Page 54 of Beyond the Darkness

“Wedding bands.” Hudson cleared his throat. “Humans like to wear wedding bands, so I was wondering if that was something you were interested in. If you are, I think I can speak for Connie when I say we’d be happy to take part in that tradition.”

There. He’d put that rather nicely, if he did say so himself.

“Damn straight I’m interested, and damn straight the two of you are going to wear a wedding band too. I know paranormals will know we’ve mated thanks to scent, but humans won’t know that.” Kit declared. “And I can’t have you two sexy men walking around without any sort of ownership claim on you.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN – CONNIE

“I’M ALL for wearing an ownership claim,” Connie declared, grinning at Kit.

“As am I,” Hudson added.

“That sounded way more possessive than I meant for it to,” Kit said.

Hudson raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, so maybe I meant it to sound like that. But good grief, have you two seen yourselves? Every time we go somewhere, I have to beat the twinks off you two with a stick.”

“And a wedding band will make a difference?” Hudson asked in apparent confusion.

Where were these twinks that Kit was supposedly beating off him and Hudson? He certainly hadn’t noticed anyone flirting with him or his mates. His dragon would have had something to say about that.

“Well, no, but it’ll make a difference to me,” Kit said.

Hudson nodded. “And that’s all that matters. So, wedding bands. I’ve read that diamonds are the preferred gemstone for wedding bands, and—”

“And diamonds are a girl’s best friend, right?” Kit asked Hudson, grinning.

“Well, that’s what all the commercials say. And why are you grinning at me like that? Itwaswhat the commercials said.”

“I like diamonds, don’t get me wrong. I mean, who doesn’t?” Kit asked. “But if we’re talking about the stones thatwill be inourwedding bands, diamonds are not the first thing that comes to mind.”

They weren’t? Connie found that interesting. Like Hudson, he thought humans were hung up on diamonds too.

“Oh? What comes to mind first, then?” Hudson asked.

Kit stared at Hudson for a moment. “I’ll get to that in a moment. Connie?” Kit glanced at Connie. “Do you have a preference as far as stones go?”

“Honestly? Not really. Hudson’s dragon is the one who’s attracted to stuff like that. But I do like gold. Pretty much all dragons do because of the monetary value, but artwork is my thing,” Connie said.

“When you talk about gold, you mean what the band will be made out of, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, yellow gold or white gold, then? Or hey, what about platinum?” Kit asked.

Connie shrugged. “I like yellow gold. It just seems like it’s… warmer. It kind of reminds me of the different colors you can see in fire.”

“That makes sense. I like yellow gold too.” Kit turned to Hudson. “Hudson?”

“The color of the band doesn’t matter to me, but if Connie is partial to yellow gold, then let’s do that,” Hudson said.

“Now back to the stones,” Kit said. “You know, the first time I saw your hoard, I remember thinking that you’d emptied out all the jewelry stores within a hundred miles of us.”

Hudson chuckled. “I remember.”

“But I kept noticing one color over and over. And that was red. You like the color red, don’t you?” Kit asked.

“It just so happens that I am partial to it, yes.”

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