Page 5 of Night Wedding
“Anytime,” he grinned, immune to my sarcasm. “Did you get a ring yet?”
“The dragon wants to see the shiny jewels,” Sebastian teased. “What a shocker.”
Dragon shifters loved to collect things, especially shiny objects. Lucas preferred amassing more albums for his record collection.
“No. I’ve looked online at some options but don’t know what to get her.” I rolled my neck, attempting to work out a kink in my muscles that had been building up with my rising nerves. “How do I pick the right one?” I shrugged. “Anyone want to go with me to the jewelry store?” I turned to Lucas.
“Of course. I’ll make sure you get something she’ll like.” Lucas nodded with a smug expression, as if he’d been certified to examine gems.
I’d call him out on it, except I could use his help. “How am I supposed to know what kind of ring to get Nova? If she says yes, she’ll be wearing it for the rest of her life. It has to be one she likes.” I rubbed my jaw. “Talk about pressure.”
“Of course, she’ll say yes,” Sebastian replied with assurance. “Why wouldn’t she?”
“Um, let’s see. I’m a vampire.” I tapped one finger on my palm. “I can’t go out in sunlight.” I tapped another finger. “We can’t have children.” I tapped a third.
“Okay, I get it,” Sebastian said with an amused smirk. “You’re far from a catch.”
“Thanks, my furball friend. I appreciate the ego boost.”
“Wait.” Lucas lifted his hand to his temple and turned to Sebastian. “Does this mean it puts the pressure on us to propose?”
Sebastian stared off toward one of the curtain-closed windows and then brought his gaze back to us. “I’d marry Gianna quicker than I can shift to wolf form, but she’s hardly going to leap at that offer. She loves me but craves her freedom and doesn’t want to rush things.” He scowled. “Including the mating bite.”
Lucas cracked his knuckles. “Who would think a woman wouldn’t want to have her skin pierced by the shifter she loves, leaving her with a scar that marks her for life?”
I laughed. Although I could relate to the urge to want to bite Nova, it was for a far different reason than my shifter roommates. A vampire craved blood, and the craving for Nova’s blood was almost blinding. The times she let me taste her almost made me delirious, drunk on exquisite pleasure.
Sebastian turned to me and cocked his head. “When are you going to do it? And how?”
“Propose?” I asked.
“No, go waterskiing naked under the pale moonlight.” He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. “Of course propose. What else would I be talking about?”
Ignoring his question, I snapped my fingers. “First, I need to get a ring. Then I’ll worry about the next step. I have to come up with a romantic way to propose.”
“I have an idea.” Lucas chuckled. “Why don’t you throw a stuffed animal at her with a ring hanging from its bloody fangs?”
“Har har,” I replied. Okay, I might have thrown a plush bunny onto the bed with Nova in the past. We’d watchedMonty Python and the Holy Grailtogether, and I thought it would be a fun private joke. She’d laughed, though, and kept it in her bedroom, so I didn’t bomb too badly. She understood my odd sense of humor.
Sebastian laughed. “You should run your plan by us before you go off the rails with the macabre.”
“Funny.” I snorted and crossed my arms. “All right, maybe I’m not the prince of romance and all that, but I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to propose with a plush figure with blood dripping off its fangs.”
“Well, you are a vampire…” Lucas gestured at me.
I groaned. Roommates. “Thanks for the identification. I’d been walking around wondering why I’d acquired a taste for blood and shied away from the sun.”
“Anytime.” Lucas ignored my tone and patted my back.
Maybe telling Sebastian and Lucas had been a bad idea. Then again, I probably should run any proposal plans by them, lest I come up with something in poor taste. I was trying to get Nova to spend her life with me, not run to the other side of the planet.
“I’ll come up with something good,” I vowed. “It will be romantic. It will be perfect for Nova. And it won’t involve any blood.”
Chapter 2
Nova
You can do this.
