“Oh! I love this! Look, Jess.”
Jess smiled at Caro’s excitement. The woman was the wife of Raff’s cousin Christian, and she was a doll, Jess thought as she leaned to the side and peered at the magazine page Caro was pointing to. Jess’s eyes widened when she saw the dress that had excited the woman. A muted rose color, long, flowing, sleeveless, and with a V-neck, it was a beautiful gown that could be used by the bridesmaids for special occasions even after the wedding.
“Oh, yeah,” she said with a smile, handing her the sticky pad. “Definitely mark that one as a finalist.”
“I can’t believe how pretty bridesmaids dresses have gotten,” Lissianna said, shaking her head as she flipped through her own magazine. When Jess glanced to the blonde, who was a cousin to Raff by virtue of her mother, Marguerite, marrying his uncle Julius, the woman continued, “Jeez, I remember when they used to be these horrible poofy things in nasty colors that just screamed, The bride is determined we all look ugly next to her in the wedding pictures.”
“Oh, those are definitely still out there,” Rachel, Lissianna’s sister-in-law and another of Raff’s new cousins, assured her. “Jess and I saw some in the bridal store. It’s why she decided to look through magazines instead and order them.”
“Will we be able to get them in time?” Jeanne Louise, yet another cousin through marriage, asked with concern. “I mean, the wedding is only three months away.”
Jess grimaced. Jeanne Louise said that like it was just around the corner, but it seemed miles away to Jess. Which was kind of ironic when she’d squawked so much three months ago when Raffaele had insisted on marrying a year to the day from when they’d met. Knowing from helping with Krista’s wedding that there was scads to get done for a wedding, the thought of managing one in six months had put her in a panic. But with all the help she was getting from his aunt Marguerite and his other relatives in Canada, as well as Ildaria in Montana, who had become a dear friend, her to-do list for the wedding was clearing up shockingly fast. The only reason the bridesmaids’ dresses were even on the table still was that with everyone so busy it had been hard to get them all together at the same time, and there were several not here, including Ildaria who’d had to stay in Montana to work on a project for her Business course.
“We’ll find something we can get here in time for the wedding,” Lissianna said reassuringly. “Or we’ll hire someone to make them. Mom knows a really great seamstress.”
Jess smiled and glanced around at the women at the table. Her new family. Well, the Canadian branch of it. They were wonderful women. But then everyone she’d met so far through Raffaele was wonderful. It didn’t make up for eventually having to give up her old family, but that was a ways off yet. She had a while before the fact that she wasn’t aging would start to become obvious and she’d have to disappear. Ten years, Raffaele had said. Well, nine years and three months now, she supposed. The thought made her sad, but then she reminded herself that at least there wasn’t a single Allison among these people.
“Jess!”
Everyone at the table paused and glanced at each other at that shout from Raffaele.
“Jessica!”
“Uh-oh,” Rachel teased. “Sounds like there’s trouble in paradise.”
“Bet he just found out that you invited Vasco to the wedding,” Lissianna said with amusement.
“No,” Jess said with surprise. “How would he find out?”
“One of the guys,” Caro said with a slow nod of certainty. “They just can’t keep secrets.”
“No, they can’t,” Jeanne Louise agreed on a sigh. “Honestly, they gossip worse than old women.”
“Hmm.” Jess frowned slightly, but just shook her head and picked up her tea as she waited for Raffaele to find her. It had been nine months since she’d agreed to be Raffaele’s life mate, and they’d been together ever since. Literally together. They hadn’t been apart for more than an hour or two since that day. Jess hadn’t expected that. She’d thought they’d do the normal long-distance dating thing, and then move on to possibly one of them moving to live in the same country, and then moving in together, and marriage in whichever order it had come. But she hadn’t been factoring in the shared pleasure life mates enjoyed. It was as addictive as heroin was purported to be, and neither of them had been able to tear themselves away from the other. Heck, they’d found it difficult to drag themselves out of bed for most of the first three months and they’d only got out then so that Raffaele could turn her. Or, at least, Raffaele had got out of the bed then.
