Highest Bidder (Salacious Players’ Club)

Nine years ago

Ronan

From: Emerson Grant

To: Ronan Kade

Subject: Investment Opportunity

Ronan,

I’m looking to start a new company, and I’d love to meet with you regarding an investment opportunity. I can give you more information during our meeting, but I have reason to believe this would be a fitting addition to your corporate shareholding portfolio, for financial and personal reasons.

Please call me at your earliest convenience.

Hope you’re doing well, friend.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Emerson Grant

“Ronan, are you listening to me?”

I glance up from my computer screen to see Shannon standing teary-eyed in the doorway, watching me with anguish on her face. Fuck, I didn’t even see her walk in. What an asshole I am.

Just a few moments ago, she tried to tell me it was over between us and rather than facing the truth, I escaped to my office. I told her I needed a moment to think. Instead, I started checking emails, as if anything in my inbox could erase the pain of losing yet another woman I love.

Quickly, I click the monitor off and rise from my seat.

“I’m sorry,” I reply as I cross the room to stand in front of her.

“See?” she mumbles, taking my hands in hers. “We’d never make it. You’re obsessed with your work and I’m obsessed with you. I have a daughter to look after, Ronan, and she deserves my attention more.”

“Bring her to Briar Point,” I reply with a desperate plea. “Let me take care of you both. I promise I’ll work less.”

She squeezes her eyes closed, a tear slipping through and running over her beautiful cheek. I wipe it away, pulling her against my body, wanting to shut out the world and just hold her.

It’s been so long since I’ve loved a woman this much and fallen in such a short amount of time. Shannon came out from Indiana to Briar Point six weeks ago to settle a real estate deal, and we met on a whim. Her two-week trip tripled as we fell hard and fast for each other. But we knew eventually, this affair would have to end.

Not even my last wife could steal the heart out of my chest the way Shannon does. But Shannon isn’t like the other women I’ve been with. She doesn’t care about the money or the security. All she truly wants is to be by my side, and the best I can give her is a sliver of my time.

I’m a fool.

“I can’t,” she whispers against my chest, “I need to go home. It’s bad enough I’ve been gone all summer. But Daisy deserves a normal life and a mother who puts her first.”

“You know this makes me love you more,” I mumble, tilting her face up so I can gaze down at her. Even with her bloodshot blue eyes and blotches of pink on her pale white cheeks from crying, she’s still breathtaking. Her love is written across her features, love for me and for her daughter—she’s a woman being torn in two.

Unable to hold back, I gather her tightly in my arms, squeezing her against me as if I can avoid the truth: that this whirlwind of a summer must come to an end, and when Shannon leaves for good, I’ll be alone again.

Anguish and desperation are building inside me, and I feel the need to make it right. To fix it. To throw money at the pain in hopes that it somehow disappears. Gently, I pull away. “Let me give you something.”

She shakes her head with her eyes shut tight. “No, Ronan. Please. I don’t want your money.”

“I can’t stand the thought of you wanting or needing anything, Shannon. Please,” I plead.

She opens her eyes, tears still streaming as she forces a sad smile onto her face. She takes my hands in hers again, squeezing tight, and the words that come out of her mouth obliterate me. “No, Ronan. I love you for free.”

I’m frozen in place, staring down at what I know is the last real love I’ll feel in this lifetime. What kind of fool lets something like this go? But what match am I for her daughter? I know the weight of that love. The willingness to sacrifice whatever it takes. A love so rich you’d willingly drown in it.

With that, I get an idea.

“Then, let me give her something,” I say in desperation.

“Ronan…”

I’m already moving to my desk, grabbing my checkbook from the top drawer. “Please, Shannon. If you won’t take it for yourself, take it for her. So I know you understand that she is just as important to me as you are. So she never has to want for anything. So she knows she’s worth it. Do this for your daughter, Shannon.” I look up at her with a pleading expression. “I know a parent’s love.”

There’s a hint of sympathy in her eyes as she takes the check from my fingers, her gaze slowly trailing down to the number written on the paper. When they go wide, I know she’s about to argue.

“It’s too much—”

“I’ll have my financial advisor call you. He can put it into an account for her, so it accrues interest. By the time she starts college, you won’t have to pay a dime. You’ll be able to relax, knowing she’s taken care of.”

When her eyes drift back up toward mine, I see the softness in her expression. In the next breath, she’s in my arms again. I’m breathing in the scent of her shampoo and memorizing the way she fits in my arms, tucked just under my chin.

I mumble into her hair, “You were never just a fling to me. You know that, right?”

When she nods, I hear the tiny yelp of a sob escape her lips. I want to try and convince her to stay again. I wish I had the guts to throw all of this away for her. Sell the company and my properties, give away all of my money, just to give her and her daughter the normal lives they deserve.

But I’m too afraid that my pain will seep back in and ruin it all. Without work to bury myself in, what is left of me?

Shannon and her daughter deserve better.

“Let me drive you to the airport,” I whisper, but she shakes her head.

“No. I can’t stand to drag this out any more than it already is. I have to go, Ronan.”

When she pulls herself out of my arms, it feels like another stab to the chest. Another loss. Another woman slipping through my fingers. It’s like living that same tragic day over and over and over again.

I can’t watch her leave.

Instead, I turn and face the window overlooking the city below, then hear the sound of the front door closing, like the ring of a gunshot that nearly kills me.

Just like that, she’s gone.

And I’m alone.

The pain is sharp and unyielding, so instead of feeling it, I sit down at my desk and turn the monitor back on. The email from Emerson still open on the screen.

Without another thought, I click Reply.

From: Ronan Kade

To: Emerson Grant

Subject: Re: Investment Opportunity

Emerson,

Let’s meet at your earliest convenience. I’m very interested in hearing about your new company, and my schedule is wide open.

Sincerely,

Ronan Kade