Lust wasn't something Corrine Martin was comfortable admitting she experienced. It didn't fit with the image she'd carefully cultivated -- cool sophistication from the top of her blond head to the toes exposed by her slinky gold sandals. She'd done a good job of ignoring the surging feelings. and the man who inspired them -- until tonight.

Maybe it was something in his wizard-green eyes.

Or maybe it was just that she was tired of having him stare through her as if she wasn't there. Whatever the reason, tonight she'd thrown caution to the wind and had purchased Rand Pearson for three corporate dates.

Of course, she'd only bid on his services as a corporate spouse. She even had an airtight excuse for doing it. She needed an escort to the upcoming business meetings she'd be expected to attend.

The ballroom at the Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel had been transformed into an old-fashioned buy-a-bride auction. All the money raised tonight would go to the Collation for the Homeless, an Orlando-based charity that fed and sheltered the homeless. This was Corrine's first year attending. She'd bid on and won the services of Rand Pearson.

Though they'd been working together for the last five months on a training project, she really didn't know him. He'd been one of only three men on the auctioning block representing the company he was a partner in -- Corporate Spouses. The company provided business-etiquette lessons as well as dates for executives for business functions.

Corrine's boss, Paul Sterling, the CEO of Tarron Enterprises, had won a similar package the year before. Corrine had been Paul's secretary until his promotion to CEO when Paul had promoted her to a midlevel manager. Corrine loved the challenge her new role provided.

But she needed to show her boss that she wasn't in danger of becoming one-dimensional and focused only on her job as a middle manager at Tarron Enterprises. And on a more personal level she needed to remind herself that she was still a woman.

Rand Pearson made her feel dangerous and alive. She didn't like it, but she knew she needed to deal with it and get her life back on track. She had her eye on the vacant vice president position and knew that she'd need to be focused one hundred percent at work.

"Dance with me, Corrine?" Rand asked, coming up to her. His tuxedo was obviously custom-made, making him look like royalty, which, if gossip was true, he'd descended from.

"Why?" she asked. She'd never had any finesse when it came to men. They made her nervous. Probably because of her experiences in foster care during her teen years.

"When a man asks you to dance, Cori, yes or no is the appropriate answer," he said, with that gleam in his eyes that made her want to do something shocking. Which was how she'd ended up bidding on him.

She sighed and reminded herself that she was known as the ice queen for a very good reason. Life was safer that way. "My name is Corrine. And I know that."

"Do you?" He slid closer to her in the crowded ballroom. His hand glided up her arm -- her bare arm. Why had she listened to Angelica Leone-Sterling, her friend and boss's wife, and purchased this strapless dress? It wasn't her, and it made her feel like someone she knew she couldn't be.

His palm was rough and rasped her skin. Tingles spread up her arm and across her chest, making her nipples tighten against the lace of her strapless bra. She shivered and stepped away from his disturbing touch. He arched one eyebrow but made no comment.

"Yes," she said at last, knowing only that she needed to do something to take control of the situation before she forgot about her plans. Rand was a stepping-stone to the next level, she reminded herself.

"Shall we dance?" he asked again.

She nodded. His cologne -- a spicy, masculine scent -- surrounded her as they stepped onto the dance floor and he pulled her into his arms. I'm in charge.

But as his arms came around her and he settled her close against his chest, she didn't feel like she was in charge. She didn't want to be. Delicious sensations spread out from the hand he'd placed on the small of her back, radiating throughout her body and making her blood flow heavily through her veins.

She shuddered and tried to break the spell his touch was weaving by looking at him. But his eyes held a lambent gaze that pulled her further under his spell. The slow, sensual sounds of a jazz saxophone filled the room, and then the trio's lead singer, a tall black woman with a sultry voice, began to sing about wishing on a star.

Corrine had spent her entire childhood wishing for something that had never come. She thought she'd grown beyond that, but the temptation to rest her cheek on Rand's shoulder was strong and she knew she'd made a mistake. She had to get away.

She tugged free of Rand's grasp and hurried off the dance floor. What was with her tonight?

She headed for the bar and ordered a Stoli straight. She needed something to shock her back to her senses. Maybe she could blame this funky mood on the fact that her closest female friend, Angelica Leone-Sterling, had just announced she was pregnant.

Corrine knew she'd never have children. She wasn't ever going to do something as dicey as bring a child into this chaotic world. This world where nothing lasted forever and death came quickly and swiftly, taking no notice of those left behind.

Damn, she was getting maudlin. Maybe she shouldn't be drinking. But before she could rescind her drink order, she sensed Rand behind her.

"Make that two," he said to the bartender.

The bartender set the drinks in front of them. Rand paid for hers before she had a chance to get her money out.

"Here's some money for my drink," she said when the bartender moved away.

"I see that you are going to need some etiquette lessons as well as an escort for business functions."

"Why do you say that?" she asked. She knew she had manners. Mrs. Tanner, one of her foster mothers, had drilled manners into Corrine when she was eight years old. She didn't think she'd ever forget those lessons.

"Because you don't know how to say thank you. Put your money away."

She slipped the folded bill back into her beaded handbag. When you grew up on charity it was hard to accept a handout. And Rand wasn't her date for the night, he was a man she'd bid on. When she thought about it, maybe she should have paid for his drink. "I don't like to take advantage of people."

- Copyright 2003 by Katherine Garbera -

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