Romancing the Rival (Accidentally Yours)

by Jennifer Shirk

  Elena looked up at him and frowned. “I’ve always been a professional.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Scott said, glancing at his watch. “But now you’re a New York City professional. Our careers are totally gelling.”

  “Exactly,” Lucas said. “Things really do seem to be coming together for you two. You guys make a great couple.”

  “We do?” Elena blurted. “I mean, of course we do.”

  She had always thought she and Scott made a wonderful couple based on attraction and friendship. However, considering she wasn’t anticipating on quitting her job and moving to New York anytime soon, her feelings about that were becoming confused.

  Scott tilted his head at Elena, a small smile hovering over his lips. “Yeah, it sure seems like we make a great couple.”

  She smiled back at him. Okay, she had to hand it to Lucas. It probably was better that he came to dinner with them. Scott seemed to really be looking at her like he had in the past—with warmth and love. Maybe they really would get engaged again before the end of the month. Then she’d have everything she wanted for a future: a home, a family. But for some reason that prospect didn’t send goose bumps down her spine like it normally would have. Maybe she was just tired from the long afternoon.

  Then a ping sounded from Scott’s cell phone.

  He took out his phone and glanced down. “Oh, crap,” he said, reading the text. “I gotta go. My boss doesn’t like a part of the presentation I just handed in. I have to go back to the office and work on some changes.” He stood, folding his napkin and tossing it on top of his plate.

  Gotta go? Elena’s pulse began to race. They hadn’t even finished dinner. They hadn’t discussed when they would see each other again. More importantly, they hadn’t discussed where she would be spending the night.

  Scott kissed the top of her head. “I’ll text you later. Where are you staying, babe?”

  Aha! And there was the opening for the invite to stay at his place…

  Elena tried a casual shrug. “Actually, my luggage is still in Lucas’s car. I haven’t had time to find a hotel, so I thought that maybe—”

  “Wow, sorry, this is terrible timing,” Scott said, running a hand over the top of his head. “I wish I had known you were coming to town earlier. I’m having my bedroom painted this week, and I know how sick you get from paint fumes.”

  “Oh.” Elena felt punched in the gut. One time she had stayed at Scott’s when his kitchen was being painted and the smell gave her a terrible migraine. Of all times to have work done at his apartment. Yet another setback with Scott. She hadn’t counted on that. And she hadn’t counted on not having anywhere to spend the night, either. She supposed she could find a reasonable hotel.

  “No problem,” Lucas said, his expression bland. “Elena can stay at my place.”

  Lucas’s place? Oh, no. No, no, no. This was a much worse problem. She was trying to spend less time with Lucas and now he was offering her to spend the night at his apartment with him. Wait a minute… Lucas was brilliant! He was trying to make Scott jealous! Of course.

  “Oh, Lucas, you’re so sweet,” she said, placing a hand on his arm for effect. “We had so much fun on our first sleepover in the mountains, didn’t we?” When Lucas didn’t respond, she kicked him under the table.

  “Oh, right!” Lucas said, barely flinching. “We sure did. Hope you packed those cute little cookie pajamas of yours.”

  Cookie pajamas? She pulled her hand back. Lucas remembered her pajamas?

  Her heart did a little flutter, which she hoped was just indigestion.

  “That’s a great idea,” Scott agreed. “Lucas has a much bigger apartment than I do anyway. I’ll catch up with you guys tomorrow.” He reached behind him and pulled out his wallet, but Lucas waved it off.

  “My treat,” Lucas told him.

  Scott grinned. “I owe you. Twice.” Then he leaned down and kissed Elena on the cheek. “Great seeing you.” Then he dashed through the restaurant and out the door.

  Great seeing you? That was all? Didn’t he even catch the pajamas comment?

  Elena sighed. She’d tried. Lucas had tried. But she and Scott didn’t seem to be getting any closer to moving their relationship back to where it had been. Christmas was coming, and it looked as if she’d be spending it alone. Unengaged. She almost couldn’t bear the thought of spending yet another holiday by herself, and her eyes began to fill with unshed tears.

