The act was smoothly done as if she curled into him all the time. It was also immensely proprietary in a beguiling, feminine way.
He liked it, a great deal, and therefore relaxed into it.
“Lucien, this is Justin.” She gestured with her hand then turned from him to Justin. “Justin, meet Lucien.”
Lucien looked at Justin who, Lucien was pleased to note, was now not looking so happy to see Leah. His eyes were darting back and forth between the two of them and his faced had paled slightly.
Unfortunately, Lucien had to break contact with Leah who’d burrowed under his right arm to shake the man’s hand.
“Justin,” he murmured.
“Lucien,” Justin murmured back, shaking his hand.
It took effort but Lucien stopped himself from crushing all the bones in Justin’s hand. Regardless, Justin winced behind the power of Lucien’s grip.
The minute their hands broke, Leah moved back in, assuming the same position but this time she rested her other hand on his upper abdominals.
It was a light touch but it spoke volumes.
As with most moments with Leah, but especially that moment, Lucien had the raging desire to kiss her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked Justin, her voice not entirely friendly, not exactly unfriendly. She was testing the waters and Lucien decided to give her the lead in this uncertain situation.
“I just asked the same thing,” Justin replied, his voice was entirely unfriendly, his pleasure at seeing her had evaporated.
“You first,” Leah said, she read his tone and her words were frosted.
Lucien settled in to watch.
Justin looked between Lucien and Leah again, his eyes traveling down to Lucien’s middle. Lucien slid his arm around Leah, cupping his fingers on her shoulder. Justin’s eyes shifted, he watched this and his mouth grew tight.
Then he spoke. “At the last minute, they changed their minds and instead of transferring me to Seattle, they transferred me here.”
“You live here?” Leah asked and Lucien felt her body tensing.
Not good news, at least not for Leah.
“Yes, I do,” Justin replied. “Now… you.”
“I live here too,” Leah told him and Lucien watched as Justin’s eyes grew wide with disbelief.
“You live here?” he whispered.
“Well, not here, in the city,” Leah explained. “I live in Dragon Lake.”
Justin’s eyes, already wide, went huge.
“Dragon Lake?” His voice had dropped even lower then he whistled before stating, “That explains it.”
“Explains what?” Leah asked sharply.
“What would drag you away from that family and all those friends of yours. Obviously, if you can afford to live in Dragon Lake, you must have got a helluva job. That’s a pricey neighborhood.”
“We don’t actually live in Dragon Lake.” Lucien decided it was time to enter the conversation. “We live outside town, on the lake.”
Lucien didn’t put any emphasis on the “we” but then again, he didn’t have to. Justin caught his meaning, his eyes narrowed on Lucien and his jaw clenched. He again looked between Lucien and Leah and Lucien heard his heart start beating faster.
Angry.
Lucien bit back a smile.
Finally Justin’s eyes settled on Lucien and he asked, “Do you?”
“Justin –” Leah started, her tense body going solid but Justin’s eyes didn’t move from Lucien.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“Justin –” Leah began again but Lucien talked over her.
“Yes,” Lucien replied.
“Then you know she broke up with me just five months ago.”
“Justin!” Leah snapped but Lucien again spoke over her.
“Yes,” Lucien repeated.
Justin’s eyes shot to Leah. “You’re a fast mover. Or were you with him before you finished with me?”
“Justin –” she started yet again, his name a shard of ice but this time Justin talked over her.
“Nice necklace, Ley-lo.” His voice was snide and it was Lucien’s turn to go tense.
“Do we have to do this?” Leah asked, her tone hard saying it was not a question at all and that they were not going to do “this”.
Justin disagreed. “Oh, I don’t know,” he drawled sarcastically. “Six months ago I was told I was being transferred, with a fucking great raise and a huge bonus. Not anything that would put me near Dragon Lake but it wasn’t anything to fucking sneeze at either. You said you wouldn’t move, no way, no how. Guess you were waiting for someone who could put gold around your neck and your ass in a two million dollar house on Dragon Lake.”
“I think you’re done,” Lucien told him and his voice made it clear Justin was, indeed, done.
Again, Justin didn’t agree. “Oh, do you now?”
Leah pressed into his side as her hand came up to grasp his lapel. “Lucien, don’t –”
Lucien looked down at her and saw her face had paled with alarm. But before he could reassure her, Justin was there.
“He’s a big guy, Ley-lo, but you know I can handle myself,” he announced. Leah’s body turned to marble and Lucien’s eyes sliced to him.
Justin was dark-haired, dark-eyed and clearly fit but, even if Lucien wasn’t a vampire, he had four inches and fifty pounds on him at least.
However, he was a vampire and without any effort at all, he could rip the man’s head off which was something he would have liked to do. Not because he was clearly an asshole but because Lucien knew he’d been an asshole to Leah for a very long time.
Justin, Lucien knew from Fiona, was ambitious. He was also callous with his ambition not only in business but often cancelling plans with Leah, sometimes important or special ones in order to spend his time clawing his way to the top.
Justin was so ambitious that when he needed Leah to be available to charm associates at a business dinner or the like, regardless of the fact that he often chose work over her, he demanded her attendance. He did this even, on occasion, when she was ill or when she had other plans. The former, she’d done, according to Fiona, once. The latter she’d told him to “go screw himself” (Fiona’s account, direct from Leah’s mouth), which meant they fought, not cleanly or at least Justin didn’t fight clean. In a fight, as he was always, he was insensitive, selfish and manipulative.
Justin, Lucien now knew, was also stupid.
Leah tried to salvage the situation. “We’re at the opera,” she hissed to Justin.
“So, fucking, what?” Justin hissed back. “You think you can stand there and hang on some guy, some guy you’ve known for what? A couple of months? Some guy you’ve moved in with when you wouldn’t entertain the notion for even a second with me? Hang on him right in front of me when five months ago you were in my bed?”
Lucien prepared to move. “I see you’re not done but we are.”
Justin, proving his immense stupidity, leaned in and snapped, “Listen up, Lucien, whatever fucking kind of name that is, take it from me. Trust me, I fucking know. Get out, get out now. She’ll twist you around her little finger, get you addicted to that toffee snatch of hers, then she’ll –”
Lucien was done.
Instead of ripping his head off, which was something he now really wished to do, he did something else which would likely not horrify Leah, the rest of their many onlookers and sentence him to be hunted down and burned by The Dominion. The last of which would put a world of hurt on his plans to tame Leah as he’d be dead.
Silence, Lucien commanded, Justin’s mouth clamped shut and his eyes bugged out. Walk away, Lucien continued and without hesitation, Justin’s body jerking woodenly, he turned and walked away.