Free What The Heart Finds by Jessica Gadziala Page A

their house for a quick dinner and
sheet mussing,” he laughed at her disbelieving look. “Scouts
honor,” he said. “I've only ever been in one other
bachelor auction. When I was about Devon's age. I didn't have...
quite as bad of a reputation then.”
    “So who bought
you?” she asked, finding she was genuinely curious, not just
trying to fill the silence.
    He laughed then, the
sound short and amused. “The same woman who bought my brother
tonight.”
    “No way.”
    “Yes way,” he
said, his thumb rubbing down the side of her hand. “I guess she
wanted to compare brothers. Unfortunately for her, Liam doesn't have
as varied an appreciation for women that I do.”
    “You didn't..”
Lena said, thinking back at the woman who must have been at least
fifteen years older than Eric.
    “Oh yeah I did,”
he said, smiling at her outrage. “I was curious about what they
said about older women,” he shrugged. “They weren't
wrong. Plus, she had no interest in trying to lock me down which was
great.”
    “What about...
younger women?” Lena asked and closed her eyes at her own
words. Just because a teenager bid on him didn't mean anything.
    “Depends,” he
said, reaching out and touching the side of her face. “Younger
like you? Perfect. Younger like Mellie,” he said nodding his
head toward the gym and apparently reading her mind. “not my
thing.” He let a silence fall for a second before adding. “I
leave those ones to the fumbling, bumbling younger guys. They need to
get some too.”
    “Just when I think
you're a decent human being,” she said, pulling her hand out of
his and taking a step back.
    “Oh come on,”
he said, shaking his head. “You're a rational experienced
woman. You know that the main purpose of interaction between the
sexes is to lead to one goal.”
    “Maybe not all men
are as... base as you are.”
    Eric rolled his eyes
slightly at her word. “No, honey. Other men just aren't as
honest as I am.”
    He was right. And she
hated that he was right. She had yet to meet a man who was kind just
for the sake of being kind. They always wanted something in return.
And nothing was more infuriating than thinking one was different only
to have to fight off his unwanted advances. It was much better to
have it all right there up front.
    My name is Eric. And I
want to sleep with you.
    “So you never
really answered my question. What are we supposed to do now?”
    “Well... there are
the usual town spots: the diner, the inn...”
    “Seriously? Women
take their dates to the inn to eat?”
    “Well if by 'eat'
you mean...”
    “Not,” Lena
broke in, feeling flushed. “what I meant. Yes. Well. The inn is
out.”
    “Tell you what,”
Eric said, reaching for her hand again. “how about I take you
for a walk to the old fishing stream?” He looked at her arched
brow and dropped a kiss on the top of her head quickly. “It
will be quiet. You can play around in the water.”
    “Isn't there some
kind of pond...”
    “Yeah,” Eric
interrupted quickly. “but I'm not taking you there,” he
said in a strange, final kind of way.
    “Alright,”
she said, shrugging. “the stream it is.”
    They walked out toward
the inn, sneaking off into the woods to the side of it, just a few
yards away from where the walking trail turned in an opposite
direction. Why the stream wasn't on the trail was beyond her.
    That was until they
started walking, the ground underneath uneven and steep, covered in
overturned trees and massive root systems.
    “Oh to hell with
it,” she burst out, stopping on top of another stump and
kicking out of her shoes. One of the heels had knocked slightly loose
as she had climbed down a hill, her feet pushing too hard into the
dirt. Eric turned and went to stoop to grab them. “Don't
bother,” she said, grabbing them herself and putting them on
top of the stump. “they're broken. We can grab them on the way
back. I'd rather have my hands free so I don't fall on my face
scaling this