She swallowed hard. “You are too late in your order, Gray. Stenfax has already ended things with me. He hasn’t seen or talked to me in days. I have no doubt he will never come to see me again. And if you’re worried about me, I will not pursue him. I’m perfectly aware of the damage I did before. Of the damage I could do if…well, it doesn’t matter. It’s over. And my word will have to appease you, for I have no other proof excerpt for it.”
Gray held her stare for a long moment and there was a strange expression on his face as he did so. As if he had searched for her lies and instead found a kernel of truth. He finally nodded swiftly.
“See that itisover. Good day.” He turned away and stalked from the room without so much as a backward glance for her.
Once he was gone, Elise sank into a chair, her hands shaking, though Gray certainly hadn’t posed any threat. But still, his appearance moved her.
Because it reminded her of the stakes. She couldn’t spend time mourning the loss of her love. She couldn’t regather herself.
No, she had to go to Vivien’s tonight. Shehadto find a protector. That was the only way to end this.
Once and for all.
Chapter Twelve
Lucien sat in a dark corner of Vivien’s club, watching Elise across the room. He had arrived before her and she didn’t know he was here as she stood with a small group of men, smiling and laughing with them. She was utterly beautiful in a low-cut blue gown, her hair in a loose chignon with curls that framed her face perfectly.
She didn’t look lost like he was. She didn’t look broken. So once again, he was the one shattered by their parting. She could just move on.
He frowned at the thought, even though he knew exactly why she was with those other men. He knew the threat she faced. He was here to help ensure she was protected, after all.
Vivien slipped into a chair beside him and smiled. “Hello, my lord.”
“Vivien,” he said, not in the mood to share his night with anyone, but especially the observant courtesan.
“I never pegged you for a voyeur,” she said, leaning over so she could follow his line of sight. “Or perhaps it is only one lady who inspires such…proclivities.”
He kept his lips pressed together, not rising to her bait as he kept watching Elise. She was with a middle-aged man named Carter and the much older Earl of Ryland.
But the companion who bothered him most was the young buck Winstead, who had approached her at the Swinton party the previous week. He was an eager sort, clearly interested in having her, if his long looks at her bosom were any indication. She spent more time talking to him than the other two.
“Have you ever asked her why she threw you over?” Vivien asked, like a fly buzzing in his ear.
He jerked his face toward Vivien. “Most people don’t dare to broach that subject with me,” he said through clenched teeth.
Vivien didn’t seem to be moved. “I’m not most people. Have you?”
He looked at Elise again. The other two men had drifted away now. It was just her and Winstead. The young man touched her arm and he thought he saw Elise stiffen slightly before she smiled.
“No,” he said in answer to Vivien’s question. Also as a response to Elise’s slow surrender to another man.
“You’re afraid of the answer.”
He looked at Vivien again. Her words were correct, in a way. He kept telling Elise he didn’t trust her, but it was more than that. He didn’t want her to say those things out loud. To verify what had haunted him for years.
“I already know the answer,” he said. “My father and grandfather and his father before him, they were terrible managers and gamblers all. They pissed away the estate in tiny increments. Building it back is tasked to me and it is a slow process. Elise’s duke had blunt and a higher title. Everything else she ever said to me was a lie.”
Vivien was silent for a long moment, and then she leaned in. “Does it feel like a lie when you’re with her?”
“No,” he ground out. “But I can’t trust her.”
“You won’t let yourself,” Vivien corrected.
“That’s right.” Lucien pressed a fist against the tabletop. “I know how that story ends. I can’t even trust myself. Not anymore.”
He looked at Elise again. She and Winstead were dancing now. She smiled when she was looking at him, but when she wasn’t, her face looked…sad.
He pushed to his feet. “I came here tonight not to talk to you about my past with Elise, but to make sure she had a future. I have heard nothing negative about Winstead.”
