“You do realise that you’re comfort-eating, don’t you? Stressed or not, attacking pastries won’t do you any good.”

I threw Fletcher a dirty look. “Shut your noise, I’ll eat what I want.”

“I think you’ll enjoy what’s coming next.”

The excitement in his tone had me instantly intrigued. “What is it?”

“We’re going to have a pedicure.”

And there went my intrigue. “That’s it? We don’t need manicures or pedicures – we’re vampires, our nails are all perfect.”

He gave me a cheeky smile. “Ah, but this is a different kind of pedicure.”

“There’s more than one kind of pedicure?”

As the door closed behind the last beauty therapist, he said, “So…are you going to tell me the real reason why you now seem to have the same enchanting glamour that Keja vampires have?”

The camp sod was too astute for his own good – it really was a good job that I adored him. There was no sense in lying to him, but I also couldn’t tell him. Not that I thought Fletcher would blab. I just didn’t want anyone plucking the info from his mind. “If I could tell you, I would. I’m sorry.”

He grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I appreciate you not giving me an ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’; that would have hurt. But, if you’re not going to tell me about that, you can at least answer my question of why you’re so anxious about tomorrow evening.”

“Doesn’t every ‘bride’ have a last minute attack of the jitters, or whatever they call it?”

“There’s being jittery, and there’s being bloody petrified. Why are you so scared? What could you possibly have to be scared of?”

“The mysterious dress you’ve designed?” I offered. He’d brought it with him in a full-size protective bag which he’d placed in my bedroom.

He huffed at me. “Stop stalling, Lady Jane, and spill the beans.”

Persistent little bugger.

“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”

“Definitely not.”

“Are you worried that he’s not going to show up? If so, that’s daft. We can safely say that he’ll be there.”

“It’s not that, it’s just that…Binding…it’s not like marriage. There’s no divorce, no annulment, no get-out clause. Once you Bind yourself to someone, you have a life-long psychic connection to them that can only be broken if one of you dies. Even if the couple grew to despise each other or had come to care for somebody else, there’s no getting out of the bond.”

“And that scares you,” he guessed.

“Actually, no. I thought it would. It probably should. But the idea that it can’t be broken makes me feel more secure, strangely enough.”

“I don’t understand. What’s the problem, then?”

“The problem is that Jared gets temptation thrown in his face constantly – you’ve seen what women are like around him. I’m not saying he’s shallow, he’s far from it, though I didn’t realise that at first. But I can’t help worrying that he might one day fall for one of them. Not because I don’t trust him or because I don’t believe he loves me. But because it scares me that I’d be able to feel what he felt for her. Knowing that he loved someone else would be bad enough. But to be able to feel it, and to have no way of saving myself from that…I couldn’t deal with that Fletcher, I know I couldn’t. I wouldn’t need to kill myself to break the bond: it would destroy me.”

Fletcher pulled me against him and locked his arm around me. Patting my arm, he gently said, “Yes, he has women throwing themselves at him all the time, which is daft of them since they know you could, and would happily, whip them to death. But who can blame them, really? I mean, he’s gorgeous, he’s powerful, he’s got that dominant vibe going on, and he’s the Heir – it’s a combination that will have most females downright bloody horny.”

“Fletch, you’re not helping,” I said dryly.

He held up his index finger. “Wait, I’m not done. What I was about to say before you rudely interrupted me, was that I’ve been around him when he’s had women slobbering over him. Not once has it ever got him hot and bothered – I’d have sensed it. He actually gets annoyed about it. Sometimes there’s even a bit of resentment there, but I’m not sure what that’s about.”

The latter made me think back to Evan’s words of how Jared resented just how much attention his looks got him, of how he resented that he looked like his mother.

“Before you came here, Jared was hard. Cynical. You didn’t need to be an Empath to know that. I wouldn’t say he’s changed. No, he’s still like that in many ways. But my point is that he’s not like that with you. When he’s with you, he’s relaxed. He trusts you. I’d say that’s a big thing for Jared. I can sense that he’s not a very trusting person, just as I can sense that he absolutely adores you. Oh, luv, if you’d have felt how beside himself he was when your gifts were on the blink, you wouldn’t be worrying like this. If there was any doubt in my mind about his commitment to you, I’d be trying to talk you out of the Binding. I’m a meddling sod like that.”

I smiled. “Yeah, you would do that, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, because I love you. And Jared does as well.”

A knock at the apartment door had Fletcher bouncing to his feet. “This is going to be fabulous.”

“Why do I get the feeling that this is more for you than it is for me?”

He gave me a wounded look. “I can’t believe you’d even think that.”

“So I’m right then?”

“Possibly.” He opened the door, and a tall Keja with flowing sable hair and a large, silver cosmetics case strolled inside.

The Keja shook my hand. “Hi, my name’s Rayna. I’m here to do your Swarovski Pedicure. Are you both having one?”

“What’s a Swarovski Pedicure?” It turned out that it was when someone spent almost two hours applying individual Swarovski crystals to your toenails in a very intricate, beehive formation. And it was bloody great. I liked it so much that I even asked her to apply them to my fingernails as well.

Afterwards, Fletcher and I sat back and admired them with sighs of appreciation.

“These will look fabulous with your ceremony dress and shoes.”

“Am I allowed to see this dress yet?”

Hearing the apprehension in my voice, he shook his head at me sadly. “I’m hurt that you have so little faith in me. But, yes, you can see it now.” Obviously excited, he practically skipped to my bedroom.

I followed behind him, dreading what was about to happen. I would no doubt dislike it, and he would no doubt become upset, and then I would have offended my best mate. In the room, I found him standing before the bag that was hanging on my wardrobe door.

