"Gosh that was fun, wasn't it?" Carolyn asked skipping along beside him as they started up the dock.

Christian grunted what could have been taken for agreement to Carolyn's cheerful words, but wasn't. It hadn't been fun at all for him. Having to stand at the back of the boat watching as Captain Jack had pushed drink after drink on Carolyn "to relax her" while taking every opportunity to touch her had been nothing but torture.

He knew what the man had been doing. Christian hadn't missed how she'd stiffened up and looked uncomfortable every time Jack had touched her. The man had obviously set out to get her used to his touching her by doing so in a nonsexual and nonthreatening way as much as possible.

It had been bad enough on the boat, but when they'd stopped at Anse Cochon to swim it had been ten times worse. Everyone had stripped down to swimsuits then, including Carolyn. She'd slid off her shorts, revealing the bottoms that went with the deep purple bikini top Christian had mistaken for a bra under her T-shirt.

It had also revealed her curvy figure and shapely legs to the captain's interested eyes.

Jack had immediately insisted she needed more suntan lotion and proceeded to "help" apply it despite her embarrassment and obvious discomfort. Then the man had set out to relax her by playing with her onshore, splashing her and teasing her before grabbing her by the waist and threatening to throw her into the water as he held her almost naked back to his bare chest.

Christian had watched grimly from the boat, resisting the urge to leap overboard, swim to the man and rip his heart out for daring to touch her. Only the flashes of discomfort on Carolyn's face, and the way she continued to tense at Jack's touch had kept him from doing so.

She hadn't reacted like that to him on the bus. And she hadn't been half-tanked at the time. The guy didn't stand a chance.

"I can't believe I won the 'shake-your-booty' contest," she giggled.

Christian grunted again, his jaw now clenching and his teeth grinding together. That was a ten minutes he wouldn't soon forget. By the time the "contests" had started, the drink had begun to have its effect and Carolyn had gaily joined in when the crew had pulled out a boom box and lined up the dozen or so women on the boat tour, informing them that they had to shake their booty and that the men would pick the winner by applause. Having seen her dance the night before, Christian hadn't been at all surprised to see her close her eyes, let the music flow through her and begin to bump and grind like a pro. The woman was pure sensuality when music played, and he hadn't been the only one to notice. She had won easily.

Many of the other women, not having drunk as much as she had, hadn't been as comfortable doing it and had bowed out quickly or been too stiff and were voted off.

Three women had been removed each round, until there had only been Carolyn and two other women left. Then they had voted for first, second, and third place. Carolyn had beat out a twenty-something young bride and a woman in her thirties to take the prize; the lei she'd been wearing all day, and still had on.

"You should have joined in when the guys did it. I bet you can shake your booty too," she said with a laugh, skipping along beside him as they entered the main building.

Christian grunted again. As soon as Carolyn had been named the winner, the men had been lined up for the same contest with the women voting. Christian hadn't joined in. Neither had he bothered to watch the other men gyrating lamely on the boat. His eyes had been locked on Carolyn as the captain congratulated her, dropped the lei over her head, and gave her a quick congratulatory kiss that had made her blush and duck her head. The man had then slung his arm around her shoulder possessively to watch the men do their thing and Carolyn had stood biting her lip and looking uncomfortable but determined.

It was the determined look that bothered him the most.

The woman was apparently firmly fixed on having an affair with Captain Jack, whether she really wanted to or not, since her reactions hardly indicated any eagerness on her part. And it was all to take care of what she thought was premenopausal horniness and to preserve their friendship by "saving" him from her "unwanted attentions."

Good lord! He hadn't missed the irony in that.

"So, are we having dinner tonight?" she asked as they boarded a van for the ride up the hill.

Christian blinked as they settled on the front bench seat together, realizing that with Bethany sick again Carolyn would be free to have dinner with him tonight.

"Because if not, I should run back down to the boat after I change. Jack is taking people out on a night cruise and invited me along, but I said no because I promised to play date for you-"

"Yes, we're having dinner," Christian growled at once.

There was no damned way he was letting her anywhere near Jack again. He'd made up his mind. Her determination to sleep with Jack for his sake was madness... and he wasn't allowing it. Perhaps he couldn't risk telling her what he was and about his people yet, but he was going to tell her he wasn't really gay. He would then kiss her silly, strip her naked, seek out every inch of skin the captain had touched and place his own hands there to wipe away the memory of the man before making love to her until she couldn't breathe.

