So he continued, “Cressida will be irritating. She will say things, perhaps even do things that might be maddening or even hurtful. Do your best to ignore her. I’ll deal with her and I promise to talk through with you anything you may have questions about after she leaves.” He waited for her nod, received it and went on, “My father is another matter.”
Her head tipped to the side. “Your father?”
“We do not share a close relationship,” he disclosed.
“Oh,” she whispered.
“Not even slightly,” he went on.
“Oh,” she repeated on a whisper.
“I do not like him. I do not respect him. And I do not trust him. He has reached out to Isobel and therefore she brought him to our home. I’ve had words with Bel. But I cannot know his intentions. He may be charming. He may be condescending. Either way, you must treat him with respect no matter what.”
“Okay.” She was still whispering.
Lucien’s arms gave her another squeeze. “No matter what, Leah. I’ll do my best to control him but, like Cressida, he’s uncontrollable and unpredictable. The only thing I can ask is that you control your reactions.”
“I’ll control my reactions, Lucien.”
After her immediate response, he studied her again. The inquisitiveness was gone. The warmth muted. The concern evident.
He did not like this but he nodded.
“I also ask you not to share anything about you and me,” he went on.
Leah blinked. Then she asked, “What?”
“Nothing about us, Leah. They know I live with you. They know you are my concubine. They know I hold deep regard for you. Any personal information is not theirs to have. Not your nightmares. None of your abilities. Not what you are to me.”
He felt her body stiffen and she asked quietly, “What I am to you?”
“That we’re lovers.”
Understandable confusion suffused her face and she started, “But –”
“It is none of their concern.”
“Of course not,” she replied. “But won’t they know that already?”
“They would make that assumption,” he lied. “I simply wish you to avoid any discussion about it. Any at all.”
Her head tipped to the side again and the confusion in her features increased. “Why would they discuss it?”
“Again, Cressida and my father are uncontrollable and unpredictable. They may bring it up to provoke you. Don’t be drawn in and if I ask you to leave the room, you do it. Immediately.”
She stared at him a moment before she admitted, “This is kind of freaking me out, Lucien.”
His arms gave her another squeeze and his neck bent so he could touch his mouth too briefly to hers. When he lifted his head, he held her eyes.
“You feel safe with me,” he reminded her, her lids lowered slowly for a languid blink he liked very much then she nodded. “Then you must trust me because I promise you, my pet, I will keep you safe.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Lucien sighed.
Then he stated, “Let’s go home.”
“Okay,” she repeated.
He touched his mouth to hers again then let her go only to take her hand and draw her to the front door. He knew she turned back to the windows to wave to her family and Avery.
He did not.
He took her out to his Porsche and took her home.
Chapter Twenty
The Lunch
“Mother,” Lucien’s son hissed, “stop it.”
She wouldn’t. I knew this. I’d been in Cressida’s presence for an hour and I knew this.
Lucien’s ex was a total bitch. I hated her. I tried not to be a hater but she was the kind of woman that even Mother Theresa would consider bitch-slapping.
But Cressida wasn’t my concern. I was a woman. I’d encountered bitches.
It was Lucien’s father Etienne who gave me the creeps. And he did this because he enjoyed Cressida playing with me. Every catty comment out of her mouth, his eyes flashed with a sick happy light and they moved to me to assess my response. I didn’t know how I knew it but I knew he was waiting for me to break no matter what way that was. To be hurt. To get angry. Just as long as it was negative or damaging.
Vampires were human-ish. This meant that Lucien shared this man’s DNA which I found impossible to believe. Lucien could be a jerk but he was a hot jerk who could be funny, sweet and gentle. Etienne was none of these (except, damnably I had to admit, the hot part) and proud of it. If Magdalene wasn’t sweet and openly loving, I would think she stepped out on Etienne. There was nothing in Lucien that was like his father. They didn’t even look alike, Etienne being blond and blue-eyed, tall but lean for a vampire. Lucien looked like his mother. In fact, he was the uber-masculine image of her classically beautiful femininity.