Bachelor for Hire (Bachelor Auction #1) Read online

  Bachelor for Hire

  The Bachelor Auction Returns

  Charlene Sands

  Bachelor for Hire

  ©Copyright 2016 Charlene Sands

  Kindle Edition

  The Tule Publishing Group, LLC

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-944925-24-6

  Dedication

  To my one-in-a-million good friend and talented writer, Robin Bielman.

  You’re the best and I’m thrilled we can experience this lovely and crazy author ride together!

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Dear Reader

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Excerpt from Claim Me, Cowboy

  The Bachelor Auction Series

  About the Author

  Dear Reader,

  Can you imagine bidding on a hunky guy in a bachelor auction? The notion surely intrigues, doesn’t it? From the moment I learned about this, I knew I wanted to write a Bachelor Auction story. And I pitted two very outwardly dynamic people together in security expert Code Matthews and rising star, Hayley Dawn O’Malley. They have history, but it’s not what you think. In fact, the story has a few twists and turns and may surprise you.

  My guy, Code Matthews is happy to help out his one-time coach for a charitable cause, but he’d rather NOT be first up on the Bachelor Auction chopping block at Grey’s Saloon. In fact, he’d rather be just about anywhere else. To help matters, his meddling uncle has arranged aka finagled an easy date for Code with the Widow Benedict. Dinner and some high school football talk wouldn’t be half bad when she wins him in the auction. But the surprise is on Code when someone from his past enters the saloon…

  Has to be that way…or we wouldn’t have a story now, would we?

  I hope you enjoy all four of the Bachelor Auction stories, starting with Bachelor for Hire.

  Happy Reading,

  Charlene

  Chapter One

  It was too doggone warm for April in Montana. The sun beat through Cody Matthew’s shirt and the hair at the back of his neck grew moist with sweat. He wiped it away with his shirtsleeve and absorbed the few beads about to run down his forehead as well. Crouching down and picking up the hammer again, he pounded nails into the bottom of the barn wall and wished like hell Uncle Brand had a nail gun. But his uncle wasn’t into newfangled gizmos. He did things the old school way, claiming working hard with the tools God gave him, made a man out of him. Maybe there was some truth to that. Uncle Brand’s life was simple. He was content running a small cattle ranch and living off his pension. Code couldn’t fault him, the old man was happy. And his uncle had put a roof over Code’s head most of his life. The Lucky B was home to him.

  Too late, he heard footsteps behind him. Hell, he was losing his touch. He swiveled from his crouched position eyeballing a pair of fancy tan snakeskin boots. His gaze traveled up slowly finding the top of the boots were attached to shapely legs that could give a man a heart attack. He’d know those legs anywhere. “Hello, Hayley.”

  “Cody, hi. It’s good to see you. How’d you know it was me?”

  Christ. He’d seen all of her movies and reluctantly admitted that Hayley Dawn O’Malley had acting chops, but his knowledge of one of her most valuable assets came firsthand. He remembered the one and only time he’d touched her legs. Back then, he’d vowed he’d never forget the smooth, silken skin under his palms and he never had.

  She wore shorts. Black, hip-hugging designer shorts with silver trim that matched her blouse in some intricate pattern. A thin jeweled purse was clutched in her hand. His gaze drifted further up until he made eye contact with green eyes that reminded him of a meadow at sunrise, all bright and fresh and new on a face that was pretty as ever. “Just a hunch. I’d heard you were in town.”

  He rose and straightened, coming to stand half a foot taller than her. “Sorry about your grandma, Marie. She was a fine woman.”

  Hayley turned to the pasture, trying to hide her pain. And as she moved, coppery lights shimmered under the sun on her long auburn hair. It was wavy and wild as ever. She looked natural, not that blown straight style she wore in her films.

  “Thank you. How’s Uncle Brand?”

  “Still kickin’ up a fuss. Doing great.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “You here to see him?”

  She narrowed her eyes in a long-lashed squint and smiled. “No, silly. I’m here to see you. But I would like to see Brand later on.”

  Code grabbed a kerchief from his back pocket and wiped his face and hands. He and Hayley had been friends once, and then things had gotten heated between them, but that was ancient history.

  “You look good, Code,” she said. “I haven’t seen you since high school. You didn’t make my grandma’s funeral.”

  “I wasn’t living here, or I would’ve come.” He’d come back to Marietta five months ago. And he’d settled into ranch living like spots on a Dalmatian.

  “I heard you were living in Texas, after your time in the Army.”

  “That’s right.” Two tours in Afghanistan and after he’d been discharged, he and his buddy Victor Feliz opened up Code First, an elite security and protection agency. It was small operation but enough to keep both of them busy full time. The work had been a satisfying way to put his military training to good use.

  She nibbled on her lower lip. “Code, is there some place we can go to talk, out of the sun?”

  She eyed the barn, but no. He wasn’t taking her into his uncle’s barn. He didn’t want those memories to surface. The last time they went in there…

  She had him curious though. What did she have to talk to him about anyway? “Would you like to go into the house?”

