Love at Stake (Entangled Covet)(57)
“Or door number two?”
She hesitated. The words she spoke next might very well decide her future, for good or ill. How much did she want to gamble on him?
What a silly thought. When it came to Lucian, she’d proven more than once that she was all in.
“You tell me the truth about your past,” she said. “And we take it from there.”
“You’re not asking for forever?” He took a step closer to her.
“You’re not offering it.” The knowledge still stung but she’d lived without him. It wasn’t a proposition she cared to repeat if she could help it.
“All you ask for is knowledge about Claudette. About my past.”
She stood strong, not letting his reticence get to her.
“All right. I agree to your terms.” He settled down into her overstuffed fuchsia armchair.
Lucian open to her questions? The thought was heady. Better press her advantage before she lost it.
“How many times have you been in love?”
Lucian sighed but didn’t look away. “Once, or so I thought. But Claudette had other ideas.”
“What do you mean?”
He spread his hands out. “She didn’t believe I loved her. And in all honesty, she may have been right.”
“How did you meet?” She drifted closer to the armchair.
Lucian smiled. “I was just passing through. Nothing more dramatic than that. Claudette was a barmaid in her father’s inn. She had a small child, you see. Melissa. The offspring of her first marriage. As a widow, she’d returned home and sought shelter with her family.”
“And you were, what? Drawn to her?”
The look on his face as he recalled old memories was almost enough to make her stop her questions. “No,” he said. “The inn was crowded and I didn’t even notice her.”
Seeing your mate across a crowded room and knowing she’s yours. His words echoed through her head. He hadn’t seen Claudette, but he’d spent a lifetime with her anyway.
“I never knew she existed until she dropped a bowl of stew in my lap.” Lucian grinned at the memory. “He father was a bit of a skinflint and hadn’t hired help. She was trying to do too much and ended up attracting a vampire’s attention.”
“Did she know what you were?”
“No.” His smile turned bittersweet. “I courted her for months, thinking I’d hidden my true identity. Almost a thousand years I’ve lived and one little human unraveled me. She knew, you see, what I was. But the men in her life hadn’t done well by her. She must have thought a monster couldn’t be any worse.”
“That’s not it,” she said, stepping closer. “She simply didn’t care what you were because you proved to be worthy of her love.”
His gaze flickered to hers. “We’ll never know.”
“She sounds like a remarkable woman.”
“In every way.”
Lucian didn’t move and she was helpless to do anything but drift closer to him. She wanted to hear every detail of her rival, a woman who had lived and died over a century ago.
“Claudette was fond of telling me I didn’t understand humans half as well as I thought I did.”
“Smart woman,” she muttered.
He inclined his head. “I took her away with me, her and Melissa. They lived on my estate for over a decade.”
“Until the accident.”
His laugh was bitter. “Melissa and her mouth.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “You let a human close to you once. Why am I so different?”
Lucian reached out and caught her hands, pulling her close. “When Claudette died, I wanted to die with her.”
The confession was stark. She had no idea how to respond.
“I think I would have if not for Melissa. I wouldn’t leave our child alone. She might not have been mine biologically but she was mine in every way that mattered. Claudette made me promise to take care of her and I’ve tried to keep that vow.”
“Even now,” she said, “a hundred years later when she wants to try a dating service.”
“One that will parade her like a prized cow at the county fair. Look what Vivian has done with me. Melissa is still young and romantic. I don’t want her disillusioned for someone else’s profit.”
“You’re a good father.”
“Claudette said the same.” Lucian shook his head. “I could be what Melissa needed but not what her mother deserved.”
“Two different types of love.”
His thumbs brushed circles into her palms. “I wanted to love her. I did as much as I was able.”
“But she was human,” Abbey said, her heart breaking. “And you can never care for a mortal.”