Page 35 of Auction Time
I didn’t think I’d ever seen Cole look shocked before.
This was a first, and despite the beauty of the night with all his amazing paintings of me, I could have been that girl I was so long ago. Humiliation washed over me, and I just wanted to flee.
“Oh my God,” he breathed.
It looked like he was going to say something else, but I didn’t stay to find out.
I left.
Chapter 9
Cole
* * *
I figured it out.
It took me all of two seconds to figure it out.
Significance…
It was that word. I was a quick study, but it didn’t take wit to figure that one out. It was only shock that froze me to the spot and stopped me from chasing after her.
My dear Vanessa was still a virgin.
Had to be that. It was in her eyes. I saw it there, clear as a bright summer’s day without a cloud in the sky.
It was purity, virgin purity. That was what I saw in her eyes. Purity. The same purity I’d seen back when she was sixteen.
And… that was the thing that made me want her even more.
Obsession was a bad thing. I knew that all too well, and that was why I never had any expectations.
I’d answered that question of hers quite rightly when I said I didn’t look forward to anything for the new season. Being a Centaur would be great for my career. I was where I wanted to be, and that was great. Great team with great players. It meant the chance of different achievements and a number of possibilities.
None of which I’d know, so to me it was fruitless to dwell on what could be.
With her though…
Thinking about making her mine wouldn’t be fruitless. Not one bit.
Not one bit at all.
I was hardly able to focus over the next few days. Like a mindless automaton, I went through the last few sessions of training on autopilot.
On Monday night, after the last meetup, I went to the bar with the guys for one last drink.
Denver was the loudest of the bunch. He sat next to me gibbering about how many women he was going to have this season. He placed another bet. This time with Sam, who everyone knew to be the biggest womanizer.
If anyone thought I was bad, they needed to take a good look at him. He made me look like one of the patron saints.
The two of them were betting on who would get laid the most. Apparently, just last season, while I was there thinking about what a good example Denver was with his girl, who’d even come to surprise him at the last game, he’d slept with a hundred women. Him. Denver.
What a fucking asshole of a prick. A hundred women.
This season, he planned to double that. His theory was, he’d use the time during the break on the away games. Starting with game night when he was sure Coach wouldn’t cut his dick off. The wager was five hundred grand.
He looked to me as he took a swig of his beer.