By the time the sun rose in the morning, Carolyn would never again be foolish enough to imagine another man could stir her as he could. Hell, he should really just drag her up to the villa now and put his plans into action.

And he would if it weren't for the fact that his need for blood had hit the critical point again: his emotions were all over the place and his control almost nonexistent. He didn't even dare risk holding her hand until he'd had a couple of bags of blood.

"Okay, I'll meet you down in the lounge," she said cheerfully.

"No. I'll pick you up," Christian said at once. It was going to be a proper date for a change. He was not meeting her anywhere. He would collect her, and take her down to dinner, then-"

Oh, but-," she began.

"I'm picking you up," he said firmly as the van slowed in front of her villa, then quickly opened the door and ushered her out.

"But-," Carolyn tried again as he leaped back into the van.

"One hour," he interrupted firmly and pulled the door closed on further protest.

Carolyn stared after the van with dismay, then turned to start up the walk to the villa door. She didn't want him picking her up. Beth would give her grief, and she really didn't want another lecture on being his beard. It would completely ruin her mellow mood of the moment, and she was mellow.

Okay, that was an understatement, Carolyn admitted as she staggered on the path. She was pickled. In fact, she'd had a seriously hard time walking straight on the way from the dock to the van and wasn't sure she'd accomplished it at all. She may have been staggering a bit here or there, but fortunately, Christian hadn't noticed.

He'd stared straight ahead, his expression grim the whole way.

Carolyn had never been much of a drinker, only ever indulging in the occasional glass of wine with dinner. In fact, she'd had more to drink on this trip so far than she'd probably had in her whole life, and most of it today. It had been deliberate, a desperate effort to force herself to relax. It hadn't worked as well as she'd hoped. She'd still stiffened a bit every time Jack had touched her, but she was beginning to think that had more to do with the fact that Christian had been glowering the entire time.

Maybe if he wasn't there looking all handsome and sexy and glaring at her for stealing a guy he was interested in, she would relax more with Jack. That was what she was hoping for anyway.

Carolyn supposed she'd find out tomorrow on their dinner date, and thought perhaps she should have a couple of cocktails before he even picked her up. She pushed that worry away for now as she reached the door and struggled to get the key card into the slot. Right now she had other matters to worry about. Like getting showered, dressed and up the hill to Christian's villa before he left to come collect her. She really didn't need the lecture Bethany would give her if she knew she was having dinner with Christian again.

Speaking of which, she thought suddenly, what if Bethany was feeling better again and wanted to have dinner with her? That worry was fizzing around inside her head as she fumbled with the door, but as it turned out, it really didn't end up being a problem. Apparently, hearing her at the door, Bethany came to open it for her, took one look at her, and just gaped for a full minute before accusing her of being drunk. She then trailed her to her room asking all sorts of questions about what she'd drunk and so on.

Carolyn muttered mostly incoherent answers as she stumbled into her bathroom and turned on the shower.

She was terribly relieved when Bethany pronounced her too drunk to even make sense, and announced that she was going back to bed. She then firmly added that Carolyn too should go to bed after her shower. She could order herself some room service when she woke up if she felt like it, but was likely to upchuck if she ate now.

Bethany left her alone in the bathroom then, saying she would fetch her some water and put it on her bedside table. She should drink it before sleeping. Water helped prevent hangovers and she didn't want Carolyn hung over on the shopping tour the next day.

"Thank you," Carolyn had mumbled, relieved at the way things had turned out. She could shower and pretend to lie down, but dress and slip out of the villa via her terrace doors instead. There would be no lectures. Bethany wouldn't even know she was gone. Carolyn had stripped and gotten into the shower, grabbing for the taps to keep from falling over as she did and then squawking as the water suddenly turned cold. She'd turned the taps, she realized after a moment under icy water, and quickly adjusted it back.

Forty-five minutes later she was dry, dressed, and slipping out through her terrace doors. She felt like a teenager sneaking out when grounded. Something else she'd missed out on growing up, Carolyn thought with a giggle, and wondered if all women acted like prepubescent idiots when menopause set in. She should be able to say she was going down to dinner with Christian.

