Just One Night: Sex, Love & Stiletto Series by Lauren Layne Read Free Book Online Page B

him to succeed?
    Stonewalled. That’s what. Other than Liam, and save for one surprise “door-opening” celebration, none of the other McKennas had ever been invited out to the distillery, and not for a lack of fishing for an invitation.
    Sam kept saying he was just tweaking it to get it right for tasting, but Riley knew better. The man was scared to death of failing. She knew it because she knew
him
. Years of covertly stalking a man had its benefits.
    “What were you and your mom talking about?” he said, following her toward the front door. “Looked like I walked in on something awkward.”
    “Nice subject change,” she said, using her toe to open the front door she’d left cracked. “And it
was
awkward. My mom wanted to know if my most recent BDSM article was based on personal experience.”
    Sam whistled. “Whew. Go Erin.”
    “Speaking of mothers, how’s yours?”
    His easy smile vanished. “Fine.”
    Riley tilted her head and gave him a look. “Don’t
fine
me. I know you.”
    He rolled his shoulders. “Okay. She’s nasty and mean and still hates my guts. Good enough?”
    “Sam—” She set a hand on his arm, but he jerked back.
    “Drop it, Ri.”
    Riley saw the pain in his eyes and was desperate to hug him, but she knew better. He wouldn’t push her away, but the emotional wall he had around himself would grow even thicker.
    Instead she forced a smile and returned them to safer territory. “Aren’t you going to ask?”
    His brow furrowed, his expression still wary. “Ask what?”
    “About the spanking. If it’s based on personal experience.”
    To her surprise and dismay, he laughed. “God no. I don’t need to ask.”
    It was her turn to frown. “Because you don’t care one way or another?”
    His gaze flickered and his smile faded. “Well, for starters, your brother would kill me if he knew I even so much as glanced at one of your articles. But mostly I don’t need to ask because I already know the answer.”
    He edged by her, heading through the hall toward the kitchen.
    “You do not!” she called after him.
    Sam turned around, walking backward with a little smirk. “Ri, most of the
city
knows you have more bedroom experience than the average Las Vegas showgirl. But don’t worry. I won’t tell your brothers. Or your dad.”
    He turned back around, disappearing into the kitchen, and thank God for that, because letting Sam Compton see her tears was one path she was
never
going down.
    But beneath the tears threatening to overflow was something else. Something deeper anddarker.
    It was the desire to tell Sam just how wrong about her he was.

Chapter Five
    Sam Compton already knew what would kill him one day: Riley McKenna.
    Or more precisely, it was keeping his hands
off
Riley McKenna that would kill him.
    Because a heterosexual man didn’t spend a decade in the company of a woman who looked like Riley without touching her.
    Not unless he wanted to die a slow, torturous death by sexual frustration.
    Riley, on the other hand, was blissfully unaware of Sam’s plight and was quite likely to die as the hottest old lady on the block, completely blind to the fact that she’d killed ol’ Sam Compton simply by being the most gorgeous woman alive.
    But it wasn’t just her killer body that would do him in. Oh no. It was the entire package. Because Riley was a serious pain in the ass.
His
ass.
    Also?
    He was a jerk. A first-rate shit.
    Just days after telling off his mom for calling Riley a whore, he’d all but done the same thing.
    He hadn’t meant that crack about her job like that.
At all
.
    But still …
    He was an ass. The biggest.
    And now, ever since they’d fetched the margarita fixings from the truck, she’d been avoiding him. That wasn’t normal.
    He didn’t like it.
    “Hey, does Riley seem weird to you tonight?” Sam quietly asked Liam as the two of them tag-teamed dish duty.
    Liam gave him a look. “You’re asking me if I think my little sister is weird. That’s like