Eager to don her gift, Ami laid it on the bed and raced for the shower.
Marcus paced from one end of the spacious study to the other.
Lounging behind his desk, David read the latest Stephen King novel. Seth and Darnell, sprawled in two of the three chairs across from it, turned to the side so they could monitor Marcus’s progress.
Though they made a stray smart-ass comment here or there, Marcus paid little attention and didn’t rise to the bait. He paused to shift a large pot overflowing with a peace lily full of snowy blossoms an inch to the right, centering it on the reading table. His hands stilled. “Oh crap. I forgot shoes.” He stared at Seth in dismay. “I didn’t buy her shoes!”
“I’ll take care of it.” Seth vanished.
Relieved, Marcus sank down in the chair on Darnell’s other side.
The younger man grinned. “You look like a kid on Christmas morning.”
Marcus smiled. “I feel like one.” He shook his head. “Damned if she doesn’t make me feel like I’m your age again.”
“Dude, I’m twenty-seven. I’m not a kid anymore.”
Both Marcus and David laughed.
David set his book aside and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the smooth mahogany surface. “How is she doing, Marcus? The nightmares seem to be lessening in frequency.”
Darnell sobered. “Ami’s having nightmares?”
Marcus frowned at David. “How did you know?”
“She calls out telepathically.” Just as she had during her captivity. “But now,” David went on, “she calls out for you.”
Marcus wished that she didn’t cry out at all, that the nightmares would leave and never return. “She didn’t have one this morning.” Probably because they had slept very little. Now that Ami knew all she had to do to crank him up was whisper what she wanted to do to him—or what she wanted him to do to her—in his head, they spent many, many long hours making love, doing everything he had ever fantasized about.
David winced. “Damn it, Marcus. She’s like a daughter to me.”
He frowned. “Well, stay out of my head.”
“What’d I miss?” Darnell asked.
“You don’t want to know,” David murmured.
Seth popped back in. “Done. The shoes are waiting for her in the hallway, just outside the Quiet Room.”
“Thanks,” Marcus said.
Seth sank into the chair he had occupied earlier.
A door opened downstairs.
Marcus’s heart leapt, slamming against his ribs as he rose.
“Oh,” he heard Ami say, a soft exclamation of pleased surprise.
He smiled at Seth.
Seth smiled back as he and the others rose and moved to stand at Marcus’s side.
Ami’s light footfalls, normally silent, made tapping noises as she approached.
When she stepped into the doorway, Marcus lost his breath and, for many long moments, could only stare.
Her hair was its usual mop of fiery curls, a fetching contrast to the elegant formality of her gown.
Marcus swallowed. She had left it natural for him. He much preferred it to stiff, hair-sprayed perfection and had told her often how much he enjoyed burying his face in the silky tresses and combing his fingers through it.
The black gown left her slender shoulders bare. He had chosen black to reinforce her inclusion in their makeshift family, and it offered a beautiful contrast to her pale, perfect skin. The bodice molded to her full breasts, providing only a hint of cleavage. (More than once, she had expressed her astonishment over how much flesh women routinely exposed here on Earth. On Lasara, women’s clothing was far more conservative, tantalizing without exposing the goods, as she put it.) The dark material hugged her narrow waist, clung to her hips, then flared out in a wealth of material that fell to her ankles, giving him only a glimpse of the black, high-heeled shoes Seth had fetched for her.
She was so beautiful Marcus couldn’t find his voice.
Ami had to work hard not to gape when she reached the study. Marcus, Seth, David, and Darnell all wore stunning black suits, black shirts, black ties, and black dress shoes. David’s long thin dreadlocks were drawn back with a leather tie into a soft mass that fell to his hips. Seth’s wavy tresses were similarly bound, the ends brushing his waist. Darnell’s smooth-shaven head gleamed beneath the overhead lights. And Marcus ...
Marcus’s hair was tamed and confined in a tail, too, the sable softness shining against the material of the jacket he had donned since leaving her. A tie lay neatly knotted at his collar.
He was nothing short of gorgeous. All of them were. If they went out like this, they wouldn’t be able to hunt vampires because they would be fighting off the women in droves!
But Marcus most of all. He was the one who sent her heart soaring and sped her pulse. He was the one who had sparked white-hot passion within her, inspired her to find a strength she had thought never to possess again, and lit her life with laughter and teasing.
His eyes met and held hers, glowing faintly with such fierce love she thought she might weep.
“Hi,” she said, emotion choking her.
Marcus crossed the room with a smooth, prowling gait that made her think of balmy nights and beds with rumpled sheets. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured as he stopped in front of her.
Heat flooded her face. “Thank you. So are you.”
He raised a hand to her cheek, offered a featherlight caress.
“Are we going out?” she asked, curious about the formal wear and, frankly, trying to distract herself from the rising need to launch herself into Marcus’s arms.
“No.” Taking her left hand in his, he slid his right arm around her waist and escorted her over to the others.
They seemed pretty somber, but ... she didn’t feel any kind of trepidation radiating from them that might warn of bad news.
What was going on?
“Ami,” Marcus said, drawing her attention once more, “I know, from the stories you’ve told me of your world, that Lasaran society is guided by rules and traditions that, in certain areas, are not unlike those of the time in which I was born. And I wanted to do this right, in a way that would best emulate the customs we would follow were we on Lasara.” He drew her hand to his lips for a kiss. “Your own family is distant. I regret that I cannot meet them in person. At least, not yet.” He motioned to his brethren. “But Seth, David, and Darnell have become your family here on Earth.”
“Joyfully,” David added in his deep, warm voice.
Ami smiled. She did consider them family.
“For this reason,” Marcus continued, “I have brought you before them to profess my deep, profound love for you, my desire to keep you by my side always, and to ask their permission to marry you if you are willing to so honor me.”
Ami’s chest swelled. With a happiness so great she wondered that her feet still touched the floor. With sorrow that this man she so adored would never meet her father, mother, or brothers. And with thanksgiving that she had found such a loyal, loving new family here.
Her vision blurred with tears. Ami bit her lip, blinked the moisture back, and smiled. “I’m willing. I’m very willing.”
Eyes flaring bright amber, Marcus ducked his head and brushed his lips against hers in a tender kiss, then turned to the others. “Seth, David, Darnell ... I respectfully ask your permission to wed Amiriska, your daughter, your sister,”—he met each of their eyes in turn—“and give you my word that I will love and cherish her always, put her happiness before my own, and protect her with my life forevermore.”
Seth held out his hand. “You have my permission, Marcus. I wish you both every happiness.”