Read Online What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) by Hannah Ford - Free Book Online Page A

reacted to him just as she’d done—Raven could easily see how attracted they were to him, how any one of them would have done just about anything to make him happy, make him choose them.
    It was really sickening, and mostly Raven was embarrassed for herself.
    I’m no different, no better than any of them, just as star struck, wishing that Jake had seen fit to want to talk longer with me, kiss me, give me his number.
    But not anymore.
    “Hey, I’m going to take off,” Raven told Skylar, having made her decision to call it a night. Maybe in the end it had been disappointing, but she could still call it a success overall.
    Skylar looked at her. “It’s only a little past midnight. And you know who might still come over and talk to you again.”
    “Actually it’s almost one o’clock and I don’t think anything else is going to happen.”
    “But I thought I heard someone say that Matt Damon might show up later.”
    “Well tell him I said hi, and that I loved him in Good Will Hunting.”
    “Wait like one more hour and I’ll go with you,” Skylar said, still looking around, as if searching for the perfect guy.
    “No can do,” Raven said. “I’m leaving now.”
    “Okay. Well I’m going to hang here awhile more.” Skylar leaned in and they exchanged a quick peck on the cheek, and then Raven was walking out of the enormous hall and trying to remember how the hell to get out of this maze.
    She took one twisting hallway after another—they all looked the same.
    Finally, she came upon a set of doors that she could have sworn led to the giant staircase, and opening it, was shocked to find that she’d inadvertently wandered into someone’s bedroom.
    There were three girls, all naked, and two of them were kissing each other while the third girl was giving a blowjob to a pot-bellied man wearing what looked like a king’s robe and a crown on his head.
    Raven groaned, disgusted at what she’d inadvertently walked into.
    And then she realized that two of the naked girls were from the group that she’d met up with earlier in the evening at the dance club. In fact, the one girl going giving the blowjob to “the king” was the very same girl who’d issued the invitation for Skylar and Raven to come to this party.
    Stopping her blowjob for a second, she turned and looked at Raven with a seductive smile. “Want to play?” she purred.
    She’s very friendly. I’ll give her that.
    “Uh, no thanks. You kids have fun, though,” she said, backing away and shutting the door.
    Her heart was hammering away in her chest, beating out a steady, fearful rhythm as she walked in the opposite direction.
    Now she just wanted to get home, get out of this weird and creepy mansion and forget it had ever existed.
    Whatever this whole thing was, she was glad to have experienced it so she could cross it off her list. This wasn’t for her—these people, these parties, these mansions.
    She remembered once again why she’d stayed away from parties ever since high school. Nothing had changed since that horrible time when she was seventeen. Here she was, four years later, and the people had gotten older but their true natures were still the very same.
    Raven shook her head, half of her wanting to laugh at it all while the other half wanted to cry.
    Finally, she was able to retrace her steps and find the big stairway that led down to the first floor and the grand foyer, which was surprisingly quiet. The unsmiling tuxedoed man was standing with his hands behind his back, seemingly waiting, for what Raven had no idea.
    “I’m leaving now,” she said. “Can I get my cell phone back?”
    He knelt down next to the basket. “I believe you had the pink iPhone here,” he said, retrieving the very phone she’d dropped in hours before. He handed it to her with a brief smile.
    “Thanks,” she said, holding it gingerly, as if it had been infected by some strange virus, sitting with those other cell phones for so long.
    The man in the tuxedo