
“You know I am. Not the beginning I’d hoped for, having to pick my jaw up off the floor…I felt like one of those cartoons. You know, the ones where they have to roll their tongue back up and put it away before they close their mouth…I’m babbling.”
He’d moved around the table to ease out the chair for her—the situation wasn’t going to negate the good manners his mamma had worked so hard to instill in him—and now he was once again sitting across from her.
“It was cute.”
“It was humiliating, and decidedly unsexy.”
He couldn’t help laughing at her dry, self-deprecating tone. “Nothing you do is unsexy, darlin’. You’re turning every man in this place on right now just by breathing.”
It was true. The men still couldn’t keep their eyes off her. The women couldn’t either for that matter. It made sense, really, considering that the entire town knew what was happening here tonight. He could see that the comment made her uncomfortable, though.
“Ignore them. They’re either turned on, jealous, or both.”
“Okay…why did you bid on me?”
“You told me to; remember?”
Amanda just looked at him. Damn, but she was cute when she was flustered.
“You told me to, and I’ve wanted you since way before this. I just was trying to be a gentleman and refrain from seducing the perfect preacher’s daughter.”
“Okay…why did you bid so much?”
It was a lot, he could admit that. But he hadn’t been able to handle the idea of anyone outbidding him in the final seconds. He’d never admit it to her, but he didn’t want to think of Amanda with another man, period.
“I always get what I want, Amanda. Whatever it takes.”
“Right…right.” Nerves were making her voice shake now. “So, on that note, how do you want to do this?”
“This?”
“Yeah. How do you want to take my virginity?”
“How? You didn’t mention that I was going to have to teach you, but since you asked…when a man and a woman want each other very much—” He felt like a jerk when the man at the next table started laughing and Amanda turned beat red.
“I’m sorry. That was in poor taste. Look, honey…it’s obvious that you aren’t very comfortable with this situation yet. Why don’t we just take it slow, get to know each other first. The other can wait.”
If he was a better man, Blake would have offered to withdraw his bid and let her walk away from a decision she was obviously close to regretting, but he wanted her too damn badly to let her go that easily. Besides, then she would just go to the next lowest bidder, and Blake couldn’t stomach the idea of her giving her first time to anyone but him.
The tension between them eased after that. They made comfortable conversation for the rest of the meal as they got to know each other better. Blake was surprised to find that Amanda was warm and witty, with a dry sense of humor that complemented his own quite well. If he could just forget what brought them together, he could almost see himself breaking his ‘no strings’ rule for this lovely woman.