Just One Night: Sex, Love & Stiletto Series (10 page)

Inspiration struck.

Maybe the way to get exactly what she wanted was to give Sam a taste of what he thought he wanted.

Find someone else
, he’d said.

Using jealousy as manipulation was the oldest, lousiest trick in the book, but it was the only one she had left. She moved behind him, noting the way his shoulders tensed as he heard her approach.

When she was alongside him, she knelt very slowly, very deliberately, until her lips were even with his ear. “I think you’re right. I think I’ll find someone who knows how to use his hands on something other than a copper machine.”

“Go for it,” he muttered. “We’ve both been seeing other people for years.”

She paused for a heartbeat, letting her eyes linger on his mouth. Letting the tension build. “Have we?”

With that, she stood and marched back the way she came, her mind already scrolling through her mental black book.

Riley heard the clank of metal against cement seconds before she heard Sam utter a string of heartfelt curses.

She smiled. He was right where she wanted him.

Sam thought she’d been joking.

No. He
hoped
she’d been joking.

He sure as hell hadn’t been prepared for her to show up at her nephew’s First Communion party with another man on her arm two days after she’d propositioned
him
.

And just what had she meant by her implication that they hadn’t been seeing other people over the years? He certainly had. Not that any of them had mattered. Not that any of the other women had ever gotten under his skin the way Riley McKenna did.

But there had been women. Plenty of them. Just like she’d had plenty of dates.

So just what the hell had she meant?

Riley thought Sam didn’t know how to use his hands?
Wrong
. Because he was thinking of plenty of ways to use them right now. Strangling her was at the top of the list.

Right after he punched the toothpaste-model smile off her new boyfriend.

He tuned in half an ear as Riley introduced the guy to her aunt. Brent Barry. What the hell kind of name was that anyway?

Sam’s fingers tightened around the neck of his beer bottle as he tilted it up to his mouth and very intentionally dragged his eyes away from Riley and Mr. Hollywood Good Looks.

Sam joined Liam at the food table. Plucking a corn chip from a bowl, he dunked it into a seven-layer bean dip that had mercifully been spared Erin’s special touch with potatoes.

“So whaddya think?” he asked his best friend.

Liam scanned the room for his mother before flicking a black olive into the sink. He’d never been able to stomach the things. “What do I think about what?”

“Riley’s new boyfriend.”

Liam grunted. “What does any brother think about his little sister’s new guy? Douche bag.”

“That’s what I thought,” Sam said, moving on to the onion dip and chips. Ah,
there
were the potatoes.

Liam shot him a curious look. “Really? Because you haven’t even met him yet.
I
get to
say he’s a douche bag because I had to listen to him talk to me about my Roth IRAs for a good fifteen minutes before you showed up. But … the guy seems to know his shit. I guess I’ll take that over a go-nowhere loser.”

Sam kept his face perfectly blank, reminding himself that Liam was not talking about Sam. Sam who’d once upon a time been able to talk corporate finance lingo with the best of them, only to quit on a whim, to do what? Start a distillery that had yet to make any money?

Once a quitter, always a quitter
, his mother liked to remind him. Often.

But his best friend made a good point. Sam didn’t have to know women’s fashion to know that Riley’s tastes were expensive. And he didn’t have to live in Manhattan to know that Riley’s West Village apartment was in one of the most in-demand neighborhoods in the city.

If she was looking for someone to keep up with her lifestyle, Brent Barry was perfect.

But if she was looking for someone to sleep with for her story …

Don’t even go there
.

“Shit,” Liam said, shooting a glance over his shoulder. “They’re coming this way. Your turn.”

Sam reached out in an attempt to grab his friend’s shirtsleeve, but Liam was already on his way, scooping his nephew into the air and accusing him of taking more than his fair share of the church wine.

It was just Sam and Riley.

And the other guy.

“Sam, let me introduce you to my date.”

Sam fished another beer out of the cooler, rolling his shoulders in hopes of summoning up indifference.

He turned around.

Making eye contact with Riley for the first time since she’d suggested they hump like a couple of casual rabbits did something non-family-friendly to the front of his jeans, so instead he took in her date.

