Page 63 of His Eternal Temptation

Cold water crashed over the remainder of Lane’s warm feelings. “He won’t believe me without the recording I lost.”

Rowan’s face twisted in sudden anger. “Even after nearly dying? I’ll back you up, tell him what I witnessed. The Hillmans came for me. He has to see sense.”

Lane’s gaze slid from Rowan to the window and settled on the distant buildings. Would his father believe him if he explained the curse? Part of him couldn’t face the possibility of Marshall denying him. It would be devastating, and Lane couldn’t bear giving his father the chance to hurt him again.

“We don’t have to talk to Marshall if you don’t want to, Lane.” Rowan’s softened tone recalled his attention, and he found Rowan’s stony expression had cracked, revealing something gentle. “I’m not asking you to go. Not at all. I’d like you to stay and help bring the Hillman business to an end. I only wondered what you wanted to do about your coven’s involvement with them. It’s what set you on this path in the first place.”

Not asking him to go… Lane felt wobbly as it sank in.

He collected himself. “The Blackburns aren’t my coven anymore.” The truth of his words hit him right in the center of the chest.

Rowan took this revelation in stride, without reaction, and once again, his lack of emotion gave Lane the strength.

“When I set out,” Lane explained, “I wanted to prove my father wrong so he’d reconsider my exile. I glossed over how he kicked me out of the coven. We didn’t have a mere disagreement, and leaving wasn’t my idea. It was his ultimatum. Fall in line or no longer be a Blackburn. I felt like a failure and was desperate to make up for it, but not anymore. I don’t need to prove my father wrong. I don’t need to prove anything, and I’m not returning to the coven. I’d rather be a lone witch.”

Rowan nodded. “Will you tell him that?”

Lane was grateful Rowan didn’t question his decision or accuse him of being rash. He trusted Lane to know his own mind, and Lane could have kissed him for it. “It depends on how the conversation about the Hillmans goes. I’m leaving, whether Father believes what I say or not. I need to warn him. It’s the right thing to do, but if he won’t listen, then I don’t think there’s any need to explain my decision.”

“I completely understand.” Rowan gave him a small smile, no less encouraging for its subtlety. It was almost bashful, and Lane wondered if he’d retreated behind his mask because it was where he felt safe.

He hadn’t known if Lane would leave any more than Lane had known if he would ask him to stay.

Lane stepped closer to the desk. “I don’t know exactly what I want to do on my own. Maybe open a new shop, but first, you said you want my help with the Hillmans?”

Rowan swallowed, betraying a hint of nerves, and Lane couldn’t help thinking it was deliberately shown now. Proof he wasn’t planning to ice Lane out now they weren’t trapped.

“I’d like you to stay, Lane. For your support with the Hillmans and with the ferals. I respect your desire to be on your own, whatever that looks like, but I want to offer you a place here.” He spoke with painful formality, but not because he was uncaring.

He was asking Lane for something he was afraid to be denied.

Lane’s chest tightened. “I’d like a place here. With you. That’s what you mean, right?”

“With me, yes.” An eager smile broke through. “As a vampire. You don’t have to answer right away. This isn’t something I offer just anyone, and you don’t have to affiliate with the coven. But if you’d like to join me in this unending life, I want you to know the offer is open.”

Lane’s head went fuzzy. A place with Rowan in unending life. “You’d turn me?”

Rowan’s face darkened. “I don’t want a sire-bond between us. No matter how much I trust myself to take care, it’s an imbalance I’d never want with you.”

Lane didn’t like the idea of someone else turning him, but it wasn’t his only objection. “I’d have to give up my magical ability to become a vampire.”

He wasn’t particularly powerful or a brilliant spell-crafter like Nicole or Vera, but magic was a part of who he was, and giving it up… Lane didn’t know if he could.

It was his independence. How he made a living and struck out on his own. Even as part of a couple—if that’s what Rowan was getting at—Lane needed his own thing, his own life. Without active powers, who was he in the magic world?

“You don’t want to give up magic.” The hints of emotion Rowan had let through disappeared. “I see. Perhaps I shouldn’t have assumed you’d want this.”

Lane scrambled. “Wait. No. Magic is a part of me. That’s all I’m saying.”

Rowan’s stiffness grew. “Right. I’m sorry for asking.”

“Don’t be.” Lane came around the desk, and Rowan turned to face him, still seated and as closed off as he’d ever been. “Can we put me as a vampire aside for a second? What are you actually asking for here?”

Rowan huffed, giving a tiny shake of his head. “I’m asking for you, Lane.”

Hot emotion welled inside him. “To stay with you for an immortal life?”

“To be my partner in immortal life. I told you I was needy, so here we are, all my cards laid out. My need for you is eternal.”