Page 13 of Can't Take Moore
My muscles loosened at her admission. “I find that hard to believe with how gorgeous you are.”
“Gorgeous, huh?” She beamed a smile of pure female satisfaction at me.
“It’s only the truth.”
“You’re a smooth talker, Mr. Moore,” she accused.
Hearing her say my name like that in a sultry tone had my cock flexing against my zipper. “Am I smooth enough to hear why you’ve taken a break from dating?”
“Sure, that’s a fair question.” She shifted in her seat to get more comfortable. “And an easy one. I just haven’t had much time.”
Remembering what Simon had told me about how well-known she was on social media, I asked, “Too busy building an empire?”
“I wouldn’t call it an empire.” Her nose scrunched up in a cute way. “I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, that’s all. I used to take a lot of videos of myself on the ice when I was sixteen when a new social media app launched. Back then, I was still doing a little figure skating and gymnastics. I liked the idea of posting clips of some of my best stunts. Then I discovered trending dances, and it took off from there. I had so much fun doing them that I came up with a few of my own. One took off, and I had a ridiculous number of followers before I knew it.”
I mentally cringed at the reminder of how little time had passed when she was a teenager, but it didn’t dim the attraction. “And you figured out how to leverage your platform into quite the business?”
She shook her head. “No, that was more my mom and sister than me. Once that first offer came in to do a sponsored post and Mom realized I could make money from them, she became very interested in the silly little videos she’d complained about me doing.”
I’d heard the usual horror stories about stage moms, but they were far from my experience growing up. My parents had been all about my brothers and me focusing on school when we were in high school. As long as we got good grades and did at least one sport, they discouraged us from getting a job. My mom never would’ve pushed my brothers or me to do something in order to make a quick buck…no matter how much money was on the line. “Do you still dance on your videos? If so, I’m going to need to download the app.”
She giggled, her cheeks turning pink again. “Yes, there are some recent posts with me dancing. It’s a popular request for my branded posts because they get a lot of love from the algorithm.”
“I guess I know what I’ll be doing tonight after our date.”
“Oh, my gosh,” she groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “Stop.”
“It can’t come as too much of a surprise why I’d want to look.”
She huffed out a breath and straightened. “Unfortunately for you, I disabled my account. You won’t be able to find it until I log back in again.”
“Damn, I missed my chance.” She must have had a hell of a reason to take that step since it essentially meant cutting off her source of income, but I didn’t push for more information. I was hoping to have plenty of time to get to know Vienna, but that wouldn’t happen if I bombed our first date by being a demanding bastard who forced her to open up about something she might not be ready to talk about yet.
“If you’re lucky, I’ll let you know when I reactivate it.”
Pulling into a spot in front of the restaurant, I murmured, “I’m already feeling pretty damn fortunate to be here with you tonight, so I like my odds.”
Her laughter filled the cabin of my car. “Such a charmer.”
“How’s this for charming?” I undid my seat belt and lifted her hand to my lips to brush a peck against her knuckles. “Stay there so I can get your door.”
Her whispered, “Wow,” made me smile as I climbed out of the car and circled around to her side. My pleasure only increased when her palm slid against mine as I helped her out of the car. Walking into Trattoria with her on my arm had my grin widening so much that my cheeks hurt by the time we reached our table.
“Do you come here often?”
“Not as much as I should, but I figured I’d carry on the tradition.”
Leaning forward, she tilted her head to the side. “Tradition?”
I set my menu to the side and explained, “This is where Baxter took Skylar when he tricked her into their first date.”
Startled laughter bubbled up her chest. “It sounds as though there’s quite a story behind how they got together.”
“It was definitely fun to watch,” I admitted before telling her all about their first meeting—where Skylar told him off—and how I played matchmaker with them.
Conversation flowed easily between us, only pausing when the server stopped by the table to take our drink order and returned with our drinks and asked about our meals. Looking at the menu, Vienna asked, “Do you have any recommendations?”
“You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, but the manicotti is my favorite.”
