Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
We crack at the same time, and his gaze meets mine, his lips curling into a smirk.
I hate that we have to get through this when all I want to do is attack that face again, but I take a breath, steadying myself.
“Okay, guys,” Troy says as he opens a door that leads backstage, “just wait in the wings until I call you out. And once the bidding ends, you’ll stay onstage with the rest of the guys until we get to the end.” He turns to Atlas. “Wish me luck, A.”
“As if you need any,” Atlas says before Troy plants a kiss on his man. It looks like he intended it to be a peck, but Atlas hooks his arm around him, keeping him close, his tongue slipping into his mouth.
It’s the sort of kiss that makes everyone quiet before Atlas pulls back and slaps Troy’s ass. “Get out there and sell some beef.”
Troy beams before heading out to the podium. His opening speech is dynamic, playful, his charisma on full display as he cracks a few jokes that get the audience laughing. While the bidding’s taking place for the first few guys, Lance and I glance at one another again, and he winks. There’s this confidence to him now, like he can read my interest so easily, unlike before when he was cautious and apprehensive.
I like this side of him.
As his gaze settles on my lips, he licks his own.
“Stop that,” I say sternly, my tone taking him by surprise as his eyes widen. “I need to behave.”
I’m playing with fire by talking like this so close to my Sigma Alpha buddies, but maybe that’s part of the thrill.
“And next up, we have none other than the president of Sigma Alpha,” Troy announces from the podium.
“Looks like you’re up, Mr. Prez,” Ryan says, coming up from behind me. “Get out there and make Sigma Alpha proud.”
Lance rolls his eyes, simulating vomiting as I head out onto the stage.
Troy finishes his intro, and the whole thing is a bit wild—the bright lights, the sorority girls and frat guys losing it in the audience, and I can hardly think straight as numbers start getting called until I’m taken by a girl from Phi Kappa Lambda for two hundred dollars.
I join the other auctioned guys on the opposite side of the podium, watching as Keegan and then Ryan are given away next. They join me, and then a few more guys, before Troy says, “And last but certainly not least…”
Definitely not least.
“…my good friend and Alpha Theta Mu president, Lance Fehn.”
He’s got support from his fellow Alpha Theta Mus first, from the stage and in the audience as they lose their minds over him, but it’s not their support that’s grating on my nerves. I can see how some of the girls and guys are looking at him, wanting a piece of that action. Tension knots up in me at the thought of one of them winning his adorable ass.
He stands at the front of the stage, jokingly posing, but also having a bit of that bashful charm, like he’s flustered by the attention. It’s that charm, no doubt, that won over Alpha Theta Mu when he became president his sophomore year. There’s this aura about him, and it’s as though he doesn’t even realize the effect he has on people.
Like he’s oblivious about that sexy mug or those kissable lips.
Fuck, I can’t get those lips out of my goddamn head.
“Okay,” Troy says. “Let the bidding commence!”
“One hundred dollars!” I recognize Angie up front in a hoodie, waving to support her friend. I can’t help feeling she’s too eager, which is weird because I wasn’t thinking like that at all when they were bidding on me.
Another sorority girl shouts for a hundred twenty-five.
Then one hundred fifty.
I’m annoyed by the low bids. These kids don’t even know what they’re missing out on.
“One sixty,” comes another bid as they seem to be winding down.
One sixty? Are they fucking kidding right now? The hell?
“Two fifty!”
I look around for a sec, as though the words didn’t come from my own damn mouth.
Troy glances at me. “Um…”
“What the fuck is he doing?” Keegan mutters to Ryan.
Even with the bright lights in my eyes, I see people in the audience looking around. Everyone seems confused because this is definitely a first—a bachelor onstage bidding for another bachelor.
How the hell am I gonna get out of this one?
“Dude’s clearly letting that Alpha Theta Mu know who’s boss,” Ryan whispers to Keegan before nudging me. “Badass move, man.”
Troy’s looking around like he’s waiting for Atlas or one of the other event organizers to come out and put a stop to this, but then just shrugs. “I guess a bid’s a bid, right? So we’re at two fifty for Alpha Theta Mu’s president from my former frat’s rival Sigma Alpha. Anyone want to save this guy from being tortured by the enemy?”