All In: Playing the Fool (Gambling With Love) (5 page)

"Hey princess, you ready to go to work?" my dad asked when he hung up the phone.

"Dad, I'm twenty-two and I'm going to be working in your office. Maybe you shouldn’t call me princess anymore."

"Oh, you'll always be my princess, no matter how old you are. Now, come on and I'll introduce you to Joe and Jess. I think you'll all get along great. Joe is a real laid back guy, just a few years out of law school, and everyone loves Jess," he said, guiding me down the hallway of the busy office.

Uh-oh
. I had a bad feeling about this young attorney named Joe. There had to be more than one lawyer named Joe in a city as big as Greensboro, right? Fate couldn't actually be that cruel, could it?                                   

My dad knocked on an office door, and then walked in with me right on his heels. I was anxious to see if my instinct was right.
Fuck.
There might be more than one Attorney Joe in the city, but this one was in fact Will's friend from the club.

"Joe, meet my daughter, Lacy. Lacy this is Joe Montgomery, our firm's criminal defense attorney."

The familiar handsome man with black hair and blue eyes looked over at me and smiled politely before his gaze went back to my dad. After only a moment, his eyes came right back to mine, and he studied me closer. The second look he gave me was more appraising and somewhat heated before he smiled a knowing smile.

Yep, it's me
I wanted to say.
The girl who fucked your lying sack of shit friend before getting dismissed by him.
I'm sure that's what he was thinking about. I'd gone home with Will, and he probably wondered what happened between the two of us. Hell, Will may have already told him every dirty detail of how many times he’d gotten off before he kicked my ass to the curb. My face flushed in embarrassment, worried about just how much Joe knew.

This morning I'd pulled my long honey blonde hair back in a professional bun to go with my white business skirt suit, wearing a black lace camisole underneath and matching black heels. I'm sure I looked a little different than the girl in the short dress and hair down at the club.

I stuck my hand out to shake, since Joe was still trying to overcome his surprise. "Nice to meet you, Joe."

"Ah, you too. Was it Lacy?" he asked with a smirk as he stood up and shook my hand.

"Yep, Lacy."

"Alright, well, have fun sweetie. Our IT guy will be here soon to get the computer in your office up and going on the network. Let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks, Dad," I said as he left the office.

"Holy shit, it's you!" Captain Obvious exclaimed with a smile, coming around his desk towards me. "Did you and Will have…
fun
the other night?"

"That is none of your business," I said, not wanting to admit to the one-night stand, or that I'd fallen for Will's lie.

"Ohh-kay. So I take it that it didn't end well?" Joe asked. It honestly sounded like Will hadn't told him anything about what we'd done. That was a relief.

"No, it didn't," I told him on an exhale.

"Well, that's too bad. I'm here for you, you know, if you need a shoulder to cry on or a lap to sit on. Shit, sorry. That was highly inappropriate. Please don’t report me to Human Resources or to your father," he said quickly, running a hand through his black shaggy hair.

I smiled, not the least bit offended by his flirty comment. Joe was a very fine looking man, but unfortunately he was Will's friend. Even if he wasn't, there was also the other huge deal breaker. He was an attorney. I'd sworn off all of them since I knew every single one would be just like my father - unfaithful assholes too busy with their careers. Although, that didn't mean we couldn't flirt.

"Don't worry, I can handle you just fine on my own. I did remember to put on my big girl panties this morning," I replied. Joe’s cerulean blue eyes darkened a shade.

"If you happen to…forget to wear them one day, please be sure to let me know. Just to ensure that I'll be more careful with my comments, of course."

"So that it's not an issue, maybe we should start each workday with a status conference on the state of my panties…or lack thereof."                                                      

"Oh, I can already tell that the two of us are going to get along just fine," he laughed. "But seriously, thanks for agreeing to give me a hand for a few weeks. Jess has twins and her sitter just up and quit out of the blue, so she can only work part-time until she finds a replacement. Ah, and here she is," he said when a small, beautiful, dark haired woman walked through the office door.

"Jess, this is Mr. Pierce's daughter, Lacy. Lacy, meet my assistant, Jess."

The woman held out her dainty hand and smiled as she shook mine. "It's nice to meet you, Lacy. And thank you so much for helping out."

Joe went over and closed his office door. Turning to Jess he acted like a gossipy teenager. "Guess who Lacy went home with Friday night."

Jess looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, then looked back at Joe. "I give up. Who?"    

"Will."

"Ha! Our Will? No way? That's great! He is such a sweet guy, and I bet you two are so cute together!"

I shook my head and covered my face, cursing fate, that son of a bitch, for making it impossible to forget about the asshole I met at
Sin
.

"Ah, settle down, Jess. Apparently it didn't go well. So we're not going to discuss him any more with Lacy."

"But he's-" she started, and Joe interrupted her.

"He's forgotten," he said, opening the door wide and shooing us out. "Now, take Lacy and show her our case management system on your computer until our IT guy can set hers up."

Jess smiled then nodded before leaving his office, waiting for me to follow along. She pulled a chair up beside the rolling one at her desk, and after we'd both settled in, she started on me.

"So you and Will? How'd you meet? What happened?" she asked.

I sighed and looked around her office for a distraction. Based on the photos around her desk, she apparently had two little girls and was married to a seriously hot male model. Oh, but wait, there was also a certain bespectacled brown haired, adorably dimpled man in some pictures. At their wedding. I recognized the woman and man from Will's pretend apartment in some pictures too.

