Underneath It All. Lori Borrill

the crowd to her sexy stranger and the reason the two men were up there together.

      Devon Bradshaw, co-chair of Bradshaw Investment Group, and his brother Todd, battling against each other to see who would go for the most money. She took the sheets from Peggy and found their names on the list along with their contact information. No matter how things turned out tonight, she had a perfect excuse to call him up and request a meeting, and circling his name, she smiled at the thought that sometimes her job came in very handy, indeed.

      “Here we go, are you ready?” Penny asked, her voice nearly breathless with excitement.

      “You know, I can always track him down after the auction. That’s what we’re here for, right?”

      Penny looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “And interview him about his date with another woman?”

      When phrased that way, Nicole didn’t like how it sounded, and the sour feeling sucked the last of her doubt away.

      Rolling up the pages, she tucked the pen and note pad in her purse. “Only if I lose the auction,” she said. “And I won’t.”

      There. She said it. Decision made and final. She was going to win herself a date with a torturously gorgeous man and start having fun for a change. Eve said the station would probably cover her bid, and besides, Nicole couldn’t remember the last time she let loose and had a good time. Tonight would be it. The night of rebirth. The night Nicole Reavis took a step forward instead of wallowing in her past.

      For over a year, she’d been wrapped up in her problems and the turmoil that had followed. Ever since her mother had come down with cancer, things hadn’t been the same. Her parents had been forced to tell her the truth about who she was—or wasn’t, more accurately. The news that she’d been adopted had been a shock, had sent her three thousand miles east, away from friends and family and everything she’d known in search of the answers to questions that had come to haunt her.

      Between making new friends, settling into a new job, moving to a slice of the country where she still felt like a foreigner, and then this lottery win, she hadn’t taken a moment to relax, let her hair down and enjoy.

      A distraction might be just what she needed.

      And the look from the man on stage promised all kinds of welcome distraction.

      “Well, Devon surely looks like he wants you to win,” Penny said. “He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since he walked up there.”

      Nicole licked her lips. No, he hadn’t. And the more he studied her with those blue eyes whispering unspoken words of promise, the more intent she was to go home the winner.

      “Devon, please tell us what you have planned,” the announcer said.

      He casually turned to the woman on stage and took the microphone, and when he spoke, his voice sent tingles up Nicole’s spine. He had a low, whiskey drawl that made every word sound like a private secret shared between lovers, the kind of voice that could spread velvet over your skin just by whispering sweet sensations.

      She imagined that voice in the dark, his lips close to her ear, so close his warm breath tickled the hair at the base of her neck.

      “We’ll hop in my vintage 1959 Cadillac convertible and head north to the new Santiago Resort and Spa in the beautiful Atlanta foothills,” he said. “My date will have a choice of how she’d like to spend the day. If she’s the outdoorsy type, they offer golf and tennis, or if it’s relaxation she’s after, there’s the full day spa or cruising on the lake.”

      “Ooh, that sounds divine,” the announcer said. “And that’s a brand-new resort, ladies. I haven’t been but I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”

      “We’ll finish the day off with dinner at the restaurant which sits right on the water’s edge,” he said. Then he turned and set his gaze directly on Nicole. “And with the right woman,” he added raising a brow, “who knows where the night could end.”

      A million-dollar smile polished off his presentation leaving Nicole weak in the knees and ready to mortgage off the condo if she had to. With no effort, her imagination picked up where his description left off, turning the afternoon date into an adventure of sun, fun and sex.

      She’d visited the Santiago Resort for a recent episode where they’d given away a romantic weekend for two. She’d toured the facilities and had no trouble imagining herself in one of those suites, buried under the fluffy down comforter with Devon Bradshaw in the flesh.

      The thought swelled her insides and heated her blood, the way it apparently had with the rest of the women in the room. A round of hoots and whistles erupted, and though a number of women voiced their desire for that package, Devon never pulled his gaze from Nicole.

      As if to signal her intentions, she smiled and faintly nodded, and the sexy expression on Devon’s face brightened to a grin.

      “He’s mine,” Nicole said, twisting the pages in her hand, and when the announcer presented the opening bid, she raised her hand without hesitation.

      And so did two dozen other women, but the numbers didn’t faze her. She was about to be a millionaire, and even though she didn’t have her money yet, staring into those beautiful blues with a weekend of sex on her mind, the sky was her only limit.

      The price flew up from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand, and when it hit fifteen hundred, it was only Nicole and two other women.

      “I don’t know if the station will go this high,” Eve said.

      “I’ll pay for it myself.”

      Fifteen-fifty and Nicole raised her hand taking the bid to sixteen hundred.

      “Oh, my God,” Penny beamed. “He just passed the high water mark for the evening.”

      A tall, too-thin woman, who looked a lot like the animated version of Cruella Deville, seemed as intent to win Devon as Nicole was. It was the same woman she’d seen him talking to earlier, and though that fact gave her pause, Devon’s heated stare swept away any doubts. Everything about his expression said he wanted Nicole to win, the smile of promise in his eyes, the sexy quirk of his mouth, right down to the way he rubbed his thumb against his fingers as he held his hand at his side.

      It was his only hint of nerves, and Nicole couldn’t help but zero in on it. The higher the bid, the faster he rubbed, the faster he rubbed, the more intensely his eyes fixed on her. It was as if he was begging her to keep going, and she smiled, thinking he didn’t have to worry.

      Nothing would make her stop.

      Seventeen, then eighteen hundred, and the third woman finally backed out. Now it was just Nicole and Cruella, who really needed a solid meal more than she needed the date.

      Like two opponents in a game of table tennis, the bids bounced back and forth between the two.

      Eighteen-fifty, nineteen hundred, nineteen-fifty. Every time Nicole took the bid the other woman took it back and the higher they went, the more annoyed she became.

       Who was this nightmare ?

      Nicole nearly yelled out to tell the woman to give up, now understanding the fierce annoyance that could throw a civilized woman into a cat-fighting frenzy. She felt like storming over and giving her a push.

      Not that it would take much.

      “That other woman really wants him,” Penny whispered.

      “I’m taking her out,” Nicole replied, not at all feeling like it was the joke she’d intended. The more persistent Cruella was the more aggravated Nicole became. The woman was relentless, like a dog with its teeth clenched tightly on a sock. No matter how many times Nicole raised her hand, she just smiled and raised hers. It was becoming a ridiculous test of wills and checkbooks, and if Devon hadn’t continued to encourage her with the pleading look in his eyes, she might have backed out by now.

      The price was now topping twenty-five hundred,