She shrugged. "I don't care as long as I'm with you."
"You are easy, aren't you?"
"Shh," she said, holding her finger up to her lips. "Don't let anyone else know."
He smiled. "Tell you what. I haven't eaten yet. Want to go grab some beignets and then take a carriage ride around the Garden District with me?"
Bride's eyes actually teared up at his offer. She'd lived in New Orleans all her life and had never taken a carriage ride before. They were terribly expensive. Her father had always thought they were a waste of money for someone who lived in New Orleans, and as a teenager, she couldn't afford the one hundred fifty dollars.
As for Taylor…
He'd been too concerned that someone would see him and laugh at a "respectable" anchorman doing something so childish.
"I would love to."
"Good." He leaned down and kissed her deeply.
When he pulled back, she found herself standing in the shadowed back area of the French Market, a few feet from the legendary Café Du Monde.
"Don't worry. No one saw us." He winked at her.
"You do have a motorcycle. I have seen it, right?"
"Yes. But Amanda and Grace said that you wouldn't want to ride with me while you're in a dress."
She looked down at the expensive green velvet. "Come to think of it, I'm not really dressed for beignets, either."
"Don't worry. I can promise you that you won't get a single powder stain on your dress."
"You can do that?"
He gave her a cocky grin. "Baby, there's not much I can't do."
"Then lead on, Sir Wolf."
Vane led her to a small table just to the side of the restaurant. As soon as they sat down a waiter came over to take their orders.
"I'll have an order of beignets and a chocolate milk, please," Bride said.
"Four orders of beignets and a café au lait."
Bride gaped at him. "You're going to eat all that?"
"I told you I was hungry."
She shivered as the waiter left them. "I hope Arcadians don't get diabetes."
"We don't. We're strangely immune to everything but the common cold and a couple of weird diseases that are unique to my race."
"What kind of diseases?"
"Nothing you need to worry about. The worst is one that takes away our ability to use magic."
She shuddered at that and tried to imagine Vane without his powers. It would most likely kill him. "Is that what's wrong with your mother? She said she couldn't travel through time."
"No, that was my father's doing. After she castrated him and before his own powers dried up, he jerked a lot of her powers from her to make sure she didn't come back to kill him."
Bride closed her eyes in sympathetic pain. "Good grief, they had the relationship, huh?"
"Yeah. But honestly, it's my mother I feel sorriest for. My father had no business hurting her. He got what he deserved as far as I'm concerned. I just wish there was some way to make her whole again."
Bride took his hand into hers and held it tight. "I can't believe you can show compassion to her, considering what she was willing to do to you."
"It's only because I got to you in time, I assure you. Had they harmed one hair on your head, there wouldn't be one of them left standing right now."
A shiver went down her spine at the lethal tone in his voice. He meant that and she had no doubt he could kill someone.
She leaned back as the waiter returned with their order and placed it on the small, round table.
Bride stared at her three pastries warily.
"They won't bite you," Vane teased. "Watch." He picked up a napkin and held it underneath the powdered beignet, then took a bite. True to his words, the powdered sugar didn't go flying like it normally did.
Deciding to trust him, she followed suit and quickly found that so long as Vane was with her, she could actually eat one of these without making a total mess of herself.
The thought actually made her giggle.
Bride ate two of hers and sipped her milk while Vane finished all of his.
"Are you not going to eat that?" he asked.
"I'm full." Then at his suspicious look, she added, "I swear. Valerius fed me a full five-course meal."
"Good for him. He better feed my woman."
Shaking her head at him, she pushed her beignet toward him. "Go ahead, I know you want it."
He didn't argue.
As soon as he had polished it off, he stood and helped her to her feet. He draped his arm around her shoulders and held her close as they strolled across the street to where the carriages were lined up along Decatur.
Vane led her to the first one and helped her up into the back. Bride settled herself in comfortably while he paid the female driver, then joined her.