good, Zoltán, but when you reach maturity, you want something else.”
“Maturity?” Marc asked. “Who the fuck has
reached maturity?”
“Well, certainly not you, but I came close
to dying a few days ago. It gave me an entirely different way of looking at
things.” He used the back of his right hand to push his friend from the path.
Marc turned around. “I think your brain got
baked,” he said.
“When you meet her, you will understand,”
Garrick said. “This is the woman the goddess created for me.”
“You mean the trouble She created for you,”
Marc mumbled.
“Antonia saved my life.”
“Then buy her a fruit basket,” Marc said.
“Don’t fucking marry her!”
Garrick shook his head then draped an arm
around his companion. “You can’t dissuade me, Marc. Stop trying. I am going to
marry Antonia Blackthorn.”
“I hope you don’t live to regret that
decision,” Marc said ominously.
* * * * *
“He’s very handsome,” Cherise said as she
buttoned her mistress’s gown. “The only flaw is that Vampire paleness.”
“Aye,” Antonia agreed. “It is somewhat
off-putting.”
“But in the dark when he has you pinned
beneath him in his bed, it won’t matter,” Cherise said with a giggle.
“Shush!” Antonia said, her cheeks flaming.
“You are so bad.”
“Let’s hope he is so good with that monster
cock I saw when I bathed him,” Cherise said. “Lucky girl.”
Antonia did not know the task of bathing
the Crimson Lord had fallen to her lady’s maid. She wasn’t at all sure that
pleased her. If anything, it sent waves of jealousy through her.
“I would love to have that cock inside me,”
Cherise continued.
“That won’t happen,” Antonia said
succinctly. “Keep your hands from him!”
Staring at her mistress in the mirror
before which they stood, Cherise’s mouth formed a perfect O. Her gray eyes
glittered. “Feeling territorial are you, milady?” she asked slyly.
“Will you please finish buttoning me?”
Antonia chided. “I am famished and Cook has prepared roast duck for the meal
tonight.”
“Will he be sitting beside you at table?”
Cherise asked.
“Not tonight. He is still recuperating from
his ordeal.”
Cherise clucked her tongue. “That would
have been such a waste had you not rescued him.” She finished the last button
and put her hands on her mistress’ shoulder—a sign of the familiarity they
shared. “You do know what that would have meant, don’t you, milady?”
Antonia shivered and nodded. “I do. I would
never have known a Life-mate.”
“Bear that in mind in those times when he
irritates you—as he will considering he’s a man. Think what your life would
have been like without him.”
It was a sobering thought and somewhat
calmed the fears roiling around inside her. She smoothed her hands down the
form-fitting gown, turned her head from side to side. The artful curls Cherise
had wrought looked good against the scoop neck of the bodice.
“You look lovely,” her maid said. “He won’t
be able to take his eyes from you.”
“He won’t be there,” she reminded Cherise.
“No,” Cherise said, drawing out the word.
“But Lord Alyxdair will be.”
And he was. His deep-brown gaze riveted to
her the moment she entered the dining hall. He had leapt to his feet, skirting
the table to offer her his arm.
“Milady,” he said and the brown eyes
glittered.
She glanced uneasily to her mother.
“You may take his arm now, dear. The die
has been cast,” her mother told her.
She had always liked Alyx but there was
something not quite right about the way he looked at her. His look had always
been proprietary.
“Thank you, milord,” she said.
“It is my honor, milady,” he replied and
when she looked into his eyes, she saw such fury in the golden-brown depths she
almost stepped away from him. Her mother’s words seemed to have angered him for
his arm was rigid beneath her palm.
Escorting her to her chair, he pulled it
out