“It’s a bachelor party,” he said with a wink. “We aren’t celebrating the wedding. We’re celebrating the bachelor.”
“You hardly need celebrating. I think your ego’s big enough.”
I’d barely gotten the words out of my mouth when he pounced, covering my body with his and pressing me back into the bed. Pitched forward on his elbows, he brushed the hair from my face.
“You had something to say about my ego, Sentinel?”
I smiled at him, pushed a lock of hair behind one ear. “You’re doing just fine, I think.”
Eyes closing, he lowered his mouth to mine, teased with kisses that were soft and sweet, hints of things to come. “You are mine, Sentinel. Bachelor party or not, that is an undeniable truth.”
“I think I was always yours,” I said, and his eyes darkened. “There’s something inside”—I put a hand over my heart, then his—“that was always waiting for you. I just had to get ready for it.”
He grinned. “You had to ripen.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. And even if that’s true, I’m not sure what it says about you.” I patted his cheek. “But four hundred years isn’t that long.”
He nipped playfully at my neck. “It’s nothing in vampire years.”
“Which are like dog years, but longer?”
He made a haughty sound, nibbled harder.
“I forgot,” I said. “There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Mmm-hmm.” One of his hands cupped my breast, sending shivers of anticipation along my skin.
“But you’re making it difficult to concentrate.”
“That’s the general idea,” he said, and applied those nips to my jaw.
“This is a serious talk, though. For real.”
He looked up at me, a lock of blond hair over his eye, so he looked very much like a pirate interrupted during a very interesting journey. Eyes narrowed, he sat up and looked at me consideringly.
I pushed up to sit beside him, legs folded beneath me. “It’s about our names.”
“Our names,” he repeated, expression blank.
“Only Master vampires use last names, which is a rule I’m technically breaking, since Merit is my last name. I guess, technically, I could play the ‘Caroline Merit Sullivan’ game, but that’s too much. There’s too much baggage, and it just—I don’t know.”
He lifted his eyebrows.
I held up my hands. “I’m not saying this very well. The point is, after we’re married, I’d like to stay ‘Merit.’ I want to keep that name.”
He smiled. “Ah. I see.”
“I’ve been putting this off. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
He smiled at me. “You were born Caroline, and you made yourself Merit. I demand your love and your faithfulness.” He smiled slyly. “Your identity is yours to keep.”
That was it, exactly. The thing I hadn’t been able to put into words. I shouldn’t have doubted that he’d understand what it was to feel like you’d made your own identity. He’d done the same when escaping from Balthasar, the vampire who’d made him.
; “Let’s go upstairs,” I said when the kiss was done, burying my face in his shirt, in the scent and feel of him. “Let’s leave this night behind and get started on tomorrow.”
“I’ve no objection to that, either, Sentinel. None at all.”
• • •