She nodded slowly. “I’ve heard your rags-to-riches story. I have no doubt the entire country has heard about it.”
I frowned. “None of us exactly wore rags,” I said defensively. “My brothers and I made sure our younger siblings had the basics.”
Her mouth curved into a small smile, and I immediately discovered that I loved seeing those full, plump lips tilted upward.
“So, what you’re saying is that you’re getting soft from all those hours in an office?” she asked curiously.
I was far from soft. In fact, my dick was so hard that it was getting uncomfortable. But I wasn’t about to mention that right at the moment. “I still work out to blow off steam, but it’s not the same as being physically active all day.”
We were interrupted by the manager of the coffee shop as he set her paper cup in front of her. “Here you go, Riley. Sorry for the wait.”
The man was younger than her, probably midtwenties, but the adoration in his eyes as he glanced down at Riley made me want to punch the guy in the face.
It got even worse as she tilted her head up and graced the manager with a full-on smile that made her face light up. “No problem,” she answered graciously. “It’s getting busy.”
“It is,” I growled as I shot the manager my most intimidating expression. “So maybe you should get back to work?”
It wasn’t a suggestion. If the bastard didn’t stop ogling Riley, I’d make him go away crying like a child.
It didn’t matter that I’d been doing exactly what he was doing just moments ago.
Thankfully, he nodded his head and walked away.
“Interesting that you rate personal delivery of your coffee,” I observed.
“I’m a good customer,” she shot back. “And it’s not coffee.”
“So am I.” But nobody comes and delivers my drink to my table. “What in the hell are you drinking? I didn’t know they did anything but coffee.”
“Chai mocha latte,” she answered right before she took her first sip.
I watched, fascinated, as her eyes closed for an instant as she sampled her drink.
Damned if her enjoyment didn’t mimic a pleasurable sexual experience.
“Good?” I asked in a husky voice.
She opened her eyes and swallowed. “Orgasmic,” she acknowledged. “I’m pretty addicted to tea. Nobody makes better chai than this place.”
I held up my nearly empty extra-large cup. “Plenty of sugar and cream in mine.” I’d ordered the mocha latte. “Yours, too?”
She blew off the unhealthiness of all the additives. “Cream and extra sugar. Doesn’t matter. I stay in shape, and it’s not like I’m trying to impress some guy with a skinny body.”
Hell, she didn’t need to be thin. She certainly wasn’t overweight, and her lush curves were hot enough to inspire any man’s wet dreams.
I smirked. I loved the fact that she didn’t give a damn about what anyone else thought about her.
And she didn’t have to.
She was fucking perfect.
The fact that she probably didn’t have a man in her life at the moment made her even more irresistible.
“Question?” I ventured.
“Shoot,” she replied.
“Why did you need to escape your childhood with books?”
She looked taken aback, and there was a brief flash of pain on her face, one so fleeting that most other people probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. After that, her expression grew stubborn, and I knew I wasn’t going to get my answer.
CHAPTER 4
RILEY
I wasn’t about to answer his question.
Maybe we were being cordial. But I knew better than to give the opposition anything about myself that would hand them a weak spot to poke at when I was in a court fight.
“I’ve always liked to read,” I answered vaguely. Then, I quickly got off the subject. “So, have you changed your mind about building the resort?”
There! I’d turned things back to business. It was far better that way.
He shot me a smile that said he knew exactly what I was doing. But he answered, “No.”
I felt my irritation rising. “Mr. Sinclair, don’t you care about the fact that those birds won’t have a nesting place to come back to?”
Maybe it was useless to try to pull some sympathy for the poor least terns from a man with a heart that only beat for business. However, I felt like appealing to his better nature—if he had one—might work better than insults.
“Seth,” he insisted smoothly. “And I’ll call you Riley.”
The last thing I should be agreeing to was anything that allowed for any kind of intimacy between us.
He was the enemy.
My adversary.
I wasn’t sure why I nodded. “Seth.”
I wanted to slug him when he shot me a satisfied smile. “Riley, it isn’t that I don’t care. Not exactly. But sometimes a man has to choose business over sentiment.”
I flinched like he’d hit me. I knew all about men who chose business over humanity.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“Nothing,” I said snippily.
“Your reaction just now wasn’t nothing.”
Dammit! He’d seen my startled expression.
What in the hell am I doing?
I was Riley Fucking Montgomery.
One of the best damn environmental attorneys in the country.
Harvard Law graduate.
Summa cum laude, for God’s sake.
I usually didn’t crumble under any kind of hostility or resistance, much less blink an eye when a defendant said something I didn’t like.
I thrived on it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I answered in my chilly lawyer’s voice.
I silently beat myself up for letting Seth Sinclair get even a tidbit of a personal reaction from me.
He finished putting away his laptop with a thoughtful look. “How badly do you want that property, Riley?”
I desperately wanted my own computer to hide behind, but I hadn’t planned on working. I’d just wanted my chai fix to take home to my office.
I shot him a lethal glance. “Very badly.” Like he didn’t already know that? I was pretty sure I’d made myself perfectly clear.
“I might be open to doing a trade,” he mused.
“For what?” I was confused. I didn’t own any prime building lots.
His mysterious gray eyes pinned me to my chair. “Your services.”
“You could have any big corporate attorney at your fingertips,” I scoffed. “I only do conservation and environmental cases now. Certainly not something you’re interested in.”
“No,” he agreed. “But my little sister is, and the last thing I want is to make her unhappy. Not to mention the fact that her husband, Eli Stone, is an investor in Sinclair Properties, and a rather important advisor.”
My stomach dropped. I could certainly fight dirty when I needed to, but I didn’t break up families over a case. At all. Ever.
“I honestly didn’t mean to cause a problem,” I confessed. “I like Jade, and from what little she’s told me about her family history, I know she adores every one of her siblings.”