Chasing Forever Page 9

  “That wasn’t a real bet,” she snapped. They may have called a truce, and she may have agreed to go on the business trip with him, but that was it. The friendly stuff had to stop. Well, maybe not the cappuccino. She loved the cappuccinos, but she couldn’t afford to buy them on her student loan budget.

  “Says who? Richard witnessed the bet. That makes it real. Don’t try to back out now that you lost. You’ll look like a sore loser.”

  “A sore loser,” she repeated shaking her head in annoyance. “I don’t think so. Say whatever you want. I won’t let you goad me into another lunch. Besides, I have to finish this motion by the end of the day. I’ll never finish it if I go to lunch.”

  Lucas leaned forward, his elbows resting on the edge of her desk. “I assigned it to you. I can give you a little more time.” He smiled. “Can you have it to me by the end of the weekend?”

  “Doesn’t it need to be filed by the end of the day on Monday?”

  “Yes, but I can work on it on Sunday night, and as long as it isn’t a total mess, I can have it filed by the end of the day Monday.” He shrugged. “No problem there.”

  “It won’t be a mess.”

  “I didn’t think it would be.”

  “And it’s just a friendly lunch, nothing more, no ulterior motives?” she asked.

  Lucas leaned back in the chair. “Something a little less than friendly. I don’t think I earned friendly yet, but I’m working on it.”

  Maybe Lucas really did want to be friends, Regan thought. Or maybe he and Olivia had some new plan that involved humiliating her. She couldn’t decide if she should trust him again. Would trusting him make her naïve and ignorant? She promised herself she’d never be a gullible fool again. Truthfully, she wanted to go to lunch with him. She needed a break, and she actually enjoyed his company, not that she’d ever tell him that.

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, Lucas. I’ll take you to lunch, but only because I don’t want you to tell people I flaked on our not entirely real bet.”

  Lucas glanced at his wristwatch. “Great. Meet me in the lobby in twenty minutes and bring your gym shoes.”

  “Are we walking?”

  “Something like that,” he replied as he walked out of her office humming.

  ***

  “What’s that?” Regan asked as she stepped off the elevator pointing at the brown paper bag in his hand.

  Lucas lifted it up slightly. “Lunch.”

  Regan frowned.

  “What’s wrong now?”

  “Two things actually,” Regan answered as she stopped next to him. “I thought I was supposed to buy you lunch and I was kind of looking forward to getting out of the office for a while. I don’t want to eat in the lobby.”

  “Well, you’re in luck then,” he said placing his free hand on her lower back, guiding her toward the exit. “I have no intention of eating anywhere near the office. I need some fresh air.”

  She stopped walking. “Wait. Where do you think we’re going? I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain exactly what we’re doing.”

  He leaned toward her, his hot breath next to her ear. “You’ll have fun. I promise. I didn’t plan anything nefarious or inappropriate.”

  She didn’t shiver. Nope. She was cold, freezing actually. “Can you give me a hint?”

  “Hmm…” He held open the glass lobby door for her and then followed her. “Let’s just say our lunch is very relevant to our bet.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Are we taking a cab?”

  “Nope. I parked my car out front.”

  Ten minutes later, Lucas stopped his car next to a park.

  “We’re having a picnic?” she asked, reaching for her door handle and stepping out of the car.

  “Not really.” He handed her the bag of food and walked to the trunk of his car.

  “You’re getting a shovel so you can hide my body.”

  “Good guess, but not today.” He pulled a duffel bag out of his trunk and tossed the strap over his shoulder. “We’re going to play baseball.”

  Regan stopped walking. “Excuse me.”

  He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her toward the baseball diamond. “Last night while I was lying in bed, I was thinking about our bet.”

  Did he have to phrase it that way? Now she couldn’t stop picturing him in bed thinking about her. “It wasn’t a real bet, and you know it,” she responded, trailing in his wake.

