Free Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister Page B

care of all right?”
    “No. When is your ultrasound appointment?”
    I pushed his sleeve back and consulted his watch, gloating to myself for a moment about the wedding present that was wrapped up and waiting for me to give him—a twenty-four-carat gold watch. Knowing the dragon’s love of gold, I figured Drake would go gaga over it. “An hour and a half. We have time.”
    “Perhaps, but it may cut the time too fine. We will go home instead, Rene,” Drake said in his usual bossy voice.
    “Belay that order, Rene! I’m declaring a mutiny and taking over this ship. We’re going to the Guardians’ Guild.”
    The look Drake shot me spoke volumes, and none of them were pleasant reading. “Why is it so important we go there now?”
    “I can’t be married if my hands are possessed.”
    The look intensified until I was squirming in the seat.
    “Oh, all right, I don’t seriously believe my hands are possessed by the dark power, although I wouldn’t put it past it to try.”
    Like I don’t have something better to possess?
    “However,” I said, purposely ignoring the voice in my head, “it worries me greatly that a Guardian can just walk up to me and banish me. I have to find out what’s going on, and what I can do to stop it, otherwise…well, what’s to prevent a Guardian from just waltzing into the church and zapping me in front of everyone? The dragons would understand, but the rest of my family…urgh.” I shuddered.
    “Very well. I will admit that I am not comfortable with the thought of you being vulnerable to other Guardians. As for your family…” His lips tightened.
    “Yeah, like you have anything to complain about? At least my stepmother isn’t actively trying to have you killed.”
    “I told you I spoke with my mother about the contract she placed on you. She understands now that to cross you is to cross me. She will not try anything like that again,” Drake said with a complacency I was far from feeling. He might trust Catalina, but I sure didn’t. “Since we are not going home right away, you should call your stepmother. She was very distressed earlier when you failed to show up for our wedding.”
    “Don’t even think about trying to make me feel guilty about that, Mr. You Jilted Me First,” I said as I pulled out my cell phone. “Hi, Suzanne, it’s me. Is Paula there? Thanks.”
    “Are we stopping to get a bite to eat? I’m famished,” Jim said, looking wistfully at an Indian restaurant as we drove past it.
    “Later, after the—Ack! Rene! Stop doing that! You almost scared the shit out of me!”
    “Aisling, dear!” a shocked voice breathed into the phone. “A lady never says that word! Manure or droppings, but never the other!”
    “Sorry, but Rene insists on pulling race car driver moves on the streets of London.”
    Rene’s smile flashed in the rearview mirror.
    “Where were you? Why didn’t you go to the church? My dear, the wedding was a complete disaster without you!”
    I smiled at Drake. “Yeah, I know, a wedding kind of needs a bride. I was unavoidably—”
    I was cut off in the middle of my explanation by a lengthy lecture on the proper duties of a bride on her wedding day. It lasted through the better part of our drive across London, luckily petering out just as we arrived at the parking garage adjacent to the Guardians’ Guild.
    “…we can try again, but honestly, Aisling, if you aren’t going to go to your own wedding, I don’t know how you can keep expecting others to show up. As for your hair, dear…I know you wanted an upswept style, but if you were to leave your hair down, and if we were to find a flower garland and several spools of ribbon, it might do well to help hide some of that bondage outfit—”
    “It’s not bondage, Paula. It’s a velvet corset, and it’s perfectly suitable—”
    “You have to allow me to know best about these things,” she interrupted. “I’m not naïve, you know. I recognize bondage when I see it. Oh, David, why