And if Bethany began to lecture her, Carolyn should be able to say she was an adult and could do as she wished and didn't appreciate lectures.

However, this was easier, and actually, kind of fun, she thought with a grin as she tossed her shoes over the terrace rail and then climbed over to drop onto the grass on the other side. Picking up her shoes, she smiled to herself as she hurried around the villa and up the road on bare feet.

Carolyn didn't stop to put on her shoes until she had almost reached the stone terrace around the villa the band was using. Pausing a few feet short of it, she quickly slid her sandals on, did them up, and straightened to brush down her skirt before continuing on. But with the first step, her strap snapped, and her foot twisted sideways out of the high-heeled sandal. Carolyn staggered to the side, trying to keep herself from falling, felt the ground give beneath her, and gasped out a surprised, "Oh," as she fell.

"Do you really think that's wise, son?" Marguerite asked worriedly as she followed him to the front door.

"Were you listening to me at all?" Christian asked with disgust as he peered out to see if the van he'd sent for had arrived yet. He'd gotten back to the villa, downed blood, showered, changed and come out of his room to find the rest of the band up and his mother and father there. He'd spent the last half hour telling them about his horrid day and what Carolyn had decided to do, but they didn't seem to be taking her plans seriously. "She is determined to have an affair 'to save me.' I am not allowing that to happen."

"I'm sure she won't carry through on it," Marguerite said at once. "He can't possibly affect her as much as you do."

"That won't make one lick of difference. She isn't even attracted to the guy. She said there was no spark, but she's determined. Where the hell is the van?" he added in a mutter and dragged the door open to walk outside.

"I'm sure she wouldn't-"

"Isn't that Carolyn?" Santo asked.

Christian glanced around to see that everyone had trailed him outside. He then followed Santo's gaze to see Carolyn on the road, bent over and fiddling with her shoes. Even as he spotted her, she straightened, brushed herself down, took a step forward and then suddenly pitched to the side, her eyes and mouth making perfect O's in her surprised face.

Cursing, he broke into a run, but his heart nearly stopped in his chest when the edge of the hill gave way beneath her and she toppled over, hit the ground, and immediately began to roll down the side of the mountain.

Christian already knew from having traversed it himself that the slant gave way to a straight fifteen-or twenty-foot drop where the next two roads down had been carved out of the mountainside. Changing his angle, he put on a burst of speed and threw himself forward to catch her legs just as she reached the lip of that drop.

Christian overshot. He landed on his stomach on her lower legs, his head in her lap and her shoe jammed into his groin. It was not a memory he would soon forget, he decided, a pained groan slipping from his lips.

"Oh," Carolyn gasped. "Well, that was exciting."

Christian lifted his head slowly from her lap to find that she'd sat up and was blinking as if just having fallen out of bed onto a soft carpet.

"Hi," she said and had the temerity to grin at him.

"Are you all right, dear?" Marguerite was suddenly kneeling beside them, brushing Carolyn's hair away from her face with concern. "You took quite a fall."

"Oh, I'm fine," she assured her with a smile. "I didn't really fall far, I just mostly rolled. It was kind of fun."

"She's drunk," Gia said on a laugh.

"It's probably the only reason she wasn't hurt," Santo said quietly. "Too drunk to tense up in the fall."

"I told you she was drunk," Christian said grimly, lifting himself off of her with a wince. Damn, he was lucky he wasn't singing soprano.

"Yeah, I thought maybe a little tipsy or something. But she's totally zonked," Gia said on another laugh, helping to brush him down as he straightened.

Christian glanced to Carolyn. His mother had helped her up and was now checking her for wounds. Apparently not finding any, she turned her attention to Carolyn's face and frowned, then murmured, "Oh dear."

"What is it?" Christian asked, catching Carolyn's arm to keep her from instinctively stepping backward off the mountain when she shuffled back. "Did she hit her head?"

"No." His mother sighed, and then admitted, "But in this shape, you could be right. She could do something incredibly foolish."

"I told you," Christian growled.

Marguerite turned to Gia. "Dear, take her up to the villa and find her something else to wear. Her dress is quite ruined."

