Page 78 of Devotion: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Tell me about your books, Eve.”

Lachlan’s voice startled me. I had been lost in another world, devouring the books on Scottish legends, ideas sprouting left and right. I had to write them all down so I didn’t forget them. It felt like they had all been locked away for such a long time and now they had busted through the dam, flooding in.

Glancing up from my book, I admired my husband. In the last ten months, it never even crossed my mind to date, even less to get married. And here I am sitting next to my husband with the book in my hand, notepad on my lap, and I couldn’t be happier.

We both sat on the terrace of his castle, his arm around me as I cuddled into his side reading. Summer was chillier up here. I had a little throw blanket on me, even though the sun was shining. His body heat and blanket made it comfortable to sit outside.

We’ve been here for the past four days and were due back to reality tomorrow. The last four days have been amazing. We trumped through the surrounding woods for hours, he took me to all his favorite places from his childhood, we’d visit his grandfather and had tea with him.

If we stayed here forever, I wouldn’t have minded. At. All.

My past and sorrows seemed so far away, a different lifetime, different country, and different me. A happy future and family seemed a real possibility. I often thought of my baby boy and while it still hurt, it wasn’t a devastating, drowning, and overwhelming pain. I knew I’d never heal from losing my child, but with Lachlan, it didn’t feel like I couldn’t live on anymore.

We agreed we’d stay in his castle and commute to Edinburgh together. I told him I’d continue working for his company and tracking his investment project. I wasn’t ready to completely change my routine. I could write at night or weekends.

“Eve?”

I smiled. “Sorry, I got sidetracked in my thoughts.”

“Lots of stuff going on in that beautiful mind of yours,” he mumbled with the kiss on my forehead.

“So about my books,” I started. “I have few series but they are all historical romance. Each series is set in a different period of history. I have Austro-Hungarian historical romance series, Romanov historical romance series, Civil War romance series, and Kingdom of Croatia historical romance series. I always loved all my history classes and it got my imagination going so I took it all the way with my sister’s encouragement. Elise read me stories while growing up. You know, standard beautiful fairy tales. So it stuck. I guess for the romance part I also have my mother to thank since she always chased some illusion of love she couldn’t quite catch.”

“I know you said Elise took care of you when growing up. Are you close to your mom now? Is she married?” His question was simple, it made sense but made me stiffen.

“Yes, she’s married. John in my stepdad,” my reply was curt. I didn’t want to get into elaborate history between my mother and me. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I didn’t want to talk about it but stopped myself. His words spoken in the library before I agreed to marry him came to mind. He said we have the rest of our lives to learn about each other. That won’t happen if I didn’t explain at least some things.

With purposely averted eyes from him, I started. “John is a good guy. Too good for her. My mom and I will never be close. There are certain things I can never forgive. I just feel bad for Elise because she keeps trying to make things better.”

I waited tense for a follow up question but thankfully it never came. Each second that went by, I relaxed a bit more, the grip on the book I was holding slowly lessening.

As if he was in tune with my body, he pulled me even closer to him which gave me a sense of comfort. And that is exactly what I needed at this moment.

“You said your sister encouraged you?” he asked instead.

“Yes,” I replied happy, recalling all my sister's support. “I kept writing and she’d read my stories, give me feedback and kept encouraging me to do more.”

I lowered my voice like someone could hear me. “Don’t tell her but Brandon and Elise were inspiration on quite a few of those stories. Those two were just disgustingly in love and watching them was a happy annoyance in my high school days.”

He chuckled in response. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Anyhow, Elise did the research on how to go about publishing while I continued writing. We had a little hiccup of my age so she signed once or twice… or maybe more… as my legal guardian to get my manuscript published.” I thought back to those days. She was always amazing. “I’m lucky to have her,” I added.

He gently nipped my earlobe. “You have me now too.”

His words brought a smile to my lips.

“Now tell me what are you thinking about writing next?” he asked and my heart skipped a beat. He was interested in my works.

Hunter didn’t like to talk about my books. The comparison came out of nowhere.

I stopped the thought and answered my husband. “I think I’ll give my historical romance a break for a bit. Reading through these books, it made me realize how amazing some of these Scottish legends are.”

It felt amazing having the passion and rush about writing again. And his wide smile was a response to my childish excitement. I glanced down at my notebook.

“So I think I’ll shift to fantasy romance tied to Scottish legends. I think it would be pretty cool and since I’m here, what better time or place than now. And when I get tired of it, I can shift to Scottish historical romance or British historical romance. There are tons of possibilities there. I just never wanted to start with those since it was the normal starting point for historical romance writers.”

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