To Win a Rebel

Chapter One

“No!” Molly Embers put her hands on her hips and glared across the small yard at Nate Sinclair. “You haven’t even heard me out.”

“You’re in charge of rounding up all the single men in town, with the hope of auctioning them off to raise money for the school as well as the library.”

She pressed her lips together, wondering when the town rebel got wind of what she was doing.

“The answer is no.”

This wasn’t good. The point of being able to sell men and raise money is that there are women who would really buy them. But she didn’t realize how picky a lot of women were. So many of them had gotten a list of the men already signed up, and the interest wasn’t there. Who did they want? Nate Sinclair. They were more than willing to bring their checkbooks for that sexy, tattooed mechanic.

Molly didn’t own a car, so she didn’t know for certain if he was a great mechanic, or if the reputation he’d gotten was because men were afraid of him, and women were obsessed with him. She tried to avoid being near him, not for any reason other than he made her a little nervous, and that was insane.

At thirty years old, she shouldn’t be nervous about Nate, but whenever she was near him, she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why she felt this strange way around him, but it was why she avoided him. Besides, she never needed to leave town since she could order whatever she wanted online, and that was exactly what she did.

She had to build up the courage to be able to talk to him, and still, he was rude and shot her down so quickly.

“Seriously, this is for a good cause.”

“So, go and find some other poor sap that wants to be on the cutting block.”

“Ugh, you’re not on the cutting block. A lot of beautiful single women will be at the event tomorrow night. Trust me, I bet you will have a thrilling time.” She knew for a fact they would be sold out, if she was able to get him to agree to this. There would be so many women, and she had also been advised there would be a lot of married women who would love to win a date with him.

This did make her nervous, but she was determined to do what she could for the school and for those kids. She knew without the school, she wouldn’t have been able to have her dream job, which was a big secret.

No one in town knew what she did, but they assumed she worked for a company online, which technically she did. No one knew she was also an author. Yep, an author who wrote some particularly spicy books. This was her best-kept secret.

Whenever she was asked about her job, she was able to avoid the question, and always quickly changed the subject. She wasn’t embarrassed of being an author. She made good money and was able to build a life for herself, but she didn’t want the questions that came if they ever found out she wrote a lot of super spicy, sexy books. Turning all her fantasies into reality.

The saddest part was, she was nothing like her characters. It was so stupid, but even at thirty years old, she was very much a virgin. No one needed to know this about her.

Again, just another element of her life she liked to keep to herself. She always felt awkward dating and being around men. Which was why she had remained a virgin. She didn’t date, but she did dream about dating.

“No!”

“Damn it, Nate, what will it take to get you there?” she asked. This was how desperate she had gotten, and he wasn’t helping matters.

Without him, her auction was going to flunk, and she had suggested it as a bit of fun. Several of the school board and most of the teachers had thought it a little too much, but she managed to convince them. “Win a Date” was what she called it, and the rule was simpl e— to win, you must have the highest bid to win your man, or woman. She did have a couple of women lined up. For some reason, it didn’t seem appealing to auction off women for men to pay for, according to others. She didn’t see the problem, but she didn’t argue. All she wanted to do was help raise money for a good cause.

He stood up from working on his bike, and stared at her.

“Willing to do anything?” he asked.

“Ugh, I don’t know.”

“Are you bidding?” Nate asked.

“I can’t bid, I’m the auctioneer.”

“Of course you are, so how about this? I put myself up for petty cash—”

“It’s not petty, it’s a good cause, and besides, it’s with a checkbook.” She couldn’t help but do a signature in the air and roll her eyes.

“You know, you’re cute when you’re correcting people.” He winked at her.

“Does this mean you’ll do it?” she asked, suddenly feeling much more hopeful.

Nate did that staring thing again. “I’ll do it, but the night after, your ass is mine.”

This made her brows go up. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You want to use me to raise your money because we both know I’ll get the most, otherwise, sweet little Molly wouldn’t be here. So, how about you and I do a little wager? I earn the most, you date me the following night.”

She opened her mouth and closed it. Her first instinct was to turn him down, but she couldn’t turn her back on the money she knew he’d raise. This was totally unfair. She wanted to scream at him, but instead she forced a smile to her lips, and then nodded her head.