Gia nodded and started to lead Carolyn away, but paused when Julius said, "Santo carry her back to the villa. She isn't very steady on her feet."

"I'll carry her," Christian growled, but his father caught his arm.

"Let Santo do it," he said quietly. "We have to discuss this plan of yours."

Christian hesitated, but didn't protest when Santo immediately scooped Carolyn into her arms and headed up the hill. His scowl deepened though when Carolyn smiled up at Santo and said chirpily, "Wow, you're really strong.

Do you lift weights?"

Christian and the others began to follow as Santo shook his head. "No. I only lift slightly tipsy, but charming young ladies."

"I'm not young," Carolyn laughed and then patted his chest and confessed, "But I did feel young tonight when I sneaked out of the villa."

"Why were you sneaking?" Gia asked.

"Oh!" Carolyn glanced around at the other woman and waved one hand wildly, the action making her roll slightly in Santo's arms and one leg kick up. "So Bethany wouldn't catch me and lecture me on playing beard again.

Bethany likes to lecture," she announced with displeasure.

"She was always lecturing me in university. I should do this. I should do that. I should get laid. Blah blah blah."

She sighed suddenly and then admitted, "Mind you, I probably should have gotten laid. I might not have married that abusive, gold-digging piece of crap I did if I'd had more experience with men."

Christian's eyes widened incredulously at her words, they were just so not Carolyn, at least not the Carolyn he knew. Apparently they were the Carolyn who was uninhibited by over-imbibing though. The alcohol had definitely loosened her tongue if she was talking so easily about her marriage. She'd refused to even allow the subject to be brought up before this.

"Never mind though," Carolyn said, her good cheer returning. "I shall get that experience now. Is over forty too old to turn into a slut, do you think?" she asked and then peered at her feet waving on the other side of Santo's arms and said, "Where's my shoe?"

Christian glanced at her feet to see that while one had on it a very sexy, high-heeled pump in the same shade of royal blue as her dress, the other was waving around bare.

"Zanipolo?" Julius said behind him.

"Shoe. On it," the young keyboardist responded and dropped away.

"So," Gia said with amusement, drawing Christian's attention to the trio in front of him again. "You're considering slutting around, are you?"

"Well, not as in sleeping with everything that moves or anything," Carolyn assured her. "But I've begun to suspect sex might be more fun than it was with Robert, and I think I should definitely find out, don't you?"

"Your ex wasn't good in that area?" Gia asked, egging her on.

"Not!" Carolyn snorted. "And it wasn't just that he had a teeny-weeny either."

"Teeny-weeny?"

Santo choked out and she turned to him, nodding.

"It was like a short pencil next to Christian's cucumber," she informed him.

Christian was gaping in horror at this announcement when she added, "At least, Christian had a cucumber in my dream. I don't know if he does in real life because he's gay and wouldn't show it to me if I asked, I mean not that I'd ask or anything," she assured him quickly and then frowned and muttered, "I don't think I was supposed to tell you he was gay. Or do you know about it too, like Zanipolo?"

"So your husband had a small pene?" Gia asked quickly to distract her, and Carolyn rolled slightly in Santo's arms again to look at her.

"That means penis, right?" Carolyn asked and when Gia chuckled and nodded, she nodded as well. "Oh, yeah.

But I suppose that wasn't the real problem. I mean, they say it's not the size but what you do with it, right?"

"Right," Gia laughed.

"Well, he didn't do much with it," Carolyn assured her with a sad little sigh. "Or with anything else, for that matter. He didn't even like to kiss. And I've discovered I like kissing. Christian is a really good kisser," she announced.

"He's hot too. It's really too bad he's gay and everything. I could kiss him till the cows come home."

Christian heard his father ask with confusion, "There are no cows here, are there?"

"It's just an expression, dear," Marguerite murmured.

"It means a long time."

"Good," Julius decided. "They'll be together a long time."

"I bet Christian doesn't have a teeny-weeny in real life either," Carolyn said suddenly.

"I should say not. He got my genes," Julius muttered behind him.

"It didn't look like he did when he came from swimming the other day," Carolyn announced, and then quickly added, "Not that I was, you know, staring or anything.

