Read Online Vampire, Interrupted by Lynsay Sands - Free Book Online Page B

the next few minutes pretending to read the offerings to avoid her table mate, but finally had to set it down or make it obvious that she was trying to avoid talking to the man.
    The moment she set it on the table, the maitre d’ was at her side.
    “Just tea, please,” she murmured, managing a smile.
    Julius ordered coffee, then asked for a plate of sandwiches, and she couldn’t hide her surprise.

    “You eat?”
    “It’s a recent habit I’ve picked up again,” he said calmly, and then asked, “You?”
    Marguerite shook her head at once and assured herself she wasn’t lying. The sausage she’d pinched that morning was an aberration, she was sure. An uncomfortable moment of silence passed. She tried to think of something to talk about to fill it, but the only thing that came to mind was the case she was working on. That made her pause and raise her eyes back to him again. Julius was peering around the restaurant, so Marguerite wasted another few moments trying to read his mind, but again came up against a blank wall.
    Sighing unhappily, she turned her own attention to the restaurant décor as well.
    “Jean Claude Argeneau was your husband and lifemate.”
    Marguerite turned back, eyeing him uncertainly. It hadn’t exactly been phrased as a question, but she treated it as such and answered, “No.”
    “No?” Julius frowned. “‘No’ what? You are Jean Claude Argeneau’s widow.”
    “Yes, I am,” she admitted. “But we were not lifemates. Just husband and wife.”
    Julius sat back in his seat, his expression unreadable. After a moment, he said cautiously, “I have never heard of two immortals who were not lifemates marrying and living together…happily.”
    “Neither have I,” she assured him.
    “It was an unhappy union, then?” he asked quietly.
    Marguerite glanced away, her dissatisfied gaze sliding over the other patrons. She normally disliked talking about Jean Claude, her marriage, or anything having to do with the last seven hundred years of her life if it wasn’t her children, but she found words she’d never said bubbling to her lips and trying to slip out. Keeping them in was actually causing a painful knot at the base of her throat. Finally, she blurted, “It was seven hundred years of hell.”
    Marguerite hesitated a moment and then finally glanced back to see how he was taking this revelation. His expression was unreadable. Mouth twisting wryly, she said, “You do not look surprised.”
    Julius shrugged. “As I said, I have never heard of two non-lifemates living together happily.”
    Marguerite nodded and glanced away from him again and then had a thought and glanced back. “Were you and Christian’s mother lifemates?”
    “Yes,” he said solemnly.
    “Oh.” For some reason she found that news depressing, but forced her own feelings aside and said, “I realize it’s very painful to lose a lifemate, and that it’s probably difficult for you to talk about her, but Christian does have the right to know—”
    “You’ve had a lifemate, then?”
    Marguerite blinked at the interruption, thrown off her stride. Frowning, she admitted, “Well, no, but—”
    “Never in seven hundred years?” he pressed.
    Mouth tightening, she glanced away, muttering, “I fear, my life while married was rather…restricted.”
    A moment of silence passed and then he said, “You were born in England.”

    She glanced back with surprise. “Yes. I was born to a maid in a castle that was not far from London, actually.”
    “Was?” he asked with interest.
    Marguerite shrugged. “It’s gone now. Just rubble I should imagine.”
    “And is that where Jean Claude met you?”
    She scowled. “I would really rather not talk about my life with Jean Claude. In fact, I do not wish to talk about myself at all. I am here in England to find your son’s mother. You could help with that.”
    “I’m afraid I can’t, actually. I suggest we agree not to talk about either subject. I will refrain from