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situations with dignity and grace.
    “Yeah, right,” Marguerite murmured with wry amusement. Shaking her head, she settled back in the water and closed her eyes, intending only to relax for a moment.
     
    “Now, would you mind telling me what the hell is really going on here?” Christian asked as he led the way into his hotel room.
    Julius hesitated, his gaze sliding to Marcus for help in handling this issue.
    Before the other man could speak, Christian added, “Don’t bother trying to come up with a lie. I know what’s happening. You got wind that I’d hired the Morrisey agency to find my mother and flew over here to make them drop the case, didn’t you?”
    Julius’s eyes widened. “I—”
    “Don’t bother to deny it,” Christian interrupted. “You must know that, as an Argeneau, Marguerite wouldn’t be easily scared off. You probably intended to send her packing. You would have tried to slip into her thoughts while she was sleeping and vulnerable to find what argument was likely to work best.”
    “Er…” Julius glanced at Marcus who grimaced and moved to lean against the dressing counter.
    “But that earlier attack on Marguerite ruined things,” Christian went on. “You probably did go to her room first, but when she wasn’t there, you went to the other room and found her and Tiny in bed and…” His voice faded, his expression becomingconsidering as he finished, “and for some reason you freaked out. Why is that?”
    Julius stiffened, and clamped his mouth shut, refusing to answer.
    It didn’t matter. Expression brightening with realization, Christian guessed, “Even though she was sleeping and vulnerable, you couldn’t get into her mind. Could you?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Julius muttered. “She’s younger than I, centuries younger…and was sleeping.”
    “That’s right, and you should have been able to read her, but couldn’t!” Sure, he was right, Christian was practically crowing. “That’s why you attacked Tiny. You were jealous!” He shook his head with amazement. “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve been a cold, hard, emotionless bastard, but when you found you couldn’t read Marguerite you couldn’t stand the fact that she was in bed with Tiny and just lost it.”
    “I thought he was attacking her,” Julius insisted staunchly, but his mind was taken up with wondering if he really had been a cold, emotionless bastard all these centuries. He knew he’d been a bit grumpy maybe, but Christian’s description seemed a bit harsh.
    “Attacking her?” Christian snorted. “You didn’t think that for a minute. They were both sleeping when you went in. You freaked because Tiny was in bed with the woman who was a true lifemate to you!”
    Shoulders slumping, Julius moved past Marcus to take one of the chairs on either side of the small table by the window. Once settled, he slid his gaze back to his son to see him grinning widely. Julius scowled. “Why are you smiling like that?”

    “I’m happy for you,” Christian said simply.
    “Right…well…” Julius shifted uncomfortably.
    “And now you need me,” he added with delight. “I have a bargaining chip.”
    Julius stiffened. “What do you mean?”
    Christian grinned, seeming to savor the moment, and then his expression became more serious as he said, “While in California I found out that Marguerite suffered horribly in her marriage to Jean Claude Argeneau. She has absolutely no interest in finding herself caught in another relationship that might turn out so badly.” A troubled expression crossed his face as he added, “I’m quite sure that if she even suspects you might be a lifemate, she’ll drop everything and head back to Canada so fast your head would spin.”
    Julius released a heavy sigh. Marcus had already told him something similar.
    “On the bright side,” Christian went on, sounding more cheerful. “You need me to keep my mouth shut about your not being able to read her. And , you need