“Of course,” Amber exclaimed, whirling around to follow Alexei’s glance.
“Meet your bridesmaids.”
Amber hugged Celina first. The young girl looked so much better than the last time she’d seen her. She was rosy-cheeked, with gleaming, waist-length black hair, and the pretty ankle-length bridesmaid’s dress in ice-blue lace really suited her.
“Next I’d like to introduce you to Rose, our latest recruit.”
“Irish,” Rose announced, her black eyes sparkling with laughter. “With brothers.” She grimaced. “And I take a job here, where the island is overrun by fierce feens—men,” she explained to Amber, pulling a comic face as she tweaked her pale blue dress into some sort of order. “There are far too many men here.”
“Apologies, Rose. I can only hope you’ll tame one of them.”
“One of them? No thank you. None of them would suit me.” Rose huffed good-humoredly as she shot a warning glance at the tall Argentinian, Dante. “We haven’t made the best of starts,” she confided in Amber.
“Well, come and have a chat with me if you have any trouble with him—”
“Trouble?” Rose exclaimed. “We’d better postpone the wedding and have that chat now.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Amber promised as both girls laughed. “And I’m very pleased to meet you, Rose.”
“Likewise,” Rose said, standing back so the next bridesmaid could step forward.
“Mica. Our Krav Maga specialist,” Alexei announced as he introduced the statuesque blonde with a no-nonsense urchin cut.
“Mica.” Amber felt as if she was being given a shrewd assessment, but for some reason, she liked the tall, slender blonde on sight.
“I look forward to knowing you better,” Mica said warmly.
“Me too,” Amber agreed.
“And we mustn’t forget your maid of honor,” Alexei said, drawing a woman out of the crowd.
Amber’s mouth dropped open. “Dana?”
“You didn’t think you could escape your deadline quite so easily, did you? Or to put it another way, you’ve got the something new.” She glanced at Alexei. “You’ve got the something borrowed.” She angled her head toward the skittish mare. “And now you’ve got the girls in blue. So I guess that leaves me—the something old?”
“But you’ve still got it,” Amber whispered.
“Just no one to use it on,” Dana lamented.
“Stick with me, kid,” Rose cut in, shooting a challenging look at Dante, who was looking as stony-faced as only a member of the Blood and Thunder team could, prior to being reconstructed by a strong woman. “I’ll find us both a man, if we have to swim to the next island.”
And on that promising note, Alexei led Amber forward to stand in front of the minister who would bind them together for life.
“For my lovely wife,” Alexei said as he placed a diamond-studded band on Amber’s finger.
“For the husband who will ensure I’m never short of stories to tell,” she teased him, smiling as she placed the simple platinum band Alexei had requested on his wedding finger.
“Stories to tell our children, I hope you mean?” Alexei suggested.
“You guessed?” Instinctively, Amber touched her still-flat stomach. She hadn’t even confirmed the pregnancy yet.
“I hoped,” Alexei repeated as he drew Amber into his arms for a kiss.