But his swimsuit was clinging to him and-"

She grimaced and confessed, "Oh, all right, I was looking, but I don't normally look at men's packages. I only did this time because I was still kind of wound up from the dream Bethany's call interrupted. He was doing some wonderfully delicious things in that dream, and-Oh right, I'm really sorry about that, Gia, but I think I've been dream-raping your poor gay cousin. Not on purpose or anything, of course, but-Are you okay, Santo?" She turned to peer worriedly at the man carrying her into the villa as he began to make choking sounds.

When Santo didn't respond, but continued what Christian suspected was stifled laughter, Carolyn swiveled to look at Gia. "Is he all right?"

Gia was laughing so hard she couldn't answer. But Christian wasn't laughing as he trailed them inside, and he glared at his mother when she caught his arm to stop him from following them upstairs.

"Let them go," Marguerite said. "Santo will carry her to Gia's room and she will help her dress while we talk in the kitchen."

Sighing, Christian nodded, but watched the trio disappear into Gia's room before moving again.

"Cheer up," Raffaele said, slapping him on the back.

"At least you know she likes your kisses... and other parts."

"Ha-ha," Christian muttered as he led the way into the kitchen.

"Right," Marguerite announced as he entered. "Once Gia has helped her change we'll all go down to dinner."

"All?" He scowled. "We were supposed to be alone tonight."

"Yes, but Carolyn's very drunk at the moment, dear," she pointed out.

"So?" he asked, glancing toward the door as Santo entered.

"So in your present state I don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone with her until she's sobered up a bit," Marguerite said, drawing his attention again.

Stiffening, he asked, "What the hell do you mean in my state?"

"I think she's referring to your cucumber... which is rather prominent at the moment," Santo said calmly, and then eyes twinkling, added, "Not that I normally look at men's packages."

Christian quickly sat at the table as his mother and Raffaele dropped their gazes to his crotch. Carolyn's comments about the delicious things he'd done to her in their shared dream had brought the memories roaring back to his mind. He had a semi-erection.

"Well, actually I hadn't noticed his cucumber, prominent or not," Marguerite said primly. "I was referring to his thoughts."

"My thoughts are fine," he insisted.

"Tell me you weren't thinking of following them upstairs, dragging Carolyn to your room and leaping ahead with your plan right away," she challenged.

Christian grimaced. Okay, so maybe the thought had crossed his mind. Now that he'd determined to move ahead with his plan and bed her, he found himself less than patient to commence with it.

Taking his expression as an admission, Marguerite continued, "And if at dinner Carolyn continues with her most frank appraisal of your performance in the shared dreams, I don't trust that the two of you wouldn't end up passed out on the beach, or in the nearest public washroom."

Christian grunted, glad he was sitting when under the table a certain part of his body responded to that suggestion.

On the beach, in a public washroom-Hell, even in the bushes at the side of the road, any of them would do, so long as they included a naked Carolyn and his finally sinking himself into her warm, welcoming body.

"Show a little class, Christian," Julius snapped. "You were raised better than to bed your lifemate for the first time in the bushes, for God's sake."

Christian stiffened, and then glared at him for reading his mind, and said, "Oh, right, cause in the john of a train on the way to York is so much classier."

"We didn't do it there," Julius responded at once.

"From the memories in your head when you two came out of the bathroom, it wasn't from lack of trying," Christian said dryly.

"Boys," Marguerite said in a pained voice.

Glancing over, Christian spotted her embarrassed blush and immediately felt bad. While he'd been addressing his father, it had, of course, embarrassed her as well which he hadn't intended.

"Sorry, Mom," he muttered.

"As I was saying," she said heavily. "Aside from ensuring you don't end up passed out and vulnerable in a public location, I suspect that dinner will help sober Carolyn up.

By the time you finish your set in the lounge, she should be clearheaded enough that you couldn't be accused of taking advantage of her inebriated state."

Christian stilled as he realized that he would indeed be doing that if he didn't give her time to sober up first.

"Right," he said on an expulsion of breath. He and Carolyn were having dinner with his family.

His mother nodded her approval, but added, "Christian, while I agree that it may be better for you to admit you're straight and lure her to bed so she can experience what it is to be a lifemate... Well, it might not work," she warned. "I still don't think she'll be comfortable with someone she thinks is so much younger than she is. It might make her run."

