The Bachelor's Promise (Bachelor Auction) by Naima Simone Read Free Book Online Page A

the front door, a smile easing the tired lines of her face as Aiden walked into the house. That smile, full of joy at seeing him, had always been there, greeting him, no matter how stressful or wearying her day at the nursing home had been.
    Caroline clapping and cheering as he walked across the high-school stage, her eyes fierce with pride.
    Caroline whispering her love and gratefulness for him as a son in her paper-thin voice, even as the cancer ate at her body and spirit.
    Goddamn it . He drew his fist back, slamming it toward the glass but, at the last minute, slowing and letting it fall against the window with a dull thud.
    He would do it.
    He would grant Caroline’s last request of him because she’d never failed to be there for him. She’d never abandoned him, and he would do the same for her.
    “I’ll do it,” he whispered to Lucas before ending the call and staring sightlessly out at the ever-brightening sky.
    He’d do it…
    And afterward, he would once more be Rana-free.

Chapter Five
    Well, fuck a duck.
    Noelle sank to the black kitchen stool that had come furnished with the Allston apartment. When she’d answered the Craigslist ad to share a two-bedroom place, she’d eagerly plunked down her half of the security deposit and the first month’s rent. The convenient location, near busy Commonwealth and Brighton Avenues and only blocks away from Boston University and the rattletrap subway system locally known as “the T,” had seemed ideal. And the three-level brick building boasted all the amenities a grad-school student needed: twenty-four-hour emergency maintenance, parking, and most importantly, a laundry room.
    And when she’d arrived four days earlier and met Chancey, her new roommate, she’d been content with her decision.
    Everything had been perfect.
    Except for the two inches of water that now covered the living room and seeped out into the hall. The same murky, reeking pool also drowned the bathroom and second bedroom— her room.
    Noelle chuckled, catching the slightly hysterical edge to the low burst of laughter and not giving a damn.
    Jesus Christ . Exhaling, she studied the russet stains steadily widening across the ceiling like a dirty Rorschach test. Over the couch hovered an amoeba. Near the window pranced two dancing bears. And right in the center…a vagina. Yep. Definitely a vagina.
    “What the fuck are we supposed to do now?” Chancey bellowed into the surprisingly calm superintendent’s face. In the time they’d been roommates, Noelle had learned the volume of the short brunette’s thickly accented voice was stuck somewhere between booming and bellowing. How such a small body could contain that much sound without combusting had to be one of the mysteries of the universe. An even bigger enigma? The woman was a librarian.
    The super, a stocky, quiet man, lifted a beefy shoulder in a casual shrug. Apparently, Chancey had been a tenant for three years, so he was probably used to her histrionics. “Not much you can do,” he mused, scratching a red patch on the side of his neck. “I have a call in to maintenance now to unclog Mrs. Leonard’s toilet and sinks, and I don’t know how long it’ll be before they respond. Don’t know what the hell the woman was thinking, stuffing so much shit in them. Well,” he chuckled, “not shit…”
    “It smells like shit, John,” Chancey snapped.
    Noelle snorted. Big mistake. Damn, the odor .
    “See?” Her roommate jabbed a finger in Noelle’s direction. “Look at her. She’s gagging. We’re all gagging. Because we’re all standing in a cesspool of what-the-fuck-is-it.” She waved her expressive, delicate hands, gesturing toward the water lapping at the soles of her flowered rain boots and the super’s waders. “Where are we supposed to go?”
    “Well…”
    “I swear to God, if you say well one more time, I’m going to lose it.”
    Both Noelle and John’s eyebrows arched high. If “losing it” was worse than