  “No, please,” Lucas begged, placing a hand on her arm. “I swear you can order the whole left side of the dessert menu if you promise not to cry.”

  She couldn’t help cracking a smile. “You honestly think I’m the kind of woman whose emotions can be bartered with chocolate and sugar?”

  Lucas moved his chair closer to hers. “You do wear chocolate chip cookies on your nightwear. So, yeah, I think I know you pretty well.”

  She leaned back and looked into his handsome face. “Well, that’s because you think you know everything.”

  “I do know everything,” he said with a grin.

  Lucas had a way of making her laugh. Even when she didn’t always feel like laughing.

  “Okay, maybe not everything,” he conceded. “But I think I know you. I know that you’re upset Scott didn’t profess that he was madly in love and propose to you all over again.”

  She scoffed. “Well, you don’t need to be an expert in Elena Mason to be able to figure that one out.”

  “I know it upsets you when he puts down your job at The Harbor Light or when he says something negative about Cape Harmony.”

  “Yeah, it does. But I know he doesn’t mean to upset me. He just loves New York and wants me to love it as much as he does.”

  His lips curved slowly as he refilled her wineglass. “You not only have high expectations for relationships, but you have high ideals for people as well.”

  “What can I say? My parents set the bar high on both.”

  Lucas shook his head. “Wish I could say the same. My parents’ marriage was not quite held on the same pedestal as your parents’.”

  She took a sip of her wine. “Are they divorced?”

  “Yep. Since I was thirteen. My mom took off for California with a younger boyfriend and my sister and I lived with my dad after that. He never did remarry. I think my mom really broke his heart.”

  Elena placed her hand on top of his. “You were young. It must have broken your heart, too.”

  Lucas didn’t answer. He just took out his wallet and then a credit card, signaling to the waiter for their check. But he didn’t have to say anything. Elena was beginning to read him as well as he read her, and she could tell that being abandoned by his mom had affected him in some way. Enough to not want to give all of himself to another for fear of being abandoned and hurt again. She hoped that wasn’t the case. It seemed a shame for someone as special as Lucas to be alone for the rest of his life—even if he thought he preferred it that way.

  “After I pay the bill, we’ll head home,” he told her, his tone flat.

  Home? “You’re going to take me back to Cape Harmony?”

  He shook his head and grinned. “Not your home. My home.”

  “Oh, right.” Her cheeks flushed. She’d almost forgotten. She was going to be spending the night at Lucas’s. Their second time together like that if she counted the night up in the mountains. So why was her heart beating at an irregular cadence?

  He laid a land over hers, his touch setting her skin on fire. “Hey, you staying at my place isn’t any big deal, right?”

  She’d stayed with him in the mountains and nothing had happened. They were just going to be roommates like before. However, back then she had hated his guts, when she thought he’d betrayed her, when she didn’t find him so attractive, and now…

  Now nothing.

  She was a fool. She had Scott. Sort of. And besides, Lucas wasn’t even interested in relationships. Or at least, not the kind of relationship she was interested in. He wanted no part of marriage or p
artnership or love. He said it himself: he worked best alone.

  She looked up to find him staring at her with a look in those brilliant blue eyes of his that had her heart suddenly thudding.

  She swallowed and through dry lips managed to utter, “Yep. Staying at your place is not a big deal at all.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Elena walked into Lucas’s apartment with preconceived notions that were completely wrong. Huh. Apparently, she didn’t know Lucas Albright as well as he claimed to know her.

  Lucas seemed like a modern, minimalist kind of guy, much like Scott. Wasn’t that the unexpressed code of city executives? But Lucas’s apartment was far from the typical Manhattanite apartment she’d expected. There were tons of black and white family pictures of him and his sister hanging on the wall, as well as a few of his dad in the foyer. His living room wall color was plain white; however, there were plenty of colors in the room, with two gold sitting chairs, a green velvet sofa, and a lovely Oriental rug that tied everything together charmingly. His place was cozy and inviting. If she were to live in the city, it was exactly the kind of place she’d want to be.

