Lucien(16)

Luc leaned against the door and gazed at her thoughtfully. “Marriage to you isn’t going to be simple, is it, darlin’?”



“Marrying me is the easy part. What comes after the vows will be the hard part. If you think I’m going to fall into your arms because of an ‘I do’, then you obviously don’t know me very well.” She had never been more serious or truthful with him. She wasn’t like her mother. She didn’t dish out sexual favors for every attractive man who caught her eye. She wanted more out of life than meaningless moments of passion.



She wanted the fairy tale.



“I didn’t, but I’m beginning to.” Luc pushed off from the door and went to sit behind his desk. “For the record, Elise…?”



She looked up expectantly.



“I never once thought you were easy.” He smirked knowingly. “But when you fall into my arms, darlin’, you’re gonna love every minute of it and wish you’d done it months ago.”



Elise blushed for all she was worth and waved a hand, brushing aside his comment. “Get back to work, Lucien. I’m suddenly anxious to get to Texas.”



In Texas she wouldn’t have to torment her heart by constantly pretending to be madly and hopelessly in love with her husband. The further away from Moonbeam and Raven’s watchful eyes the happier Elise would be. In Texas, she would drown herself in a new project and cease dwelling on the elation she’d felt when Luc had confessed, ‘And I love her’.



She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Too bad it wasn’t the truth. Marrying the man she’d been falling in love with over the past six months was more than half of the fairy tale come true.



She picked up a pen and gnawed on the cap. Now, if only she could figure out how to bring the other half of the fairy tale up to speed before she succumbed and tumbled headlong into his arms.





CHAPTER FOUR




“So you’re a bastard,” Lucas Masters said and a collective gasp went up around the room.



Luc groaned and wished for the hundredth time tonight his grandfather had opted to go fly fishing instead of sitting at the head of the dinner table.



Elise, however, did not gasp. She lowered her soup spoon and regally lifted her napkin, then dabbed it at the corners of her mouth. Her back went ram rod straight and she slowly looked up the length of the table to his grandfather’s throne.



Here we go, Luc thought. He’d seen that look on Elise’s face before. It was the expression she adopted right before telling him to metaphorically go to hell.



Elise arched a finely sculpted brow and regarded his grandfather with a steely gaze. “No. I am a bitch,” she said calmly, clearly, succinctly.



Luc smothered a smirk with his napkin.



His mother gasped. His eldest sister, Lucy, gripped the stem of her wine glass with white knuckles. His twin sister—older than Luc by a whole twelve minutes—Eleanor, snickered. And his other older sister, Lucinda, continued to eat her soup as if nothing had happened.



Elise picked up her spoon and, sending a conspiratorial wink to Luc, turned her attention to the soup. The little minx was enjoying this.



Luc’s grandfather loudly cleared his throat. The old man wasn’t accustomed to be being coolly dismissed and that’s exactly what Elise had done to him. His grandfather expected mere mortals quivering before his deep, baritone voice.



“Your parents weren’t married,” Lucas stated matter-of-factly.



This ought to be good. Luc sat back and, forgetting all about his soup, settled in to watch the evening’s entertainment.



Elise sipped her wine then carefully set it on the table. “Not legally.”



“What does that mean? Not legally,” Lucas scoffed. His grandfather slammed his fist on the table and his mother and eldest sister, Lucy, jumped in their seats. “Either they were or weren’t.”



Elise appeared to be unperturbed by his grandfather’s thunderous expression. “They were handfast.” She paused and waited until his grandfather was about to roar again, then said, “According to The Guiding Light of Gaia Church, they were married for a year and a day. I was born within that year and a day. As for legal documents…?” She shrugged, unconcerned. “None were signed. Their spirits—souls, if you will—were joined by Druidia, the head priestess.”



“Can you prove they were married?”



A variety of emotions flashed across Elise’s face. Luc recognized only two: annoyance and amusement. She looked at his grandfather with a version of her Mother Superior look Luc was grateful he’d never had to face. He wasn’t sure he would have survived if she’d turned it on him.