Reagan's Honor

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."