I took a deep sip of my champagne and was appreciative of the bubbles rollicking under my nose. It gave me a buzz I didn't otherwise feel.

Lucian looked poised for terror. I couldn't believe his sudden irrepressible bout of anger was to do with my little harmless mischief.

"Whats' wrong?" I murmured softly under my breath. So softly it came out as barely a breath released from my mouth.

"Shh," he immediately hushed me. I fell silent staring up at him intently trying to read from his face what he could not seem to say with his lips.

He smiled. A wide beaming breathtaking smile that was utterly not Lucian. I grew instantly alarmed and obligingly beamed back.

His smile wavered before it faded away. He turned to look past me before settling his gaze back on me. They swirled black with misgivings. His smile was tight as he said," Well I am off to convince a blonde and a brunette that I am very much virile in my interest in femininity."

With one well aimed figurstive blow he not only managed to knock me off my feet but leap several steps ahead of the verbal match. Yet I saw no joy at the outcome. No pride in his rebuttal. He appeared unaffected almost resigned to the inevitable. As if the blond and brunette were inevitable. And they were. Or the very least have been so in the past. Never once had I ever considered that Lucian might not want to. That this was as difficult for him to do as it was for me to watch.

Yet that is exactly the perception I got from the tone and intonation of our last exchange. It was with no apparent interest that he successfully embarked on a flirtation over the next hour that not only redeemed himself in the eyes of the blond and brunette but steadfastly reassured his casual observers and any other onlookers that Lucian Pall was very much as he always was.

I watched surreptitiously over the brim of my champagne flutes, of which there were many, as my suspicion was confirmed. Then I rooted around searching as unobservantly as possible for the cause for this charade. A charade that I was now certain had been skillfully played and presented to the world for their speculations for a good long while. Possibly longer even then the three years of my becoming his scion.

In dawning shock and horror that I struggled horribly to contain I sought and locked gaze with the one man that gave it all sense. That not only made sense of Lucian's conduct over all these years but lent it an aura of ingenuity that had me hard placed not to spring out in a bout of applause.

I stared into the mirror image of Lucian Palls eyes. I stared into his father's, Daniel Palls livid pitch black eyes.