Eyebrows rising slightly at this news, she asked, "And he was so scary that no one disobeyed him? I mean, even for an immortal, twenty must be considered an adult. Surely, if you'd wanted to go...?"
"I wasn't afraid of him, Inez," Thomas said and then added, "At least, not for me. I no longer lived with him and Marguerite and could do what I wanted, but he'd take it out on her and Lissianna if I crossed him."
Inez frowned as she digested this. She already knew that Lissianna was Marguerite's daughter and Bastien's only sister, but had never heard much about Jean Claude. He was dead by the time she started working for Argeneau Enterprises.
"Was he physically violent?" she asked quietly, wondering if Thomas had been an abused child growing up. If so, he'd come around well, but she supposed he'd had a lot of time to do so.
"No." Thomas slid an arm around her waist and hugged her against his side. "Not physically. He was a drunk and mean as hell. The man could be vicious and could make everyone's life miserable with little effort and absolutely no remorse." Thomas sighed. "Marguerite and Lissianna were pretty much trapped at home with him. He wouldn't let Lissianna move out until she found a lifemate, and he refused to allow Marguerite to work. And he wasn't above using mind control to keep her there."
"Mind control?" Inez asked with shock, coming to an abrupt halt. "You said lifemates couldn't control each other."
"Marguerite and Claude weren't lifemates," he said quietly. "He turned her, but he could read and control her from the start and used it like a weapon. Against all of us."
"It must have made it hard for you growing up," she said quietly as they started walking again.
"There are worse things," Thomas said with a shrug and then glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and asked, "But I'm more interested in you. What was your childhood like?"
Inez smiled faintly and shrugged. "No one's life is perfect, is it?"
"Mine is. Right this minute my life is absolutely perfect," he assured her, and then frowned and added, "Except for the fact that Marguerite is missing."
"Yes," she said quietly.
"So," Thomas said after they'd walked half a block. "What was your childhood like? Were both parents there? Or was it a single parent home?"
"Both parents were there, and I had an older brother. He was a pain as most older brothers are; bossy, superior, protective," Inez said, and then commented, "You have one sister, right?"
"Jeanne Louise," Thomas said with a nod, and then added, "I love her a great deal, but Lissianna and I are closer. We were close in age and grew up together."
Inez peered at him curiously. "How old is Jeanne Louise?"
"She'll be one hundred next year."
"Only one hundred?" she asked with surprise. "God, you were over a century old when she was born. No wonder you're closer to Lissianna."
Thomas smiled faintly. "Immortals are only allowed to have one child every hundred years."
"You mean the woman only ovulates once every hundred years?" Inez asked with amazement.
"No." He laughed at the idea. "It's a law, not a biological thing."
"Oh," she said, but then asked, "Whose law?"
"We have a council that makes our laws and that is one of them."
Inez was curious about that, but figured she could learn more about it later. Right now, she wanted to know more about his family. "If Jeanne Louise is only a hundred years old, then your parents are still alive?"
"My father is, but my mother died when I was four. That's why Aunt Marguerite raised me. Father didn't have a clue what to do with a toddler."
Inez relaxed a little. She'd wondered why-if his parents were alive-he'd been raised by his aunt. "So Jeanne Louise is your half sister? Your father found a second lifemate after your mother died?"
"Well, no, actually he didn't," Thomas admitted with a wry smile and then said, "It's kind of complicated. Basically, my father seems to be cursed when it comes to wives. They just kept dying on him...Not an easy thing when they were all immortals," he pointed out and then went on quietly, "After Jeanne Louise's mother died, he just sort of gave up. He's a recluse now and doesn't see anyone. Jeanne Louise doesn't even know what he looks like."
"How sad," Inez murmured quietly.
Thomas shrugged. "He has to deal with it in his own way. I can't imagine how hard it must be to lose a lifemate. It's something I don't even want to contemplate," he added, squeezing her a little tighter against his side.
Inez didn't know what to say to that. She couldn't promise he would never lose her, since she wasn't sure he had her. She was growing more and more sure of her own feelings with every passing hour, but it just made her more certain that she couldn't be his lifemate if he couldn't love her back.
Deciding a change of topic was in order she said, "Tell me about your music."
Thomas came to an abrupt halt, his head whipping her way. "How did you know about that?"
"Your binder was open when I brought the phone out to you the first morning," she admitted solemnly. "You write music?"
Thomas blew his breath out and started to walk again. "Yes."
She bit her lip at the reluctance behind the word and was debating whether to change the subject again when he began to speak. He told her about Marguerite teaching him to play, about Jean Claude's jeering response to it, and his decision to keep his efforts to himself after that. And he had all these years. It seemed the man she was coming to love had a stubborn streak, at least about things that mattered to him. But that was all right, Inez decided. She could be a bit of a bull herself.
"How about this place?" Thomas asked suddenly, and Inez glanced around to see that while she'd been thinking they'd left the quiet residential area and entered the shopping section. The road around them was full of stores and restaurants, but the one Thomas was gesturing to was a small cafe on a corner. It was two floors, with glass windows running along both sides that looked out onto the street. Inez could see that it was a popular spot, even at this hour there were few empty tables.
"It looks promising," she commented and they went in.
"Why don't you tell me what you want and go find a table while I order?" Thomas asked as they reached the counter.
Nodding, Inez glanced over the menu on the boards on the wall behind the counter and said, "A latte and lemon muffin."
"Not tea?" Thomas asked with surprise.
"I never have tea away from home. They never steep it long enough," she informed him.
"Okay," he said with a laugh, and then pressed a quick kiss to her lips and urged her away. "Go hunt us up a table. I'll find you."
Smiling, Inez headed for the stairs to the second level. There weren't many tables on the main floor and the few there were taken. The second floor wasn't much better. As she'd noted from the street, it was quite busy, but Inez managed to find an empty table by the window and settled there to watch the stairs for Thomas.
It wasn't long before he appeared. His gaze swept the second level until he spotted her and then he headed straight over. Inez couldn't help but notice the glances cast his way by the other women in the restaurant as he passed them. She had the most juvenile urge to stick out her tongue at them. He was hers and no matter how beautiful, smart, or accomplished they were, those other women could never be anything more than blow-up dolls, or pretty puppets to him. It was good to know, but didn't keep her from wanting to pop the dolls with a pin, and cut the strings on the puppets.
"What is that expression about?" Thomas asked with amusement as he set the tray on the table.
"What expression?" Inez asked innocently.
"I'd have to describe it as gentle malice," he informed her as he passed her a latte and her muffin.
"Malice?" she asked with surprise. "Never."
"No?" Thomas asked mildly as he set his own drink and muffin in front of the chair opposite her, and then set the tray out of the way on the window sill beside them.