"Then I'll chase her," he said firmly. "But she won't know about us and what we are, so no one can wipe her memories. Right?"

"Right," she agreed soothingly.

He relaxed a little, and added, "And it might work the other way. It might increase her feelings for me."

Before she could respond, Zanipolo entered, holding up Carolyn's missing shoe. "It took me a while to find it.

Mostly because I was looking at the bottom of the hill and it was at the top. The strap's broken. I think it's the reason she fell."

Christian took the shoe, muttering, "One of her shoes broke the night we arrived too."

"That's odd," Marguerite said. "Carolyn has money, she isn't likely to buy cheap shoes."

"Hmm." He peered to the doorway as the clip of high-heels warned that the women were approaching.

"Here we are," Gia said gaily as she led Carolyn into the room.

Christian's jaw nearly hit the floor when he got his first look at the transformed Carolyn. Gia had an entire selection of outfits she wore onstage, all of them tight, with short skirts and low-cut necklines. But he'd never really noticed how tight, short, or low-cut they were. He was noticing now. Dear God.

He wasn't sure how Gia had done it, but she'd somehow squeezed Carolyn, who was much curvier, into a black leather outfit that halted perhaps an inch below where he suspected her panties stopped. As for the neckline, it wasn't low it was nonexistent. The dress was sleeveless, strapless and rode across her breasts to drop between them low enough to show she had no bra on. Not that he couldn't tell that by the way her breasts were practically crawling out of the petal-shaped cups covering them. Or trying to; he was sure there was a hint of rose peeking out of one cup.

"Is that a nipple?" he asked in a squawk.

Carolyn glanced down and muttered, "Oh."

She then began tugging at the top of the dress, explaining, "I wanted to wear my bra. My boobs are too big and I always wear a bra, but Gia said noooo."

"The straps would show," Gia pointed out, helping her tug the leather up to cover her better. She then stepped back and nodded, satisfied they'd done the trick.

"See?" Carolyn said with a shrug. "She kept saying that upstairs too."

Christian made a choked sound. Her shrug had undone all their efforts to tame her breasts back into place. Now there was a rosy crescent above both cups.

"I like it," Zanipolo said with a grin.

"Stop looking," Christian snapped, resisting the urge to rush over and cover her up. He scowled at his mother.

"She is not wearing that in public. She-"

"We can tape it in place," Marguerite said soothingly, moving to help Gia readjust the dress again.

"Tape it?" Christian asked with disbelief. "To what?"

"Do you have dress tape, Gia?" Marguerite asked, ignoring him. "If not I have some at my villa, I can-"

"I have some." Gia headed for the door. "I should have thought of it myself."

Christian was silent, his gaze sliding over Carolyn again. Gia had put her in black stockings and sandals.

The sandals had four-inch heels and the stockings stopped a couple of inches below her skirt, leaving a tantalizing strip of pale thigh on view. Gia had called them thigh highs when he'd once teased her that her stockings didn't go all the way up. Christian didn't remember thinking the thigh highs looked particularly sexy on Gia, but damn...

Carolyn had fine legs, he thought.

"You're right. She definitely has a fine set of gams," Zanipolo agreed.

"No one calls them gams anymore," Christian snapped.

"And get out of my head."

Zanipolo just chuckled.

Christian glared and then turned back to the women.

"Mother she can't go like this."

"Why is that dear?" Marguerite asked with interest.

"Because I'm too old to wear an outfit like this," Carolyn laughed with a shrug that suggested it should be obvious... and dislodged her top again.

"You are not," he snapped. Damn the woman had a fixation with her age, he thought and moved forward, intending to cover her boobs. He hadn't taken a step before his father caught his arm.

"Your mother can handle this," Julius said with amusement as Marguerite moved back to adjust Carolyn's dress again. "And why can't she go like that?"

"Because those heels are too damned high. She'll fall over in her state." He figured that would carry more weight than admitting that he didn't want other men looking at her in the dress.

"I probably will," Carolyn admitted on a laugh. "I'm not very graceful."

Christian stared at her with amazement. He'd seen her dance. How the hell could she think she wasn't graceful?"

"Robert always called me Clumsy Car," she announced, rolling her eyes. "It was his idea of an endearment."