  “Oh, Lucas,” she breathed out. “This is really lovely.”

  He set her luggage down then shrugged out of his coat. “Expecting a graveyard?”

  She cracked a smile. “Something like that.” Maybe not so much on the ghoulish side, though. She just hadn’t pegged him to be so sentimental. Scott didn’t have any family photos in his apartment. And Lucas’s definitely looked homier with its worn furniture even though he had no Christmas decorations up yet.

  He gestured behind her. “Your bedroom is in there. So, make yourself comfortable,” he said, taking her coat. “Wine?”

  “Sure,” she answered. Although she’d had plenty to drink at dinner, she still felt a little uptight invading Lucas’s personal space like this. She sat on the green couch and sank deep into the cushions, trying not to notice how the scent of Lucas lingered in the air.

  “Great. I have a bottle of red open.” He went into his galley of a kitchen and came out rather quickly with the bottle and two wineglasses.

  After pouring a little into each glass, he handed her one. “I know you feel like you’re imposing on me, but you’re not. I really don’t mind the company.”

  “Says the man who functions best alone.”

  “Well, had I known I was going to have such a great partner, I might have conceded to working with others a little sooner. I should have mentioned that to Scott tonight, too.”

  She smiled then looked away and into her wineglass, almost dreading to hear the answer to her next question, because she knew Lucas would tell her the brutal truth. “After everything that happened tonight and I ending up here, I’m worried that things have changed too much between Scott and me. You know him well. Do you think Scott still has feelings for me?”

  Lucas cocked his head, considering her question. “He’d be a fool not to,” he said after a moment.

  She narrowed her eyes. “That doesn’t exactly answer my question.”

  “He hasn’t shared any deep, dark secrets with me, but if you’re meant to be together, then you will be.”

  “I thought you were cynical about love.”

  He shrugged. “For myself, yes, but not necessarily for others.”

  She took a sip of her wine then kicked off her shoes, feeling more relaxed now that she had a little more wine in her system. She turned to him, tucking her feet behind her. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  Lucas sat back, loosening his tie with one hand. “You can ask anything you’d like. But I reserve the right to answer or not answer.”

  “What exactly happened between you and your wife?”

  He studied her for a moment, as if weighing some heavy decision. Then he put down his wine and stretched his arm across the back of the sofa. “The usual things that happen in a marriage that’s not a good fit from the start, I suppose.”

  “Is that why you looked to another woman?”

  His eyebrows shot up. “There was no other woman.”

  There wasn’t? She blinked, feeling heat course over her cheeks. “But Scott said there had been infidelity. I—I just thought…”

  “You thought I had been the one to cheat?”

  “Well—”

  “No.” He sighed, running a hand over the light stubble on his face. “Even though things weren’t great between Catherine and me, that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect the vows we had made.”

  Guilt and shame made her speechless. Scott hadn’t really said who had done the cheating in the relationship, but she automatically assumed it would have been Lucas, since he seemed so anti-marriage. She’d thought it was because he resented having his freedom taken away and because he preferred being alone. Obviously, his cynicism toward it was due more to people letting him down—through his parents’ failed marriage and through his own.

  “I’m sorry, Lucas.” She truly was. This was the second time she’d misjudged him. He didn’t deserve that from her.

  He cracked a smile. “Sorry for what happened in my marriage or sorry you assumed the worst about me?”

  She looked away. “Both,” she admitted. “I guess I can see why you wanted Scott to be sure about getting married to me. But because of what I’ve seen of marriage, I’ve known only the good that can come from the love and partnership of it. True happiness.” Happiness and also contentment. Ever since Scott had called off the wedding, there had been an empty ache inside her—as if something vital was missing in her life—which was why she wanted it back. There was nothing worse than being alone.

