Lucien Read Online Free PDF Page A

murmured.
     
    He draped his arm around her slender shoulders and guided her towards the exit. “Come on. I’m buying dinner.” When she started to protest he squeezed her closer. “You can tell me all about Moonbeam’s latest fiasco and your brother’s sacrifice to Mother Nature.”
     
    She looked up at him. “And you’ll tell me why you let Margot believe we were doing what she thought we were doing?”
     
    He almost said no, but he lost himself in the troubled depths of her red rimmed eyes. Luc sighed. He felt like a complete bastard. She was exhausted and he worked her harder than he did himself. “Yeah, I’ll tell you.”
     
     
     
    “So that is why I need thirty thousand dollars,” Elise finished with a depressed sigh.
     
    Luc leaned back in his chair and rotated the longneck bottle between his hands. “That’s some story.” He lifted the bottle, motioned for the waitress to bring another round, then polished off the beer. He was going to need another drink to explain to Elise why he hadn’t chased Margot through the building and proclaimed his nonexistent ‘undying love’.
     
    Elise stirred her whiskey sour with the straw, rattling the ice, and pushed her plate to the side. “Right now, Moonbeam and the head priestess are probably working their super-duper, whammy of a money spell. I hope it works. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle Raven once Aphrodite is gone.”
     
    Luc nodded. “Aphrodite sounds like a helluva bike.” He looked across the table at her and his chest tightened at the defeated light in her eyes. He knew what he had to do. “If Raven ends up selling her, let me know. I’ll give him the price he wants.”
     
    Her head lifted and her face showed her surprise. “Luc, you can’t do that. I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but—”
     
    His beer arrived and he picked it up. “Tell Raven anytime he wants to ride Aphrodite all he has to do is ask.”
     
    “But—”
     
    “Not buts, Elise. Without your help, the Andersen job would have taken me a year I don’t have.” He held the bottle up to his mouth and, before turning it up, said, “Tell your brother.”
     
    Acquiescence crossed her features and she nodded. “I will. Thank you, Luc. It will make a world of difference for him to know that she’ll be taken care of.” She took a long swallow from her drink. “Now, why didn’t you chase Margot?”
     
    Luc waited for the waitress to clear the table then said, “Because I didn’t want to marry her and I still don’t want to marry her.”
     
    He watched Elise digest that little bit of information then she opened her mouth only to snap it shut.
     
    He shifted in his seat and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “It’s a long story.”
     
    Her brow furrowed and she waved him closer. “Do you love her?”
     
    “No,” he answered without the slightest hesitation.
     
    She nodded once. “Did you ever love her?”
     
    “No.”
     
    “I see.” Elise leaned back and regarded him thoughtfully. “Lucien, would you mind telling me why you were going to marry Margot when you didn’t and don’t love her?”
     
    “Maybe we should wait. You look—”
     
    “Lucien,” she warned in a no-nonsense tone he knew meant she wouldn’t let it go.
     
    He ran a hand through his hair and debated the best way to begin—starting with all the ways he could manipulate the truth, but in the end gave Elise the short version to a long, complicated story. “If I don’t get married by the time I turn thirty, my grandfather will disown my sisters.”
     
    Elise gasped.
     
    He grimaced. “It wouldn’t be so bad if my sisters hadn’t been sheltered by my grandfather. Sheltered such that they’ve never held a job in their lives. They live for shopping and organizing charity benefits.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth. “But that’s not all. During my last argument with the old man, he threw down the gauntlet and said if I don’t follow