“No kidding. Thanks for stating the obvious.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “He wants Von to fight him. He’s been trying to get Von to fight him since the very first moment you two met in the big hall.”
That was true.
Dani watched Cosmo’s broad back as he retreated from the restaurant, and soon, all three of us inspected his large frame, the blue of his Hunter uniform, the massive expanse of his shoulders. Not that I doubted Von, but…
“They obviously have bad blood between them and he’s been trying way too hard to get Von to fight him.” Dani tapped her fingernail on the hard exterior of her drinking glass, making a steady tink, tink, tink. “I don’t think you should give Von a reason to take him up on the offer.”
I sighed. “You guys don’t think Von would kick his ass?”
Katie covered my hand with her own, her eyes big and round and a little too sad for someone who should have been being courted by her own marked mate. “Be with Von. Accept him as your mate and get the hell out of here. Leave Cosmo and all of his bullshit behind. Why take the chance that Von could get hurt when you don’t have to?”
My girls had a point.
* * *
Lexi
I stared at my reflection in the full-length mirror and almost fainted. That couldn’t be me. There was just no way.
My dark hair was pulled up and back in an elaborate coif that had taken the Everian woman more than an hour. My makeup was perfect, done by the same kind old woman who had then helped me into about five layers of slips and silk and a corset that made my already curvy figure nearly obscene.
I looked like an anime character, one of the girls whose boobs were so big she was about to topple out of her dress and over onto the ground. Between my breasts hung a single crystal shard gifted to me earlier by Von. His very serious friend Bryn, had dropped it by our suite early this morning and explained that they’d all been called away on urgent Hunter business, but would be back for the ball tonight.
The ball. That was the first I’d heard of it.
With a happy laugh bubbling up from somewhere deep and precious inside me, somewhere I hadn’t felt since I was about six years old, I spun in the gorgeous gown, feeling like a fairy princess. The gown was a golden creation that made me feel like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Covered in sparkling crystals and delicate embroidery, it sparkled when I moved. My shoulders were bare, but narrow sleeves hugged my arms all the way down to my small wrists. The gown hugged my upper body to just below my hips where it flared into a full skirt that fell in a cascade of sparkling color to my ankles. The shoes were padded slippers like I imagined a ballerina might wear, but I was grateful that my feet wouldn’t hurt all night.
I looked like a princess. I wanted to dance. With him.
My mate.
Just thinking of Von made me shiver and I did not recognize the happy glow in my own eyes. This couldn’t be real, could it? After last night, when I’d come so many times, been so wrung out I couldn’t even walk, he’d carried me to this very suite, kissed me senseless, and left me to my dreams.
Of course, he’d been in them. But not to push me or try anything new. At least newer than what we’d done in the private dining room. I’d gotten on my knees for him. God, that made me a total slut. So did being eaten out in a restaurant. I grinned. Yeah, being a slut with Von was okay by me.
But when he’d come to me in my dream, it hadn’t been so frantic, so carnal. He’d wrapped himself around me, holding me all night long. We’d talked about a lot of things. My parents. Their deaths. Leaving culinary school. No money and no life plans. Why I’d stayed a virgin.
Von had told me about the Hive wars, the Prillon battleships and the scary creatures he’d had to kill. They sounded like some nightmare out of a Star Trek movie, and his eyes had changed when he talked about the war. And all the killing. I’d thought a bunch of bullying cheerleaders was bad. He’d had evil cyborgs to kill…or be killed.
When even my mind was too exhausted to talk, he’d simply held me like I was the most precious thing in the universe. I’d never felt safer. More cherished.
Loved. I’d felt loved.
Which was completely insane, because I hadn’t even known the man a day. Half of that I’d been asleep and he’d been working. The rest of the time he’d had his head between my legs making me chant his name like he was some kind of pagan god.
Maybe he was. My new god. “The god of orgasms.”
I laughed at my own joke and twirled once more, watching the skirt shimmer and dazzle in the light.
“What did you just say?” Katie walked into my bedroom in her own gown, a deep blue that brought out the color of her eyes to perfection. Her hair was not up, like mine, but partially so, with the long fall of dark brown tumbling in thick waves down her back.