I didn’t like Etienne. He scared the beejeezus out of me. Still, hunting him down, torturing and burning him was pretty extreme.
“Right,” Lucien continued. “Leah is up, she needs to eat then I need to feed. I’m turning my cell off now. I want no further interruptions tonight. I’ll phone you tomorrow.”
He needed to feed and he wanted no further interruptions.
I liked this idea.
“Goodnight, Julian. My love to Bel,” he muttered, I heard a beep then I saw his phone clatter on the desk.
I lifted my head to look at him.
“Is it time to talk?” I asked.
“No,” he answered, reached out to the hotel phone on the desk, grabbed the receiver and put it to his ear. Then he stated, “We’re ready to order dinner.”
Then, without another word, he put it down.
“That was kind of abrupt,” I told him.
“I don’t have the time or inclination to befriend a man I’ll see occasionally the length of our stay here and never see again. You’re rested. Your color is back. You’re sitting in my lap with no underwear on. We were separated for nine days and reunited for one, the vast majority of which you’ve been sleeping. I want you fed and you’ll eat sitting next to me not wearing any underwear. Then I want to feed and do it while I’m inside you. You need your strength. That, at the moment, is all I have time for.”
I was blinking at him, half turned on (okay, fully turned on) when out of nowhere a man wearing a spiffy hotel uniform walked into the room.
Lucien wrapped me tight in both arms and looked up at him.
“Dinner, sir?” he prompted.
“Thank you,” Lucien replied then launched into it. “A French baton. Pâté fois gras with truffles. Two fillet mignons rare with béarnaise sauce. Sautéed potatoes. Fine greens. Rolls. A bottle of red, a Bordeaux. This followed with two chocolate crème brûlées and a bottle of Moët.”
It seemed while I was sleeping that Lucien had familiarized himself with the menu and it was clear he was in the mood for French food. This was good since all that sounded great.
“Yes sir,” the hotel butler murmured.
“Bring the crème brûlées and Moët half an hour after you serve the main and then don’t disturb us for the rest of the night.”
He nodded, muttering, “As you wish,” then moved out of the room.
Okay, that was still abrupt but one could not say this presidential suite business wasn’t totally cool.
On that thought we were up, me held in Lucien’s arms and he was striding across the room. I barely got my arms around his shoulders when we were down again. Me on my back in the couch, Lucien partially on me, partially with his side in the seat. His head was up, his eyes on me and he lifted a hand, trailed a finger down the side of my face then curled all of them around my neck.
“You remembered the béarnaise sauce,” I whispered.
“Of course,” he whispered back. “We’ve something to celebrate if belatedly.”
I felt my nose begin to sting.
Then I whispered, “They’ll probably make it better than me.”
“Undoubtedly.”
I grinned then it faded and I ordered, “Tell me you love me.”
His hand slid up my neck, my jaw to cup my cheek as his head dipped closer.
“I love you, sweetling.”
Dinner sounded great.
But those words sounded better than anything.
I sighed, my arm moving around him and I turned to my side. Lucien shifted with me so we were face-to-face and in each other’s arms.
“Why didn’t you say it before?” I asked.
“Because I couldn’t,” he answered immediately. “Because I hadn’t admitted it to myself. Not when you gave that to me. Not before. Not for twenty years. If I admitted it to myself twenty years ago, I wouldn’t allow myself to have you because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t let you go. When I had you, I wouldn’t admit it again because I wouldn’t let you go. I was already flying in the face of the rules of The Dominion with what I would allow us to have. They were going to accept that, I knew. They owe me. But they’d never allow me to take you as mate. We could do it but they would hunt us, eventually find us and we’d be given The Sentence. I had to protect you from that.” His eyes went strange and I knew why when he finished, “But it seems I failed at protecting you from everything.”
“It worked out in the end,” I whispered reassuringly on an arm squeeze.
“Yes,” Lucien replied, not looking or sounding very reassured.
I decided to change the subject to a far happier one. “Why did they change their minds so suddenly about immortals mating mortals?”
“They had their reasons,” he answered vaguely.
It had to be said, I wasn’t in the mood for vague. I’d had a lot of vague not to mention seriously vague (in other words, stuff kept from me). Therefore I was so over vague.
“Seems strange,” I probed, “all the trouble they took, all the heartbreak they caused, five hundred years and then, poof,” I fluttered a hand in the air, “whatever. Mate with mortals. We don’t care.”
Lucien grinned then clarified, “All right, my love, how about they had very good reasons.”
“War?” I whispered.
“Yes, amongst other things.”
“Etienne told me about their plans and –”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Don’t worry about it? Was he crazy?
“Lucien, what he told me was pretty scary. And they didn’t say it straight out but it seemed you’re a specific target. How am I not supposed to worry about that?”
His arms gave me a squeeze. His voice was low and firm when he repeated, “Leah, my love, don’t worry about it. You know I can take care of myself. What I must do is be certain I take better care of you.”
That was nice, very nice. Still, I studied him and I did it closely.
Then I noted, “You’re not going to share, are you?”
“Not now, no. I need to have a meeting with a member of The Council, discuss things and if it’s safe for you to know, I’ll tell you.”
I had a feeling I had no choice but to leave it at that. So I left it at that and changed the subject again.
“You didn’t feed,” I whispered and his arms gave me another squeeze.
“You don’t like me taking from anyone but you. I don’t like to feed from anyone but you. So I didn’t feed until I found you.”
God, that was so sweet.
“Thank you,” I said softly and Lucien leaned into me to touch his mouth to mine.
When he pulled away again, I held his eyes.
I didn’t want to go where we had to go but we had to go there. We were starting an eternity together. There were a few things to get straight.
“You kept a lot from me,” I said quietly trying not to make an accusation sound like one.
“I did, pet, and I’m sorry,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked.
Lucien sighed then pulled me closer. “First, I didn’t tell you about the restrictions against physical intimacy and living together because I knew you well already. And knowing you, I knew I had my hands full. I didn’t need you having more ammunition to use to keep yourself from me.”
This, I had to admit, was true.
“Second, I didn’t tell you about Maggie because it served no purpose.”
“It’s a part of you, a part of your history,” I reminded him. “And I was falling in love with you. But even if I wasn’t we were sharing our lives together and would being doing so for a while. You already knew everything about me and you had to know I wanted to know everything about you.
“I did, sweetheart, but I’ll remind you we’ve known each other a very short time and only a small portion of that has been time you’ve let me in. I cannot say, had my father not intervened, if I would have told you. But it’s likely. You’re right, I intended for you to be a part of my life for years to come which would mean you being around my friends and family. There was a high probability someone might let something slip. Secrets have a way of revealing themselves and, I tell you true, when you learned about Maggie, I would have wanted it to come from me.”