She held out her hand with a smile and let him slide it over her wrist. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
He’d been right about their getting to know each other. They’d spent hours and hours full of movies and lunch dates, dinners made up of Porterhouse steaks, walks in the forest, and visits to the cabin where their relationship had begun.
They laughed, they talked, they even had a couple of fights. They made out like teenagers, they slow-danced under the Colorado stars. They moved Cormac into an apartment and continued to fight a long, hard battle with his credit card companies to get his ruined credit back in order, with Lenny Kravitz always on his computer desk, purring.
They spent days working on the rebirth of Sanctuary, making phone calls, overseeing the construction of new habitats, plowing toward a mutual goal just like Cormac had promised.
They created a routine all their own. One they could count on, day in and day out, no matter what, and they never missed dinner together, whether it was at the ranch with her brothers or at Cormac’s place.
And now they were here—together—at her prom.
“Did you do all this for me?” Teddy managed to squeak out as she lifted her head and took in the clusters of balloons in pastel colors floating about the room. Lights twinkled from corner to corner, a DJ played 98 Degrees, streamers in rainbow colors swayed from the ceiling, and a banner reading Teddy’s Big Excellent Prom hung from the long string of tall windows overlooking the grounds.
“For our first official date,” Cormac said on a warm smile, pulling her to the dance floor in the center of everything and twirling her around. “But I didn’t do it alone. I did it with the girls and Carl and Arch. All refreshments courtesy of Archibald and Carl, in fact.”
She giggled. “But we’ve had a million dates since we got back to Colorado.”
Pressing a gentle kiss to her lips, Cormac shook his head. “Ah, but we didn’t have this one. This one is special.”
“So you planned this? All of this?” she asked, as he pulled her tight to him and grinned down at her.
“Yep. Right down to the rainforest theme.”
Teddy sighed and kissed him hard. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”
“Speaking of beautiful, have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”
Her hand went to the floaty dress, swishing at her knees. “Courtesy of Marty, Nina, and Wanda.”
“It’s amazing. You’re amazing,” he whispered.
Melting against him, Teddy wondered what had inspired this. “What made you choose a prom?”
“You remember that night Arch gave us that whacky tea?”
She chuckled and nodded, snuggling closer and inhaling his cologne. “I do. You saw a unicorn. Did we ever name the unicorn?”
“I’m still thinking on it, but do you remember telling me you never went to your prom?”
Her heart melted. He’d listened to her when she’d said she was too embarrassed to ask her brothers to buy her a dress because money had been so tight. He’d listened.
Teddy wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. I’m convinced it was the tea that made me do it. Kinda pathetic, huh?”
Cormac caressed her cheek with his big palm. “Not even a little. I remember thinking I wanted to give you back something every girl should experience at least once. But I also wanted you to always remember this night for more than one reason. I have ulterior motives.”
Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and counted her blessings. “Ooo, an ulterior motive? Do tell.”
Bracketing her face, he slowed their movement and looked into her eyes. “I wanted you to always remember the night I told you I’ve fallen crazy in love with you, Theodora Gribanov. I wanna do this life mate thing so hard we hurt it.”
Her heart throbbed in her chest, but she looked him right in the eye and whispered on a happy sigh, “I love you, too, Cormac. Let’s put the hurt on this life mate thing.”
Cormac’s lips pressed against hers, his tongue slipping into her mouth, sending a thrill of yearning to her heart. “So you know what this means, right?”
“Does this mean I have to lose my virginity to you after we get drunk on spiked punch?”
“Don’t you have to still have that to lose it?” he teased against her mouth.
“So fresh, Vitali. Knock it off or I won’t let you get to second base.”
“Which brings me to this—I don’t know about you, but I was wondering if it might be time to, you know, consider sealing the deal?” He winked comically at her.
“Seal a deal? Whatever do you mean, Mr. Vitali?” she joked, knowing exactly what he meant.
They’d chosen to wait to make love. There had been many grueling nights when they’d almost caved due to their raging hormones, but they wanted the time to be right. For the physical expression of their relationship to mean something.
For love and total commitment to be their motivation.