To Love Again

She had watched with dismay as first one woman entered his life, and then another,

none of them lasting very long, all of them maintaining a friendship even once the

relationship was over. With each new woman that entered his life, Christi lived in dread of this

one being the one he decided to settle down with.

After two years of loving him that hopelessly, when it seemed he would never see her as

more than the ‘little girl next door,’ she had decided something would have to be done to

make him see she was all grown up now, a woman in every sense of the word. If she couldn’t

have Lucas, she was going to make sure he saw her with enough men to be convinced of her

maturity.

The next year had been full of those men, but, instead of Lucas accepting she was

no longer a child, he had merely offered her his shoulder to cry on whenever one of those

friendships broke up! After more careful thought, she had decided that it had to be the fact that

she still had a guardian, in the shape of her uncle Zach, that prevented Lucas seeing her

maturity, and consequently her love for him. That decision had provoked an elaborate—and,

she accepted now a ridiculous—plan, that would show her uncle just how adept she was

at taking responsibility for her own life. The result of that had been her uncle and Dizzy—who she

had somehow managed to persuade to enter into the madcap scheme to hoodwink her

uncle—falling in love with each other, her uncle releasing his guardianship of her and her

inheritance into her own control at twenty-one, instead of the twenty-five it could have been—

and with Lucas’s attitude not changing towards her in the least! She had been at a loss to

know what to do after that, had drifted along for another six months, lost in a sea of self-pity.

Then, as a last desperate plea for Lucas’s love, she had stopped dating other men altogether,

concentrating on her career, hoping that would finally make him sit up and take notice of her.

Months later, she had to admit it hadn’t affected him in the slightest.

And neither had the idea of her possibly becoming involved with Dick Crosby, Barry

Robbins, or David Kendrick! He had even invited himself to the wedding! She would just have to

accept it, she didn’t have anything to interest a man of thirty-seven who had been married and

had a couple of children.

She couldn’t accept that! She loved Lucas, had loved him for four long years, would go

on loving him until the day she died. And she wouldn’t give up trying to get him to return

that love until that day came! The last thing she felt like doing at the end of another

exhausting—and disappointing—day, was getting dressed up to go out on a date with Dick

Crosby.

She freely admitted that she had got out of the habit of going out on dates the last six

months. Not that it had been too difficult; until last week she had had a one-line part in a long-

running play, which had taken up most of her evenings. But last week the play had come to an

end, and so she was back looking for work, or ‘resting’, as most people knew it. She knew she

was one of the lucky ones; her allowance, and then her full inheritance, meant that she was

never going to be one of the ‘starving’ actors who had to find work to survive. But she wanted

to make a success of her career, and loved to act, going for any of the auditions her agent

managed to set up for her. It was a bit much to expect success after only two days of

looking, but the fact that she hadn’t didn’t add to the mood of wanting to go out for the

evening.

It didn’t help that she hadn’t seen Lucas since he had so blithely invited himself to her non-

existent wedding, either! He had been out on a date last night himself, with a beautiful lawyer

who possessed brains as well as all that blonde beauty; Christi had learnt this when Lucas

introduced the two of them last week. He and Michelle had been seeing each other for a

couple of weeks now, and Christi could tell by the way Michelle looked at Lucas that she was

more than fond of him. It was like twisting a knife in her chest to see him with other women, to

imagine him making love to those women. One thing she was grateful for, Lucas never

brought those women home to spend the night with him, any lovemaking he did obviously

taking place at the woman’s home.

He had come home alone last night, late, because Christi had heard him letting himself

into his apartment just after twelve.

He had already left for the office in town, from which he ran his considerable empire,

by the time she’d got up this morning; and as she wasn’t likely to see him tonight, either, now

that she was going out herself, the evening looked bleak.

Poor Dick Crosby! She wasn’t being fair to him at all, she realised ruefully. He couldn’t

help it if he wasn’t the man she real y wanted to be with, nor that she was in love with a man

who was far out of her reach.

