Free Silent Bite-A Scanguards Wedding (1001 Dark Nights) by Tina Folsom Page B

forever. How he would bestow immortality on her without robbing her of her humanity. How he would make himself vulnerable because once they blood-bonded, Oliver could only feed off her. His body would reject all other blood. In fact, it would make him violently ill if he ever drank blood other than hers.
    For a vampire to bond himself to a human required ultimate trust. She felt that trust between them.
    When he finally severed the kiss, she breathed heavily.
    “We’ve gotta stop, baby, or there won’t be a wedding, because I’ll tie you to my bed and won’t let you go.”
    She chuckled. “Would that be so bad?”
    He shook his head and wagged his finger playfully. “And deprive myself of seeing you walk down the aisle in your beautiful white dress while—”
    “White dress?” she interrupted him.
    He pulled back a little, his eyebrows snapping together. “Yes, of course.”
    “Oliver, I won’t be wearing a white dress. My dress is red. White is bad luck at a Chinese wedding. Red is good luck.”
    She watched as Oliver’s facial expression changed to one of dismay. “Uh-oh!”
    Trepidation rose in her. “What?”
    “You said white is bad? How about white flowers? We can have white flowers, right?” he asked, grimacing.
    Her stomach plummeted. “White flowers? Oh, please don’t tell me you got white flowers for the wedding.” She searched his face.
    “I didn’t know! I swear I had no idea,” he insisted.
    Ursula covered her face with her hands. “Oh no! This is not happening!” She sniffed, trying to push back the rising tears. “I should never have told you to take care of the flowers! I should have done it myself. Oh my god, my mother is going to be livid!”
    “Baby, I’ll fix it!”
    She lowered her hands. “You can’t fix that! You’ll never get that many red flowers now! It’s only a few hours till the ceremony. If there’ll even be a ceremony! Once my mother sees the flowers, she’ll insist we call the whole thing off!”
    Oliver cupped her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “I’ll fix it. Whatever it takes! But this wedding will happen tonight, one way or another! I’ll get rid of the white flowers. I promise you. When you walk into that tent in a few hours, the flowers will be red. Please trust me!”
    The look which he gave her was penetrating. For long seconds, she simply stared back at him. What choice did she have? She had to trust him to make this right. Silently she nodded.
    He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and left the room.
     
     
    Oliver raced down the stairs. Shit! He’d screwed up. He couldn’t remember if Ursula had ever told him about not getting white flowers, or whether she’d simply assumed he knew. It didn’t matter now. There was no need wasting time by blaming somebody. What was done was done. And now he had to undo it. Swiftly, and without her parents, particularly her mother, noticing.
    At the foot of the stairs, he nearly collided with Cain, one of his colleagues. The vampire with the permanent stubble looked as if he’d been born in a tuxedo. Before tonight, he’d only ever seen his fellow bodyguard in street clothes and had no idea how well he wore formalwear.
    “Cain, hey!” he greeted him.
    Cain glanced at him then the stairs and smirked. “Snuck in a visit to the bride?”
    Oliver sighed. “Just as well that I did. Has her mother come back from the hairdresser yet?”
    “Haven’t seen her.” He motioned to the guard who stood at the entrance door. “Bob’s been here for the last hour, just like you requested. I’ve got another one of my men at the side entrance. The catering staff will use the side entrance and the guests the main entrance.”
    Oliver nodded approvingly. “Thanks for taking care of that. It makes me feel better.” A glance at the bodyguard whom Cain had called Bob told him that the man was a vampire. He leaned closer to Cain and dropped his voice to a low whisper. “And the guy at the tradesmen entrance. Is he