Just One Night(39)

But the expression on his face fell somewhere between guilty and indifferent.

She took a long breath to steel herself. The physical rejection was bad enough.

No way would she set herself up for emotional rejection too.

Riley lifted both hands up in surrender, giving a casual little shrug. “You know,

you’re probably right. I am feeling a little, um … unfulfilled, but I guess that’s

nothing another guy can’t take care of, right?”

His eyes turned stormy, and he took a step toward her before catching himself.

Sam gave a curt nod. “Right. Well … good luck with your other options.”

“You too!” she said brightly. “Blue balls don’t become you.”

He glared at her before stomping toward the hotel room door. His hand paused

on the doorknob, and he gave her one last look over his shoulder. “It was good

though, wasn’t it? While it lasted.”

The lump in her throat doubled in size. “Yeah,” she whispered.

His eyes searched hers and for a heart-stopping second, she thought he was

going to come back to her. To finish what he’d started.

Instead he turned away.

And then he was gone.





Chapter Ten


“Wait, so he just left? And you were na**d?”

Riley snatched the wine bottle out of Emma’s hand and topped off her glass, even

as she tried to ignore the pang at hearing the words out loud. “Not entirely na**d,”

she muttered. “I was still wearing my panties.”

“So you were basically na**d,” Grace said, holding out her own wineglass.

“Were they ugly underwear? Maybe that was the problem,” Julie said, bringing

over a salad bowl and sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other side of Grace’s

coffee table.

“Yes, I’m sure granny panties were the problem,” Emma drawled. “It had nothing

to do with the fact that she was about to hump one of her oldest friends, and that

his mom almost had a heart attack.”

“Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s get a few things straight,” Riley said, setting her glass

on the table. “First of all, these were not granny panties. We’re talking itsy-bitsy

black lace. Second, his mom is fine. Liam talked to him this morning, and she’s

out of the hospital and back to normal, which as far as I can figure is still mean

as sin. And third, I’m not really sure that friendship is what Sam and I have had

going on all these years. It’s more like …”

“Sexual combustion?” Julie supplied.

“Yes, that,” Riley said, jabbing her finger at Julie. “And last … when I called an

emergency girls’ night, whose idea was it to serve salad? How am I supposed to

derive any comfort out of snow peas?”

“Calm down, Gigino’s delivery is on the way. The salad was meant to tide you

over, because everyone knows how you get when you’re hungry,” Emma said,

fishing a carrot out of the bowl and holding it expectantly in front of Riley’s face.

Dutifully Riley leaned forward and nipped the carrot out of her friend’s fingers.

“Did you get the bolognese?”

“No, we wanted to watch you sulk all night,” Grace said, helping herself to a huge

bowl of the salad. “Of course we got your calorie-bomb meaty pasta.”

Riley reclaimed her glass off the table and settled back into the couch. It wasn’t

that she didn’t like vegetables. She just liked other stuff better. Like carbs. And

fat. And stuff that didn’t taste like, well … healthy.

And a period of her life where her heart was halfway to broken was not the time

to go all kale and quinoa.

“So talk us through what happened,” Julie said.

“I thought I did that on the phone.”

“No,” Julie said patiently. “What you said on the phone was, ‘Sam saw me na**d

and then I ate three servings of room service mac and cheese.’ ”

“And then you called me and told me you got cock-blocked by his mom, which I

think we all agree is a phrase that should be banned,” Grace added.

Emma shook her head. “No, I win. She called me and asked how Alex Cassidy

felt about Brazilian waxes, because she had recently gotten one and didn’t want

all the pain to go to waste and thought he might be a viable candidate.”

Riley held up a finger. “Okay, on that last one, I didn’t mean it. I may have been

more than halfway through a mediocre bottle of merlot by then. Even I know that

the exes are off-limits.”

“So what did you tell her?” Julie asked, looking at Emma.

Emma looked a little discomfited to have the attention turned her way. “I told her