AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not what we have or even what we have to give, it’s who we get to share it with that counts. I’ve never had anyone because I never met the right one in all my forty years. Then yesterday, I met you,” he explains.
We relax back into the pillows, into each other and I feel myself starting to doze, with his fingers teasing me awake every time I do.
I know he hasn’t taken his eyes off me the whole time since we got here.
“Will you show me around?” I ask him, not wanting to move though. In case it breaks this spell.
“Around here? Sure. Whenever you want. You hungry?” he asks, right as his own belly rumbles.
“I guess you are,” I chuckle, but remember I only had breakfast and I think we each just burnt off a million calories in bed just now.
“I can go see what the staff left, they always do, just like the wreaths. They make a Christmas feast and put it in my fridges, hoping I’ll someday have a house full of people.”
“Do they live here?” I ask, and Lucian frowns.
“Not exactly. There’s a chalet about a mile or two over the way, the oldest lives there. Grandpa Kellerman set them up like that. The rest? I dunno really. It’s only a small staff, they won’t bug us,” he assures me.
But I’m intrigued.
I had no idea people still lived like this.
Servants and staff? It’s enough to make me laugh out loud when I think about it, about that check and all those thousands of people working for peanuts.
“Do you know what they get paid?” I ask him, not wanting to sound harsh but he did say he was gonna take care of that stuff.
“Umm… No. I don’t,” he says. “Maybe you can help me look into all that, after the holidays?” he says with a pleading smile.
Making me feel like I’ve said too much already.
“It’s no excuse,” he adds. “But I’ve spent so long listening to others, having them show me charts and tell me everything’s fine, everyone’s happy… I just assumed.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to tell you what to do,” I tell him, feeling a thousand feet out of my depth.
“I know,” he murmurs, pulling me close again, smacking his lips on my forehead.
“But you have raised some very interesting points. Things that are long overdue for examination,” he says, yawning quietly as we both close our eyes.
There’ll be a time and a place for all that, I tell myself.
For now, I just want Lucian.
Lucian wanting me.
That’s all I want right now.Chapter SixteenLucianI wouldn’t call it sleep.
More proof of the dream come true.
Dozing lightly with my girl in my arms.
My woman now.
I couldn’t be happier, and I don’t think Carol could be either.
I have a million things I want to tell her, let her feel easy about, but I get that she has some concerns about her own life. And I’ve invited her to fix the one’s she’s found wrong in mine.
We’ll work on things together, but for today, for now. It’s Christmas Eve and I have well and truly opened my present early.
“You hungry?” I murmur, figuring one or both of us has at least one more appetite to fill.
I know what I’d rather do, but being her first time, I’ll let Carol tell me when she wants some more of what I have for her.
“Starved,” she replies and I remember the food situation which is good too because my stomach rumbles again.
“I’ll get us something,” I tell her, moving to get up.
“Or you could just stay,” she whispers, gripping my arm and making me groan with indecision.
“You need to eat, maybe I could show you around?” I offer, tempting her out of bed.
She nods and I help her out of bed and into a robe.
I have a couple laying around, and damn, if she doesn’t look even cuter in an oversized robe.
Sure enough, there’s a feast of Christmas food ready in one of the oversized refrigerators, and I almost lose Carol altogether once she wanders off.
I settle for some steaks and a salad, with what I know will be an almost endless supply of ice cream.
“I thought I was gonna lose you again,” I remark, hooking my arm in Carol’s as she starts to explore the house after I set to heat the stakes.
“What’s through here?” she asks, trying the largest wooden door which is always locked.
“No big secret,” I tell her. “Just an old part of the original house that has no heating. C’mon back to the kitchen. I can’t keep track of you otherwise.”
She frowns, murmuring something about loving old stuff, which I have to remind her includes me.
Settling us back down in the kitchen, I notice her eyes light up at the sight of the steaks sizzling.
“You wanna serve up some salad?” I ask, motioning to the bowls.