  “Whatever. Anyway, about our bet—” He turned to look at her and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Don’t look so scared. It’s going to be fun.”

  “If you say so,” she remarked sarcastically.

  He shook his head. “The bet, back to the bet. Remember how you told Richard that hitting a baseball didn’t take any athletic ability and you pretty much called baseball players a bunch of talentless losers.”

  “I did not.”

  “No?” He cocked his head to the side. “Well, close enough. I thought we’d have lunch at the park, and I’d pitch you a few balls so you can have an informed opinion about baseball. In the end, you may still be of the opinion that it’s a sport for talentless people, but at least you can speak from experience.”

  Regan dropped the brown bag on the faded gray bench. “I’ve played before so this isn’t necessary.”

  Lucas opened his black duffel bag and started pulling out a couple bats. “When was the last time you tried to hit a baseball?”

  “Um…” Regan couldn’t remember. No one ever accused her of being athletic. She ran three times a week, and she actually ran track in high school, but she never played an organized sport that involved coordinating actions with running. She winced when she remembered her last experience with baseball or softball. “I think I played in gym class in sixth grade.”

  “And how did that go?”

  She tried to keep her lips from twitching, but she failed. “Not too bad, given my age and other things.”

  “Oh, okay. Care to elaborate?”

  She looked toward the baseball diamond. “Not particularly.”

  He put his hands on his hips. “You’re not getting off that easy, especially when I can tell it’s a good story. Explain,” he demanded.

  She sighed. “Fine. I might or might not have ducked when the ball came in my direction, and I think I might recall the sudden movement causing the bat to slide out of my hands and hit my gym teacher in an unfortunate location.” She shrugged. “I could be wrong. My mind is a little fuzzy.”

  He grinned, his amber eyes startling against his thick black lashes. “Just a little fuzzy.”

  She held up her thumb and her index finger about an inch apart. “Just a little, but I think I recall the gym teacher falling to his knees. He may or may not have been cupping a certain body part.”

  He grabbed the baseball out of his bag and tossed it back and forth between his hands. “Well, this is really unfortunate. I’m not sure I want to pitch to you now. I’m rather fond of all the locations on my body, particularly those that might suffer a similarly regrettable hit.”

  “So…” She watched Lucas smiling at her. That smile brought back a lot of memories. Memories she didn’t want to revisit today or any other day. “We might as well enjoy lunch. I’m kind of hungry.” She sat down on the bench and started unrolling the top of the brown bag. “What’s for lunch?”

  “Chicken parmesan sandwich for me and eggplant parmesan sandwich for you,” he answered as he pulled off his charcoal suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his white and blue-striped dress shirt, exposing his tanned forearms.

  “I love eggplant parmesan,” she responded absently as she pulled two sandwiches wrapped in white paper out of the bag.

  “I know,” he replied, his voice low and intimate as he sat down on the bench next her, his leg brushing against hers making her aware of his nearness.

  She looked up at him as she unwrapped her sandwich. “Do you remember everything?” she asked before
she could stop herself. She could kick herself, repeatedly. Acknowledging his efforts and gestures wasn’t a good idea. In fact, it was a really bad idea. So many things he’d done over the past couple weeks reminded her of Lucas’s thoughtful side, the one she loved like a hopelessly infatuated adolescent six years ago.

  “Not everything, but I remember a lot about you, about us. How could I forget?”

  Regan’s hands froze on the white paper. She cleared her throat and watched a couple joggers run along the dirt trail on the opposite side of the park. She wanted to act unfazed by his comment, but she didn’t think she could do it. That was the problem with Lucas Evanston. Maybe she’d never be immune to him, no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise.

  He placed his hand on her leg just below the hem of her skirt, and to her embarrassment, she shivered. “For the record, we had a lot of good times together, really good times. It wasn’t all bad, not even close.”

  She swallowed hard. “I know. That’s what made the end so hard to take, to forgive.”

  His thumb rubbed gently back and forth along the inside of her leg. “I really wish you could.”