“I didn’t quite hear you,” he said.

“Fine, you have a deal,” she said.

He held his hand out after wiping it with a cloth. She took a deep breath, approached, and held his hand. She forced a smile to her lips and knew there was a slim chance he wasn’t going to win.

Molly quickly turned her back and left, knowing tomorrow night was going to be successful. Nate wasn’t going to win their agreement, as she was going to make sure it was impossible. He’d not specified when he could be sold and she would keep him for the end of the night, when all the women had spent up, and there wasn’t much money left.

There was no way she was ever going to survive on a date with him. Besides, why would he even ask her?

****

“What has put a smile on your face?” his best friend Randy Jacobs asked.

Nate turned toward him and shrugged. “Can’t a man be happy that it’s a beautiful day outside? The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it’s a good day to be alive.”

Randy licked at his popsicle, looked at him, and then shook his head. “Everyone else can feel that way, but not you, especially when I saw Molly leaving and I know you’ve been after that piece of ass for as long as I can remember.”

“What would your wife say if she caught you using that language about a lady?”

Randy snorted, but then looked a little panicked. “You won’t tell her, will you?”

Nate couldn’t help but laugh. Randy and Bethany had gotten married straight out of high school. They had been sweethearts, and, well, Bethany had already been pregnant before they graduated.

He knew Randy liked to pretend at times that he was tied to a wife and kids, like the proverbial ball and chain. He also knew his best friend was happy and very much in love with his wife.

“Nah, I won’t tell you, but don’t talk about Molly like that.”

“Dude, are you ever going to tell me what it is about her that makes you go crazy?”

“I don’t go crazy.”

“Oh come on, the moment she arrived at the lot, you were willing to do anything for her.”

“I’ll have you know that is so not the case. I turned her down.”

“Only because you were figuring out how to win this thing.” Randy wrinkled his nose.

“You’re not into auctioning bachelor men?” he asked.

“I haven’t been asked, so it doesn’t bother me, but trust me, unless my wife was willing to pay for what she gets for free, I wouldn’t put myself up for just anyone to purchase. You’re a brave man.” Randy slapped him on the back.

“Actually, I’m going to need your help,” Nate said.

He saw this intrigued his best friend, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the curious look on his face.

“You are?”

“Yes, you see, I know Molly is going to use me as the last man of the night, which is fine. I’m worth waiting for, but she is hoping the ladies are all … broke. She is going to try and get out of our little arrangement, and that is where you come in.”

“It is?”

“Yes, my genius plan will involve you paying for me. I have the money and the means. I’ll sign the check ready, and you just have to put in the final sum.”

“You want to pay for yourself?”

“No, I want to win this auction and take Molly out on a date. You, my best friend, will win a night with me, and I’m springing this on you so you’ve got time to tell Bethany. To make it authentic, bring her along, you could both vote for me.”

Randy shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

“We both know Bethany would find this hilarious.”

“She would find it hilarious, but she would also find it more entertaining watching you with Molly, so I think you should both expect an invite to dinner.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

Randy shook his head, then made his way out of the lot and headed in the direction of his home.

He knew the kind of games Molly played. Just as he knew her little secret, but he had no intention of telling the town they had a spicy author in the mix. How he had come to that knowledge was purely coincidence.

Molly had left a little crumb of temptatio n— her USB thumb driv e— at the diner. Nate had picked it up with every intention of taking it to her, but the day had gone on and he ended up taking it home. The truth was, with all the work he had, he’d forgotten about it. Until he sat down at home with a beer, and then it had been too delectable to let go. He discovered Molly’s secret, and read several of them.

There was a lot more to Molly than met the eye, and he intended to tell her what he knew, but instead he decided to become a fan. He discovered her secret a year ago, and during that time he’d been reading her book s— old and ne w— and he liked Molly’s thinking.

He had also come to see that not long after she had an interaction with him, there was always a book out with a certain rebel biker or mechanic. He was no biker, he just loved his bike, fixing cars, and had come to love his reputation as well.

There was a passion inside Molly, desperate to break free, and he was more than happy to be the man that helped her do that.