No Stranger to Scandal - By Rachel Bailey Page 0,26
son. Lucy and he were in completely different places in their lives. He winced and called himself a few more versions of idiot.
The wisest move was probably to step down from the investigation and hand it over to someone else in his company. He now had a conflict of interest. But he was so close to finding the key to this case, and a new investigator would take time to get up to speed. That time could be the difference in catching Boyle and letting him slip through a hole in the net. No, as long as he kept his distance from Lucy now and didn’t let it affect his integrity as an investigator, then staying on was the best thing for the case.
Lucy stirred beside him and leaned up on one elbow, a drowsily satisfied smile on her face. “Under different circumstances—” she said, and he cut her off.
“Under different circumstances it still would have been a one-time deal.” He said it as gently as he could—despite it being the truth, it wasn’t the best etiquette to reject a woman right after making love to her.
Undeterred, Lucy tilted her head to the side. “I thought it went well. Granted, it might have been better had we made it to the bed, and things did get a little carried away toward the end there, but you have to admit that parts of it were glorious.”
His skin shivered with the memory of how good it had been. “Lucy, all of it was glorious.” He cupped the side of her face in his palm. “There wasn’t a millisecond that wasn’t glorious.”
She laid a hand over his as he stroked her cheek, confusion in her hazel eyes. “But you wouldn’t want me again if things were different.”
Wouldn’t want her? “Oh, sweetheart, I’d have to be dead not to want you again.” He withdrew his hand, feeling the loss of her warm skin. “But my life is a mess. I’m all Josh has now—he deserves a parent who’s focused on him. And any attention I have free needs to be on my business. I’ve let things slide a little since becoming a single father, so this investigation is important to my career. I just don’t have time to experiment with relationships.”
One dark blond eyebrow jumped up. “I haven’t asked you for forever.”
“I know.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair and tried to regroup—he was making a mess of this, as well. “I’m sorry. This is my fault—I should never have let it happen.”
“There were two of us on this sofa, Hayden,” she said with a touch of impatience and sat up.
“But one of us thinks being sensible is overrated,” he pointed out. “I thought so, too, at your age. Which is why I needed to be the one who was thinking about consequences tonight.”
She stilled and her eyes turned to ice. “That won’t be a problem again.” She stood and began collecting her clothes.
He thumped his head back on the armrest—hard. He’d basically called her a child. Could he have created a bigger disaster of the night if he’d tried? “Lucy—”
“No, you’re right,” she said as she threw on her blouse, then stepped into her trousers. “We were irresponsible. It won’t happen again.”
She was at the door before he’d gathered enough wits—or pants—to respond. He strode across the room, still buttoning his jeans, and laid a palm on the door above her head, shutting it. She leaned her forehead against the door, her fingers still gripping the handle.
“Lucy, I’ve botched this.” Understatement of the year, but his brain still wasn’t working at full capacity after the best sex he could remember.
She didn’t lift her head. “Yes.”
“No, don’t spare my feelings,” he said wryly.
A soft, reluctant laugh floated up from where her face was hidden against the door, followed by a sigh. “What do you want me to say, Hayden? You wanted it to be a one-time deal. Well, I’m on my way out the door, with no intention of allowing a repeat. You got your wish. So why are you stopping me?”
“I want things to be right between us. I don’t want you to leave now with things this screwed up.” He was normally good at smoothing things over with people, at allaying their concerns. It was a skill that came in handy during investigations. Yet after crossing boundaries he’d set for himself and sleeping with Lucy Royall, he’d managed to insult her. Things had now veered outside his area of expertise. His