  Caught in his cat-like gaze that was alluring as ever, she couldn’t look away. When his attention focused on her, Lucas was deadly to her wellbeing and sanity. She couldn’t go here again. He leaned toward her slowly, inch by inch, his eyes never leaving hers as he wrapped his free hand around the nape of her neck pulling her toward him.

  “Oh no,” she whimpered, half mesmerized, half terrified.

  “No,” he whispered, letting his lips brush against hers lightly, once, twice, and then three times, his eyes never leaving hers. “Is that your final answer?”

  She let out a barely perceivable moan and leaned toward him as her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted. God, she missed his lips, she had never seen or felt any so full and so sensual. “No,” she whispered, not entirely sure what she meant.

  Kissing her again, her lips parted without resistance and he wrapped his hand around her waist pulling her onto his lap. She arched into him, wanting to feel connected and close to him because, as his warm body brushed against hers, she felt the chill that had been part of her life for the last six years start to melt away.

  He broke the kiss and his eyes sparkled wickedly as he feathered light kisses along her neck. “No, that wasn’t your final answer, or no, please stop?”

  “No stopping,” she answered pulling his face back to hers because there was no way she would deprive herself now that she’d had a small taste. He kissed her hard and demanding, his hands roaming down her back and up her sides, his tongue tangling wildly with hers, and every nerve ending in her body came alive.

  Kissing him was even better than she remembered.

  As she pulled on his tie, loosening the knot, the thought crossed her mind that her behavior was absolutely crazy, dumb, and self-destructive, but she pushed the thoughts away. Right now, she wanted to touch him, to feel him, to smell his spicy, familiar scent. His fingers toyed with the buttons on her shirt, and then she heard giggling.

  Pulling away from him, she looked over her shoulder. A couple of teenage girls walked by them whispering. Feeling a heated blush stain her face, she slid off his lap and turned away, straightening her shirt and the folds in her linen skirt.

  “Hey,” he murmured grabbing her hand, pulling her back toward him. “I’m sorry about that. We got carried away, but they’re gone now.”

  She flinched and pulled her hand away from him. They couldn’t do this, not now, not ever. They had an ugly history that no amount of kissing or apologizing would overcome. “That was a mistake. This…” she waved her hand back and forth between them, “is a mistake.”

  “Look at me.”

  She turned and faced him. Not saying a word, she raised her eyebrows.

  Confused, he studied her face. “Wait—you actually believe that, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.” It didn’t feel like a mistake, she thought, but she didn’t want to share that with Lucas, not yet…maybe never if she were smart.

  Was being involved with Lucas a good idea? Until five minutes ago, she would have said no, but now it didn’t seem so ridiculous. Or did it? Ugh, she was utterly confused. She’d been kissed many times in the last six years, but not one of those kisses ever made her lose herself, and she couldn’t afford to lose herself again.

  Lucas still talked to Olivia. Maybe he did more than talked to Olivia. She knew they dated off and on in college. Perhaps that was still the case or maybe it actually morphed into something serious. That’s what his family always wanted. The brief time she met Lucas’s mom, she didn’t have much interest in her and repeatedly brought up Olivia. Maybe they really were planning to humiliate her one last time for kicks.

  She thought Olivia should be over being kicked off the dance team as a result of her failed seduction attempt of Regan’s dad, Professor Pierce. After all, it happened six years ago, but what did she know. Olivia purposely set out to make her life a living hell as some sort of revenge tactic, and Lucas let Olivia use him as her instrument of torture and retribution. Maybe it wasn’t so smart to let him back in her life again. Then there was Parker—nice, safe, considerate Parker. She would bet her measly life savings that Parker didn’t have an ulterior motive. He liked her.

  “I don’t get it,” Lucas said, shaking his head. “What are you thinking?”

  “I think this is too complicated. The waters are too deep.”

  “Because of what happened in college or because of Parker?” Lucas asked, standing up from the park bench.

