“I’m sorry,” I said softly, unable to keep from stroking the hard line of his jaw.
He continued to pin me back with a heated look that left me in no confusion about his emotions, then turned his head slightly and kissed my palm, tracing out on it a smaller symbol of a hand bearing a crescent moon. It was the symbol of the silver dragons and was identical to the small brand I wore on my upper back. “We have been too long apart. It is not your fault that you have not yet accepted that you are everything to me.”
“Oh, gods, how I missed you,” I said, kissing him with all the passion I had.
“There is nothing—”
The world spun drunkenly, yanking me from Gabriel’s arms before he could finish his sentence, sending me plummeting with a gut-wrenching feeling into an abyss of darkness.
Chapter Three
“This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me! Will I be asked to speak, do you think? You know, something like toasting the bride and groom?” Sally asked as she posed in front of a full-length mirror, tugging at the neckline of a Pepto-Bismol pink dress. “Oh, I’m sorry; I’m hogging the mirror. I’m sure you want to check yourself.”
“That’s not necessary,” I said absently, turning in my hands a scanty bit of lamé and leather that Magoth had produced as proper consort wear. “He has to be kidding. This isn’t enough to cover a hamster, let alone a woman.”
“Well, you are positively tiny,” Sally said, turning around so she could examine her backside in the mirror. “Do you think the bow at the derriere is too much? I think it adds a sort of jaunty touch, but if you think it’s out of line with the gravity of the moment, I can snip it off.”
I shook out the consort garment in hopes it would magically enlarge, sighing when it remained a pathetic little contraption made up of leather straps and what I assumed were strategically placed bits of cloth. “I don’t think it’s really going to matter. Thank god I didn’t tell Gabriel that Magoth wanted him for the consort ceremony. I’d really rather he not see me in this. Magoth went way over the line this time.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Sally called after me as I escaped to the privacy of the bathroom to don the skimpy outfit. “I’ve found that he has exceptionally good taste. He absolutely loves this dress!”
It took me a minute to struggle into the skintight leather-strap outfit that Magoth had created for me, and then another couple of minutes to steel my nerve to step out of the bathroom. I knew without even seeing my reflection that I looked like a cross between a bondage princess and a stripper, buckled leather straps the only things covering my naked torso. The straps continued down my legs, ending in a pair of stilettos that would quite possibly leave me lame. There was a bit of cloth at the crotch, but other than that, it was all leather straps. “I think this little item puts the question of Magoth’s supposed good taste to an end.”