That
cooled him down.

The man looked like he belonged in a cologne commercial. He had those exotic looks that send women into a tizzy. Bronzed skin, slick, dark hair, and eyes that were looking at Riley as though he couldn’t wait to get her alone.

Asshole
.

“Brent, this is Sam Compton. Longtime family friend. He’s practically like another brother to me.”

Except one doesn’t sexually proposition a brother
, he thought irritably.

“Nice to meet you,” Brent said, all white smile and smooth handshake.

Sam gave the universal male chin tilt in acknowledgment. “So, how long you guys been dating?”

His eyes never left Riley’s as he asked, and although her eyes were all innocence, her small cat smile revealed her game.

He let his own gaze answer back.
Don’t even bother. I’m not playing
.

But he wanted to. Badly. The thought of this guy taking his place in her bed …

Except Sam had said no. He’d
had
to say no. Even if it’s all he’d been able to think about since she’d left his place on Friday.

“Brent and I have known each other for years,” she replied smoothly.

Sam refused to let his eyes linger on the spot where Riley’s fingers touched Brent’s arm, and he scrunched his face up in an expression of mock confusion. “Have you mentioned him before?”

Riley’s eyes narrowed, but Brent gave an easy laugh. “Probably not. I’ve been trying to get her to go out with me for years, but she’s always been seeing someone else.”

“Oh, is
that
what the kids are calling sex these days. Seeing someone?”

You’re being a jerk. Didn’t you just walk out on your own mother for making those same inferences about Riley?

Unperturbed, Riley gave him a sympathetic smile before turning her attention to Brent. “Sam here’s a bit of a … oh, what’s the polite word … recluse? You know, I don’t think he’s actually seen a woman’s breast up close and personal since the Reagan administration.”

Brent gave a nervous laugh as Sam choked on his beer.

Recovering quickly, Sam turned back to Riley’s new “boyfriend.” “So, how’d she talk you into coming to her nephew’s First Communion party? A little tame for a first date, isn’t it?”

Riley opened her mouth, but Brent beat her to it. “Tame is fine with me. Especially since I have no intention of letting the first date be the last.”

Really? Because I have every intention of ensuring that this is your last date
.

It was a damn good thing that this was a kid-centric party, because the appearance of Riley’s niece in a puffy purple dress was just about the only thing that would have stopped Sam from forcefully escorting Brent to the nearest train home.

“Uncle Sam, do you want to see my new Barbie car?”

He tore his eyes away from Riley to glance down at the little girl who looked just like her. Big blue eyes blinked up at him, and he couldn’t resist. This one had him wrapped around her finger.

Just like her aunt.

“A new Barbie car, huh? Did you have a birthday I missed?” he asked, setting his beer aside and scooping her up even though she was about a year too old for it. She squealed in delight and looped her skinny arms around his neck.

“Not my birthday, but my daddy bought it for me because I was good when I went to the hardware store with him.”

“Your daddy’s a sucker, and you can tell him I said that,” Sam said. Although he had to hand it to Brian. Bribing your daughter with Barbie crap so you could get your Home Depot fix was genius.

“Let’s go see this car, then. What kind of engine are we talking about on this thing?”

Lily laughed a little-girl laugh. “It’s pink!”

“Of course it is,” he said, edging by Brent and Riley.

He felt Riley’s eyes on him, but he didn’t look back as he listened to Lily ramble about how Barbie was a better driver than Ken.

Twenty minutes later, Megan came to coax Lily into eating something besides cake, and Sam was able to escape the makeshift playroom Erin and Josh had set up for their grandchildren and rejoin the adult party.

“Where’d you disappear to?” Liam asked, never taking his eyes off the football game.

Sam flopped down next to Liam and Brian. “Barbie and Ken were getting married.”

Brian shifted his sleeping infant son to his other shoulder. “Lily got to you, huh?”

“I didn’t mind.”

