Free Keeping Secret: Secret McQueen, Book 4 by Sierra Dean

licked my nipple, and I shuddered. My whole body felt like it was charged with electric energy and every touch was a shock. Desmond smiled, clearly pleased by the reaction he got from me. “Anytime, baby. Anytime.”
    I held him close until the last traces of the nightmare were gone.
    Then I let him chase them off again in the shower for twenty minutes, just to be sure.

Chapter Twelve
    I’d once believed my bathroom was the pinkest place on Earth.
    Sitting in the waiting area of Kleinfeld Bridal, I realized how wrong my assessment had been. The whole place was plush, posh and insanely girly. Too girly. If I didn’t still have the taste of lime in my mouth from my passionate wake-up call with Desmond, I thought I might taste bubble gum and cotton candy in the air.
    “Hi, hi, hi,” Mercedes said, her breath hurried as she came into the room with Kellen behind her and plopped down on the couch beside me, kissing me on the cheek. “ So sorry we’re late. There was an accident on Lexington, and we had a hell of a time getting out of the city.”
    “Why didn’t we just go to a place in the city?” Brigit asked. She’d come with me and was a bundle of nerves since her meeting with the council the previous evening. They hadn’t made a decision yet, and I expected she would be on edge until they did. And I understood vampires well enough to know they wouldn’t be in any special hurry to reach a conclusion.
    “Because if you have money and you’re getting married in New York, this is where you come for your dress,” Kellen replied matter-of-factly.
    She was right. I didn’t care much for planning weddings or any of this crap, but even I knew if you wanted a good dress, you came to Kleinfeld. As luck had it, between my Tribunal income and my billionaire fiancé, I was in a unique position to afford whatever dress I wanted. Kimberly hadn’t even bothered to make appointments at other stores. This was our one-stop dress shop. I was going to find my dress here or I wouldn’t find it at all.
    There was the added pressure that I had to find said dress soon because my wedding was in two weeks. I was asking for a miracle, but the great thing about an unlimited budget was it had a habit of making miracles happen.
    With my bridal party nestled around me, we had one more person we were waiting for. Kimberly, her dark hair in a pristine bun, wearing pearls with her lilac twin set and khaki pencil skirt, walked into the waiting room laughing with the middle-aged woman at her side.
    “Girls.” Kimberly clapped loudly to get our attention and showed off her too-white teeth like a shark might before it ate you. “Are we ready to have some fun?”
    The girls in question all grumbled their excitement. It made me want to giggle. Poor Kimberly was probably used to women tripping over themselves to get at the dresses and parade around like satin-covered Barbie dolls. Instead she got me and my equally thrilled gaggle of bridesmaids—a cop, a vampire and a been-there-done-that socialite.
    Unwilling to have the cheer beaten out of her, my wedding planner smiled wider and held out a hand to shift our attention to the woman next to her, who was wearing black from head to toe and an expression that was friendly but clearly meant business.
    I suspected Kimberly had used the magic words—spare no expense.
    “This is Olivia. She’ll be our consultant for the evening and has assured me we can take all the time we need.” On a typical day, Kleinfeld ran on an almost military schedule with appointments, trying to get brides in and out at a rapid-fire pace so they could make as many sales as possible in as short a window as possible. To throw appointment time into the wind meant Olivia and her managers believed my single purchase would make it worthwhile.
    I wasn’t used to being the center of such focused attention. Olivia was counting on me to make her commission. I guess I’d better step up and be a good little bride. Once I had a dress,