  “Yes, because of college and Parker,” she answered looking down at her bright white walking shoes that looked absolutely ridiculous with her tan linen suit. “But because of other things too.”

  “Like?” he questioned, stepping closer to her.

  “Olivia, work, my dad…just to name a few.” She pushed her hair away from her face. “There are so many reasons why we shouldn’t do this and not many reasons why we should.”

  His face hard with anger, he raked his hand through his hair, and she itched to touch his hair, test its weight and see if it felt the same as it did six years ago. Now that she tasted him and touched him again, six years ago felt like yesterday and she ached for him again. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

  He nodded, then started stuffing the baseball equipment back in his duffel bag. “We should get back to the office. It’s getting late.”

  “Do you want your sandwich?”

  He picked up his suit jacket and shoved his arms into the sleeves. “I lost my appetite. You can toss it in the trash.” He pointed toward the trashcan near his car.

  She picked up both sandwiches and carefully rewrapped them. She hated the tension between them. It was almost unbearable. Somehow a harmless lunch morphed into a complete nightmare. Working with Lucas before this happened was hard enough without adding their most recent misstep into the mix. Regretting the way their lunch ended, she put her hand on his forearm.

  “Lucas, don’t be mad.”

  He shook off her hand and opened her car door and she sat in the passenger seat.

  “I’m not mad,” he said. “I have whiplash.”

  She turned to look at him. Lucas infuriated her as no other man could. This wasn’t her fault. How dare he blame her? He kissed her, not the other way around. Well not initially, at least. “Join the club,” she responded sarcastically, then slammed her door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  There were seventy-two hours until her two-day trip with Lucas. Since Saturday morning, she had been counting the hours, not days, until they left for their business trip. She didn’t know why. Maybe because it sounded better in her mind when the numbers were larger until she left and shorter while she was stuck with him in another state.

  He hadn’t contacted her once since they aborted their lunch date at the park. No emails, no texts, no voicemails¸ not even a short reminder that he needed the Rule 12(b)
(6) motion by the end of the weekend. She didn’t need the reminder anyway. She emailed it to him by noon on Sunday. Even then, he didn’t send an acknowledgment or a thank you. Pathetically, she had checked her sent email box ten times to verify she had sent it. She kind of wished she’d included one of those annoying electronic verifications of receipt.

  Even worse, she’d spent the entire weekend dodging Parker’s calls. She didn’t know what to say to him. They’d been on two dates, but they hadn’t defined their relationship other than to acknowledge they went on two dates and they had one planned the weekend of his brother’s engagement party. She sent him a couple texts saying she had to work all weekend, but they could meet for drinks after work on Thursday. Before she hit send, she added that she was looking forward to his brother’s engagement party. In true Parker fashion, he didn’t push. He just responded he was looking forward to drinks on Thursday.

  When she reached her office, she nearly groaned, both in frustration and elation. One double shot cappuccino sat on her desk. Did that mean Lucas wanted to move beyond what happened last Friday? She hoped so. This summer would be difficult enough without having to avoid him.

  Five minutes later, Lucas stood at the entrance of her office. “Richard wants to see us in his office in five minutes.”

  Her stomach dropped. Did he know what happened between them in the park last Friday? Did Lucas tell him? She would die of embarrassment if he questioned her about the incident or if someone witnessed it. Straddling her summer mentor in the middle of a public park wouldn’t earn her any points with this firm or any other firm, for that matter. Her reputation would be torn to shreds before she started.

  Without any explanation, Lucas turned and left her office.

  Regan opened the lid on her cappuccino and blew on the contents before taking several large gulps. She refused to walk into a potential ambush without caffeine. Her mind was still too fuzzy to navigate any pending minefield.

  In the hallway, she caught up with Lucas who had stopped at Annabelle’s desk. She fell in step behind him not wanting to make small talk. He obviously agreed because he didn’t make any move to comment or walk with her.