eyed her coolly, and she was just as cold when she asked, “Can we talk?”
He removed his date easily and beckoned Darcy to a quiet corner.
“Yes?”
“Are you calling me a whore because I’m reaching out to the people you asked me to reach out to? Was this not why you asked me here tonight?”
She saw guilt flash in his eyes, but she was fucking done with his bullshit.
“I made a mistake almost half my life ago. I thought we were over this, but clearly you aren’t, so let me offer you some advice: fucking get over it,” she said.
“Maybe I can’t.”
“Then I’ll quit, because I’ve put myself through enough regret and guilt over what happened and I let you get your digs in because I owed you that. But I’m not going to pay penance for the rest of my life for a decision I made when I was a scared kid. Fucking grow up, Lucien, because you’re the one in the wrong now, but you are old enough to know better.”
And then she turned with a sweep of white and walked away with her head held high.
Lucien paced his office, but his guilt just weighed him down. He couldn’t believe he’d actually implied that Darcy was a whore last night. What the fuck? Maybe he had a brain tumor, but he knew that wasn’t true. He’d only started acting like a complete douche the day Darcy came back into his life. He knew what provoked him, and as much as he’d like to say it was his anger or his need for self-preservation, it wasn’t either. He was fucking jealous—so jealous of any man that touched her—so of course being the mature adult that he was, he called her a whore.
He hadn’t slept a wink because he was trying to figure out how to apologize to her, really apologize. She was right. He was the one in the wrong and he did know better. He pulled a hand through his hair before he walked to the door and yanked it open. He had given her the office just next to his and he found her at her desk working.
“Could we talk for a minute?”
She looked up, and like it was programmed into her, she smiled, but damn if it didn’t look genuine.
“Sure.”
He walked into her office, but didn’t sit because he was feeling too edgy.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been a dick.”
Her response to that was to lean back in her chair and link her fingers. “Go on.”
“You aren’t going to make this easy, are you?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
He had to grin at her honesty. “I have forgiven you.”
“Really? I’m not getting that. I think you want to forgive me, but you just can’t. Any opportunity you have to knock me down, you take it. That isn’t forgiveness, that’s revenge. I get it. I hurt you, but that was fourteen years ago. We aren’t those people anymore.”
“You’re right.”
“I want to work here. I want to work for you. I want you in my life, Lucien, because you were my best friend once. I’ve never had, then or now, anyone who meant to me what you did.”
He moved to sit on the edge of her desk as a grin tugged at his mouth. “I guess you are going to make this easy. You always did have a way of getting right to the heart of the matter and at the same time letting me off the hook.”
“I can’t continue to put myself in a position to get knocked down by you, particularly when my feet aren’t steady enough on their own.”
“I’m sorry, Darcy. I am really, truly sorry. I want you here. And you are right. That was then and this is now. Will you give me another chance?”
She rolled her eyes heavenward, something she’d often used to do when she forgave him, before she said, “Okay.”
He started for the door, but looked at her over his shoulder. “Lunch?”
“Sorry, I already have plans.”
Darcy sat in Allegro listening to Kevin tell her about his day when she felt a sizzling down her spine and just knew that Lucien had arrived. It was a sad state of affairs when her body reacted more to someone clear across the room than the very nice man sitting next to her.
Darcy had been out with Kevin four times in the past week and she so wanted to feel that spark, wanted to move on with her life. He was such a good guy. But it wasn’t