"Robert sounds like a very nasty man," Marguerite said.

Carolyn nodded as they both tugged at the top of her dress, and said conversationally, "You know, Marguerite, he really was... and he had a vile temper too. Very unpredictable. He was kind of scary, actually. I was so glad to leave him. Life's much nicer without him around insulting me all the time. He didn't think I could do anything right."

"I found my tape," Gia announced, returning to the room and moving to join Marguerite in front of Carolyn.

Christian frowned and craned his head, trying to see what they were doing.

"There," Marguerite said with satisfaction as she stepped back.

"Perfect," Gia pronounced.

"Then we should go," Zanipolo said. "The van arrived just as I found the shoe. I-"

He hesitated, his gaze sliding to Carolyn before he said carefully,. "I convinced him to wait for us."

Controlled his mind, Christian translated in his head, moving to take Carolyn's arm to lead her to the door.

"Oh good, I'm starved," Carolyn said cheerfully, and then glanced at Gia. "Don't let me forget and bend over or anything."

"Why can't she bend over?" Zanipolo asked, trailing them out of the kitchen.

"Because her panties would show," Christian guessed in a growl, imagining that in his mind and wondering what color they were.

"No they wouldn't," Carolyn said cheerfully. "I'm not wearing any. Gia wouldn't let me."

"What?" He turned to his cousin in horror.

"They were ripped," Gia said defensively. "She couldn't wear ripped panties with that getup."

"And you thought none at all would be better?" he asked with disbelief. They couldn't go. He should take her to his room now.

"Gee, Christian, you're hurting me," Carolyn muttered, trying to free herself of his suddenly clenched fingers.

He released her at once, shocked that he'd squeezed so hard, but peered at his father questioningly when he caught his arm and pulled him aside. "What?"

"I have to tell you something," he said. "Santo, escort Carolyn to the van."

Santo immediately took Carolyn's arm to lead her out, and she tipped her head back to peer up at him with awe.

"Wow. You're really tall, huh, Santa?"

"She kept calling him Santa upstairs too. It was making him crazy," Gia said on a chuckle as she followed.

"What did you want to say?" Christian asked his father impatiently as the others trooped out.

"Flesh colored," Julius announced, and took Marguerite's arm to walk her out.

Christian stared after him blankly, slow to realize what he was talking about. But then he recalled that he'd wondered what color Carolyn's panties were before he'd known she wasn't wearing any. Flesh colored was the answer. But he'd already known that. His father had just held him back to keep him from dragging Carolyn off to his room.

Growling, he strode forward, intending to say something rude to his father, but he got outside and slowed as he heard his mother say, "I don't know why you two seem to be at odds so much, Julius. But I wish you wouldn't needle him so."

"We're not at odds," Julius assured her as they walked.

"Christian is just frustrated and scared of losing his lifemate so is taking it out on me."

"And when he's not, you're deliberately drawing his fire," she suggested.

Julius shrugged. "It's safer for him to turn his anger on me than elsewhere. Definitely safer than turning it on Carolyn or doing something else to mess this up."

"You're a good father, Julius Notte," Marguerite said as they approached the van, and then added sadly, "I wish all my children had been so lucky."

Christian paused as his father halted at the van and turned her to face him. "They had you, Marguerite. I'm sure they'd agree that more than made up for the lack in their father."

Marguerite gave him a watery smile. "I love you, Julius."

"And I love you, cara." He pressed a kiss to her lips, and then lifted her into the van. Pausing, he glanced back to Christian then. "Well, now that you're done eavesdropping, are you going to go close the door? Or do I have to do that as well as get you your woman on my honeymoon?"

Christian looked over his shoulder. In his rage, he'd left the villa door wide open when he'd stormed out after them. That rage was gone now and a lot of his frustration and fear with it. He wasn't alone. He had backup. If there was a way to claim Carolyn, his parents would help him find it... on their honeymoon, no less. Turning back, he grinned and said, "Get in the van, old man. I'll do it."

Julius smiled. "Just see you don't trip over your own feet while you do, pup."

"You'd be there to catch me," Christian said with confidence.

His father nodded solemnly. "And if possible I always will."

"Thank you for that," Christian said quietly and returned to close the door.