Chasing Forever(52)
“How can you promise that?”
She rubbed her temples in frustration. “Because I don’t want to be with him. Nothing will change my mind.”
“What if I wanted to go to dinner with a woman who wanted a relationship with me, but I assured you I wasn’t interested in them?” He laced his fingers through hers. “Would you be okay with that?”
She opened her mouth to say she wouldn’t mind, but then stopped herself. Who was she kidding? She hated the thought of Lucas within five feet of another woman so there was no way she’d be okay with him going on a date with someone else regardless of his intentions. “No,” she finally admitted. “I don’t want you to date anyone else.”
“Then tell him we’re together and you have to decline the invitation.”
She didn’t want to tell Parker about Lucas specifically, especially after what she said about him. “I’ll tell him that I’m seeing someone and that I can’t accept his invitation,” she clarified.
Lucas scowled. “Why do I think there’s a story behind that?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, trying to deflect the question.
“You said you’d tell him you’re seeing someone rather than you’re seeing me.”
She laughed. “It’s not a big deal. Besides,” she shrugged, “you said you wanted to keep our relationship secret until the end of the summer.”
“I don’t want to keep it secret. We need to keep it secret. There’s a big difference. If it didn’t matter, I’d tell everyone and anyone who would listen.”
With that small explanation, he chipped away more of her reservations about their future. “I would too,” she said, surprising herself with how much she meant it.
Tipping up her chin, he cradled her face with such sincerity and tenderness that her throat constricted. Slowly, cautiously, his lips found hers. The kiss was too hot and too intimate for the semi-public venue of the plane. But hidden in the sweetness of the kiss, there was something so raw and possessive that when he pulled away from her she felt more alive and on edge than ever before. Looking down, she noticed her hands shook, but she couldn’t stop her reaction if she tried.
“So what are the rules for work?” she asked.
“Nothing too complicated. We just need to keep everything professional—no closed doors, no diverted lunch meetings, no closets. You get the idea.”
She laughed to hide the ripple of unease skating through her mind. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve done this before?”
“I don’t kiss and tell, but just to make you feel better, I haven’t dated anyone at Martin and Black.”
She released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “It’s none of my business, but I didn’t know if had to worry about a spurned ex at work.”
“Nope, not at work.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“And so what happens at work on Monday?”
Lucas shrugged in response. “We pretend as if nothing happened.”
Lucas and Drew sat on a park bench after their run, a few blocks from their street. The morning fog still hadn’t lifted, and the park was completely empty, but Lucas didn’t care. He stuck to his work-week exercise schedule, even on the weekends. He couldn’t break the habit.
“Do you think you can do that?”
Lucas took a drink from his water bottle. “I don’t have any choice.”
“And what did Regan think of that?”
Lucas bent over to tie his shoe. “I don’t think she likes it, but we don’t have any choice. I can’t exactly tell the partners I’m screwing one of the summer associates. Well, not if I want to keep my job and make partner sometime in the foreseeable future.”
“And is that what this about, screwing the summer associate?”
Lucas sat up and looked over at Drew. “No. Not even close.” He didn’t offer an explanation. He knew he didn’t have to. It was written all over his face. He loved Regan. In fact, if he were honest with himself, he never stopped loving her.
“Jesus, are you serious?” Drew asked, completely stunned.
“Yes.”
“Is this something you realized on your little business trip together?”
“No,” Lucas said, shaking his head.
Drew lowered his voice. “How long have you felt that way?”
Lucas ran his hands through his sweat-dampened hair. “For too long,” he answered evasively.
“Since the beginning of this summer or since college?”
“Are you trying to make me feel like a jackass?” Did he have to spell it out? He didn’t mind bouncing ideas off Drew, but sharing his feelings was something entirely different. Drew had been his closest friend for more years than he could count, but his feelings for Regan were personal, too personal for a casual conversation after a run, especially when he hadn’t shared them with Regan.