say to her if they were to ever meet again. Clearly, their first meeting he’d chosen to stay silent about their shared history, but she wondered if he would continue to do so. Her body leaned forward a bit on its own as she waited in anticipation. Maybe he’d welcome her and mean it, or say, why the fuck did you break my heart, you bitch? But she didn’t get any of that; instead he looked through her and then he disappeared into his office.
His anger she could handle, but she hadn’t prepared herself for indifference. She reminded herself that she had made her bed, and tried to put the look on his face out of her mind as she busied herself with work.
Lucien paced in his office—concentrating was impossible with Darcy MacBride sitting outside his door. She’d blossomed, surpassing the beauty of her youth. He had half a mind to seduce her so he could rid himself of her ghost, because—damn, if she wasn’t always in the back of his mind. She shouldn’t be—it was so long ago—but she lingered like the scent of a favorite perfume.
How could he be just as captivated by her as he had been when they were teenagers? She had lured him in once, but she wouldn’t be doing it again. He had learned that lesson the hard way. He needed to make sure the boundaries were firmly established. He probably shouldn’t have hired her, but the truth was that he wanted her close almost as much as he wanted to push her away—probably more so.
“Darcy, a minute.”
She entered the room and immediately the air felt like it was being sucked from it. His temper stirred.
“Working hours are eight thirty to five. I do not tolerate tardiness, Ms. MacBride.” He let that comment linger in the air, a subtle dig to her that he hadn’t forgotten that she was late fourteen years ago.
“If you have questions, ask them in a clear and concise manner. I have no tolerance for babbling. It is your responsibility to run this office. I won’t be pleased if I need a binder and am unable to locate one. There is alcohol on the premises, but if you indulge in it during working hours you’ll be terminated immediately. Personal calls are made on your own time, not during working hours. My calendar is to be maintained perfectly on all of my devices, and I will require both your home and cell numbers because my job is not just a nine-to-five and I may need to get in touch with you.”
He stopped pacing and turned to her. “Any questions?”
“No.”
“You’re dismissed.”
She left as meekly as she’d entered, without a single comment. The Darcy he knew, the one he at times still ached for, would have flayed a layer of skin from him. Maybe she wasn’t the same girl she had been, which would make his life much less complicated.
Darcy returned to her desk as her blood boiled. She gave herself a few minutes to envision the voodoo doll she was going to make of Lucien. Picturing stabbing him repeatedly put a smile on her face. Maybe riches had gone to his head. If so, it would make her life much less complicated.
That night after work, Darcy sat at a table in Allegro nursing a glass of wine and listening to a band with a very mellow sound. Lucien was mingling and chatting nearby. The room was dark enough that he wouldn’t know she was staring, so she looked, really looked, at the man the boy she had loved had grown into. He was taller, but not much, since he had already been over six feet at sixteen. Definitely more muscles, particularly in the chest and arms. She remembered his body at seventeen; she couldn’t get enough of that body. She’d tasted every inch of him, knew every muscle, every hard line. They had only had five weeks of loving before it all fell apart, but they didn’t waste that time. They had sex two, sometimes three, times a day, thanks to the intensity of young love and a lack of the cynicism that comes when you get older and learn the hard way that not everything is possible.
Through the years, she often thought about how things would have been had she met him under that tree.
Would he be where he was now if she had left with him? Would he have lacked the drive to have accomplished all the incredible things that