The Vampire's Fake Fiancée (Nocturne Falls Book 5) by Kristen Painter

thing, she imagined. He leaned forward. “Are you one of those women?”
    She lifted one shoulder, aware that she was being coy for perhaps the first time in her life. It surprised her that it was something she was even capable of doing. “I am a librarian. We certainly don’t dislike brains.”
    His gaze tapered but a smirk crooked his mouth. “Are you sure you’re not a zombie?”
    She snorted, a horribly unladylike sound, but the funniness of his comment was multiplied by the fact that he was actually making a joke. “Worried about your gray matter now?”
    He laughed with her. “Maybe. Should I invest in some sort of metal helmet?”
    “Or just go with tin foil. That could be a good look for you.”
    “I doubt that.”
    They grinned and stared at each other and in that moment, something passed between them. A sense of togetherness. Of camaraderie. And mutual respect.
    He drank the last of his whiskey. “I must apologize to you again for thinking you incapable of becoming my better half. I clearly judged you based on appearance alone and that was foolish. This dinner won’t be easy, but I believe everything will come out in the end as it should.”
    “What if Evangeline continues to take you for granted? Will you still take her back?”
    His happiness faded. “As we are technically still married, I suppose I have no choice.”
    “But you do. You can always say no. Appeal to the council.”
    “It’s not that simple. It never has been.”
    “I feel like there’s more to this than you’re willing to talk about.”
    “You’re very perceptive.” He let out a long sigh. “I suppose you should know. It will make things clearer, at least.”
    She waited patiently.
    With a frown, he began. “Evangeline’s father and mine were strong friends even before our marriage was arranged. I’m sure their friendship had something to do with that arrangement, but it was still considered a good match and we’d been promised to each other almost since birth.”
    Tessa just nodded and let him speak.
    “The wedding was a few months off yet when her father was thrown from his horse. He was severely injured. There was no question that he would die, it was just a matter of when. He called for me and of course I went to see him.”
    “As I sat at his bedside, he confessed to me that he knew he’d spoiled Evangeline, that he’d pampered her too much and turned her into a willful, moody creature who cared only for her own pleasure. He apologized for the years ahead of me and the suffering she would bring me as a wife. He told me that if I wanted out of the arrangement, he wouldn’t hold it against me. In fact, he would see to it that no censure would come to me because of the disillusion.”
    Sebastian straightened his knife. “I was young and couldn’t see past her beauty. I thought he was mad from the injury. I told him I would not break the arrangement. That I loved Evangeline.”
    “Did you?”
    “Then? Yes. Fool that I was.” Sebastian’s face went a shade paler. “That’s when he made me promise to look after her for the rest of my life. He feared that if left to her own devices, she would come to ruin.”
    “I vowed that I would.” His eyes held a very different light now, one so distant that Tessa imagined she could see him as he must have looked before he’d been turned.
    “Her father died the next day and at the reading of his will, I discovered he’d left me an inordinate sum of money.” Sebastian swallowed. “He’d paid me to keep my promise.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “I do. I wish it were otherwise, but it is what it is. I have been paid to watch over her and I promised to do it. As I am a man of my word, I have no choice but to do exactly that. Especially since she was turned by my own hand, something I would take back if given the smallest chance. Becoming a vampire did precisely what her father feared would happen to her anyway. It ruined her. And so, I do what I can to look after