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Mia couldn’t re Seth shift uncoe while the woie added to the noise level with so histles of her own She had to adly hot in his tailored suit The fact that he wasn’t even trying to work the crowd like his predecessors made him that much more desirable Women tended to want theoff that vibe When the bidding started, woh a blonde at the end of their row clearly became the front runner No matter the top bid, she would immediately counter it She sely annoyed at this woroup of friends egging her on as many of the others were No, she worked it al to win the date with Seth Why that bothered her, she had no idea, but it did

When the bidding ended, Margie leaned in saying, "I can’t believe he sold for thatto be able to live with him He’ll probably de at hi to where the winner was acknowledging everyone’s congratulations with polite nods, she added, "Boy, Blondie sure is hot for hiained for out of that one"

Mia had to admit that she was curious She knew ht and she was certain she had never seen the woie she asked, "Do you knoho she is?"

Margie shook her head "Nope, I sure don’t She see a date What do you think? Maybe she went off her ie’s joke She really did like Seth’s assistant It made her wish that she had this kind of relationship with her own mother What would it be like to actually joke and have fun with her rather than the distant relationship that they had? Oh, well, if that hadn’t happened by now, it wasn’t likely to

"Even uptight woie into a fit of laughter loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the vicinity

When she had cale, but if I’ to be in public"

Chapter Five

"You did what!" Mia stuttered "Oh my God, ould you do that?"

Hera non-fat soy latte "Please lower your voice, Mia; we don’t need the entire place hearing our conversation"

Mia kneas bad when herafter the charity auction and deined a million different reasons but none of them came close "I can’t believe you had your secretary buy Seth Jackson for me Idon’t even knohat to say Does Dad know about this?"

"No, he doesn’t Your father would never pay attention to a bachelor auction, so he never noticed Cathy bidding She has only been with hed "That still doesn’t anshy"

Herbefore finally saying, "You never see other than work I watched you with Seth at lunch yesterday and you were so at ease with him"

Exasperated, Mia said, "Mohed, you smiled, and your whole body was relaxed I haven’t seen you like that in so long I know you will finish your work there and ht if you and Seth had the opportunity to get to know each other in a social setting that nment there is complete"

Hoas she supposed to respond to a statement like that? She was attracted to Seth and she had been hoping soht come of it after her job at the Oceanix Resort was done, but she hadn’t been expecting this Norhters dinner or soled her ht of it, much less taken the time for the careful execution of the scheme Was she that concerned about her love life or lack of one? It wasn’t as if it would reassure her if she confessed that she had casual sex when the need arose or used her vibrator Yeah, that would be a proud moment for any uess this is one of those, ‘it’s the thought that counts’ h considering the circumstances, that we should just let Seth off the hook You can just make the contribution and everyone will be happy"

To her surprise, her , "Oh, no, I wouldn’t be happy Seth agreed to the arrangement and it will stand If anyone backs out, I ithdraw my money"

"What? You can’t do that to your own charity"

S, her mother said, "The charity wouldn’t suffer, dear Seth would pay the reement If, for some reason, any of the bachelors were unable to fulfill their obligation, they would make the donation instead It wouldn’t be fair to the person bidding for one of the men to drop out noould it?"

Wow, her mother was more than a little scary She didn’t knohether she was impressed or pissed off She had Seth all neatly tied into the deal If she backed out, then her mother would probably find some way toperson was running the fa of a shark Maybe there was more there than the cool façade that she always presented to the world and to her daughter Sadly, this was one of the few times in her adult life that she felt soiven birth to her