The truth was right there in his eyes. She felt it in his heart thundering against his ribs.
She was truly, truly, loved.
Eyes glued to his, she whispered, "Yes."
The blue in his eyes deepened as they went wide.
"Yes, what?"
He had to be sure.
She smiled.
"Yes, Daniel Stewart Gillespie, I will marry you."
"Kiss me."
And she did.
Much later,
"It's terribly ostentatious," said Gia staring with a mixture of awe and wonder and anxiety at the huge diamond ring on her finger. "I don't do ostentatious. I've slim hands, skinny fingers. This thing's a knuckle duster. I'll take someone's eye out with it. How will I put my hand in the pockets of my jeans? I want something narrow, small and unpretentious."
Daniel might have bloody known it.
His heart fell.
The most important purchase of his life and he'd got it wrong.
Over two weeks ago, he'd spent an entire afternoon at a certain well known jewellery store with two female assistants hanging on his shoulder, whispering sweet nothings in his ear and virtually creeping up his arse.
He should have listened to his damned intuition and gone for the narrow band of diamonds in rose gold.
"I knew I should have listened to my gut," he muttered under his breath.
Big brown eyes gazed into his.
"Did you go with your heart?"
Had he?
There was no point in lying to the woman he loved and adored, she'd see right through him.
"I dunno. The sales assistant were billing and cooing over that diamond ring, so I thought, since they were women and you're a woman, I couldn't go wrong."
There was a knock on the door.
It opened and his father poked his head in.
Duncan Gillespie took in the scene immediately.
He swallowed a grin and told himself the timing could not have been better.
"Can I come in?"
Daniel jerked his head in a come-and-save-me-dad gesture.
While Gia gave him wide eyes and a big fake smile and held out her hand to show him a HUGE diamond ring that swamped her small hand.
"Nice ring," he said without looking at his son. "Something to keep for when you're all dressed up. But for day to day I think this one," he took a battered leather ring box from his pocket, handed it to Daniel, "might work better for you. It belonged to your mother, Daniel."
Daniel's eyes glistened as he opened the box and at Gia's gasp of delight Duncan knew he'd done the right thing.
The ring was a narrow band of white gold studied all around with deep-set diamonds.
Daniel slid the knuckle duster from Gia's finger, handed it to his father.
"Like it?" he whispered to a Gia whose bottom lip was trembling, in a good way. He slid the ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit. Almost as if it was meant to be.
"I just love it," she whispered in a voice that wobbled with an emotion he could get right behind.
She threw her arms around Daniel and kissed him right on the mouth.
And then she threw her arms around his father and kissed him on one cheek and then the other.
"Thank you. I'm honored to wear it and will treasure it always."
Duncan cleared his throat, winked at his delighted son.
Lifting his hand, he swept a single stroke down Gia's fabulous hair.
"Welcome to the family, my darling. We're thrilled to have you as one of us."
Neither one of them noticed when he quietly left the room.
Wrapped in the arms of the man she loved, Gia couldn't stop staring at the ring.
When she did look up at Daniel his marvelous face blurred.
She blinked rapidly. "How did he know?"
Daniel's wide smile filled her heart to overflowing.
"He's a vampyre prince, and he misses nothing. I don't want to wait. How soon are you going to marry me?"
She just laughed and threw herself into his arms, lifted her face for his kiss.
"Whenever you want."
"Two weeks?"
A wave of sheer happiness washed over her and threatened to break her emotions again.
However, she managed to blink frantically to clear her eyes.
She didn't want to miss a single moment of this.
"Okay."
Epilogue
Vassili lay prostrate on the floor before his master.
The Maker, meanwhile, was too busy studying the tiny red blips in the map on a virtual screen to bother with the priest of the Order.
He was pleased, most pleased with the positive outcome of his plan.
"Rise," he said now.
Vassili stood, head bowed beneath his cowl.
"I failed you, master."
"By losing Charlotte Gillespie when you had her within your grasp, you did. However, your failure means I have placed two ticking time-bombs right in the middle of the Gillespie vampyres. As you can see."
Vassili raised his head, his blood-red eyes going to the screen. There, in the map of Scotland, were two diminutive signals.
"When the time is right all I have to do is press this button. And BOOM!"
The creature that was The Maker threw back his head and roared with laughter.
The sound ringing and bouncing as it echoed around the vast space.
The End
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Many thanks,
Christine
CC MacKenzie
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CC MacKenzie is a USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She loves to hear from her readers; you can find her at:
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"We must not be defeated..."
She's thought of him since he saved her life when she was six. Every night as she sleeps, he is there in her dreams keeping the nightmares and the monsters at bay. Her visions are of his face, his voice. And of his death.
Tonight, in a world gone mad, foreseer Mhari MacDonald will behold the man who is both light and dark, redemption and seduction.
He is Adam Gillespie - Vampyre Prince.
And he is hers.
Tonight, Mhari will meet the man doomed to be her mate...
the man her love will destroy...
The Vampyre Legal Chronicles - Daniel: Book: 3 Page 18