Liam’s dad entered, plopping into the ancient recliner that his wife hated but that was as much a part of the house as the man himself. Sam could still remember the first time he’d stepped into the McKenna home. The warm, motherly welcome from Liam’s mom practically
had him reeling, to say nothing of the jolt to his hormones delivered by his first look at Riley. Then Liam had led him into the living room, where Josh was sitting in that very chair, looking completely unruffled by Sam’s most recent tattoo and surly smirk.

“Whisky?” Josh had asked.

“Joshua, he’s a minor,” said Riley’s mother.

Sam jumped in. “I’ve had whisky before.”

“Good enough for me.” Josh had poured them a couple of fingers of Jameson’s. Liam, being several months younger than Sam, had been offered lemonade. Sam had never admitted it to anyone, but he often wondered if his seemingly spontaneous decision to start a whisky distillery hadn’t been born out of that long-ago moment when Josh McKenna had taken a fatherless kid under his wing, no questions asked.

“Where have you been?” Josh asked Sam, jerking him back to the present. “You missed cake.”

“He was playing dolls. Brought his own Barbie wardrobe and everything,” Liam said, dodging a halfhearted kick from Sam.

Josh grunted. “My granddaughter got the McKenna female wiles. She’s every bit as manipulative as her grandmother. And her mother. And her aunts.”

“Kate’s not like that,” Brian said, patiently mopping baby spit from his shoulder.

“That’s because
that
baby girl doesn’t know how to lie,” Josh said. “She’d tell you you’re ugly to your face if the thought popped into her head. Manipulation doesn’t pop into her head.”

“Neither do manners,” Liam muttered.

Sam wisely stayed out of the familiar argument. All of the McKenna sisters were stunning and likable in their way. Megan had the sort of sturdy, bossy competence that came with being the oldest, just as Kate had the oblivious, semi-self-absorbed air of the baby of the family. Then there was Riley. And speaking of …

All four men turned to see Riley and the douche bag Brent standing in the doorway. “Brent’s leaving,” Riley said, looking around the room expectantly.

She was met with vacant stares. Sam knew the other men’s thoughts echoed his own.
And?

Riley’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you want to say goodbye? Dad?”

“Bye,” Josh grunted.

Her eyes narrowed further. “Liam.”

Her brother squirmed slightly at her tone. “See ya,” he said, with a quick nod at Brent.

“Nice to meet you all,” Brent said with a polite smile. “I hope to see you again soon.”

“Sure,” Liam muttered.

Sam kept his eyes carefully focused on the television even though he didn’t have a clue who was playing. Not for the first time, he wished it could have been the more direct, younger McKenna he’d fallen for. There’d be none of these games with Kate. Kate wouldn’t have thought to flaunt another man in his face to show him what he was missing. To make him visualize Brent’s hands on her tiny waist, his mouth …

Damn it
.

Against his will, his eyes went to Riley and Brent, but they’d disappeared. He forced himself to stay put, even though his heart started pounding. He felt restless. Antsy. He felt … jealous.

Where was that coming from? Why now? He’d spent years reminding himself that Riley wasn’t his. That he had no right to resent her relationships. But the burning sensation in his neck and the knot in his stomach was
definitely
jealousy.

Goddamn, this room was suffocating.

“Be right back,” he muttered, setting his beer on a coaster so Erin wouldn’t tan his ass if he marked up the furniture, and headed out of the living room. Riley had said only that Brent was leaving, not that
they
were leaving, which meant that she might still be here. Maybe they could talk …

No, he didn’t want to
talk
. He wanted to do a hell of a lot more than talk.

Needing fresh air, he started toward the back door, only to see a congregation of women hovering.
No thanks
. He reversed, heading toward the front door.

And came to a halt when he saw Riley and Brent standing in the foyer. Brent’s arm was sliding around Riley’s back, his head tilting down as Riley’s arms lifted, preparing to lock around the man’s neck.

Oh hell no
.

“Riley, you got a minute?” Sam blurted out.

Fuck
.

She spun around, and he braced himself for surprise and annoyance. Instead he saw
something else. Victory.

Double fuck
.

She’d
planned
this. And he’d walked right into it, like a horny bull.

And he wasn’t even sure he cared. “Ri?” Sam prompted.

She turned back to Brent with a sheepish smile. “I’ll call you later?”