Christmas With The Marine

What the...? A date with Jake brought in five thousand dollars?

Ben had been hoping for maybe five hundred for himself. He’d even offered to give Ainsley two hundred and fifty if the bids didn’t go up for him. She’d kept telling him that he had nothing to worry about, but there was no way he would bring in that kind of big money.

Ben popped his jaw. This was nuts. He was a confident guy. He’d never had problems with being appealing to women, and this was for charity. He was going to have fun.

Sure. Keep telling yourself that, buddy.

“Okay, ladies, we’ve got another treat for you,” the announcer said. “Ben is a Marine, working on the base here in our lovely hometown. We hear he’s great with his hands, and that his abs—well, are to d-i-e for. Ladies, let’s welcome Ben.”

The women cheered.

Ben laughed. Yep. He could do this. Raise the most money for those kids. He wouldn’t be outdone by Jake. He didn’t care if he had to strip to do it.

In fact... He quickly undid his shirt buttons and held his tie in his hand. When the curtain opened he tossed the bow tie out to the audience.

The screeching reached an all-time high, but he forced a smile and walked to the end of the stage. His eyes found Ainsley, and his smile widened.

More screeching, but he wasn’t really listening anymore. She was smiling back, and then she winked at him and mouthed something. He had no idea what she’d said, but he nodded as if he did.

Then she made a motion to pull his shirt open a little and to turn around in a circle. She was doing a twirly thing with her fingers.

It’s for charity. He kept repeating the mantra to himself.

“Oh, my, we did not disappoint. Look at those abs, ladies. Those are scrumptious! And that tattoo. Does anyone have a fan? Now, can I get—” The announcer was interrupted.

“Two thousand,” a woman shouted. Ben ripped his eyes away from Ainsley and gave the woman a little wave.

Whew. At least he wouldn’t be some loser who didn’t bring in any cash.

“Thirty-five hundred,” another woman said.

All right, then. Things were looking up. Ben shook his head and laughed, then gave that lady an even bigger wave.

And so it went on. A few seconds later they were up to six thousand.

“Everyone wants to take home a Marine. We hear they never let a woman down.”

“Ten thousand dollars,” a woman at Ainsley’s table shouted, as she stood up and waved her paddle. She was probably in her late thirties.

There was a huge gasp. Then clapping.

Ben wasn’t sure he heard her right.

“That’s ten thousand going once, twice and sold! That’s table one, paddle thirty-five. And that’s it, ladies. The table monitors will be by to take your checks and credit cards. Please don’t forget to visit our silent auction next door. If you didn’t get some time with your favorite bachelor, bid on that trip to Fiji. A tropical vacation will get your mind off your troubles. And those raffle tickets for the Audi are still available. That thing is definitely going home with one of you tonight.”

Ben exited to the left, where the rest of the bachelors had gone.

“You put us all to shame,” one of them said. He was a doctor or something like that, and had been one of the first guys to be bid on.

“Nah,” Ben told him. “They’d just had more to drink by the time they came to me.”

The guys laughed.

“Speaking of our bachelors—gentleman, can you come back out onto the stage?” the announcer asked.

“Hey, guys, I need you to line up on stage again,” Megan said.

There was some groaning, but they did what she asked. Ben buttoned his shirt and tucked it back in. Megan handed him his jacket. “Thanks for what you did,” she said as he followed the other men.

They were back on stage, the lights beating down on them. “Gentleman, we could not have done this without you. Let’s give them a hand!”

There was a lot of clapping and plenty of wolf whistles.

“Take a bow, bachelors.”

They all gave awkward bows and then high-fived each other.

“Okay, ladies. Once you’ve paid for your bachelor, an escort will bring him to your table. Don’t forget our silent auction, it closes in an hour. I know I said that, but the hunkiness on the stage makes us all forget our own names. We’ll be announcing the winners in only two hours.”

“Whew. Glad that part’s over,” Ben said.

“Me, too. Did you see who bid on me?” Jake asked.

“Nah. Wasn’t watching.”

“It was the CO’s daughter-slash-niece’s table.”

“Clarissa?”

“Yep,” Jake said.

Ben couldn’t help but laugh. He’d had to take Clarissa to a couple of events for the CO. She was a wild one. They’d actually become pretty good friends because he didn’t put up with her drama. The CO thought she was a handful, but the truth was, she was confused about what was important in life. All she really wanted was to find the right guy. Even, as she’d told him, if she had to date a couple of hundred to find him.

She might have something there. There weren’t many people who could get along with someone like her. He wasn’t attracted to her, which was probably why the CO had stuck him on babysitting duty for a few weeks.

“Good luck with that,” Ben said.

Everyone knew the CO’s daughter-slash-niece was way off-limits. That was unless you wanted to be stationed in Antarctica.

“Hey, handsome,” Ainsley said from behind him. “You were fantastic up there.”

He turned and nearly bumped into her, she was so close. His hands rested on her forearms to steady himself. Her soft skin made him think of touching more of her and...

Focus.

“Thanks for getting that woman to bid for me, but that was a lot of money.”

She laughed, the sound sending heat through his body. “We actually bid on you as a table. So you don’t have one date tonight, you have ten.”