Something Moore (Forever Moore Book 1) Read online

  “This view is amazing,” Riley said as I joined her at the floor-to-ceiling windows and handed her a glass. “Scotch?”

  I nodded. “You can see all the way to the lake. This is one of the best places to watch the sun rise in the morning.”

  “I already agreed to come home with you. No need to sweeten the deal.” The smile Riley gave me was inviting.

  “Right. You’ll have to excuse me. As you’ve already pointed out, I’m not very good at this.” I watched her sip her scotch and thought about what those lips had felt like on my skin.

  “You honestly expect me to believe that I’m the first girl you’ve brought home for the night?” she teased.

  I loosened my tie an inch. “Not the first girl. You’re just the first girl I’ve picked up in a bar that I actually find interesting.”

  “Oh, so we came back here for intriguing conversation, did we?” She laughed softly. “And here I thought we were going to have hot sex.”

  “We’ll be doing that as well,” I said confidently. That was something I was quite good at.

  “What are we waiting for?” she asked, voice airy.

  When I looked into her eyes, I couldn’t think of a single reason why we were waiting. “Nothing,” I said, taking her hand and drawing her forward. “Let’s move this to the bedroom.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Riley

  I wasn’t lying when I said that William’s home was impressive. It was the biggest condo I’d ever seen in the city. I was a bit intimidated by it, except for the fact that William looked just as uncomfortable as I felt. I got the feeling that it was rare for him to flaunt his money in such an extravagant way.

  While he went to put on some music, I opened the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony. The air was still sticky with summer humidity and sounds of the city below drifted up to me.

  “Breathtaking,” William said. I hadn’t even heard him join me on the balcony, but now he was standing right behind me.

  “Sorry?” I turned, brushing against him softly.

  I had been playing it cool all night, pretending like I was sure of myself and what we were about to do. But in reality, this was just as foreign to me as it was to him. I’d only had a single one night stand in my life, and it definitely hadn’t been like this. I’d never actually enjoyed the person I slept with, I’d just enjoyed the sex. William and I were working in reverse.

  Now that he was standing so close to me, his shirt untucked and his tie hanging loosely from his neck, I was flustered.

  “You,” he said bluntly. “The sight of you standing out here, hair blowing in the breeze… you’re breathtaking.”

  “I think you might be drunk,” I said. The wind blew again and a strand of hair fell across my face. I reached up to brush it away, but William beat me too it. His fingers grazed over my cheek to my ear as he tucked the hair behind it.

  “You need to learn how to take a compliment, Riley.” He cupped my face in his hand, his thumb caressing my cheek softly. “Surely I’m not the first man to tell you how stunningly beautiful you are?”

  When I felt my body grow warm on the inside, I started to wonder if I’d made a terrible decision. Not only did I still want to have sex with William, I actually felt myself starting to like him. If I was going to get out of this without developing real feelings, I needed to shut him up. In my life experience, there was one fool-proof way to get a man to stop talking– give him something more scandalous to do with his mouth.

  I grabbed the end of his tie, pulling him down to meet me. Even in my four-inch heels, he was several inches taller than me. But he bent easily to my urgent tug and I rose to meet him, too. Our lips collided in passion and desire.

  “Inside,” I mumbled against his lips.

  He obliged, carrying me easily over the threshold. Rather than place me on the bed, he set me back on the ground. I kept my arms around him so that he couldn’t go far.

  “Breathtaking,” he said for the second time that night. Then he lowered himself again and kissed me hard. “I want you very badly, Riley.”

  “Then you better take me,” I replied.

  William might have been a terrible flirter, but he was a fantastic lover. I was still regaining feeling in my body an hour after we finished. He had settled comfortably next to me on the bed and pulled me close to his body. I nestled my head against his chest and listened to his strong heartbeat regain its normal rhythm. After what was undoubtedly the best sex of my life, I was exhausted.

  “That was pretty damn good,” I said, sighing contentedly.

  William laughed and stroked my hair. “I take it you weren’t faking?”

  “Not even a little bit,” I replied.

  “Does that mean there’s hope for a round two in our future?” He sounded genuinely uncertain. “Or are you still planning on disappearing at midnight, Cinderella?”

  He wasn’t the only one that was confused. When I’d decided to go home with William, I’d never intended for there to be a round two, or even for us to have a spooning session. But now I had to admit that I liked being in his arms. I liked the way it felt when he looked at me. Heck, I even liked the idea of us.

  “Let’s worry about the future when it happens,” I said, knowing that it probably wasn’t the answer he hoped to hear.

  After several seconds of silence, he said, “We can pick this up in the morning.”

  The morning.

  Such a simple thing, yet it carried a complex set of consequences. If I was still there in the morning, we would have breakfast together. William would make casual small talk and feel obligated to ask for my number. I would feel obligated to give it to him.

  Most likely, he would never call. I would wonder if I had done something wrong, or if there was something obviously wrong with me. Then I would tell myself that I didn’t care. That he was a jerk anyway, even though I knew he really wasn’t.

