Choosing Theo: The Clecanian Series Book 1

gardens beautiful.”
“Do you enjoy that work?”
Was landscape design her passion? No. Jade had chosen her career because her aunt, who’d raised her for the most part, had been a landscape designer. Although very good at her job, Jade had never enjoyed it.
“I was good at it and it paid the bills. Do you like your job?”
Theo tensed and ignored her question. “Why did you live alone?”
She didn’t know exactly how to answer that question. “Why does anybody live alone? I hadn’t found anybody I wanted to live with, I suppose.”
“No husband or family?”
His tone was very casual, almost too casual. Jade rolled her eyes. “You don’t care about any of that. You’re just trying to interrogate me again. Aren’t you?” Why else would he care about her life outside of here?
“Why can’t it be both?” If he was bothered by the fact that she’d just caught him trying to suss out information about her, he didn’t show it.
“How about this…I’ll answer your questions as long as you answer mine. If you don’t answer my questions, though, I can leave.” Jade reasoned that asking him about himself would help to distract from the fact that they were in a tub together naked. And that was the only reason. It definitely wasn’t because she was curious about the hot, mysterious, brooding man sitting across from her.
In answer to her proposition, Theo gave a small nod.
The only downside to this agreement was that she now had to answer his earlier question about her family. Jade had always hated talking about her family or lack thereof. Her heart ached whenever she talked about her parents and her aunt. The pity she saw in people’s eyes only made it worse.
Better get it out fast, Jade thought, taking a long swig from her bottle. “My parents died when I was young. I was raised by my aunt.” She spoke quickly, fearing that her already frayed emotions would snap. “After my aunt died, I decided to stay in our house. I live there alone now. I don’t have any other family.”
When she met his eyes, she expected to see the usual pity. Like she was an animal with a broken leg that everybody “awwwed” over but couldn’t help.
Instead, she saw…compassion? “How did your parents die?” he asked solemnly.
More curious about Theo than before, she chose not to answer his question and instead said, “It’s my turn. Do you have any family?”
He shifted his shoulders then replied, “Yes. Four brothers and one sister. My parents have both passed on.”
“Do you see them often? Do they live near here?”
He looked as though he weighed his answer carefully before responding. “They live close by but I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like. Out of all of them, I see my sister the most.
“You owe me two answers now. What happened to your parents and aunt?” he asked firmly.
Her protective shield of humor firmly in place, she answered, “They refused to get me the pony I wanted for Christmas, so I killed them all. That’s how my life as an assassin began.”
The corner of Theo’s mouth quirked, but otherwise he stayed silent and waited for a real explanation.
“Tough crowd,” Jade quipped under her breath, then with a deep sigh, her gazed fixed on the bubbles in front of her, she answered honestly. “My mother died during childbirth…while having me,” she added feeling a familiar tightness in her throat.
“My father raised me for a while but then he got sick. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, so I’ll just say he was very sick for a long time and then, when I was ten, he died and I went to live with my aunt.”
Feelings of sadness and loneliness always tore through her when she talked about her father and aunt. When she talked about her mother, however, she felt guilt.
When Jade had gotten old enough to understand what had happened to her mother, she’d felt such a weight of responsibility that her birth had caused her mother to die.
Her sweet father had always tried to reassure her it wasn’t her fault. He told her he loved her more than anything in the world and her mother never would have blamed her, but a small part of Jade had never believed him.
Maybe if he’d remarried, she might’ve believed him, but he never had, and he’d always teared up whenever he’d spoken about the great love of his life, her mom.
“I’m sorry you never knew your mother and that your father died when you were a child,” Theo said frankly. “My mother died when I was young as well.”
Jade glanced up into Theo’s eyes and recognized the ache she saw in them.
“Jade I…I’m sorry you had to experience all that pain and death.” Sincerity shone through his eyes when he said this, and she found herself feeling a little better. It was strange how his acknowledgement, not of her “loss” as so many liked to call it, but of her pain soothed her.
Not wanting to talk about her parents anymore, Jade rushed to finish answering his question. “Anyway, I was raised by my aunt, and five years ago she became sick the same way my father had. After she died, I started shutting everyone out.” Jade took a long drink from her bottle. “You can’t feel the pain of losing someone if you don’t have anyone to lose.”
Emotion suffocating her chest, she attempted to change the subject. “Are there any more surprise mandatory rituals I’m unaware of?”
Instead of pressing her for more information about her family, he allowed the conversation to shift. “A few. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, though.”
The annoyance she experienced at his smug tone was a welcome relief from the sadness she’d felt a moment ago. Jade couldn’t help but wonder whether his tone had been purposefully used to change her mood. She smiled inwardly at the thought and then scolded herself.
Stop crushing on the alien who just manhandled you! She