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“You’re here!”
Bones had been deliberately late, but not to the point of delaying the wedding. Just enough that the bridesmaids were now sequestered away with Denise and not flitting among the other friends and family in the main stateroom, which served as the site for the upcoming nuptials.
“Sorry. Traffic,” Bones lied, keeping his voice down.
“Yeah, it’s a nightmare,” Randy said. “We got here crazy early to avoid it.” Then, Randy turned to a slightly taller man with sand-colored hair and similar features. “This is my brother, Philip. Philip, this is my friend, Cris.”
“Nice to meet you, and here’s your boutonniere,” Phillip said, handing him a lavender-colored flower for his lapel. “Now, I’ll go tell Denise that we’re ready.”
Finally,Phillip’s tone implied.
Bones gave him a bland smile. He didn’t blame Phillip for his crossness. He had no idea that Bones wouldn’t have missed this wedding for the world.
“Wow, this is really happening,” Randy said in a dazed way.
Bones’s brow rose. “Not getting cold feet, are you?”
Randy grinned. “The opposite. I can’t wait to marry her.”
On the other side of the hall, he suddenly heard Cat say “Felicity, could you get the flowers?”
Her voice hit him like dozens of silken whips. He hadn’t heard it in years, and something visceral within him roared in response. He barely managed to keep his aura from blasting out, too.
“Are you ready, Denise?” he heard Phillip ask next, to a cheerful response of “Let’s go get me married!” from a female voice, and then Cat’s “We’ll meet you in front,” to Philip.
A few moments later, Phillip opened the door. “It’s time.”
Randy grinned. “Let’s do this!”
The four of them left the parlor and entered the stateroom. It had been transformed for the wedding, with rows of chairs for the guests, a flower-covered nuptial arch, and petals strewn along the aisle separating the bride’s side from the groom’s side. When the justice of the peace saw Randy, he nodded to the pianist, who began playing Pachelbel’sCanon in D.
Randy grinned again as the doors at the end of that flower-covered pathway opened and the first bridesmaid began walking down the aisle. The guests murmured with appreciation when they saw the pretty, petite brunette. She seemed to take as her due, and her smile widened when it landed on Bones. Then, she added a little more sway to her hips.
He didn’t smile back. He was here for one bridesmaid alone.
The second bridesmaid, an older woman with black hair, began descending the aisle. Cat would be next. In moments, he’d be looking into her eyes. Would they still be expressive, telegraphing what was in her heart more clearly than words? Or would their long years apart have killed that trait in her?
It could have. Bones had been friends with soldiers who’d been one person when they went off to war and someone else entirely when they came back. Cat had been exposed to the same cycle of trauma, danger, and death. It would have hardened her, or she wouldn’t have survived. How much of the woman he loved remained in the woman about to walk down the aisle?
The music increased in volume as Cat appeared at the back of that petal-covered path. Not a muscle in him moved, but inwardly, Bones braced. It still wasn’t enough. His shields cracked as soon as he saw her, letting some of his aura escape.
God, herface.So beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with her expertly applied makeup. She’d dyed her brows brown to match her newly darkened hair, but her complexion was still alabaster dappled with roses, her lips were full and sensual, her brows framed her eyes like twin wingspans, and her high, sculpted cheekbones invited envious stares. Her scent hit him next, and Bones breathed in its mixture of warm vanilla swirled with cream and cherries. He wanted to keep breathing it until he was dizzy from inhaling too much oxygen, and her eyes-
-swept either side of the room with sharp, measured glances while her muscles tightened and wariness thrummed from her. She must have felt the tinge of supernatural power when some of his aura leaked out, and government-sanctioned vampire hunter that she was, she was now looking for its source.
Bones covered his emotions beneath a thick, glacial wall. He couldn’t let her know how deeply he still loved her when he had no idea if she felt the same. Even if she did, that didn’t solve everything. She needed to admit that she never should have left him in the first place. He wasn’t some innocent she’d had to sacrifice herself for. He was a powerful Master vampire, and if Cat didn’t know that before, she damn sure would now.
At last, she looked at the wedding party. Bullets were softer than that unyielding gray metal of her gaze as it raked over the other groomsmen before landing on Bones. Then, she swept him from his shoes to his shoulders, probably looking for any telltale bulge of weapons beneath his black tuxedo, before she finally met his eyes—
Bones knew the instant she recognized him. That predatory look vanished, replaced by so much shock that her heart skipped a beat and she tripped and nearly fell. She caught herself with those inhuman reflexes, her movements so fluid none of the wedding guests noticed, all the while staring at Bones as if one blink would make him disappear.
Bones stared back, his mouth curling ever so slightly.
Hallo, Kitten. Yes, I found you.
Her eyes lit up with something more powerful than the green glow that marked her as half vampire. Then, her smile broke out like the sun. Light blazed inside him, too, as her muscles bunched as if she were about to run down the aisle to him. Then, her gaze darkened as she glanced over at where her mum sat.
Justina was blissfully unaware of Bones’s presence because she hadn’t bothered to look at the groomsmen. As soon as Cat looked at her mum, her expression shuttered like a slammed door. She kept walking, only a slight jerkiness to her movements and her accelerated heartbeat indicating that anything was amiss.
