A rude expletive was my mother's response as she drove off without even saying good-bye to me. Typical.

"Crispin, that was a particularly wretched thing for you to do," Annette said. "That woman called you more names than I have ever stood to hear without killing someone. She will destroy your wedding."

"Hallo, Annette, and you well deserved it. Don't fret about my wedding, she'll pull it together. She loves her daughter. She just doesn't know how to express it."

He's giving her more credit than she deserves, I thought darkly. Instead of throwing rice, my mother would probably fling silver knives.

Annette flicked a piece of lint off his dark shirt, her hand lingering a second longer than necessary. "You look well."

Bones pulled me closer. "I'm very happy," he said simply.

I almost pitied her. She loved him, and it must hurt like a motherfucker to see him with me. If I were honest, I'd admit I didn't blame her for her prior attempt to sabotage us. If she didn't care for him enough to fight dirty to try to keep him, I wouldn't respect her at all.

"Where are you staying, Annette?" I asked. Respect aside, I wasn't about to have her over for the next few weeks until the wedding.

She glanced at Bones and hesitated.

"She's staying with Tate, Kitten," he answered for her. "Helping him with learning our customs and such. Invaluable opportunity for him, really. He'll learn far more with her than he would with me."

My hand tightened on his. Tate had slept with her before, mostly to spite me since Bones and I had been in the same house at the time, and apparently Annette thought he'd been worthy of a repeat performance.

I raised a brow. "Oh, I'm sure he'll learn plenty of new tricks." Wait until I got ahold of Tate later, that hypocritical son of a bitch. He hadn't said a word to me.

Annette overlooked my pointed observation. "He'll make a strong vampire, Crispin, but one day he'll be trouble for you because of her."

Bones shrugged. "I have my reasons, aside from my promise to her uncle. I'm not concerned."

"Coming inside or leaving?" Denise asked us, heading to the door.

"Leaving, regrettably," Bones smiled. "Duty calls. Kitten's boss wants to meet Annette. I think he's fretting she'll take a bite out of his top soldier if she stays with him."

Denise giggled. "Didn't she already?" Okay, so I told her everything.

"Love you, thanks for your help," I said.

Annette got in her car to follow us to the compound, and Denise was in the process of closing the front door, but then she flung it back open with a bang.

"Wait!" Denise started laughing so hard she could barely speak. "Don't forget Bones's birthday present in Annette's trunk. It might run out of oxygen!"

She dissolved in a seizure of giggles that bent her over. Bones looked at me in wonder. "How much gin did you drink?"

I slid into the car and fastened my seat belt. "The whole bottle. But that part I let slip before I touched it. Annette told me to remind her that your present was in the trunk, and I told her it better not have a pussy. Sorry, it just flew out."

He snorted with laughter. "I love you, Kitten."

I smiled back. "I love you too."

Chapter Twenty.

After the S&M Club

Author's Note: This scene originally took place at the end of chapter 12 in At Grave's End. It was later cut because I thought the sex scene would be somewhat gratuitous and might drag down the pacing. So why did I write it to begin with? In this version, Bones intends to leave Cat at the compound for the next few days while he goes out of town to secretly check out a lead on Patra, so "going away" sex made sense. Since Bones didn't leave in the published version of the book, having them pause for uninhibited nookie felt like it took away some of the seriousness of what Bones and Cat were facing at the time, and I deleted the scene.

We flew back to the compound, dropping the humans off first at a local military hospital for checkups. Actually, we didn't even have to give them new memories of the night. All three knew about vampires and ghouls and had gone willingly to the club with them as playthings. The only thing they hadn't figured on was the merriment turning so sour. Not my business, I reminded myself. My job was to save them, not lecture them on their lifestyle.

When we reached the third sublevel, Bones tugged me right past Don's office where my uncle waited up for the evening's report. He didn't reduce his stride as Tate called after us.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Both of us had coats on for propriety as well as practicality. Miami might not have needed the outerwear, being still seventy-plus degrees even in November, but Virginia was chilly. Mine was belted modestly over my skank wear; his flew open with a swirl and trailed behind him.

"Less than three hours before dawn," Bones replied. "I'm not wasting it on show-and-tell. Not with you sods, that is. He'll get our input come the morning."

I would have argued, but what Tate didn't know was that Bones had an early flight tomorrow. We'd have to be at the airport at nine thirty, and it was a half-hour drive. For vampires, that was practically the crack of dawn. He was right. Time was of the essence.

Bones led me to the only really private place I had at the compound-the shower. Since I was the sole female on the team, there were no concerns about anyone coming in and interrupting us. In recent months, Don had even enlarged the area, adding sufficient room for Bones to have closets, his penchant for showering with me instead of the men infamous. Don had also added a chair and ottoman to the corner of the room. I supposed a bed would have been too blatant. Besides, we'd never required one before.

