The Vampire’s Fake Fiancée

Hah. Tessa crossed her arms. “On what?”

“On thoroughly captivating Sebastian.” She leaned against the door jamb. “I know you love him, but I wasn’t sure how he really felt about you until today. I honestly thought he’d be in love with me for the rest of my life. I was sort of counting on it when I came back here, but clearly I was wrong.”

Tessa didn’t know what to make of that. “Thank you. I suppose. Why were you counting on it?”

Evangeline sighed. “I thought we could be…us again, I guess. Life as a vampire was enormously fun at first. There’s a sense of freedom and possibility that you can’t imagine.”

“No, I suppose not.” Life as a librarian, valkyrie or not, was filled with schedules and events and work to be done.

Evangeline chuckled. “My life as a human was completely mapped out for me. As the daughter of a marquess I was expected to act a certain way, attend certain functions.” Her eyes arrowed into Tessa. “Marry a certain man. Any decisions not made by my father for me, my mother happily commanded. What I wore, what friends I kept, what parties I attended.”

She shook her head. “I suppose that sounds rather trivial to you, but it wasn’t. I lived my life in a gilded prison. Realizing I had freedom and power as a vampire was the most intoxicating cup I’d ever drunk from.”

For the first time, Tessa felt like she understood some of Evangeline’s actions. “I bet it was. What did you do first?”

“You mean after I broke Sebastian’s heart?” She sighed. “I went to Paris. I’d been there before, of course, but I’d had my mother and several chaperones. As a vampire, I finally experienced the real Paris. Oh, it’s a marvelous place when you have the sort of power and influence of our kind.”

“I can only imagine.”

A horrified look marred Evangeline’s beautiful face. “Do you mean you haven’t been? Has Sebastian never taken you? What on earth have you two been doing all this time?”

“Getting to know each other. Living our lives. We’ll travel after we’re married.” That seemed like a reasonable answer.

Evangeline made a rude noise. “Not if you don’t stay on him about it you won’t. He gets very stuck in his ways. That’s a good part of why I left him. Life with him was more of what I’d experienced with my father. Everything was a foregone conclusion. Which house we’d summer at, what parties we’d throw, who would be invited, what would be discussed…”

She waved a hand through the air. “Fancy dresses and parties might seem like fun, but even they lose their luster after a while. I wanted to do life on my own terms. For once. You must understand that. To live as you want, not the way it’s expected of you.”

Tessa nodded slowly. “I understand that very much. And I can see why you did what you did. Doesn’t mean I approve.” She didn’t. Especially not of the cheating part. But this wasn’t about what she thought right now. “Leaving your husband was a pretty drastic measure, but that was your decision to make.”

“Thank you for understanding. And not judging too much.”

“It’s not my place to tell you how to live your life. But you can’t expect me to keep silent about the parts that affect Sebastian, either.”

“I’d expect nothing less from you. After all, you love him. It’s almost mandatory that you speak up.” Evangeline’s smile took on a feline quality. “So what am I doing that you’d like to comment on?”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“Tell me anyway.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes. “Sign the papers and let him get on with his life. You’ve seen us together enough to make your decision. Why wait out the week?”

Evangeline went quiet for a moment, making Tessa think she’d gotten through. “Did you speak to him about his going out during daylight hours? That’s still a concern of mine.”

“I did. And I assure you, he’s protected.” The woman was certainly fixated on that. “Anything else? If not, I’d like to rest before my fiancé takes me out for dinner.”

Evangeline pursed her lips as if tasting that news and finding it sour.

Then Duncan came skittering out of the closet at full speed, ricocheting off Evangeline’s boot and shooting back across the room and up the cat tree.

Evangeline shrieked. “What is that creature?”

Tessa bit her lip to keep from laughing. “It’s my cat, Duncan.”

“A cat? In this house?” Evangeline wrapped her arms around her torso protectively and grimaced. “Are you part witch? How did you get Sebastian to agree to that?”

Tessa lifted one shoulder. “I guess he loves me.”

Evangeline’s lip curled as she stared at Duncan with the same look most people reserved for disease-carrying vermin. “If that’s not proof, I don’t know what is.”

Sebastian retreated to his office, still too angry at Evangeline to deal with her at the moment. Going over some numbers would calm him down and help him suss out what the proper next step was.

But his mind kept going back to Tessa and her story. Reconciling her past with who she was now wasn’t that hard. He’d seen glimpses of the warrior within her the first night they’d been out together. No woman turned around and walked away from a man who was making her unhappy without having some sort of backbone.