Page 5 (1/2)
Aro with a frown, unsure whether he should follow and stand guard outside the ladies&039; room or not This was a busy mall with lots of people around, but that wouldn&039;t stop Leonius Livius if he was around And aside fro promised Lucian to keep her safe while she was here, Ar to her either He&039;d already lost one lifeto add to the nus she&039;d left behind and follow her when Eshe suddenly turned into a hall and disappeared fro at the entrance to the hall with the international ures that denoted the washrooms, Armand decided he could watch froood, cold and tasty, hitting the spot after their shopping Ar, but had enjoyed his tihty as hell The perfect coht h and sit back in his seat She was hard to resist, but then that wasn&039;t unusual for a life h, andher to Lucian with the order to send her so to do, he acknowledged to hiot involved with hiically bad luck when his first wife and lifeand it had taken him a while to recover froht be anything but a terribly tragic accident He had pretty rief, while he had , it hadn&039;t been nearly as bad as losing Susanna But he had thought her death another case of terribly bad luck However, when his third wife, Rosaed Not at first At first he&039;d been too upset to think clearly and had cursed God and the fates for taking yet another woman he cared about fro why he was so cursed, or what he had done to deserve it It was so unlikely for one man to lose three wives as he hadespecially when they were iile as mortals They were incredibly hard to kill, and that fact hat had finally kicked hier and depression
Armand had started to look into his wives&039; deaths then, quietly and as inconspicuously as possible, but centuries had passed since Susanna&039;s death, and another century had coone between Althea and Rosamund, and as far as he could tell all three deaths appeared to be simple bad luck on the surface
Still, a part of hi else at play, so this bad luck The problem was that as far as he could tell there wasn&039;t anyone who had been present during all three deaths who could be responsible He had no one to point a finger at Even so, Armand had done what he could to protect those still left in his life that he cared about He&039;d basically withdrawn fro on his far to see and show that he cared for his children or anyone else in the faet
While he couldn&039;t keep Lucian fro to see him, and had visited with Nicholas at first, his visits with his son had always been furtive little stints when he snuck away froet updates on Thomas and Jeanne Louise and the rest of the fao, Tho him in diners tns over to pass him the latest photos of Jeanne Louise and hi
Ar what he was He also knew his son thought he was a coldhearted and half-crazy bastard for not seeing Jeanne Louise, but he couldn&039;t explain How foolish would it have sounded had he said that he just had this "feeling" that his wives&039; accidents hadn&039;t been accidents at all, and that he was afraid in the absence of a life in suffering accidents? If he&039;d said as much to Nicholas or Thonored his wishes and sprung Jeanne Louise on him as a surprise at one of their visits
To be honest, Armand would have liked that His heart hurt over the fact that he&039;d never even spoken to his daughter, but since it was the women he cared about in his life who seemed to die, he was dairl&039;s life
Now he had Eshe to worry about He&039;d like to think she was safe enough, that he was the only one who even knew she was at the house, but he&039;d be lying to himself Armand had no doubt that Mrs Ra everyone she knew that he had female company on the farm, and that was before she&039;d even seen Eshe He was equally positive that before they&039;d even turned out of the driveway onto the road when they&039;d left the house, Mrs Ra Eshe inevery word spoken By now, Eshe&039;s presence would be known to everyone in the srapevine He just hoped it hadn&039;t spread far enough to put her in danger
The question hether he illing to take that risk His three wives had died after htas he didn&039;t nant But he hadn&039;t been willing to take the chance that the pattern would continue when it cahter, Jeanne Louise, and ulti to take that chance with Eshe either He already liked hera lot, and he wanted her with the passion that only life mates could enjoy He suspected too much more time in her company would push him over the brink into love, and then he wouldn&039;t be able todid happen to her
Armand sed and reached for his phone It was better to call Lucian now and get her removed before he actually experienced all he would enjoy as her life mate He wasn&039;t sure he&039;d be able to send her away once he&039;d tasted the paradise he was sure he could enjoy in her ar?"
