Sally grinned when her mom blushed. She couldn’t blame her. The dimple, the accent, the freaking-model good looks. She’d have to be dead not to blush under Costin’s attention.
“You’re not blushing, and I just made love to your mouth,” he said, at the same time he was having a conversation with her parents.
“Do not say things like made love to your mouth while you’re talking to my parents.”
“Why? Do you think they can sense I’m telling you I made love to your mouth, and I’m disappointed that you didn’t blush?”
“Husband?” Sally’s mom was no longer blushing. “So, Jen wasn’t kidding? You really are married?
Sally nodded as she chewed on her bottom lip.
“I knew when Costin called and asked me for something old and I sent him the locket you two would be getting married at some point, I guess the reality just never sank in. I assume he gave it to you as a wedding gift.”
“I did,” said Costin. “And I would like to say that I have an incredible excuse for marrying your daughter without asking your permission,” Costin said as he wrapped an arm around Sally’s waist and pulled her tightly against him. “But I don’t. And, in all fairness, as you said, I did tell you that I was going to marry her. I knew she is my soul mate. We didn’t really see a reason to wait once we both realized we were meant for each other.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Mom,” Sally said softly. “I wanted to, but things just happened so quickly. I really—” She stopped when her mom held up a hand.
“You’re a grown woman, Sally. I will admit I hate the fact I missed my only daughter’s wedding, but I suppose I’ll live.”
Sally turned to her dad who seemed to be lost in thought. “Dad?”
He looked from Costin to her and then back to Costin. “You love my Sally?”
Costin looked down at her, his eyes filled with every ounce of the love he felt for her. “I do, Mr. Morgan. I love her, adore her, and I even like her most of the time.”
Her dad gave a single nod. “That’s all any father can want for his daughter. To be loved and adored and taken care of. You’re happy?” He turned to Sally and smiled.
“I am.” And in some ways, she was happy. There was no need to emotionally vomit her baggage onto her parents right now.
“As to why we are here,” her mom jumped in. “We just thought the drive would be a good time for us to talk and get to know Costin,” her mom said, wrapping her arm through Sally’s and leading her daughter toward the exit.
Sally glanced over her shoulder to see Costin and her dad retrieving the luggage from a rotating conveyor belt. Her mate looked up at her and winked. Damn winking, hot mate.
As they climbed into the car, the time change and thirteen-hour flight began to catch up with Sally. They’d left Romania at three in the afternoon, but that meant it was seven in the morning in Texas. With the time change, they were knocked backward eight hours, so even though it was a thirteen-hour flight, when they arrived in Texas, it was only eight in the evening. But to Sally’s body, it was six in the morning the next day, and she’d had very little sleep. It was going to be tough staying awake.
The drive home was a little over an hour, and Sally had no doubt her parents were going to use every minute of it to interrogate her mate, not that she could blame them. It wasn’t as if they got to meet him before she’d married him. And he was older than her. And they got married literally less than a year after they’d met. So maybe they had a small amount of reasons to be suspicious of him and his intentions. Just think if they knew he was a werewolf. She snorted to herself. She wondered if her dad would have wanted him to sit up front if he’d known that little bit of information.
“What do you do, Costin?” her dad asked as he pulled out of the airport parking lot.
“Don’t you dare say me.” Sally hissed through their bond before he could speak, which caused her mate to laugh. He recovered by disguising the laughter as a cough. Perhaps staying awake wasn’t going to be too hard after all, if it meant preventing her mate from giving ridiculous answers to her parents.
“I own a bar,” Costin finally answered.
Sally watched her dad’s face as he processed the information. “A bar?”
Costin nodded, and she could feel his pride in owning his own business and at being a darn good bar tender.
“It’s probably not the kind of bar that you are thinking of,” Costin explained.
“So … it’s a family bar?” her mom asked, always trying to put a positive spin on things.
Sally couldn’t help but laugh. “Y’all, it’s a bar, not a strip club, or honky tonk, or biker hang out,” she assured them. “Costin keeps it a respectable establishment.”
“With the help of your amazing daughter,” he added.
“Fishing for brownie points?” she teased.
“Your dad is looking a little horrified, and I don’t know that the markings on my neck are giving me any points.”
Her parents would think Costin had a dark, large tattoo on him since they had no clue he was a supernatural being and the markings actually meant something.
“Are your parents in Romania?” her mom asked.
Sally felt his sorrow immediately.
“My parents are no longer living.”
“Oh.” Her mom reached up and patted his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. You’re so young to have lost them.”
“Yes, speaking about that, how old are you exactly?” her dad asked.
“Yes, Costin, please tell them exactly how old you are.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much,” he said with a mental sigh.
“I’m twenty-four,” he answered. “Though with as many hours as I work, it feels more like sixty- four.”
Sally coughed to cover her own laugh. Her parents were going to think they both had some sort of condition that caused sporadic jerky motions.
“Have you ever been married before?”
“Dad!” Sally groaned. “He’s twenty-four, not forty-four.”
Her dad shrugged. “People are married and divorced by twenty-four these days. How about kids? Got any children with other baby mamas?”
Sally smacked her hand to her face. Did her dad seriously just say baby mamma? “Mom, make him stop, please.”
Her mom laughed. “Chris, that’s not something Cost—”
Costin cut her off. “Your daughter is actually the only woman I’ve ever shared the marriage bed with, and that only happened after we actually married.”
No. He. Did. Not. Sally knew her face was every shade of red on the color wheel.
“Really?” Her dad’s voice rose in admiration. “A virgin at twenty-four?”
She could feel Costin’s delight at her embarrassment. “But Sally has thoroughly corrupted me.”
“Stop!” She nearly shouted. “You two”—she pointed between her dad and Costin sitting up in the front seats—“should not be discussing marriage beds or Costin’s virginity or me corrupting him. Seriously, Dad.”
“Actually,” Costin said slowly, “there was a time in history when the status of a female’s maidenhead was very public knowledge.”
“NO!” Sally held her hands up and shook her head. “Do not even go there. Just stop.”