“Our only shower,” I reminded him with a grin. There were advantages to the shortened timeline.

“And only two months to go.”

“Until I have to get my driver’s license renewed? Yeah, I know. I’m not looking forward to it. Such a hassle.”

He took my free hand, pressed his soft and generous mouth to my knuckles. “You know very well I wasn’t talking about the DMV.”

I pursed my lips. “Hmm. Was there something else on my schedule?”

He nipped at my neck. “Our wedding. The reason we had that mostly lovely shower earlier tonight. The reason we’re now in possession of several new toasters.”

“How much toast do they think vampires eat?”

“Volumes, evidently.” He stretched out beside me, crooked his elbow, propped his head on his hand, and looked at me. “You aren’t nervous, are you, Sentinel?”

“Nervous? No. Of course not. Definitely not nervous.”

“I believe you’re familiar with the Bard and the bit about protesting too much.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m a little nervous.”

For an instant, his eyes went hot. There was surprise there and maybe a little hurt.

I put a hand on his cheek. “Not about the marriage,” I said, and let him see the truth in my eyes. “I’m apprehensive about the humans. I’m not proud of what happened tonight. Even if I handled Aunt Sarah, she may not be the only badly behaving guest.”

Ethan smiled, took my empty wineglass, set it aside. “Badly behaving guests are the least of our concerns. If they want to drink our champagne and snipe about vampires, there’s nothing we can do to stop them. And we’re only out the cost of the champagne.”

“That’s a very practical response.”

“It is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that we can’t always rely on humans to be good allies. Your relatives and family friends—even though they’re your relatives and family friends—likely won’t be exceptions.”

“They should be. They knew me before I was a vampire, know me now. They should be better than that.”

“Most of us rarely rise to our full potential.” The glint in his eyes my only warning, he covered my body with his, pressed me back into the soft carpet.

“And you’ve risen to yours?” I asked with a grin, putting my arms around his neck.

“So it seems,” he said. “The nearness of you is enough.”

His voice was low and roughened by desire, and the feel of his lips on my skin sent a shiver of excitement through me.

“The nearness of you isn’t bad, either,” I said, and drew his head closer, pressed my mouth to his. I kissed him, letting love mingle through soft lips and tangling tongues.

He balanced on his elbow, set his free hand against my hip, and drew my body up against his, against the hard line of his arousal.

“Rising to the occasion,” I murmured against his mouth, and felt his answering smile.

He sat back on his heels, pushed away his hair with a hand, and began unbuttoning his shirt. The fire in his eyes—silver and green in turn—sparked and changed, like the flames of the fire beside us. He watched me, let his long fingers trail down each pearl button with slow deliberation. It was a tease, exposing a hint of his flat and toned abdomen, of preternaturally smooth skin.

I lifted a hand to press against the muscles that clenched there, but he pushed it aside.

“I’m not done,” he said, and tossed the shirt away. “And I’m in charge now. I want you wild with desire.”

One corner of my mouth quirked into a smile. “Trust me. You won’t have to try very hard.” The sight of him—strong and powerful and undeniably gorgeous—was enough for me. But Ethan Sullivan—soldier and Master—was a man of his word.

He clasped my hands in his, lifted them over my head, lowered his mouth to mine as he pinned me beneath him.

“This isn’t so bad,” I said playfully. And it wasn’t, until he let his fangs descend and tugged at my lip, then scraped the delicate skin of my neck.

“No?” he asked, and rearranged his hold on my wrists to free one of his hands. He slipped it beneath the hem of my dress, trilled those long and clever fingers up my thigh, heightening desire and want with movements designed to tease. To inflame.

He sat up again, his eyes silver, his fangs gleaming in the firelight, his face glazed with desire. He was the embodiment of power, of man, of vampire.

And he was mine.

It was my turn to take. And fortunately, I’d learned a trick or two, mostly from him.

Still beneath him, I arched my body, watched his eyes shift down. I took the moment, and I took the control. I shifted my weight and, in one quick move, reversed our positions so he lay in front of the fire while I straddled him.

His expression—surprise, awe, and thrilled desire—was worth the trouble.

“I believe I’m in charge now,” I said, and pulled the dress over my head, tossed it aside. He did the same with his final garments, and then I covered him with my body, pressed my mouth to his, and kissed him until his body thrummed with tension, with anticipation.

His nimble fingers roamed carefully, intently, as if he might memorize the shape of my body by touch alone. He looked up at me, traced a thumb over my swollen lips. “I’m not sure I’ll ever have enough of you, Sentinel.”

“You have all of me, always,” I said, and arched when he touched me, when he drove me over the first delicious wave of pleasure.