Because she felt so guilty about her reluctance to go on this date at all, she made an

extra special effort to look nice for Dick, aware that the flaming red dress, that reached just

below her shapely knees, made her hair appear more ebony than usual, and added colour to her

pale cheeks.

Nevertheless, her heart gave a weary lurch when the doorbell rang promptly at eight

o’clock, and there was no way she could force a sparkle into haunted blue eyes as she hurried

to answer the door.

Dick Crosby was in his early thirties, with thick sandy-coloured hair that fell endearingly

across his forehead, and brown eyes that warmed appreciatively as they took in her

appearance. Not quite six feet tall, he nevertheless possessed a natural grace of movement

that made him appear taller than he actually was.

‘I must remember to thank Dizzy for finally introducing us properly,’ he murmured

softly. Dizzy. Her best friend—and aunt—had rung her shortly after she had got in this evening,

assuring her what a lovely person Dick was, and telling her to ‘give him a chance’.

Mentioning Dizzy was the worst thing Dick could have done, if he had but known it, the

evening losing what little glow it had had with the remembrance that Dizzy had been the one

to set them up in this way. She meant well, but ...

‘Shall we go?’ Christi suggested sharply, sighing inwardly as Dick gave her a hurt look. ‘Sorry,’

she grimaced. ‘Bad day,’ she excused, picking up her jacket to follow him out into the corridor.

He relaxed again. ‘Oh, I know what they are,’ he said knowingly. ‘Only too well, lately.’

‘Oh?’ she prompted with polite interest. Maybe if she got him chatting she wouldn’t

have to add too much to the conversation.

‘Yes, I ‘ Dick broke off abruptly as he saw the stricken look on her face as the lift doors

opened in front of them.

Christi stared disbelievingly at Lucas and Marsha as they stood side by side in the lift. Lucas

was grim-faced, Marsha as kittenishly beautiful as usual as her ex-husband ushered her out into

the corridor.

The two couples stared at each other as the lift doors closed, and the lift descended again

without Christi having made a move to go inside it.

Marsha and Lucas made an arresting couple—Lucas so tall and handsome, Marsha so

delicately lovely as her hand rested on the crook of his arm.

But what were they doing together like this? the question screamed in Christi’s mind. How

could Lucas fail to appreciate the beauty of the woman who had once been his wife, her hair

curving alluringly about her beautiful heart-shaped face, the black dress she wore showing off

her curves to perfection. Next to her, Christi felt like an ungainly giraffe! And then reality righted

itself, and with it came the realisation that Lucas and Marsha were divorced because they

didn’t love each other, that they had been more like enemies the last five years, that the only

interest they shared was their children.

The children... Of course! Marsha would be here to discuss something with Lucas

concerning the children. She could only hope, for Lucas’s sake, that it was nothing too

traumatic; Marsha had already made him suffer enough where they were concerned.

‘You seem to have missed the lift,’ Marsha purred mockingly, hazel-coloured eyes

gleaming with catlike malice as she looked Christi over scornfully.

Christi’s head went back challengingly. ‘It must be the surprise of seeing you again,’

she derided. ‘It must be—almost a year since we last met?’

‘Something like that,’ the other woman dismissed in a bored voice. ‘You haven’t

changed at all,’ she scorned. ‘Although the men in your life seem to have matured

somewhat.’ She looked Dick over appreciatively, giving him her most seductive smile.

Christi stiffened at Marsha’s open derision for her lack of years, glancing uncomfortably

at Lucas. He looked so grim, his eyes glittering silver with suppressed anger, that Christi just wanted

to put her arms around him and tel him everything would be all right, that Marsha wouldn’t

be able to torment him with the upbringing of his children any longer. But it would be a hollow

promise; while Marsha had Lucas’s children, she took great delight in making him dance to

her tune any time she wished. For a man as forceful and dynamic as Lucas, it was an

impossible situation.

She woodenly made the introductions. Lucas’s greeting was terse, to say the least,