“You have more obstacles than you think,” he said quietly.
“You mean aside from the fact that she thinks I’m crazy?” Justin asked dryly. To his mind, it couldn’t get much worse than that.
Lucian nodded. “I know you think you know modern women better than the rest of us.”
“I do. I’ve been dating, wooing, and winning them since I was sixteen, while the rest of you hadn’t even spoken to a mortal woman in centuries before meeting your life mate,” he pointed out.
“Yes,” Lucian agreed. “But you’ve been dating a certain kind of woman.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Justin asked with affront. “I’ve dated all sorts of different women over the decades; blondes, brunettes, redheads, short, tall, skinny, not skinny . . . I’ve dated them all.”
“Yes,” Lucian agreed. “But they all have had one thing in common.”
“And what’s that?” Justin asked with a frown.
“They were all, every last one,” he emphasized before finishing with, “single.”
“Well, yeah, of course they were,” Justin said with amusement. “I would hardly . . .” He paused abruptly as Lucian’s meaning got through to him and then breathed, “Ah shit, no.”
“Ah shit, yes,” Lucian said. “Holly is married.”
Justin suddenly found himself sitting down. He didn’t plan it, wasn’t sure how it happened, but his legs were no longer beneath him and he was sitting on the floor, his back against the closed door, and having trouble catching his breath.
“Head between your knees and breathe,” Decker said sympathetically, pushing on his head even as he said it.
Justin didn’t fight him, but let his head fall between his upraised knees, rested his wrists on his legs and took several deep breaths, then glanced up sharply and asked, “Are you sure?”
“It was in her thoughts, Bricker,” Lucian said quietly. “Not on the surface, but under thoughts of how to handle you was the worry about what her husband must think with her not being home when he got in from work, that he must be worried and so on.”
Justin merely dropped his head and took several more deep breaths. His life mate was married. He couldn’t ignore that, couldn’t interfere with it. He’d turned her and yet, even if she had been willing or proved willing now, he couldn’t claim her. They had laws against that kind of thing. For a -people to whom life mates were so important, it was almost sacrilegious to interfere in a marriage. It was also against one of their lesser laws, not a life losing offense, but an offense that could get you dragged in front of the council for sentencing and then punishment of an almost worse kind, one that threatened a man’s genitalia.
Feeling hollow, he raised his head and peered at Lucian with confusion. “What do I do?”
“You turned her, you’re responsible for her. You have to teach her to be one of us,” Lucian said grimly.
“Sure, no problem,” Justin said and then snorted. “She doesn’t even believe we exist or that she is one of us. How the hell am I supposed to train her?”
“She’ll believe the minute she tries to bite her husband or someone else,” Lucian said reasonably. “I suggest you stay close and ensure she doesn’t succeed. Once she loses control and then regains it, she’ll realize you are not crazy, that we do exist, that she is one of us and then she will allow you to train her.”
Justin lowered his head and took several more deep breaths at the thought of having to train her. Being close enough to touch and kiss, but never able to actually do it. Knowing she was his life mate and that a mere caress or kiss would send them both up in flames, but never being able to ignite that fire . . . Dear God, it would be torture.
“Decker,” he said abruptly, raising his head.
“Decker isn’t doing this for you,” Lucian announced, preventing his asking just that. “This is your responsibility. You turned her. She is your life mate.”
“Who I can never claim,” Justin said bitterly.
Lucian nodded solemnly in acknowledgment. “Perhaps not. Or you might be able to claim her some day and just have to wait to do so.”
Justin peered at him in question. “What do you mean?”
“She could divorce, or be widowed,” Lucian pointed out and shrugged. “You might have to wait ten, twenty, or forty years, but eventually she may be single.”
“So long as she doesn’t die before her husband does, or before they can divorce,” Justin said grimly.
Lucian arched his eyebrows. “She isn’t likely to die, Bricker. You turned her.”
“Oh. Right,” he muttered and realized he must truly be overset to have forgotten that for even a moment. Shaking his head, he met Lucian’s gaze and asked, “What do I say about telling her husband? I mean, once she realizes it’s true and she is immortal she’ll want to explain it all to her husband. She’ll have to explain her not aging and—-”