FIRE BLAZED IN Lucas’s eyes, his whole body taut as a live wire as he watched the guys who’d propositioned me head back out into the night. This close, I could feel the raw power he exuded coming off him in waves, and I shivered.

The night had taken an unexpected turn. I thought I’d be able to come here, sneak a peek, and no one would be the wiser. What I hadn’t counted on was my reaction upon seeing Lucas again, and that in my moment of vacillation, he’d see me.

And I especially hadn’t counted on him following me outside…

Because that was exactly what had happened. He’d come out here…for me.

“Lucas.” I tested the word out on my tongue, tasted it, wanted more of it. “Lucas, look at me.”

And then, finally, his eyes met mine, the fire I’d seen there cooling to embers as he schooled his face into a mask of indifference that stung a little more than it should’ve. He looked at me now without the heat of a few seconds earlier. It was like looking at a stranger, and I found myself struggling for words.

Say something…anything.

“Hi.” That was all I could seem to manage, all the eloquent charm I’d been teased about in business meetings flying the fuck out the window. I couldn’t find my tongue to save my life, but then it seemed like he couldn’t—or didn’t want to—either.

“Hi,” he said, clipped and to the point.

Hi. One simple word from the voice so familiar it was like no time had passed at all. And yet, looking at him, I knew that wasn’t true.

“It’s really good to see you,” I said, biting down on the inside of my lip, a nervous habit, and offered him a tentative smile, which he didn’t return. But what had I expected? That he’d be happy to see me after the way things had ended?

Yeah. Yeah, I guess I had.

“Is it,” he said. Not a question, more like he was bored with the conversation and humoring me.

“Well…yeah. It’s been a long time.”

“So this is a social visit?”

His sudden abrasiveness took me back for a second, and I frowned. “Uh… I was just in town and—”

“Thought you’d come to say hi?”

That hadn’t been the plan, but… “Yes.”

Lucas gave a curt nod. “Well, then. Mission accomplished,” he said, and turned on his heel.

Wait…that was all he was going to say to me? After all this time?

“Lucas,” I said before he could go anywhere, and he paused before facing me again. “Thank you. For blowing those guys off.”

“I’m not sure what you saw, but I’d never blow those guys off,” he said, so deadpan that it took me half a beat to find the joke, and then I chuckled.

“Well, that’s good to know. Don’t wanna catch the clap, as you said.”

Lucas’s lips twitched at the edges so briefly that if I’d blinked, I would’ve missed it. Then he caught himself, looked down, and shrugged, as if he couldn’t care less. “I’d do it for anyone. J.T.’s a piece of shit.”

Ah, so it wasn’t just the fact that he’d been messing with me that had Lucas moving to action. I felt a flicker of disappointment, but quickly snuffed it out before he could sense it.

“Right,” I said. “Well, thank you, anyway.”

He still didn’t meet my eyes, instead looking with interest as a small, rowdy group of guys filtered out of the club. “No problem.”

We stood there in awkward silence, me watching him, him catching the attention of the guys and inclining his head at them as they passed by and invited Lucas to join them. Thirty seconds. One minute. With each moment that passed, I wondered if he’d say anything else at all.

His attention wasn’t on me, but he hadn’t left. Yet. Shit, I didn’t know what to say now, or if I should bother saying anything at all, and as he glanced again toward the guys still chatting animatedly by the door, I shifted uncomfortably. “Do you have somewhere to be?”

“Actually, I do,” he said, finally looking at me. The indifference I saw in his gaze cut deep, and that was when I knew my hunch had been right. Coming here had been a mistake.

Only…I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. This close, I could see all the changes I hadn’t been there for—the stubble that lined his cheeks and upper lip, the twisting black lines that trailed one of his upper arms. Lucas wasn’t the boy I remembered anymore, and maybe that was what I’d needed to see. There was something hard in his expression now, like he’d put up a ten-foot wall brick by brick. Things had changed, and the fantasy was gone, disappearing like a puff of smoke in a windstorm.

There were a million questions I wanted to ask him, a million sorrys I wanted to say, but now that he was standing there in front of me, I couldn’t seem to utter a thing. Instead I stared at him, watched as he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, as he kicked a rock out of his path, as he kept his eyes anywhere and everywhere but on me.

And then the words tumbled out, so fast I didn’t realize what I’d said until it was out of my mouth.

“I’m…” I ran my hand through my hair. “I’m here for a few days…”

With his gaze on the cars passing by, Lucas’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, like his mind was kicking around the reasons for why I had said that. God, why had I said that? Hadn’t tonight been enough of a mistake?

“Lucas, you coming?” A blond about our age called out to get Lucas’s attention, a devilish grin on his face as he brought a cigarette to his lips and took a deep inhale that he obviously meant to be indecent, because I had to look away.

You have got to be kidding me. You’re not good enough for him. You’re nowhere near good enough—

“Enjoy your time back,” Lucas said to me coolly, like I’d been some random he’d happened to come across on the street. And then he was backing away, but his focus was on me now, daring me to try to stop him.

Do it, Jackson, his eyes challenged. I fucking dare you.

But I was no match for the one waiting behind him. I couldn’t offer him what they could, and did I even want to? Hell, I wasn’t gay, and Lucas had been my friend, someone I trusted who knew my secrets, and I knew his…and yeah, maybe things had gone a bit over the friendship line, but in the years since, I’d chalked it up to high school experimentation in an all-boys academy. It hadn’t meant anything, not really…

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

As the blond’s arm went around Lucas’s waist, they disappeared back inside the club, and, swallowing hard, I made my way to the street, catching the first cab I saw.

Slamming the door shut, I slumped in the seat and rattled off the hotel address, and as the driver sped off, I rubbed a hand over my face. With my adrenaline crashing, it felt like I was waking up from a bad dream. Had that really happened? I’d gone to a club in search of a man? A man I sure as shit didn’t seem to know anymore?

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Lucas had made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with me—that much he’d all but said. But if that was true, then why had he been wearing my necklace?