“So is this an exclusive thing?” She wanted him to spell it out for her, so there weren’t any misunderstandings. There’d been too many six years ago.
He frowned. “Of course we’re exclusive. I don’t want you to be with anyone else.”
“What about you? This has to be a two way street.” She hated the neediness in her voice, but she wanted him to make the promise. They never talked about their relationship in detail six years ago. She didn’t want to assume anything this time. If they couldn’t tell people about their relationship, she needed to understand the rules at a minimum.
He twisted her hair around his finger. “Regan, I’m confused. I don’t know where this is coming from. I’m not interested in anyone else right now. I want this with you…only you. I’m not interested in a casual thing with you.”
Her heart pounded in her chest and she looked down at her bare feet, intensely studying her deep red nail polish. “Okay, so no Parker, no Olivia, and no whoever else.” She cringed. As much as she didn’t want to, she couldn’t stop herself from asking.
“Look at me,” he demanded as he tipped her chin up. “Stop bringing up Olivia. She’s not a factor. We still talk on occasion, but I won’t do that if it bothers you.”
“You’d really do that for me?” she asked timidly. She hated that she couldn’t be as firm about Olivia as he was about Parker. For some reason, that woman—whose name she could hardly say—evoked an equal measure of hatred and insecurity so deep inside her that she reverted to the pathetic girl she was six years ago.
“Yes.” He bent his head until his mouth connected with hers. “That and a lot more,” he whispered against her lips before drawing her into another heated kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When Regan walked into her office on Thursday morning she wanted to turn around and leave. She had a pile of cases to read for the Motion for Summary Judgment Lucas wanted her to finish by Monday morning for a lease dispute over the legal description of the property. Yes, very exciting stuff. On top of the daunting pile of work, she was secretly dreading seeing Parker that night at the restaurant. If she were lucky, they could go back to being friends and pretend as if nothing happened.
“What do you mean you’ve been spending time with him?” her mom asked over the phone.
She’d broken down and called her mom when she decided she couldn’t face reading about leasehold interests for one more minute. Regan had shut the door to her office, hoping no one would enter without knocking. She’d been delaying telling her mom about Lucas, but she needed to come clean. She hated keeping things from her mom, especially something as big as letting Lucas back in her life.
“We’ve gone out a few times, and we decided to try to work things out between us.” She hesitated, not sure how to explain her abrupt change of heart. Hell, she didn’t understand it herself. “He apologized and explained his side of the story.”
The silence on the phone spoke volumes of her mother’s disapproval. She chewed on the side of her nail and then quickly dropped her hand into her lap.
“Do you think you can trust him—I mean really trust him?” her mom finally asked.
That was the million-dollar question. She wanted to trust him, but at the same time, she instinctually wanted to guard part of her heart so it wouldn’t be shattered if it ended badly. “It’s complicated,” she answered.
“No, it’s not. You either trust him, or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re wasting his time and yours. Half-measures don’t work.”
“After everything that happened in college, I haven’t been able to trust anyone enough to go on more than a date or two. Now he’s back in my life, and I can’t help thinking it’s for a reason.” Regan leaned back in her chair. “Maybe I need closure.”
“What about your job? I can’t imagine the firm would approve of your relationship.”
“We’re going to wait until my summer associate position ends, and then when things cool down, we’ll make it official.”
“So, you’re basically having a secret affair with your boss?”
She cringed. That wasn’t exactly a favorable description of her behavior, and it stung even more coming from her mom. “No. Not a secret affair. We’re just acknowledging the facts. Mainly, he’s my boss for the summer, and we’d like to keep our relationship to ourselves until our circumstances change.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”