The turning had been an experience she’d like to say she wouldn’t soon forget, but she mostly had. While Jess had been told afterward that she’d screamed and thrashed in agony for three days during the turn, she didn’t recall that. Whatever the drugs were that Rachel had given her had been amazing. The only thing Jess recalled of the turning were terrible nightmares and feeling hot. She hadn’t told Raffaele that, though . . . something that came in handy at times like this. Guilt could be handy in an argument.
“Jessica.”
Turning her head, she smiled sweetly at Raffaele’s scowling face as he stormed into the kitchen. He really was upset. The man was seething with emotion, she noted with a slight frown, and watched him open his mouth, close it again, and then shake his head.
“What is it, love?” she asked, getting up to cross the room to him.
The moment she got close enough, he caught her hand and turned to head out of the kitchen, tugging her behind him.
“See you later,” Caro called on a laugh.
“Have fun,” Jeanne Louise added.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Rachel teased.
“Take it to your room so we aren’t tripping over you later,” Lissianna shouted as Raffaele dragged her up the hall.
Jess heard Raffaele growl under his breath at the teasing, and bit her lip to keep from laughing as he dragged her upstairs and straight to the room they were occupying while here visiting his Aunt Marguerite and Uncle Julius.
Leading her inside, he pushed the door closed and then turned on her. He glared for a full minute, and then finally growled, “You did not invite Vasco to our wedding. You didn’t. You just would not do that.”
Jess hesitated, and then reached up to toy with the buttons of his shirt as she admitted soothingly, “Of course I did.” When he opened his mouth to no doubt shout at her for it, she added quickly, “He was there at the beginning. He has to be at the wedding.”
“He was there at the beginning, trying to bed you,” he snapped.
Ignoring that, Jess added, “And he’s the reason we met.”
“Because I had to drag you out of a shark-infested ocean after you jumped ship to get away from him,” he growled.
“And he fetched you back to the ship so you could explain about immortals.”
“I was already at the ship,” he said succinctly. “He probably saw me coming, and just set out in the boat so he could claim he was going to fetch me and look like a good guy.”
“He helped you explain about immortals,” she reminded him gently.
“And slammed me every chance he got, still trying to seduce you to agree to be his life mate, rather than mine,” he ground out.
“And I want your aunt Marguerite to meet him and maybe find him a life mate so I don’t have to feel guilty about being so happy with you,” Jess said solemnly.
Raffaele opened his mouth, closed it, and then groaned and leaned his forehead on hers. “You’re going to kill me, woman.”
“Never,” she assured him. “I love you too much.”
A smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he murmured, “I love you too.”
Pulling back, Jess beamed at him. “Does that mean you’re not angry anymore that I invited Vasco to the wedding?”
“Not quite,” he said dryly.
“Hmm.” Leaning into him, she let her lips hover by his as her hand drifted down to his groin, and then murmured against his mouth, “Perhaps if I showed you how much I love you?”
A groan sliding from his mouth, Raffaele claimed her lips, kissing her with a passion that hadn’t waned a drop in nine months. Then he broke the kiss, and scooped her up into his arms.
“One of these times, that isn’t going to work at easing my temper,” he warned as he carried her to the bed.
“Impossible,” she said with confidence.
“Yeah,” he agreed on a sigh.
“You know he probably won’t come anyway,” she said as he laid her in the bed.
Raffaele froze, bent over her and arched an eyebrow before saying, “Yes, he will.”
“Do you think so?” she asked dubiously.
“I know so,” he assured her, easing onto the bed next to her before saying dryly, “He’ll come just to get to look at you.” Grimacing, he added, “Driving me crazy will be a bonus.”
Jess laughed at the words, and cupped his face. Meeting his gaze, she said, “You shouldn’t let him bother you. Just remember that you’re the one I love and chose to be with, not him.”
“And I am grateful for it every day,” he told her solemnly before kissing her.