The Bachelor Bid
And the winner is… The one woman who didn't bid!Cara Breedon is facing her biggest career challenge to date–to convince impossible, attractive and eminently eligible bachelor Wyatt McCauley to auction himself off for charity. Cara has tried every trick she knows, but Wyatt won't say yes.Underneath, Wyatt is intrigued by Cara and, little does she know, she's beginning to wear him down. He definitely wants to see more of her. All he has to do is agree to appear in the auction and place an exorbitant bid in her name so that Cara wins the prize–a weekend with Wyatt!
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“You look beautiful. Every guy in the place is going to be praying you win him. Except me, of course.”About the AuthorTitle PageCHAPTER ONECHAPTER TWOCHAPTER THREECHAPTER FOURCHAPTER FIVECHAPTER SIXCHAPTER SEVENCHAPTER EIGHTCHAPTER NINECHAPTER TENCopyright
“You look beautiful. Every guy in the place is going to be praying you win him. Except me, of course.”
“Did you just compliment and insult me in the same sentence?”
“Not at all. I excluded myself from the prayerful because you said you couldn’t afford me. Did you get all dolled up just to watch the bidding on me? I’m touched. Especially when you could have had a date for free.”
“Actually, I was considering bidding.... A dollar seemed a good estimation of your value. Then again...who knows? I might win. Decided it wasn’t worth the risk.”
Kate Denton is a pseudonym for the Texas writing team of Carolyn Hake and Jeanie Lambright. Friends as well as co-authors, they concur for the most part on politics and good Mexican restaurants, but disagree about men—tall versus short—and what constitutes good weather sun versus showers. One thing they do agree on, though, is the belief that romance is not just for the young!
CHAPTER ONE
CARA BREEDON had reached the door of her boss’s office, about to make her exit, when Brooke Abbott’s voice halted her in her tracks. “By the way...any progress with Wyatt McCauley?”
Give me strength—not McCauley again! To Cara, the name was starting to grate like nails on a chalkboard. Just to get through one day—even one morning—without hearing that name, that question. No such luck. “Not much headway yet,” Cara reluctantly answered.
“Then you’ve got to get cracking, Cara. I want Wyatt McCauley.”
Tell me something I don’t know. Ever since Brooke’s designation as chair of her sorority’s celebrity bachelor auction, she’d fixated on the idea of computer magnate McCauley as the star attraction. Having delegated to Cara, her secretary, the task of making her fixation a reality, Brooke had reserved for herself the chore of spewing out reminders and demanding updates.
Brooke would have gone after McCauley herself if it hadn’t been for the fact her firm, Brooke Abbott Advertising, had just signed its biggest client to date.
The curse of good fortune meant that all of Brooke’s energies had to be directed toward the new client.
Still, she somehow managed to eke out a few minutes each day to yank Cara’s chain about McCauley. For the past two weeks every other sentence from Brooke had been “Wyatt-this, Wyattthat.” With each new mention of him, Cara’s suspicions became that much firmer that when Brooke said she wanted the man, she wasn’t talking only about the auction. She wanted Wyatt McCauley, period. And she wanted him bad. Were it within Cara’s power, she’d deliver him—gift-wrapped or hog-tied if necessary—just to get Brooke off her case.
Landing McCauley wasn’t the first difficult project Cara had been handed, but it was proving to be the most exasperating. As she drove home from the office Cara tried to keep in mind that Brooke was a generous employer, paying top dollar to her staff. In return she expected lots of late evenings and Saturdays, plus a myriad of personal tasks that had nothing to do with company business. On the whole, Cara didn’t mind. It wasn’t unusual for a company owner to throw in such additional duties. If it meant pleasing the boss, she could tolerate picking up her dry cleaning and doing the grunt work for a favorite Abbott charity. All in all, Cara had few complaints. Few complaints, that is, until the day Brooke first uttered the words “auction” and “McCauley” in the same sentence. Now the job was turning into a gigantic headache.
The problem was Wyatt McCauley wasn’t cooperating. For the past ten days, Cara had called his office only to find him unavailable each time. Just yesterday she tried again, surprised when she’d been put straight through to the man himself.
“Cara Breedon, Mr. McCauley. Thank you for taking my call,” she had begun.
“No problem,” McCauley had answered cordially. “It’s been such a hectic day, I welcome an excuse to escape the pile of work on my desk—now you’ve given me one.”
They’d chatted amiably for a minute or so before he pressed the point. “And what may I do for you, Ms. Breedon?”
There had been no innuendo in his soft Texas accent, but still Cara could just imagine what he could do. The voice alone was enough to help Cara understand Brooke’s fanatical interest.
“I’m recruiting participants on behalf of Brooke Abbott, chair of the Rosemund bachelor auction. You’re probably aware that the auction benefits—”
A loud sigh had stopped her spiel. “Ms. Breedon, too bad you’ve wasted your time and mine. As I’ve told your auction gang repeatedly, I don’t do that sort of thing. Good day.” The line had clicked off.
Cara remembered staring at the receiver by then humming with a dial tone. She had been tempted to dial McCauley back and tell him just what she thought of his manners. He’d been so nice at first until she...until she’d taken advantage of his accessibility with a sales pitch, one he’d apparently heard once too often. Grudgingly Cara had admitted that yes, he did have the right to cut her off.