  Or even worse, he would call. Then I would have to be the one that played the role of jerk. I would feign being too busy to get together. He would try a few times before eventually giving up and deciding that I was a bitch. I would feel guilty and convince myself that he was right.

  I’d been down both of those roads in my life, but the third possible scenario was the scariest of all.

  What if he did call to ask me out again, and what if I said yes?

  It was the last thought that had me waiting for William to drift off to sleep. Once his breathing had steadied and stayed that way for almost an hour, I slipped away from him an inch at a time. Then I climbed off the bed and shuffled around the room to collect my clothes. I dressed in a hurry, hoping that everything was on correctly.

  I stood by the bed for a minute, studying William’s sleeping form. He really was a handsome man. After an appreciative moment, I convinced myself that was all I felt toward him. He was a good shag, nothing more. I didn’t think he was funny or charming. I didn’t like the way his smile warmed me or the way his touch electrified me. Most of all, I did not have feelings for William Moore.

  Then I repeated that mantra as I let myself out of his condo, repeated it a dozen times in the elevator, and I was still repeating it an hour later as I drifted off to sleep in my own cold, empty bed.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  William

  “Are you paying attention to any of this?”

  I blinked hard, snapping back to reality. Scott was laboriously going through our plan for the day, but my mind was elsewhere. I was busy thinking about the amazing woman I’d slept with the night before, only to wake up to an empty bed.

  “Sorry. I had a rough night.” I reached for the untouched coffee in front of me.

  “Rough?” Scott grinned. “That hot girl was into bondage?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I snapped.

  I was used to Scott’s lewd comments, but for some reason it bothered me to hear him talk about Riley that way.

  Scott wasn’t fazed by my over-sensitivity. “Did she turn out to be a pru
de? Ask if the two of you could just talk and cuddle? I hate when that happens.”

  “She snuck out in the middle of the night and didn’t even leave her number,” I said, trying not to sound too girly about the whole thing.

  “Wait. She slept with you and didn’t immediately assume that meant something more?” Scott clapped in appreciation. “You pulled off the unthinkable. A completely detached sexual encounter with a woman. Well done, friend.”

  “I’m not sure I did pull it off,” I confessed.

  “But you said she didn’t even leave her number.” His eyes widened as he figured it out. “Oh man. You have feelings for her? That is classic.”

  I shrugged. “She wasn’t like all the others. There was something special about Riley. But it doesn’t matter since I have no way of getting ahold of her.”

  “That’s not necessarily true. I’ve got her friend’s number.” Scott reached for his phone. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind giving me the information.”

  “Don’t bother.” I held up a hand to stop him. “If Riley wanted me to reach out, she would’ve given me the information herself. I’m not going to turn into some weird stalker.”

  “Good.” Scott looked truly pleased. “We need your attention back on the matter at hand anyway.”

  He was right. Not only was Scott my oldest friend, he was also my business partner. Our company, Stryke Force, was even named after him– Scott Stryker. We also happened to be in the middle of a huge lawsuit that had the potential to tear down everything we had built in the last five years.

  “I’m focused. You don’t have to worry about me.” I hadn’t been thinking of much else until Riley had come along and messed with my head.

  “That’s good because you know how this friendship works. You’re the one that is supposed to worry about me.” Scott pushed back his chair. “We should go. The suits are waiting for us.”

  “Who did you hire to represent us again?” I could never remember law firm names. Why did they always have five names in their title anyway?

  “Heyman, Briggs, Keller, & Lowstein. Supposed to be one of the very best firms in town.” Scott sounded proud. Like it was a good thing that we needed to hire such expensive representation.

  I stood. “Let’s get this over with. Nothing like starting your morning with a roomful of attorneys.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Riley

  Life never works out the way you want it to. I had thought that by cutting out early on my night with William, I would easily be able to forget about him. The next morning, I woke early and went for a five-mile run. Even with my music blasting in my ears, William kept popping into my head.

  He popped into my head again later when I was showering, and again as I took the train into work. The sun was barely up and I was the first person in the office.

  Unlike the night before, I was dressed professionally in a gray suit, the skirt with a hem just at my knees. This was my usual look– the skimpy dress from the night before had been an anomaly. While I waited for the coffee to brew, I again thought about William.

  I was glad when my first appointment of the day arrived– a young woman I was preparing for a deposition. Having an actual task in front of me helped me focus and I made it through the entire hour without thinking of William once.

  I was giving myself a mental pat on the back when my phone rang.

  “Heyman, Briggs, Keller, & Lowstein,” I said quickly without checking the caller ID.

  “Banks, come to conference room C right away,” Desmond Briggs barked at me.

  He was the oldest partner at the firm and the only one that wasn’t convinced I should become a partner. It was the fastest I ever hurried down the hall.

  The conference room door was cracked open and I could hear male voices speaking inside. Mr. Briggs was saying, “Banks is young, but she’s one of the best associates we have. I think she’ll have a lot to offer.”