Bones locked the door behind us, wrenching me into his arms as soon as it shut. "I have been waiting all bloody night to do this," he growled, kneeling in front of me. He took off my jacket, threw it aside, and then snapped the chains which held up my leather bra. His lips locked over my nipple, that spike in his tongue grating the sensitive peak in a way that made me gasp.

Yet in addition to the heat rising inside me, a stab of jealousy remained. "How do you stand it, Bones?" I wasn't talking about the discomfort it must have caused putting in those pieces of jewelry. "Dave had to slap me to prevent me from ripping that bitch's head off when she kissed you. How do you watch me, job after job, making out with other men to lure them into position?"

It was hard to form coherent words when he paid such thorough attention to the task in front of him. Both my nipples soon throbbed, and his hands hadn't been idle.

A muffled grunt sounded against my skin. "Helps that they're dead soon after touching you, Kitten. I'm old enough to have learned patience, but no, it's not easy. Let's not bother about that now though. You have a question to answer, remember?"

Bones picked me up and carried me to the chair without breaking contact with his lips. He spread my legs, making me tremble, and then nuzzled my leather panties before hooking his fangs into them and dragging them down. His incisors neatly split the fabric while his tongue snaked inside the rents. Multitasking at its finest.

I moaned and gripped his shoulders. God, I loved what his mouth could do to me and told him so in a voice made rasping with desire. He laughed into my flesh, licking and probing with knowing, wet strokes that felt even sharper by the chafing of the prong. By the time my orgasm hit, I was sweating and arching against him, digging my nails into the pale arms locked around my waist to hold me closer. The scream that tore from my throat at the rush of ecstasy would prove whether or not the new insulation Don had installed held. If it didn't, they could probably hear me all the way back in my uncle's office.

"You're so beautiful," Bones whispered, sliding up to cradle me. I kissed him greedily, not caring that his fangs nicked my lips before I drew his tongue into my mouth to suck on it. Metal clanged together as his chain-link pants fell to the floor before the hard length of his body pressed on top of mine.

My nails scratched down his back while I wrapped my legs around his hips. "Now. Now. I want you so much."

Another chuckle, but throatier. "Ah, pet, I love how anxious you get. Yes, now, and I have one more surprise for you..."

A hard thrust bent my spine, eliciting a strangled cry while I arched back so strongly that I almost fell off the chair. Bones gathered me into his arms before lowering me to the floor, grasping my hips as he plunged deeply into me once again.

"You didn't," I managed, shuddering at the feel of added friction to the hardness sliding in and out of me.

His lips curled slyly. "There were two more silver rings. Call me a method actor. Hate to waste a good prop."

"That is... going to hurt... like hell... taking them out," I said around the raggedness of my breathing. I squeezed my legs tighter around him, reveling in the feel of him moving inside me with increasing fervor. That ring seemed to add a sharper edge to the pleasure, making my nerve endings clench and contract in growing sensual demand. I played with the silver rings in his nipples, gently tugging and twisting them while I kissed him as if I were trying to drown.

"Faster. Harder. More." In any order.

Bones complied, thrusting with an intensity that had me shouting in delirious bliss before begging him to stop. Or not to stop. I couldn't keep it straight. Either way, he had his own agenda. When we struck our bargain with Don, Bones had agreed to follow my orders at work, lecherously asserting he'd rather have control in the bedroom. I hadn't objected, which turned out to be the smartest decision I'd ever made. He dominated me in bed or out, as in this case, we were on the floor, and I loved every moment of it. When it came to anything sexual, Bones was truly a master.

Chapter Twenty-One.

White Wedding

Author's note: I can't count how many times readers have asked me if Cat and Bones would ever have a "real" wedding. In the published books, they only had the vampire binding ceremony because their plans for a traditional wedding were ruined by events in At Grave's End, but in the original version, they did have their white wedding. It ended up being cut because of-you guessed it-pacing concerns, and also because my editor felt that it signified a happy-ever-after even though the series was far from done. I'd intended to put this in a later book, but I could never find a place where it would fit. Eventually I decided not to put it in the final books because it seemed to trivialize their prior blood-binding ceremony. Bones always considered that as the only wedding that mattered. It took Cat a little longer to feel the same way, but she did. In the scene where Don dies in This Side of the Grave, she thinks about how that strange, very unconventional blood-binding ritual was so much more important than any fancy dress or extravagant party, but both did happen in these deleted scenes, and I'm glad to finally share them you.

The end of this section also contains a never-before-published sex scene where I broke a worldbuilding rule, so if it reads like what Bones and Cat do isn't possible according to previously known vampire abilities, you're right. That's why I've never tried to duplicate this scene in any other books. And for those of you who might be thinking "another sex scene?" this shows that I probably ended up deleting more of those than I published. When I write, I let the characters lead and then edit out later what I think is too gratuitous.

"How in the hell did you breathe in these things when you were human? My ribs are broken in ten places!"

Annette ruthlessly tightened the corset strings. "Back in the day, these things were much more constrictive. Be grateful."

