He answered the phone with a snarl. “What?”

She couldn’t hear the voice on the other line but she watched his eyes narrow and knew they’d not be going back to their special moment together. Nope. She would not be disappointed. Then why did she feel like stomping her foot and pouting? Felicity scolded herself. Stop being so ridiculous.

He closed the phone with a snap, pocketed it. “Come on. It’s time to get ready.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door. “Ah, and one more thing.” In a flash of movement she barely saw, he had her back against the wall and his lips devastating hers.

If she was forced to describe the kiss she say it was hungry and hard, but even that did not begin to describe the kiss. He devoured her with his tongue and lips. He wrapped her in his arms and gave her no room for escape and as his teeth bit down on her bottom lip, he drank in all her little gasps and moans like an incubus demon feeding off her arousal.

Then it was over. She braced herself against the wall, blinking while trying to get bring her body back down to some semblance of calm.

His eyes searched her face. He nodded once then leaned down close, his eyes bright as he pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose and said, “You’re beautiful, sweets.”

Time flew by so fast that Felicity resisted the urge to look behind her to find where it went. It seemed like only minutes ago she climbed out of Dom’s bed alone to pace his bedroom floor. Some god must be toying with her because now she stood inside a quiet room adjacent the large hall where more than one hundred people waited to see her mate with Dominic Blackmoore.

Where had the time gone? Where had she been for it all? She couldn’t have been present even though she knew she was. She went through the motions, played the part, but all day long it felt as though a piece of herself had left her.

The whole evening passed in a whirl. She hardly had time to sit down before Diane, Eduardo, or even Beth pushed her from one task to another. They chose last minute decorations details, which Felicity appreciated as it let her contribute her own taste into the ceremony.

Something did not sit right inside her, but she didn’t have time to sit and consider it because there was so much to do. Did she want this color or that color? Did she prefer the flute glasses smooth or engraved? This color or that. These flowers or those.

Such little details that if she had had the proper time to prepare her own ceremony as most women do she would already have picked out. Instead, she was going to a ceremony that originally was not for her. The thought shouldn’t matter, yet some strange, agitated feeling curled inside her and proceeded to grow as the day went on. This wasn’t her ceremony.

She’d been cleaned, styled, waxed, shaved, misted, and all around beautified. That still hadn’t been the end of it. Next came the process of picking out a dress. Things had been happening so fast lately that she hadn’t even thought about the one aspect of mating that most bruids took seriously—the dress.

The bruid would keep the dress forever. It was never worn again but the symbol, what it represented, was considered sacred. Bruids were supposed to wrap the dress up neatly, bind it, box it, and stuff it away in a place where it could never become damaged or tainted.

Felicity knew all this but she never once thought to pick out a dress. Fortunately for her, Diane and Beth had been conspiring behind her back. With Beth’s wisdom at the style of clothes Felicity liked, she and Diane had ordered a plethora of gowns. And really there were a plethora of gowns.

They pushed Felicity into a chair as Beth and Diane held up dress after dress for her perusal. She undertook the rather fun task of saying yes, no, or maybe to each dress. Before she knew it, they were down to twenty dresses. That was where everything got tricky, but she’d finally settled on the perfect dress. She hadn’t known it by looking at it. No, she had to feel the material draped against her bare skin before a special ping in her chest started to ache. Then she knew; it was the one.

Then why, she had asked herself as she stared at her reflection, did something feel wrong? Is this how all bruids felt? How could anything feel out of place when something incredible was about to happen? She loved Dominic. In such a short span of time she had met someone who made her heart flutter, who was strong and stalwart, and he cared for her. It was as if all the little pieces of some invisible puzzle had been put together.

Then why do I feel this doubt? Felicity stopped herself short at the thought, reeling.

The dress was a brilliant deep red—Dom’s favorite color according to his mother. Tulle material draped over her shoulders leaving her neck and arms bare. The bodice clung to her form like a glove but not too tight. The inside was silk or satin she couldn’t tell which. All she knew was that it was soft and luxurious feeling and if she could sleep in sheets made of the material she would. Shiny diamonds covered the bodice that twinkled in the light. They speckled the bodice making her feel like a queen wearing real diamonds on her dress. That was only one small part in comparison to the rest of the gown. The part that sold her on it. The part that made her breath catch and her eyes widen as her heart thudded with rightness, with a feeling that this was the dress. This was the dress she’d become someone’s mate in.

The bottom reminded her of something old-fashioned an aristocrat might wear attending a real ball where couples danced strict dances and women always carried fans. The bottom billowed out around her like the top of a goblet and a length of material stayed behind her leaving a train as she walked. All of that, she loved, but it wasn’t her favorite part. Her favorite, the part that made her know that Dominic was meant to see her in it, was the downward arches that pulled the material into waves and were held up at the ends by a large, diamond-shaped gem. It was the most beautiful dress she’d ever seen, and she would mate with Dominic Blackmoore in it.

She refused to even think the word lest it curse her, but like a magnet, the more she tried to push the thought away the closer it came until its nasty face reared.

Doubt.

“How do you feel?”

Felicity jerked around at Beth’s question. A quiver trembled in her belly. Even wrapping her arms around her belly procured no added warmth or relief from her troubling thoughts.

The time was now.

She stood in a small clutter-free room adjacent the mighty hall. She could hear voices colliding together into one as people chatted excitedly. This was the occasion to behold, made even more scandalous by the fact that their invitations originally had a different woman’s name on it. Scandalous indeed. This was the mating ceremony of the century. The press was camped out at every door. The windows had to be blocked off because the flashes from their cameras were distracting.

“Good,” she answered, forcing strength into her voice.

Beth looked ravishing in a bright yellow dress that made her dark coloring look even more beautiful. Beth frowned. “Come on, spill it. I know you and I know when you’re scared. You’re scared right now.”

Too many high emotions had been colliding through Felicity these past few days and seeing her friend again, hearing the caring, thoughtful words brought tears to her eyes.

“Hey now! I’ll have none of that. It’s your wed—I mean mating day or whatever you call it.” Mumbling, Beth snatched a box of tissues off the table and thrust them out to her. Felicity took one, her smile wobbling.

“God, I missed you,” Felicity said.

“I missed you too.”