His other arm slid around me and he pulled me from the door into his warm, big, solid body.
“Sweetheart,” he whispered.
Yep, definitely regret.
It was time to let him off the hook. What he did was uncool but it was very Lucien. What they did was just, plain wrong.
I looked up at him and put my hands on his chest. “So, seeing as you’re new to the Buchanan family dynamic, let me clue you in. I’m going to go out there and be sarcastic, bitchy and obnoxious. Aunt Kate’s going to be overbearing because she’s never wrong. Mom’s going to be guilty, as she should be. Aunt Millicent is going to be mostly worried about when dinner will be served. And Aunt Nadia and I’ll probably talk a lot about the clothes you bought me and whatever new man is in her life. Then all will be forgiven. We’ll eat. We’ll probably get drunk. And, except for Aunt Kate, who will find the best guest room and lay claim to it before any of the rest of them even think about getting their suitcases from the car, we might end up dancing to eighties pop music and doing the robot. Just hope Aunt Nadia doesn’t try to breakdance. The last time she did that she threw her back out and was down for a week.”
The regret was gone, his hand was moving up my back and his eyes were smiling even though his mouth wasn’t.
“Two problems with the evening’s festivities, pet.”
“And those would be?”
“I don’t want you drunk and I don’t want a house full of Buchanans when I finally have you.”
Oh.
I’d semi-forgotten about that.
“Definitely no breakdancing,” he went on and because he was funny, I laughed out loud.
When I did, his gaze dropped to my mouth, the smile left his eyes and they went intense. His hand sifted into the hair at the back of my head and he kissed the laughter right off my lips.
It was a good kiss. One of the best in a lineup of seriously top-notch kisses.
My arms were wrapped around his neck and my body was plastered against his when he lifted his head.
When my thoughts unjumbled, I whispered, “We have a wee problem then.”
“No, we don’t.”
I tilted my head to the side. “We don’t?”
“Leave it to me.”
For some reason, I got worried and my arms tightened.
“Lucien, I’m not sure you understand. The Buchanan women can be kind of…” I couldn’t believe I was saying this to him of all people but I had to warn him as I would have to warn anyone who went head-to-head with the aunties, “daunting when they’re riled. Whatever they did made my Dad leave and never come back and–”
Lucien interrupted me, “First, they’re concubines. I’m a vampire. Your father wasn’t. They won’t say a single word to me.”
Oh yes. That was true.
He went on, “Second, your father left because of your aunts but he never came back because of Cosmo.”
My arms tightened again, this time spasmodically because at the same time I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut.
“What?” I whispered.
“If concubines find a man after their Arrangement and wish to stop their care, they can ask their vampire to stop it. Most of them do. Your mother did too. But your father couldn’t give her the life Cosmo gave her or the ones her sisters had. This made him mean. Mean turned to nasty. Drink made him dangerous. Your aunts got rid of him, Kate told Cosmo about his behavior and Cosmo reinstated your mother’s care and made certain he stayed gone.”
I stared at him, uncertain what to do with this knowledge.
“Did Cosmo… did he… kill my father?”
Lucien’s brows knitted. “Of course not.”