Page 59 of Bargains with Benefits
“When did he leave?” I asked, my throat constricting around the words.
“Too late,” Darius replied. “Maybe weeks before you did.”
They’d sent him away when she was still here. Any excuses I’d made that they weren’t listening to her, that she hadn’t given them a chance, crumbled. It still may have been too late for Darius and Mom, as he said, but if they’d proved willing to change the situation for us, why deprive me of a father?
“I need a moment.” I excused myself from the table. A chair beside me scooted across the floor, and I knew Vincent was rising with me. He stopped briefly to accept directions to a private room from Eloise and Darius while I wandered aimlessly ahead. When his hand was on my back a moment later, he guided me into a set of closed double doors. “Eloise said this was private.”
It was Darius’s study, and my mind instantly fled from the weight of what I’d been considering—the choices Mom had made on my behalf. “This is his study?” I asked, looking around.
“Luna,” Vincent warned. “Don’t you want to talk about?—”
I was behind his desk, looking at the sprawl of papers before Vincent had time to finish his sentence.
“I don’t think now is the best time for this,” he tried.
“I’d rather search these papers than think about what Mom let me believe for over twenty years.”
She’d taken so much from me. I was sure her experiences had been terrible. Eloise and Darius had admitted as much, buthadn’t they done something about the problem? Part of why I’d been so surprised about Vincent’s apartment was because old fae families didn’t leave these estates. Kicking Klein out was no small thing. Mom and Darius hadn’t needed to remain together for me to have a place here. I shook my head, wanting desperately to discuss Mom’s choices with her but knowing it was impossible. Something wet hit my cheek.
Vincent’s lips pursed in thought, and then he came around the desk to help, brushing the tear from my cheek as he did. “I’m here to talk when you’re ready.”
I squeezed his hand before my gaze skimmed the desk—all the papers of running an estate, everything I needed to distract me from what I’d learned. Financials and correspondence, all splayed out for me to peruse. I almost wondered if he’d sent us here on purpose. That didn’t seem like him, at least what I was coming to know of him, but itdidsound like Eloise. They couldn’t have known my original plan, though.
The warm palm pressing against my back drew my gaze to Vincent’s. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk while we search?”
I shook my head.
“Do you mind if I talk to you?”
I glanced up at him. “Now?” I splayed my hands.
His lip tipped into an irresistible smile. “I won’t slow us down, I promise.”
I knew this would be an attempt to pry my feelings free, feelings I was determined to avoid, but he looked so earnest, and I wanted so badly to know what he would share. “Please, go ahead.”
“I’d like to talk about my parents,” he started.
I gave him a sideways glance. “You think talking about your family will make me talk about mine?”
He smirked but shook his head. “To be fair, your father brought them up, so I have an excuse to discuss them. You hadthe unfortunate pleasure of meeting my parents. I feel you got a good glimpse of who they are, but I’d like to tell you more.”
I stopped my search and turned to face him. “I don’t lump you along with them like Darius. You don’t have to do this.”
His smile was devastating in its own way. “I’d like to all the same.”
My nod was brief, and then I returned to searching, letting him share what he would.
“They are as prejudiced as he says. It’s not even bound to half-fae or human, honestly. It even applies to fae who don’t have what they consider to be the right amount of magic for a pureblood family.” His hands stopped searching. I was sure they were running through his hair, though I didn’t look up.
“I didn’t tell you how I learned to call my magic.”
“It didn’t escape my notice that Ambrose jumped in.” I shuffled a few papers as I skimmed them. “You don’t have to share anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
His wind wrapped around my wrist and glided up my arm. It sent a chill down my spine, and I shivered in delight.
“It wouldn’t have been helpful in that situation. The way I learned wasn’t one I’d wish on anyone else.” He swallowed. “Finding my magic was never calm like you described. It was always a storm. My parents wanted to ensure my magic was strong. An old fae belief said that the more your magic is tested—truly tested—by elders, the stronger it will become. So, it was never a quiet stillness in which I learned.”
My throat tightened again, this time for what I was sure would come next from Vincent’s lips. I paused and turned to look at him.