  “Mr. Briggs,” I said as I pushed open the door and announced my arrival.

  At least ten heads swiveled in my direction. Most of them were lawyers at the firm. I barely noticed any of them. The ones I did notice were not unfamiliar, but I also had never thought I would see them again.

  One of them in particular made my heart thud in my chest.

  “Banks, I want you to meet our new clients. Scott Stryker and-”

  I finished for him. “William Moore.”

  “You two know each other?” Mr. Briggs smiled broadly. “Excellent. You will be spending a lot of time together in the future.”

  Those words made my heart race and when I looked at William, I felt a strange hollowness in my chest. Not because of what had happened the previous night. That was the least of my concerns. I no longer just wanted to sleep with William, even though that had been amazing. Looking at him, I realized a frightening truth– I wanted something more.

  William Moore was sitting in the conference room at my firm looking just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. Surprised, but not displeased.

  “Sit down, Banks,” Mr. Briggs snapped.

  I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but sometime in the last few years Mr. Briggs had decided to hate me. I couldn’t recall ever hearing him use my first name and I thought maybe he didn’t even know it.

  As calmly as possible, I took a seat across from William and Scott. While William and I avoided eye contact with each other, Scott stared me down with an evil smirk on his face. Under any other circumstance, I would’ve gladly told him where to go. But this was my job, and I had to maintain what small amount of respect I’d managed to build up over the years.

  While everyone else started running down the facts of the case, I took diligent notes. I was the only one in the room that was coming in late to the game and I had a lot of catching up to do if I was going to be able to contribute.

  The gist of the lawsuit was that William and Scott had originally had a third founder of their company, Timothy Wells. In the early years, when Stryke Force was still struggling to turn a profit, the other two had bought him out. Now he was claiming that he hadn’t relinquished his interest in the company and was suing for a share of their profits. The sum was well into the millions. Now I understood how William had managed to afford his luxurious penthouse condo.

  “Banks, you should make arrangements to meet with their CFO today. See if you can get any records that support the buy-out,” Mr. Briggs ordered.

  “Sure thing.” I managed to keep annoyance out of my voice. It was something I had managed to perfect after years of dealing with his surliness.

  “Mackie is out of the country.” Scott sounded like he was having a wonderful time breaking the news. “Vacationing with his wife and kids in the Bahamas. He won’t be back for a week, but William should be able to help you find what you need.”

  A foot kicked mine under the table and when I looked at Scott, he was smiling right at me. He was taking a perverse pleasure out of seeing me squirm.

  “That’s fine,” I said in a clipped tone.

  “We can finish up some talk about fees now. The rest of you can go.” Mr. Briggs waived a dismissive hand at the associates and we all stood up in unison.

  Though William had avoided looking at me during the meeting, I could feel his eyes following me to the door. I was nearly at my office when I heard hurried footsteps behind me.

  “Riley!’

  I turned reluctantly, arms already crossed in defense of whatever he might have to say to me. This was not the place to dig into our past.

  “I’d like to say it’s a pleasure seeing you here, but…” I let my sentence trail off unfinished.

  “Can we talk in your office?” he asked.

  He was dressed in a full suit but when I looked at him, I saw the man from the night before. The one that looked so good wearing nothing at all. My cheeks started to flush.

  “Fine.”

  I kept walking until I reached my office door and gestured for him to enter. His arm brushed against me
as he passed and it was like being dumped in ice cold water. Rather than dwell on the electric charge I felt whenever he was close, I focused on closing the door, taking a few extra seconds before turning to face him.

  He was already seated on the edge of my desk, long legs stretched in front of him. It annoyed me how comfortable he looked in my office, a place that I had never intended for him to be.

  “I didn’t do this, Riley,” he said, speaking quickly before I could get a word out. “Scott set up this meeting a week ago. I had no idea this was your firm until you walked through that door.”

  “I didn’t think that you planned this, William.” I wasn’t quite that self-absorbed. “But it doesn’t matter how you ended up here, all that matters is that I’m completely screwed.”

  His face twitched like he was about to make a joke, but then he saw the look of distress in my eyes and he stopped.

  “What’s the big deal? Scott’s the only one that knows about us and he’s not going to say anything.”

  “You really don’t get it. I’m required to tell Mr. Briggs about our… encounter.”

  William shrugged. “Just tell him we dated. It’s over now and we’re friends. That should cover it.”

  “We are not friends,” I said angrily. “And it’s not that easy. Mr. Briggs has been looking for an excuse to not make me a partner. If I tell him about us, he’ll take me off your case. I need this case.”

  “Then don’t tell him. I’m not planning to say anything.” William clearly still didn’t understand my predicament.

  While I mulled over my options, he stood and casually sauntered over.

  “Hey.” His hand caught my arm and he gave it a gentle squeeze. “You took off in the middle of the night.”

  “So?” I told myself not to look at his face. Once I looked at those eyes, I would be hypnotized by them. But there was no way I could deny him when he was so close.