  He tilted his head, then traced a finger along her cheek, which made her almost forget to breathe.

  “You keep saying that marriage to Scott will make you happy. Are you really so sure about that?”

  Her gaze locked with his. “Yes, I know it will,” she said, but the words didn’t fall off her tongue as smoothly as she’d thought they would.

  His lips curved into a languid smile as he turned toward her. “Aren’t you happy now?”

  “I… Yeah, I guess I am.”

  And she realized that statement was 100 percent true.

  She was happy.

  She was happy that she’d broken out of her shell and had accepted the freelance job and could get paid for what she loved doing, and she was happy she was working with Lucas. In fact, she was pretty much happy all the time now that Lucas had become a part of her life.

  He ran his hand up and down her arm. “Right now, I am, too.” Then his head slowly lowered, his eyes searched.

  He moved nearer, cupping her face in his hands. He was so close she could smell his shampoo, see his eyes smolder with fire. Her heart pounded in her ears. Before she knew what was happening, his lips descended and she was kissing Lucas Albright.

  Lucas Albright III.

  Her friend. Scott’s friend. The man who would have been the best man at her wedding.

  She wanted to protest, but the day and the way his mouth fit against hers sucked out all the energy from her body. His arms came around her and held her tightly as his lips danced across hers with a fervor that matched her own. Her gut tightened. She couldn’t remember ever experiencing a kiss like this. Feeling like this. The sheer force of their chemistry knocked her off-balance because it was as intense as it was unfamiliar. In all the time they were together, Scott’s mouth had never drove her to this, to this need. She leaned into him, thinking she could melt into his chest right then and still not be close enough.

  His hands journeyed down her back and cupped her backside, lifting her onto his lap. She was drowning in him and helpless to do anything about it. She didn’t want to do anything about it. She wanted to let go of her control and ride out this feeling. Forget about timelines and plans and commitments and just savor this moment. But her head still seemed to be locked in a battle between willpower and desire. While his lips made a whisper trail down her neck, she made a mental list of all the r
easons she should tell him to stop, but it wasn’t until she got to the reason named “Scott” that her head finally snapped back.

  “Oh my gosh!” she panted, laying a hand on her racing heart. “Why did you do that?”

  It took a few seconds for Lucas to catch his breath. “Because I wanted to,” he said, never taking his eyes off her. “Why did you let me?”

  She froze, her eyes blinking in rapid succession. Oh, no. He was right. Not only had she allowed Lucas to kiss her, she’d full throttle willingly participated and kissed him back. What kind of almost girlfriend did that make her? She scrambled off his lap and leaped to her feet.

  “I—I don’t know why,” she stammered.

  Lucas wearily stood. “You do know why, Elena. You kissed me back because you’re just as attracted to me as I am to you.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “We’ve just been working together and it’s late and—”

  “It’s more than that and you know it.”

  It was. But she wouldn’t dare admit that out loud. Lucas reached for her then, but she jumped back. “Don’t touch me.”

  He sighed, and his arm dropped back to his side. “Look, I’m not happy about this any more than you are. Scott is my friend, but he willingly gave you up.”

  “He gave me up after what you told him.” She whirled away and began pacing the room.

  This is not happening. This is not happening. But it had happened and unfortunately, the whole situation went way beyond lust. She’d been spending a lot of time getting to know him.

  She was falling for Lucas.

  Lucas had become her friend and her champion over these last few weeks. He’d made her laugh and had made her step out of her comfort zone as an artist. However, she wanted more than that. Lucas could never love her the way Scott did. Lucas preferred his job and career over a wife and family. He’d told her more than once that he wasn’t made for marriage. He’d even admitted that he functioned best alone.

  Well, she wanted a future with someone. Marriage. A home. A family. Everything her parents had. She wasn’t going to give up on that kind of assured happiness with Scott for something just temporary with Lucas.