“Ready?” Without giving me a chance to answer, he tackled the zipper and pulled out the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. There wasn’t a word to describe it. A mix of pink and purple, the organza gown actually had fairy wings and a magic wand.

“What’s that?”

“A joke. Calm down.”

I sagged in relief. “Sod.”

“This is your dress.” He carefully withdrew another dress and held it out at arms’ length. Ducking under his arm in order to circle the garment, I literally couldn’t say a word. Technically, I shouldn’t like this dress. I mean, I’d envisioned myself in something reasonably simple but nice…maybe a white silk halter-neck that was just below knee-length, lacking even a hint of a train. This sleeveless, backless, floor-length dress was pretty much the opposite.

In the typical ‘fit n flare’ style, it was skin-tight all the way to mid-thigh before flaring out. It was definitely going to accentuate my already noticeable cl**vage. And it was decorated with girly things like crystals and beads, and even had a clump of rosettes on one hip. But I absolutely loved it. That must have shown on my face, because Fletcher hung up the dress and started jumping up and down, clapping like a performing seal.

“I knew you’d adore it! See, you should have a little more faith in your mates.”

“Is it satin?”

“Yep. Isn’t the court train gorgeous? I had a feeling you still wouldn’t want one, so I asked the designer to sew in a little loop.” If he hadn’t pointed it out to me, I never would have noticed it. “If you don’t want the train, or you just want it out of your way while you’re dancing, all you have to do is lift it by the loop and then hook it on one of the fake buttons near the small of your back.”

I did the only thing I could do right then. I practically wrapped myself around Fletcher, hugging the breath out of him. Then we were both jumping up and down, squealing in delight – something I wouldn’t normally do.

“Come on, you have to try it on. I’m convinced that it will fit, but it’s best to make sure.”

“Sam?”

Both mine and Fletcher’s eyes widened at the sound of Jared calling my name. “He must’ve teleported inside. Don’t come in! You’re not allowed to see my dress!”

“Okay, I’ll wait out here.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

Fletcher and I worked as a team to quickly, but still carefully, return the dress to the bag. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the zipper was closed.

“Can I come in now?”

“Yes,” I replied.

Opening the door, he went to walk inside, but then his eyes caught sight of something over my shoulder and he froze. “Whoa.”

Realising what he’d seen, I chuckled. “Don’t worry; that’s not the dress. Fletcher thought it would be funny to make me think I’d be dressed like a slutty fairy at my Binding Ceremony.”

Fletcher smirked. “You should’ve seen her expression, it was priceless.” His smirk was replaced by a frown as he folded his arms across his chest. “Hang on a minute. You’re not supposed to be here. You’re not allowed to see her the night before. It’s bad luck.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “That’s a human thing.”

“She hasn’t tried on her dress yet.”

A shrug. “She can do it after I’m gone.”

“She’s supposed to be relaxing.”

“You’re suggesting that I’m not a relaxing person to be around?” This was asked with all the innocence of a five year old.

Fletcher sighed tiredly. “I won’t get you to leave, will I?”

“No.”

Adjusting his glasses on his nose, Fletcher sighed again. “I’ll leave you two alone, then. Try not to bonk, all right? It’ll all add to the anticipation for tomorrow evening.”

As Fletcher dashed out of the room, Jared snatched my hand and tugged me to him before landing a very disorientating kiss on me. “Hey baby.”

“I didn’t expect you to come here. Aren’t you supposed to be getting hammered with the boys?” That had sounded a lot more fun than a pamper party, but everyone was determined to keep us separated for this one night.

“You’re more appealing.”

“But that’s not why you’re here,” I sensed, knowing him well.

“I guess I just wanted to check that you’re okay…and that you’re not having second thoughts.”

“I told you last night that I wasn’t.”

“Yeah. But that was last night.”

There was a glimmer of vulnerability in his eyes that I’d only seen once before – that night that I’d learned the truth about the bitch that gave birth to him. A vulnerability that she’d put there. Despite all his confidence, there was a lack of self-worth lurking deep, and it was clearly making him doubt that I truly loved him. I kind of wished she was alive just so that I could kill her. “I have not had an overnight change of heart.”

“Even though you know everything about me, even though you know that I’m pretty damaged? It can’t be an attractive idea to Bind yourself to someone with this many issues.”

I slapped his arm. “Hey, I’m taking offense to that – I have issues of my own. But so what? I think it would be pretty boring to be one-dimensional anyway.”

He smiled against my mouth. “Good, it means I don’t have to tie you to the bed and hold you here against your will.”

“You’re not even joking, are you?”

“No. I can’t let you go.”

“Does this mean I can relax in the knowledge that you’ll turn up to the ceremony?”

His all-too-perceptive eyes narrowed. “So I wasn’t the only one worrying.” When I shook my head in admission, he dabbed a drugging kiss on my mouth. “That’s just dumb. I need you in more ways than you know. You were right in what you said; when I came here I forget who I was and where I came from because I wanted to. You brought me back from that. If you go, I’ll be tempted to forget again, because it’s easier that way. I need you to keep me grounded. It sounds corny, I know, but you’re like my personal little refuge. You can’t leave.”

“I won’t. But note, for the record, that if you don’t show up, I’ll gut you like a fish.”

His smile took over his face. “There’s my girl.” He nipped my bottom lip. “Open for me.” When I did, his tongue immediately shot inside to find mine. In a dominant move that could have landed him in trouble if I wasn’t in such a good mood, he tangled a hand in my hair and angled my head how he wanted – holding it there while he literally devastated my mouth.