Arlanced up to see that Eshe had returned His mouth opened to offer the standard lie, "No one, I was just checking es" But the lie never passed his lips Instead, his ed for their dinner at Moxie&039;s However, she still wore her leather pants and hadn&039;t changed her T-shirt in for the dressier blouse they&039;d purchased earlier Instead, she was noearing the incredibly short, white satin baby doll as a top with the leather pants
"I grabbed the wrong bag," Eshe said with a shrug as she claiot a look at it I thought, what the heck It really just looks like a dressy summer top, and while it&039;s fall, it&039;s still pretty hot, so" She shrugged again and picked up her drink to take a long pull of it
Ar over the snohite straps against her darker skin, beforeher breasts, and then his gaze slid to the other people in the food court No one was pointing at her and squealing, "Eek! She&039;s wearing a baby doll as a top" In fact, no one seeed Then again, as she&039;d said, it was an unseasonably war very similar actual tops but in cotton and polyester rather than white satinand probably not purchased froaze back to Eshe to see that wicked smile back on her lips as she watched him, and then she leaned forward and whispered in a da panties too All I need to do is shiet home"
Ar up and collecting the bags before the last word had left her lips
"Oh," she said with a surprise he suspected holly feigned "Are we leaving already?"
"You can drink that on the way to Moxie&039;s I&039; her out of her seat
"And I bet it&039;s not just for food either," she taunted with a laugh as he herded her toward thewhen he&039;d created Eshe for him, Armand decided as he hustled her out to his pickup, because she was going to be the death of hi to kill him to have to call Lucian and have her taken awaytoht with her, but to Lucian and telling hiet her out of his home and somewhere safer, Ar a suspicious character who ht be one of Leonius&039;s people if he had to, but he would not risk this wo up dead because she was unlucky enough to be his life mate He had decided
It was only a short drive to the restaurant called Moxie&039;s Even so, Esheof blood Ar into the pickup That had been an unco while bent forith her head ducked below the dashboard to prevent anyone in the other cars on the road spotting her sucking on a bag of blood While there were innu an immortal, it could be a serious pain in the ass at ti in a slance around It see the space in front of the restaurant
It was actually late for dinner, but the restaurant was still quite busy However, one of the half a dozen girls clad in skintight or scanty black outfits and stationed at the entrance to the restaurant showed the the back wall It appeared to Eshe to be one of the better places to sit, being somewhat sheltered from the rest of the place by a curtained wall that offered so, and she wondered if Arirl&039;s ear or they&039;d just gotten lucky
Eshe slid into one side of the booth while Arirl offered They were subjected to a quick listing of the restaurant&039;s specials before the woman left them alone to peruse the menus
Eshe ordered wine and the peppercorn steak, rare, when a handso waiter also in all black arrived to take their orders She hardly noticed the overfriendly save her order She did, however, notice how short Arave his own order
"I arimly when she raised her eyebrows after the boy had left "You obviously didn&039;t read his htly "I&039;ve already found my life rual"
"And the other half were things you plan to do to rin
Armand so of his irritation as he did and relaxing completely He reached for her hand and held it between theetically, "It&039;s been a while since I&039;ve felt this way"
"For nizant of the job she was there to do, asked, "Were you jealous around Althea and Rosamund too, or just Susanna?"
Arested he&039;d rather she hadn&039;t brought the conversation around to this subject again, but said, "No Only with Susanna Althea" He glanced away and then back before ad, "I&039;m pretty sure she had affairs after Thomas was born I didn&039;t blame her," he added quickly "I was always busy back then, and by that time she&039;d realized that e&039;d all told her was true and I wasn&039;t her life ood rudge her looking for her true lifeshe could until she found hiuilt over it, though, and I didn&039;t kno to help her with that without letting her know I knehich I think would have just made her feel worse"
"She never cahts like you could read hers?" Eshe asked, realizing that was how he&039;d known about Althea&039;s affairs
"No She et the ti her down and telling her she could have her freedo Thomas if she took him to live with her, but then she died and I had to send him away anyway"
Eshe considered hie in his expression What he was telling her appeared to be the truth Sitting back, she asked, "And Rosamund? You weren&039;t jealous of her either?"
Armand sether Like Althea, she was young in age for an immortal, but that&039;s where any resemblance between the two ends Rosamund was much more mature, wise beyond her years"
"Was she?" Eshe asked, and was surprised at the harsh sound of her own voice It suggested a jealousy that was unexpectedand she wasn&039;t the only one to notice Armand raised a surprised eyebrow and peered at her in question, but she just shook her head "Sorry, go on Rosamund ise beyond her yearsHow?"
He hesitated, but then apparently decided to continue and said, "Rosanant and make you marry her like Althea did?"