  “Is Uncle Brand in there?”

  He nodded.

  “I’d like to speak to you privately.”

  “Follow me,” he said, brushing by her and picking up the scent of something exotic. Her perfume lingered in his nostrils as he led her toward a tall shadowy pine. She picked a spot on the sparse grass and planted her butt down. Surprised, he grinned. Hayley always did make his head spin. He’d figured she was too darn privileged and pampered to take a seat on the ground without the benefit of something luxuriously soft under her bottom. Guess he’d been wrong. Really, looking at her now, she did seem far from the willowy, sleek movie star she’d become since leaving Montana some eleven years ago.

  “Sit, Code. Don’t be afraid. I won’t bite.”

  “I’d sit faster if I thought you would,” he mumbled.

  And she chuckled, a bright burst of amusement that he remembered so well.

  “I don’t recall you being a flirt,” she said, as he took a seat a few feet from her. “It was sorta what I liked best about you.”

  “Was I flirting? It’s been so long, I can’t remember.” He’d liked a lot of things about Hayley back then, and had known not to get involved with her. She’d left a string of heartsick boys in her wake, but, in the end, it wasn’t her beauty, f
ree spirit, or sassy mouth that broke him down. Nope. It wasn’t any of that.

  “You can’t tell me you’re not attached to anyone? Code Matthews, the football star, the straight A student who was bound for bigger and better things than Marietta had to offer.”

  “Let’s just say, I’m not looking for anything but some peace right now. I’m content on the Lucky B.”

  She studied him a moment and he could tell her mind was going a zillion miles an hour. “Gotcha.”

  “So, you gonna tell me why we’re sitting under this tree, having this conversation?”

  Leaning in toward him, her face flooded in emotion and her eyes held unshed tears. “I need your help, Cody,” she whispered fiercely.

  It was the last thing he expected. The rising star, winner of an Academy Award right out of the chute, had the world at her feet at the ripe old age of twenty-eight. She’d left Marietta to grab the brass ring, right after he’d fallen for her, and she’d never really looked back. So what in hell could she possibly need from him?

  “Doubtful.”

  “No, I really do. You’re the only one I can trust. Please hear me out.”

  Hell, it was a like a flashback to their teen years. Back in the day, Hayley Dawn had always needed saving in some way or another. They’d been friends first in high school and he’d been a real sucker, falling for her pleas for help. And he’d always come to her rescue. Not because she was pretty, or persuasive or even desperate. No, he’d always been there for her, because above all else, she trusted him. The girl he’d known hid her pain and heartache like a pro to the outside world. She was good at covering up and concealing her true feelings. Except with him. She trusted him enough to open up and show him her vulnerable side. He knew the girl behind the mask. The wild girl, who’d stay out late, get in trouble, and play fast and loose with the rules. And because of her faith in him, he could never refuse Hayley Dawn what she needed. So now, as she faced him with those amazing, clear trusting eyes, he was almost afraid to ask what the heck she needed from him this time.

  “I’m listening.”

  She pulled a breath into her lungs as if to steady her nerves and the tension on her face all but disappeared. “Thanks. Okay, well, I’m here in Marietta to see to my grandmother’s house. It’s in pretty bad shape and needs a lot of work. Grandma willed it to me, but I don’t think I have the heart to sell it. My mother said she’d close up the house and put it on the market, but I wasn’t about to let that woman touch so much as a lace doily at my grandma’s house.”

  She paused to gauge his reaction. She’d never had much of a relationship with either of her parents and that was the crux of her heartache. They’d pretty much abandoned their only daughter to jet set around the globe, leaving her in her grandmother’s care. And her grandmother had taken her in and provided a good home for Hayley. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to do this one special thing for her grandma. Hayley may have given the older woman trouble as a girl, but those two had loved each other fiercely.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “I’m in between films right now and I…well, I needed a break. I thought I could escape my celebrity and spend a month here. You know, check in on old friends, have easy dinners, go to a Marietta High ball game or two. I really need that. It is baseball season, right?”

  He nodded. “So what does any of this have to do with me?”

  Her face pinched tight and she reached into her purse. “Yesterday, I found this on my grandmother’s doorstep.”

  She handed him a baggie with a note inside, lying next to a wilted black rose. The note read—I’m watching you.

  She stared at the note. “I get strange things all the time from fans, but this is different. This sounds like a threat and it got to my grandmother’s home. It’s not a secret I’m here, but it’s also not common knowledge. I’ve kept a low profile and sorta snuck out of L.A.”

  “Yet, I knew you were here. It’s a small town. People talk.”

  “It feels like a stalker, Code.” She shivered.

  “You must have bodyguards, Hayley. Use them.”

  “I gave them the month off. I didn’t think I’d need anyone while I was here. I just—” Tears formed in her eyes and she choked up. She was a good actress, but God, he was pretty sure this was the real deal. Hayley was hurting. “It gets tiring, you know. All the attention. No privacy, no peace. When I left town, I never expected my life to be like this.” She used the back of her hand to wipe at her tears. “I just wanted to come home, and be n-normal for just a little while, you know? I’m twenty-eight years old and feeling burnt out.”

