31. Peter

31

PETER

" I 've never seen so many cars," Marina breathed as Peter pulled into the mall's parking lot. "Not even in the village. There is a sea of them."

He smiled. "You ain't seen nothing yet." He found a spot, which was a stroke of luck on the weekend, slid his car into the narrow space, and cut the engine. "Wait until you see the inside."

He planned a whole day of wonders for her, and the mall was just the first stop. It might be too much for her first outing in a major city, but his Marina was a trooper, and she would do just fine.

She released her seatbelt. "I'm still amazed that I was allowed to leave the village."

He leaned over and kissed her pouty lips. "I told you that no one would object to that as long as you were with me. If you wanted to venture out on your own, the answer would have most likely been no."

She smiled. "My protector, my keeper, my Guardian."

Her tone was clear of sarcasm or ridicule. Marina enjoyed being under his protective wing, and he enjoyed the fact that she was okay with him hovering over her like an overprotective, over-possessive, overly romantic boyfriend.

Hell, he loved it.

Peter also loved that she waited for him to go around the car and open the door for her. All it had taken was him asking her just once to allow him to be a gentleman. He hadn't asked her permission, though, to show her all the wonders and delights the world had to offer and make up for all the years she had spent locked away in Igor's compound and then isolated in Safe Haven.

He was going to surprise her with that.

As she took his offered hand, he pulled her to him for a quick kiss. "Let's go shopping like there is no tomorrow. I want you to get a whole new wardrobe, with clothes for every occasion, shoes to match, sexy lingerie, makeup, jewelry, hair color, whatever you need to feel like a princess."

But not a Cinderella.

When he'd seen the duffle bag containing all her earthly possessions, he'd found it difficult to hide his wince. The bag hadn't even been full. He took more things with him on a weekend vacation than everything Marina owned.

She chuckled. "I've only been working in the café for two days, and I don't even know how much they will pay me. I can't afford all this."

Shaking his head, he wrapped his arm around her. "When you are with me, you pay for nothing. It's my treat."

She cast him an amused sidelong glance. "Since I'm not allowed to go shopping without you, I will always be with you when I buy things."

"Precisely." He leaned and kissed the top of her head. "As I told you, Guardians are paid very well, and until now, I've had nothing to spend my money on. Now that I have you, there's nothing I would rather spend it on than making you happy. Everything I own is yours."

She stopped walking, turned to him, and opened her mouth, probably to argue, closed it, and then opened it again. "We are not married, Peter. And even if we were, it wouldn't be fair for me to come into your life and share the fruits of your labor that you've accumulated over hundreds of years."

"I'm not that old," he grumbled. "And you buying a whole new wardrobe won't even make a dent in what I have in my bank accounts." He wracked his brain for something he could say that she wouldn't be able to rebut. "We are together, Marina, which is as good as being married. We don't need any official document to legitimize our union."

Huffing out a breath, she resumed walking. "We are just starting out, Peter. We are in love, and everything is great, but things might change."

"They won't. Not for me."

As impossible as it was for him to bond with a human, Peter felt bonded to Marina. She was his mate, but he knew she wouldn't just take his word for it. She didn't know what it meant to be fated to a partner, and if he tried to explain, she wouldn't believe him.

As Kagra's taunting resurged in his mind, he wondered if perhaps she'd been right and he was in love with the notion of love.

Marina leaned into him, resting her head on his bicep. "I love you."

"I love you too." He tightened his fingers on her shoulder. "Do it for me. It will please me to no end to have you buy as many things as we can both carry."

"Okay," she murmured.

"Yes!" Peter pumped his fist in the air.

Hand in hand, they entered the mall, a blast of cold air greeting them as they stepped through the automatic doors. Marina's eyes widened in wonder as she took in the vast expanse of the atrium, the gleaming storefronts, and the throngs of shoppers milling about.

"It's so beautiful." She squeezed his hand. "Look at the height of the ceiling and the skylights, oh my, so marvelous. It's like a wonderland."

"Come on, beautiful. Let's shop till we drop."

Peter led Marina into the fray, guiding her from store to store and helping her pick out outfits, accessories, and everything else he'd planned.

As they made their way through the racks of designer gowns and cocktail dresses, Peter felt excited at the thought of what lay ahead. He had never been one for grand gestures or elaborate schemes, but with Marina, everything was different. It was charged with a sense of possibility and promise that made his blood sing.

At first, she'd needed some coaxing, especially when hit with price tag shock, but once he'd gotten her over that hurdle and she gained confidence, Marina turned out to be a natural-born shopper with an eye for fashion and a love of all things beautiful.

They lost themselves in the simple pleasures of the moment, laughing and chatting and trying on things just for fun, like the cowboy hat that Marina insisted he had to get.

"I will need matching boots," he said with a fake Southern accent.

"Then let's get them." She tugged on his hand, leading him to the men's shoe section in the department store.

It was uncanny how quickly she'd got her bearing and knew where everything was.

"We don't have time for that." He laughed, grabbing the first pair he saw and motioning for the clerk to get him a pair in his size.

His other hand was going numb from the number of bags he was carrying, and Marina had a whole bunch of them, too.

The hunting had been fruitful, and Marina had everything she needed for tonight and the rest of next week. He planned on taking her to the mall again.

"Why don't we have time?" She plopped tiredly on the chair next to him. "When is the mall closing?"

He turned to her with a smile. "There is plenty of time until closing, but I've made dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant tonight at eight, and we still need to go home and get showered and changed."

She turned to him and smiled with her head resting on the back of the chair. "You've planned a full day of fun for us."

"I did," he said with no small amount of pride. "It wasn't easy to get reservations for By Invitation Only. I had to beg Kian to give me the spot tonight. There is a long waiting list for spending a small fortune at the best kept secret in town."

Marina frowned. "If the restaurant is so good, why is it a secret?"

"It's a super exclusive place owned by a clan member. People pay hundreds of thousands for a membership just so they have the privilege of making a reservation. It's the kind of place where the rich and famous enjoy themselves away from the public eye."

Marina's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "And you want to take me there? I don't belong in a place like that."

"Don't worry about it." He took her hand. "Neither do I. But it's dark and intimate, and no one will pay us any attention."

He didn't add that it was a place where illicit affairs were conducted in shadowy corners, and the air was thick with the scent of forbidden desires.

She eyed him with suspicion. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. "Remember the wrap dress I told you was perfect for dinner in a fancy restaurant?"

She smiled. "How could I forget? It was the most expensive item you bought me. That and the shoes that went with it." Her eyes sparkled. "They are so sexy. I can't wait to wear them."

Just then, the clerk returned with a tower of shoe boxes and put them on the floor next to Peter. "I took the liberty of bringing several styles for you to try, sir."

Peter stifled a chuckle. Seeing the number of bags he and Marina were hauling between them, the clerk must have assumed that he was dealing with serious shoppers who were worth his time and effort.