The Vampire’s Fake Fiancée

She fluttered her lashes. “Please sit. I can’t bear to have you standing there, judging me.”

“I’m not judging you.” He should be, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was judging himself. Taking the measure of his weaknesses. He took the seat.

A sharp laugh burst out of her. “Now we both know that’s not true. But I’m okay with it. I’ve been a very bad girl. Just awful to you, my darling. I deserve your judgment.”

“I suppose you do.” She had been awful to him, especially when she’d made him realize all those years ago that he wasn’t enough. Not for her. Maybe not for any woman. So why was she waltzing back into his life now?

She lowered her eyes and pursed her lips as a dramatic shudder went through her. “Do you hate me, Sebby?”

He sighed. The answer to that question was not a simple one. And whatever game she was playing, he wanted to know what she hoped to accomplish and fast. Before he made a foolish decision based on another foolish decision made centuries ago. “Why are you here, Evangeline?”

“That’s the Sebastian I know. Right to the point.” Her expression saddened and she folded her hands in her lap. “I did you a terrible wrong, Sebastian. I acknowledge that and I ask your forgiveness.”

He’d heard this before. Well, not heard exactly, but over the years he’d read versions of it in letters, telegrams, and emails.

“How much money do you need?” He was fully prepared to advance her some funds, just as he’d done in the past. Just as he always had. Just as he’d promised to do.

She put a hand to her heart. Assuming she had one. “I’m not here asking for money. I have enough of my own, thank you. And if that’s all I needed, I wouldn’t have come here in person.”

“Then what?”

She stared at him, truly stared into his eyes, as hers went soft and liquid. “I miss you, Sebby. I was stupid and foolish and I know enough about life now to realize that you were the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He narrowed his gaze, mostly unmoved by her outpouring of emotion. He’d seen similar displays from her too many times to be fully drawn in. And focusing on the pain she’d caused him helped temper any soft feelings that arose. “You told me becoming a vampire was the best thing that ever happened to you.”

She nodded. “And it was. For a long time. But life without you just isn’t…life. And I’ll be honest, because you deserve that from me. The men I’ve met, well, none of them has compared to you. You and I? We were meant to be together. I know that now. After all, what’s eternity without your soulmate?”

She’d never called him that before. He tried very hard not to react. He’d dreamed about her coming to him like this. Begging for his forgiveness. Telling him she would be faithful and true and how he was the only man who’d ever meant anything to her. “What are you saying, Evangeline?”

She reached out and took his hand. “I’m ready for you to be my husband again.”

His lips parted but he was momentarily speechless. She was ready for him to be her husband again? What about what he was ready for? What about what he wanted? Her assumptions were numerous and staggering. And where was the groveling and the promises of fidelity? She’d just admitted there had been other men. Was he just supposed to forgive the many affairs she’d undoubtedly had while she’d been cavorting her way around the world? Where was her apology? Her sense of contrition? Her profession of love? “Just like that.”

She grinned. “Just like that. We can go right back to being husband and wife. Just like old times. I can move in tomorrow. Or tonight!” She fluttered her lashes at him. “We could get reacquainted.”

A curious anger built in him. He’d once thought this was what he’d wanted, to have Evangeline back in his life. But now that the opportunity faced him, he realized that she was taking his love for her for granted. Like she always had. Everything inside him shifted. What he thought he’d wanted and what he actually wanted were two different things.

He might not have been enough man to keep her at his side all those years ago, but time away from her had taught him that he could do just fine without her. Perhaps not as happy or as content as he would have liked. Maybe even a little bit lonely, but he’d managed.

Time had also taught him he didn’t need to be at her side to keep the promise he’d made. Not so long as he defined taking care of her by financial standards, which is all she’d allowed these past centuries.

He shook his head, flush with the power of his new realization. “You’re assuming I haven’t moved on.”

She laughed and waved a hand at him. “Come now, Sebby. You still carry a torch for me. You know it. I know it. Let’s stop playing games and get on with our life.”

His anger breached the boundaries of common sense. He stood and glared down at her. “For your information, I have not only gotten over you, but I am involved with someone else.”

Her smile disappeared. “You’re not serious.”

“I bloody well am.”

Her mouth tightened into a little knot of disbelief. “If you’re trying to get me to fawn all over you and tell you how much I missed you, fine, but let’s not pretend that—”

“Are you calling me a liar?” He was lying, of course, but falsehoods were not something to which he’d ever been disposed so she had no reason to doubt him.