She stood up to leave but was stopped again by
Lucas. This time he took her in his
arms and held her against him.
"Don't do this to me, Reagan," he replied. He tilted her face to his and slowly moved
his lips to meet her own. Reagan pushed
against him, but her will to fight was broken as the kiss deepened. She held on to him as if her very life
depended on it. Suddenly she found
herself kissing him back passionately.
"Don't marry him, Reagan," Lucas demanded. "Marry me. Say you will. We belong together." The meaning of his words hit Reagan like an
ice-cold pail of water. He began to
kiss her again, but Reagan pulled back.
"I...I can't," she cried as she broke away
from his hold and ran from the room.
She didn't even notice Richard standing in the doorway who had to jump
out of her way to avoid being knocked down.
Lucas watched her fleeing form with a heavy
heart. "Damn!" he cursed as
he downed his drink and poured himself another.
"Quite a show, if I do say so myself,"
Richard commented and softly applauded.
"Don't know who put on the better performance; the tearful lady or
the jilted man. Yessir, quite a
show."
Lucas glared as his friend with complete
disgust. "Go to hell," he
barked and downed another drink.
Richard smiled as he poured himself a drink. He placed the lid back on the decanter and
took a drink before he spoke another word.
"You two really should just get it over with and get married. Save a hell of a lot of bad tempers flying
around. Rather ruins a party, don't you
think?" Not getting any response
from Lucas he continued. "So if
you two are so much in love, why did you ever split up?"
Lucas finished another glass. "I don't really know what
happened. I wish to God she would just
tell me." He looked down at his
empty glass and was engulfed with rage.
He needed to take his anger out on something and the glass seemed like
the perfect target. Without thinking he
slammed it down on the table and watched it shatter into a thousand
pieces. Ignoring the blood on his hand,
Lucas stormed out of the house.
Mason came rushing in just as the front door slammed
shut. "Good heavens! What happened in here?" he asked as
they both eyed the shards of glass scattered on the table and floor.
Richard just chuckled and brushed past Mason pushing
his glass into Mason's hands in the process.
"If you only knew. If you
only knew."