Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(37)

“How am I ever going to walk even the few yards to Guilty Pleasures without falling on my face?”

“We’ll help you,” Ethan said.

Ru came to take my other hand, smiling. “We will happily guard your steps as we guard your body.”

“They’re high heels, not an enemy to defend against,” Rodina said, in a voice that dripped with disdain.

“You want to try walking in heels this high?” I asked.

She looked at the shoes, then her gaze rose from them up the line of my mostly bare legs, to the shimmering, dangly edge of the beaded dress. The dress was so sparkly that every movement caught the light differently so that I felt like a blue disco ball. It had spaghetti straps, which I normally can’t wear, because I’m too well-endowed not to wear a bra with a dress like this, but they’d been prepared with the best pushup bra I’d ever worn. I didn’t even know that pushup bras could lift and separate like this.

“Come see yourself in the mirrors,” Felix, the vampire half of the couple that owned Until Death and Beyond Bridal, said as he swept the curtains to one side so the half circle of mirrors where Edward had stood earlier was revealed. I wasn’t in a dressing room, I was in the curtained area where brides would usually be getting ready, where I would be getting ready in a few months for the real deal.

“I don’t want to see, just take me to Guilty Pleasures and let Jean-Claude see. This is all for him anyway.”

Felix tsk ed at me, sighing heavily. He’d already made it clear that I was taking most of the fun out of the wedding prep. He supervised hair and makeup, so he hadn’t gotten the full brunt of my disdain for all things girly and bridal, but he’d seen enough. “Barnabas has gotten to clothe you all, but this is the first time I have been able to work on your hair and makeup. I want you to see yourself in it, in front of the mirrors so that we will have a place to start when we talk about how you will want your hair and makeup for the wedding.”

It was my turn to sigh. “Fine, let’s get this over with, then get me to Jean-Claude. I know the shoes are revenge for me wanting to wear comfy sweats on our last in-home movie date. I swear I will never make him dress down on date night again.”

“I’m surprised our king owned a pair of sweats,” Rodina said.

“He didn’t. He bought a designer pair just for the date,” I said, as Ethan and Ru led me through the curtain that Felix was holding. I was doing pretty well until we hit the carpet around the raised mirror, and then I held desperately to their hands, because without the support I would have gone down. I leaned into their hands like they were crutches to take the step up on the little raised platform.

When Ethan put his other hand on my elbow to steady me even more, I didn’t protest. I thought Jean-Claude had finally taught me how to walk in heels until now; apparently I had a height limit for heels and I was past it.

I was so busy watching my feet to get up on the dais that I didn’t look in the mirrors until I was standing on firm ground. Ethan let go of my elbow and when I didn’t protest he let go of my hand. I didn’t fall down so Ru started to let go; I held on to him for a second, then realized if I couldn’t even stand in the shoes, date night was over unless one of them carried me everywhere. I took a deep breath, let it out slow, and let go of his hand. He hovered nearby in case I needed the help, but I was finally standing on my own.

I stared down at the strappy sandals, realizing that the shiny blue nail polish on my toes matched or at least complemented the bejeweled sandals. Nathaniel had talked me into the blue polish, a color I’d never worn before, which meant he’d known exactly what color everything would be tonight. I felt suddenly ganged up on by the men in my life. At least my fingers and toes matched, which wasn’t always the case.

“They are lovely sandals, but please look at yourself in the mirrors, Ms. Blake,” Felix said. He was trying for neutral, but I could hear the excitement in his voice; as a vampire he could have hidden it, or maybe not, maybe he just couldn’t wait for me to admire the beautification he’d done.

I looked up. There was a stranger in the mirror looking back at me. The heels made me look tall, hell I was only a half inch shorter than Nathaniel now. My hair fell in perfect black ringlets nearly to my waist. They’d done something to it so that it framed my face but didn’t spill forward like it usually did. It looked soft, touchable, but it stayed put at the same time. It was like hair magic.

The dress was made up of beads and crystals in shades of blue from navy to royal to sky to baby blue with a few black beads and shining clear crystals that winked and sparkled in the lights. The hem of the dress barely touched the bottom of my ass with a shimmering line of jewels, so it was like a necklace at the opposite end of the body. It really was a work of art, too bad it was on me.

“You are exquisite, Ms. Blake,” Felix said.

“You are always beautiful,” Ethan said, “but this is . . . you’re breathtaking.”

I finally looked at my body, my face, me and not just the hair and the clothes. The heels gave length to my legs that I hadn’t seen before. The exercise that I did to be able to save my life and the lives of others made my legs strong and the fringe of the dress hugged my curves like a sparkling caress.

There was more room around my waist, because that was always smaller than the curves on either side. I was built like an old-fashioned hourglass with more muscle on my bare arms, but no matter how hard I lifted I could never muscle up past a certain point. The body was strong, firm, and feminine. There was nothing I could do to not look like a girl. I’d spent the early part of my life dressing like I was hiding everything the dress revealed. I’d even reverted back to the old way of dressing as the wedding got closer. I loved Jean-Claude, but I still didn’t see what he saw in me physically. He’d been the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, and he’d flirted with me from the beginning. I’d never understood why. Staring into the mirrors, now my face finally matched him.