Kristie Cook - Promise

"Seriously, Mom? I'm supposed to wear this in front of other people ?"

"You'll look exquisite! Come on, try it on."

I raised an eyebrow at her. She's got to be kidding. She started taking it off the hanger, fluttering her hands at me to undress. I reluctantly obeyed and let her dress me. I certainly needed help with the top of the two-piece dress—a tight, white leather bodice, cut low, with three leather straps on each side, front and back, leading up to a diamond-studded collar at the neck. The scalloped bottom barely reached the top of the white silk, a-line skirt, also scalloped at the bottom, ending a couple inches above my knees. It looked like something out of a gladiator movie. Mom gathered my hair and held it up on my head as she walked me to the full-length mirror. My mouth fell open.

"Mom…you're kidding, right? This is traditional ?"

"Traditional for us. Rina prefers silk and satin gowns, but a couple of centuries ago…this is similar to what the matriarch would wear. You look beautiful."

I shook my head. I just couldn't see myself wearing it in public…around other people .

"Tristan will love it," she sang.

"Tristan likes new, modern, contemporary. Nothing that reminds him of who he was."

"Don't worry, this won't. It's not like women ran around in these dresses in the seventeen-hundreds. Trust me, he'll love it. Especially on you."

It's not like I had any choice. We'd shopped for gowns for the fake wedding, but I'd been planning on this dress all along for the real one, so I hadn't yet bought anything. Tristan will love it. I sighed and nodded in resignation.

"It's like leather lingerie," I complained as Mom showed me the trick to getting out of it by myself.

She chuckled. "No, the lingerie is in a wrapped box for tonight."

"You didn't!"

"Who else would?" She smiled mischievously and then went back to being a mother. "There's also a box of condoms. No babies until you graduate."

"Yes, I know. We've discussed this a hundred times." My stomach tightened. I wasn't so concerned about babies yet…it was the actual activity that created babies I was worried about. "Mom…I'm kind of scared. I don't know what to do."

"Oh, I'm sure Tristan will do it," she said casually as she hung the dress back on the hanger. I stared at her in confusion. "Surely he knows how to put a condom on."

That visual made my insides squirm with panic.

"I mean the whole thing! All of it!" I cried.

"Oh." She looked at me with surprise and then her expression dissolved into understanding. "Honey, it will all come naturally."

"How do I know what natural is, though? How do I know what's right? What if I do it all wrong ?"

She smiled. "The thing about men, Alexis, is they generally don't find any of it wrong . In fact, usually the more wrong it is, the more they like it."

" Mo-om…! "

She shrugged. "I'm serious. There is very little you can do that would scare him away. Just don't belch, fart or call out anyone else's name and you'll be fine."

"Sophia!" I couldn't help the laugh that escaped, though. Just one. Before the panic set right back in. "I just want to do it right. I want to make him happy."

"Oh, you will, honey. Trust me—you'll make him extremely happy. When I say it'll come naturally, I mean it. This is something Amadis daughters instinctively do very well." She smiled coyly and winked at me. I didn't feel any better.

Butterflies grew and multiplied in my stomach as the day went on. It felt like it dragged on forever and, at the same time, evening raced toward us, as if someone played with the hands on the world's master clock. Mom and I spent the afternoon driving all over two counties, stopping at bridal stores and flower shops, trying to bore anyone who might be following. Finally, a little after six o'clock, Mom made sure no one pursued us and we headed out to Gasparilla. She followed Tristan's directions down a road covered in sand from lack of use.

I felt so nervous by then, I practically danced a seated jig in the car. Stefan said the Daemoni had learned about the September First wedding, but he had no indication they knew about this one. If we could get through this next hour or so, we'd be on our way to peace. Of course, then I would have more personal issues to worry about….

"Looks like this is it." Mom pulled into a space of patchy grass and sand between palmetto bushes. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way."

I changed in the backseat of Mom's car. She checked me over and fixed my hair she'd piled onto my head, using her finger to curl the stray locks around my face. She straightened the dress, adjusting my boobs, which nearly flowed right over the top of the bodice. We hadn't walked five steps on the uneven terrain when I decided the heels were a bad idea.

"Love the shoes, Mom, but they have to go." I stopped to pull them off and she frowned, but couldn't argue. Bare feet on the rough ground didn't work well either. I had no idea how far we had to walk and I grew more frustrated with each slow, careful step. I stopped, exasperated. "This isn't working either! How am I supposed to get to my wedding?"

"Can I help?" Stefan had come to meet us. He gently picked me up in his arms and carried me. He had a smooth stride, not affected at all by my extra weight. His pure vanilla scent brought back memories of when he carried me when I was little. "You look quite lovely. I remember your great-grandmother in a similar dress."

Wow. I never knew how ancient he was.

"Thank you. But I feel like a helpless child playing dress-up in mommy's naughty clothes."

He laughed, the sound of a baritone saxophone skipping through various notes.

"Are we still safe?" I asked.

"Yes, I am positive."

"I feel quite good about it, too," Mom said.

"All you need to focus on is becoming Mrs. Tristan Knight," Stefan said.

My heart pitter-pattered with delight to hear him say it. The statement also re-energized the butterflies and I was shaking by the time we reached the small, crescent beach—a little cove where the island indented just enough to be nearly surrounded by wild brush and trees. We had full view of the water and the lowering sun. Rina, Owen and Tristan stood near the water, waiting for us.

"Your bride, sir," Stefan said to Tristan as he set me on the soft sand.

"Thank you, Sheffie," I whispered. Stefan smiled and pecked me on the cheek.

Tristan took my breath away as he strode over to us. Dressed simply in white slacks and a white silky t-shirt just tight enough to emphasize his physique, and the gold sparkles in his eyes shining, he was even more beautiful than I thought possible. He gave me a once-over and raised an eyebrow with appreciation, then took my hand and kissed it. I stopped trembling. He smiled and winked. I stared at him, completely loving him and totally forgetting why we were there.

"Are you sure you still want to be my wife?" he murmured.

"Uh…yeah," I stammered, trying to clear my head. When the fog finally lifted, I smiled and said confidently, "Of course ."

"Good," he whispered, "because I'd never let anyone else have the pleasure of taking my place."

He led me over to Rina. She nodded at Mom, Stefan and Owen, who all stood in silence behind us. Tristan gently squeezed my hand as Rina began by reciting 1 Corinthians 13. I knew it by heart. It was one of the passages Mom made me memorize when I was five. We'd never gone to church, but Mom had taught me the Bible, saying she knew more than any pastor this side of Heaven.

"'And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.' Tristan and Alexis, is this the love you both share?"

"Yes," we answered together.

"Do you promise to uphold this love throughout eternity?"

"Yes."