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"Thank you," Margo called after him. "For everything."
Negal smiled. "You're most welcome."
43
MARINA
"Where is your boyfriend?" Mila asked. "Wasn't he supposed to come for you after the ceremony?"
"He was," Marina murmured. "I don't know what's keeping him."
The human staff was not allowed in the dining hall during the ceremony, so Marina couldn't walk in with Peter like the other guests. She'd had to wait for him to come get her once it was over, and she'd decided to do that in the kitchen and help out in the meantime.
She'd expected him to walk in as soon as the kitchen doors were unlocked, but that had been at least half an hour ago, and there was no sign of him.
Perhaps he'd gotten confused and thought that she would come out to meet him.
Not likely.
She clearly remembered telling him how awkward she would feel coming out of the kitchen all dressed up, and he'd said that she was overthinking it and that it would be fine because he would be with her.
So where was he?
When she finally saw Peter walking in as if he owned the place, she pretended not to notice.
"Where is my girl?" He looked around until he spotted her. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" She was next to the platter station, wearing an apron over the dress Jasmine had lent her and artfully arranging pieces of artichokes around slices of beef. "What took you so long?"
"I'm sorry." He stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and nuzzled her neck as if they weren't surrounded by a bunch of cooks and servers, who were all watching them as if it were the best show on television. "I was ambushed by my mother and two of my aunts. I couldn't get away from them until now."
She turned around in his arms. "What did they want?"
"Oh, the usual. When am I going to visit, and whether I'm climbing the ranks in the force, and how is this cousin and that cousin doing."
He sounded sincere, but she knew he wasn't because the story didn't add up. No one new had arrived on the cruise apart from the rescued women, so his mother and his aunts had been on this cruise since the ship had left Long Beach and should have exhausted all of those types of questions a long time ago. The only new item of gossip was his relationship with her, and she had no doubt that was what the conversation had been about.
It bothered Marina that Peter could lie so easily to her, but then she hadn't been entirely honest with him either. She hadn't told him that she'd been watching him since the beginning of the cruise and planning to use him.
"Tell me the truth. Did they ask you about me?"
His dark brows lifted, making him look even more devilish than ever. "How did you do that? Are you a mind reader?"
"Very funny, Peter. That's usually my question. So, was I right?"
He nodded. "The blue-haired vixen might have come up in the conversation."
"Vixen?" She wasn't sure what the word meant. "What is a vixen?"
"A female fox and also a spirited and attractive lady."
"So, it's a good thing?"
"Of course." He leaned and kissed her nose and then untied her apron. "Come, my beautiful vixen. Let's dance."
Casting a sidelong glance at Mila, Marina caught her smirking and murmuring under her breath in Russian something about the immortal having a few drinks too many.
"Have you been drinking?" Marina asked as she tossed the apron into the laundry cart.
