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because I walked in on you.”
    Mark’s split-second hesitation validated Lauren’s words but didn’t shut down his argument. “The fact remains, I didn’t fuck her.”
    “What’s the phrase? It goes to intent , your Honor.” Lauren almost choked on the words. Mark just rolled his eyes.
    “So I’m guilty for something you think I would have done if I had the chance?”
    “If the glove fits.”
    Mark sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I stopped myself, Lauren. I sent Sandy home and I came here to apologize. I would have apologized sooner, but I couldn’t reach you. I guess because you couldn’t stop yourself from taking your revenge with Eric.”
    Lauren bit back a sarcastic reply. She didn’t think of it as revenge anymore. She just shrugged.
    “So you admit you had sex with him?”
    Yes. Sex. Just sex. Why did she want to think of it as making love, as more than just a physical act? “Guilty as charged.” The words stung, though. She certainly felt guilty. “I slept with Eric and you know what? I can’t wait to do it again. In fact, I’m on my way to his apartment right now.”
    Mark smirked even though his face had turned crimson with anger.
    “In your bathrobe?”
    “No. In Saran wrap. Now give me my key and go.”
    “Come and get it.”
    Her jaw dropped. Lauren thanked the stars she’d tossed Mark’s key into his mailbox as she left his apartment. She wouldn’t have trusted herself at this moment not to aim the little piece of metal at his heart.
    Did he really think she’d stick her hand in his pocket to retrieve the key?
    She took one menacing step forward, hoping to call his bluff, but a shadow in the hallway beyond her still open front door drew her attention.
    Eric appeared behind Mark. “Am I interrupting something?”
     
    Why hadn’t he heeded his own warnings? Eric began mentally beating himself up the moment he saw Mark’s hulking physique in Lauren’s doorway.
    Lawyer Boy stood in her living room, facing Lauren who looked flushed and defiant and delicious in a satiny, powder blue bathrobe.
    This was the scene Eric should have expected. Would the argument he’d heard on his way down the hallway end in the inevitable reconciliation?
    He hurt me, but I still love him . Eric had heard that line more times than he cared to count—from women he’d dated and lost and from women like Lauren who saw him as nothing more than a shoulder to cry on, or a safe harbor to shelter them temporarily from the rough waters of a dysfunctional relationship.
    Why should he think Lauren would be different?
    “Yes, you’re interrupting.” Mark swung around, his face set in hard lines and much less doughy than it had seemed at Antonio’s. Behind him, Lauren seethed.
     
    “No, you’re not! Eric, come in. Mark was just leaving, after he returns my key.”
    Eric stared Mark down, not trusting his voice. Finally, Mark produced the key from his pocket and handed it to Eric. “I guess you’ll be needing this now.”
    A dozen snappy comebacks ran through Eric’s mind, most of them lewd, so he kept his mouth shut. He stepped aside to allow Mark to pass by and stood absolutely still until his archrival disappeared around the bend in the corridor.
    He held out the little silver key as he stepped over the threshold of Lauren’s apartment. “I think this is yours.”
     
    A tight fist clenched in Lauren’s chest at the look in Eric’s eyes. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and close his hand around the key, urging him to keep it, but she realized that would seem foolish and immature. This wasn’t a boyfriend exchange, after all.
    She wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she picked the key out of his open palm.
    “Thank you.”
    “I’m sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound completely sincere. “I didn’t mean to get in the way if you were trying to work things out.”
    “Work things out? There’s nothing to work out between Mark