  Wow. Was she in over her head? Had the Hollywood scene and stardom already gotten to her? She was, after all, a small town girl who’d made it big straight away. The new life she barreled into wasn’t easy and she worked hard. She had a string of movies, and God only knew what else was expected of her. Something tugged at Code’s heart, that old familiar protective instinct that had caused him nothing but trouble. But he couldn’t afford that now. Things were different. He wasn’t the same old Cody Matthews who’d tear down buildings for her. “Hayley, show this to the sheriff. He’ll know what to do.”

  “But…Cody, I was hoping you would help me. You have the background, the military training. I want to hire you for the time I’m here. I don’t trust too many people, but I know I can trust you.”

  “I’m not in the bodyguard business anymore. I’m not equipped to handle this.” It was an out and out lie.

  He knew the protocol. He knew how to handle this. But he was through protecting people, through having people put their lives in his hands. He couldn’t go back. Especially not with Hayley. They had brief history, but history nonetheless, and that was never a good idea. He couldn’t cave, not now. Not when he still wasn’t finished punishing himself for the pain he’d caused. Failure wasn’t in his DNA, yet he had failed in the worst possible way and he still wasn’t over the shock and loss.

  Hayley gestured to the ranch with arms outstretched. “You’re doing mindless work here, Cody. Ranching isn’t for you.”

  That was exactly why he liked it. He didn’t have to think, to plan, to worry about every step he took, every strategy he developed to keep his clients safe. “I say it is.”

  “You won’t help me?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t do it, Hayley. Trust me, you don’t want my help. That note could be a prank. Most likely it is, but you shouldn’t take it lightly. See the sheriff. Hire someone if you have to. Have them check out the house. Now, I’ve got to get back to work.” He rose and offered his hand to help her up.

  The second his fingers covered hers, a spark jolted him right back to high school. He stood just inches away and old feelings weighed in like a load of bricks. A moment passed between them and he tried not to let her sparkling eyes sway his decision.

  “I always felt safe when I was with you,” she said quietly.

  He closed his eyes. “That was a long time ago. Things are different now. I’ve gotta go. Maybe I’ll see you around. Goodbye, Hayley.”

  He pivoted and walked off, leaving her standing under the tree with a defeated look on her face. It gnawed at his gut, but he didn’t stop walking. For her sake and for his, he kept on going but he could feel the burn of her gaze at his back.

  The man he once was would never turn away a woman in trouble. He’d bet not too many men refused a request made by beautiful, sexy Hayley Dawn O’Malley. Once upon a time, he’d been one of them.

  Yet there was no doubt in his mind.

  She was better off without him.

  *

  Code walked into the empty Marietta High football stadium shoulder to shoulder with his one-time teammates, Nick Palotay, Gavin Clark, and Colt Ewing. They’d been tight once—all four of them—the offensive line of the Marietta Grizzlies. It was like old home week in Marietta with Hayley back in town, too. Since he’d seen her three days ago, she hadn’t been far from his mind. Charismatic, Hayley had that extra somet
hing that didn’t go unnoticed and maybe that was why most of the girls in school envied her. She had looks, talent, and an outgoing personality. Most of the boys dropped to their knees when she was around. She’d rebuked a few, dated many, and, because she was the talk of the school, she’d garnered a tarnished reputation that would’ve downed most girls. Not Hayley. She rolled with the punches.

  As they marched past the fifty yard line, Gavin spoke up. “Hey, this is where Palotay fumbled the ball and lost us the homecoming game.”

  Everyone but Nick grinned. “You’re losing your mind, Clark. Everyone knows dropping Code’s pass in the red zone lost us that game. We would’ve scored if not for that.”

  “Maybe if the pass was catchable, I would’ve grabbed it,” Gavin said.

  “That spiral was dead on, and you know it,” Code said in his own defense, unable to wipe the smile from his face. His football days had been the best. And the friendships that remained had lasted far beyond high school graduation.

  “Yeah, and Ewing didn’t help, running for minus yards that night.”

  “Maybe if I’d had some help from the offensive line.” Colt nudged back.

  All four of them sealed their traps when Kenneth Downey stepped onto the field on the one yard line. Their coach, retired now, stood arm in arm with his wife. Helen Downey had never missed a game. She’d been the ultimate football coach’s wife, showing up with homemade snacks for the team after a brutal practice, cheering the team on during the game, and being a staunch and ready supporter of her husband, even when the chips were down. It was no surprise Helen was here today.

  Once they reached the Downeys in front of the goal post, Coach D walked up to shake their hands, one by one. “Thanks for coming, boys. M-means a lot.” The coach cleared his throat, trying to keep from choking up.

  Helen didn’t stand on ceremony. She had a smile and an awaiting hug for all of them. When her arms came around Code’s shoulders, suddenly he was transported back in time to those Friday nights when nothing in the world mattered but the game. And the sweet, familiar scent of vanilla wafted in the air, reminding him of Mrs. D’s delicious sugar cookies.