"I think you're enjoying this a bit too much, to tell the truth." I grunted. "A little looser, please. I do want to be alive through the ceremony, even if pulses are the minority here."

They were, no mistake about that. When we had discussed the wedding, Bones said he wanted a small, intimate gathering. You'd think after years of dealing with vampires, I would know better. "Small and intimate" to him meant well over two hundred people. After two centuries, he'd built up a much larger network of friends than I had in my twenty-five years. Thank God he hadn't wanted a large wedding; it would have swelled to over a thousand.

It was Christmas Day, my wedding day. I hadn't seen Bones since yesterday morning. I'd even refused to speak to him today, finding myself unexpectedly superstitious. Maybe Denise had rubbed off on me.

Denise grinned at me as she held my dress up for me to step into. My mother hadn't been much help. She was in the corner of the room, crying. Even the Valium I'd snuck into her tea hadn't calmed her, but at least it kept her cursing at a minimum.

"There," Annette said with one last tug.

At last she was satisfied, which meant I was in pain. Silly me thought to pay homage to my groom's eighteenth-century days and had a corset made to go under my dress. Barring a few modern additions, it looked like the real deal. Just cut a little sexier and with convenient snap buttons at the crotch. I even had on silk stockings.

I gingerly put one foot and then the other in the dress, praying I didn't fall and rip the whole damned thing. My mother would have cried tears of joy. One ruined wedding, just what the doctor ordered. Denise had just started to zip me up when the parlor door opened without a knock.

Spade came inside right as Denise finished with my zipper. At least now my chest was covered instead of my breasts bulging over the top of the low-cut corset.

"Crispin sent me," Spade said. His lips twitched. "He wasn't this nervous when he was killed, and I should know because I was there."

That made me pause adjusting the cleavage on my gown. "Is he having second thoughts?" I asked stiffly.

My mother perked right up.

Spade chuckled. "No, he's fretting over you. Said something about you always making a dash for the exit right before the finish line or some such. I'm to check on you to make sure you have no intentions of backing out. Any signs of indecision, and I've been given strict instructions to throw you over my shoulder and carry you to him. Or hold you down and yell for him to come. Well? Are you quite determined in your course of action?"

Even though we were on opposite sides of the church and there was a multitude of noisy guests, I knew that Bones was tuned in to my answer. I raised my voice to be more helpful. "You tell my vampire husband he's about to become my human one." My mom went from hopeful back to depressed in a flash. "And you can give him this."

I handed Spade a piece of parchment with something hard inside. He took it and kissed my hand.

"I'll do that. Annette, Denise." He nodded at each of them and left. Now it was my turn to strain my ears as the two women helped me with the finishing touches to my dress.

"Crispin," Spade said, his words carrying back to me. "Poor girl can't be talked out of marrying you. Heaven knows I tried. This is for you, in case you didn't eavesdrop."

"She's eavesdropping as well, aren't you, Kitten?" His voice seemed like it touched me, even with the distance, but I didn't answer. After all, we weren't supposed to be talking. "Ah, aren't these lovely? Frightfully expensive; you must have cried when you purchased them."

His teasing made me laugh, giving away the fact that I'd been eavesdropping. He knew how penny-pinching I normally was. Still, the antique platinum-and-diamond cufflinks were beautiful. My bank account had taken a hit it hadn't previously seen before, yet I could hardly buy Bones a gift using his money.

"I heard you, luv, naughty little snoop. Now, what did you write here?"

The last letter I'd written him had been good-bye when I ran off with Don, but this one was markedly different. I love you, and nothing will keep me from walking down that aisle and proving it. See you there.

"You will," he answered me. "Soon."

Denise finally finished with my dress, then backed up to get a look at me and smiled. "You look amazing. Let's do this."

Annette judged my appearance as well, but with more objectivity. She looked very elegant in a charcoal dress with matching bolero jacket. "You're perfectly smashing," she finally settled on saying. A spark of something else lit in her eyes, but it vanished in an instant. "And you're the luckiest girl I've ever met."

Right now, about to marry the man I loved, I did feel lucky. Very lucky.

"Wait, I forgot to get you something blue!" Denise said with a gasp. "I'm a terrible maid of honor. Quick, help me find something!"

She began to rummage through the parlor with the desperation of the condemned. Annette helped, muttering an oath about useless human customs.

"Here."

The word didn't come from either of them. I stared in shock at my mother as she shoved herself off her chair and came to me, holding out a ring. It was a small sapphire-and-gold one I'd bought her for her birthday years ago. A lump made its way with lightning speed to my throat as I accepted it.

"Thank you," I said huskily.

She wiped her cheek with a dash of her hand. "I expect it back, hence the term 'borrowed.' And one last time, I will beg you not to do this, Catherine."

There went the tender mother-daughter moment. Oh well. At least I'd had a split second of bonding. Progress, not perfection, and all that.