“Fiona?” I asked.
“Fiona Hawkins.”
Fiona Hawkins? Aunt Fiona Hawkins? How did he know Aunt Fiona?
And why would she be telling him about me always wanting to go to Italy?
This was just bizarre!
“Aunt Fiona told you I’ve always wanted to go to Italy?”
“Fiona told me a great number of things. Fiona Hawkins was my concubine fifty-one years ago.”
This information rocked me so much it was physical. I took a step back but his arm snaked around my waist and brought me forward so my stomach, h*ps and thighs were pressed against his.
“Aunt Fiona serviced you?” I breathed.
I mean, I knew she was a concubine. She wasn’t a Buchanan but concubines were friendly (most of the time). I’d known her since forever.
“I throw birthday parties for all my concubines, every year,” he answered.
I felt my mouth drop open again as something occurred to me.
I went to Aunt Fiona’s birthday parties.
Every year.
“Oh my God.”
Lucien ignored my prayer and went on, “I try to attend. Sometimes I can’t stay long. Sometimes I don’t attend the party but visit with them before or after. Twenty years ago I was able to attend. She served fried chicken.”
I felt the pulse of his words shaft through my body and it was physical too. My entire frame jolted with it so much I had to grab onto the sleeves of his shirt at his biceps to stay standing.
“Or,” Lucien continued, “I should say, you made fried chicken for her guests. She told me before I went it would be the best thing I tasted… for eternity.” I kept staring at him as his face dipped closer, his black eyes warmed and he murmured, “She was wrong.”
My mouth opened and then closed. I didn’t know what to say. What I did know was that he’d just given me another earth-shattering compliment.
He kept talking. “After that I went every year. And every year, you made her your fried chicken.”
“That’s her favorite,” I whispered.
“I know,” he replied.
I put my hands on his chest and commented, “I didn’t see you.”
“I didn’t want to be seen.”
“You can do that?”
“When you can control people’s minds, you can do anything. Even disappear.”
I felt my body tense. “You controlled my mind?”
He nodded and said, “I also marked you.”
Oh my God.
That was true!