"You're good friends with Will?" I asked, nodding toward the picture.

"Yeah, I've known him for almost two years. He and my husband Tyler have been friends since they were really young. Tyler, Caleb, Will and Dylan all grew up together in the same neighborhood," she said, pointing out the men in the group photo. "I owe Will, since he's actually the one that told me Joe needed an assisted a while back."

"Has he always been such a lying sack of shit?" I asked. She gasped and clasped a hand over her open mouth.

"What?
Will
? God no. He's the most honest, trustworthy guy I know, and that even includes my sexy ass husband."

"Uh-huh. So, I must have imagined him lying about owning a Porsche and living in his friend and sister's apartment."

"That bastard," she muttered.

"Yeah…and look, I don't care that he doesn't own all that, it just pissed me off that he lied. Oh, and he made it very clear the next morning that we were nothing but a one-night stand."

"Why would he do that? You're beautiful and seem so nice. He's been trying to find a woman like you for years. Maybe you misunderstood."

"His response when I flat out asked him was, 'Well, what else would it be?'"

She shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe he was such a jerk. That's not like him
at all
."

"Yeah, that's what his sister said too, but maybe you two don't know him as well as you think."

"You talked to Jules?"

"Uh-huh. I went back to what I thought was his apartment to look for an earring I'd lost, and that's when I realized his lie."

"Wow. I guess it's possible I am wrong about him. I'm sorry, I won't mention him again."

"Okay…thanks," I said, straightening my suit jacket, and sighing in relief that we didn't have to discuss the man anymore.

For the next two hours Jess showed me how to access client files, add things to Joe's calendar, enter in his billable time, and all sorts of other things. She finally left me in my new office to wait for IT to set up my profile. I was playing solitaire when I heard the knock on my open door.

"Come in," I said, spinning in my rolling chair toward the door. I almost fell right out of my seat onto the floor.

"
You
! What the hell are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

"
Lacy
?" Will asked, looking equally surprised to see me. "You work
here
? I thought you had a journalism degree."

"Wait,
you're
the IT guy? Why didn't they warn me?" I asked, getting to my feet. "No," I said, shaking my head and pointing to the door. "You get the hell out! I'll do the damn setup myself."

A wounded expression passed over his face before he quickly hid it. "Lacy, I'm sorry about the other morning ..."

"I don't want to hear any more of your lies," I cut him off. "Did your
sister
tell you I stopped by
your
apartment?"

That time guilt swept across his face before it turned bright red. "You, ah, met my sister?"

"Yeah, when I went back to look for my earring. Why did you lie?" I asked, before Jess suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"Sorry, I'm just going to close the door to give you some privacy, and so no one else has to hear your argument. Will," she said, turning to the man with disappointment clear on her face. "Tyler, Caleb and Dylan should all kick your ass for what you did." Then she shut the door in his face.

I didn't like the idea of being with him in such close quarters, and now with privacy. Yep, my panties were already getting wet just seeing him again and thinking about his magical, lying tongue.

Will rested his back against the closed door, his shoulders slumped and head hung. With the cute glasses, wearing an untucked sky blue polo shirt and khakis, he almost looked boyishly innocent. Almost.

"So, why'd you lie?" I asked again. 

"I may have been … less than one hundred percent honest with you, but at least I didn't use you," he said with a clenched jaw.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, crossing my arms defensively over my chest. "All you did was
use
me
."

"Don't even pretend like I was anything more than a one-night distraction from the jackass you were trying to get over."

"How-how'd you know about Zack?"

"So, Zack's his name?" he asked, crossing his own arms over his chest. "You don't remember saying that you wanted me to make you scream my name until you forgot his? Maybe you were drunk. That would explain a helluva lot."

My cheeks flared at the recollection of saying that in the heat of the moment, and then the memories of how he'd made me scream his name.

“I wasn’t drunk,” I muttered softly.

"So did it work? Did you forget him while you were with me Friday night?" Will asked.

Well, I never once thought about Zack on the elevator. Or after Will got in the hot tub with me. Or when we fell asleep together. Definitely not when he woke me up with this tongue between my legs.

"Yes." Hell, I'd been so pissed at Will that I hadn't thought of Zack since Friday night, except when I noted a missed call or text message from him.

"That's something at least. Now let me get to work," he said, when he pushed off from the door and headed around my desk. I stood in the way, blocking his access to the computer. He was so close I could smell his clean and yummy masculine cologne.

"No."

"No?" he asked with a smirk. "Okay, then let me see you connect to the network, set up a new email account on their server, and install all the case management software they use here. Go ahead, I'll stand here and watch."

I turned my back to him and sat down in front of the computer. Grabbing the mouse I went to the control panel, then clicked "Set up new network connection." I clicked a few more things before the "
Connection failed
" message popped up. Will cleared his throat behind me.

I sucked up my pride and stood up from the chair. Jess and Joe needed my help, and I'd been screwing off long enough. "Fine. I'll be in Jess's office," I told him, having to turn sideways to get past him. The front of my skirt suit rubbed against the front of his larger, firm, unmoving body, and he smiled down at me when he heard my gasp.

"I'll come get you when I finish," he said, heavy on the innuendo as I headed for the door.

"Try and make it quick, but I know that won't be a problem for you," I responded. It was a low blow but the man flustered me. He'd lied to me and embarrassed me. But honestly, the only thing quick about our fucking was the speed at which he made me come.