Page 20 of Lord of the Underworld

All the women nod in unison.

"Yes, that sounds about right," I agree, laughing helplessly. I reintroduce my mother to Iris and Caroline, and then the other two.

"I'm very happy you're here," she says kindly, and I can tell she means it. "This has been a somewhat solitary experience for Oksana."

"I'm here, and I bring champagne!" Anka strides into the room, holding two bottles in either fist, arms raised triumphantly.

"I'm so happy to see you!" I attack her with a big hug. She yelps, nearly dropping the bottles and the girls surge forward to grab them.

"You think I'd miss this?" Anka whispers in my ear. "Hell, I'd crawl out of my bedroom window if I had to and shimmy down the trellis."

"Yeah, just like in high school when you were hooking up with Ambassador Kensington's son," I whisper back, and she snorts out a laugh.

"Anyway, I heard all the fun girls were going to be here, and I convinced mother and father to let me out of my penance early. "

"Wait," Rose says, "they grounded you? Do they even do that anymore? You're like, what, twenty-four?"

"Exactly." Anka points a manicured fingernail triumphantly. "That's why it's ridiculous."

Checking on Mr. Maurice, I see his face is beet red. "This is all unnecessary," he snaps. "We have work to do here."

Maybe it's feeling like the five women behind me have my back. Or maybe my feeble courage has decided to return from its long vacation, but I snap. "You'll get your dress, Mr. Maurice. Allow me to enjoy at least an hour of my time before I'm married."

Oh, I'm sure there's many things he wants to say, but he snaps his mouth shut and angrily gestures for the first rack to be brought forth.

"Settle your asses down, ladies," Dasha crows. "We have some critiquing to do."

Iris and Rose coax my mother into making herself comfortable and pour her a glass of champagne. She leans back tiredly, slipping her feet halfway out of her spike heels with a grateful little sigh.

"That looks like a dress they bury you in," Anka says as I'm shifting uncomfortably in a gown with long sleeves and an itchy lace collar.

The next gown has an odd ruffled bodice and flounces around the hem. "Uh, that one makes you look like you have a starring role in Little House on the Prairie," Rose says, frowning.

"I heard that it was coming back, Netflix, right?" Caroline asks. "My mom loved that show. Also, that dress is hideous."

"Oh, I like this one," Dasha nods, leaning forward and eyeing all the glittering beads along the bodice and swirling over the skirt as I swirl a little. "Do they have this in black? I mean, you are marrying a vampire."

Everyone looks at me for a minute, lips pressed tightly, wondering if they're allowed to laugh. When I shrug my shoulders with a little grin, they all howl.

"We shouldn't -" Mother looks deeply alarmed and polishes off her glass. Caroline quickly refills it before she notices it's empty. "Don't call him that. That's a terrible thing to say. What if he heard about this?"

"I've always thought he was more Hades than vampire," I say.

"So, no blood kink," Dasha says, nodding wisely. "That can get messy."

Mother has already finished another glass and holds it out for a refill.

When Iris knocks on the door, I'm trying to weasel myself free from the tenth dress, but the zipper is stuck. "Hey, you've been in there a while, do you need some help?"

"Oh, yes please, get this thing off me," I say gratefully.

"Yeah, I don't think arms are supposed to move in that direction without dislocating them," she says, eyeing my awkward tangle of limbs with concern. Turning me around, she gets started on the stuck zipper, trying to free it from a snarl of lace. "You know, the last time I ran into Vadim, he was sitting in the back seat of our car. It was the night of that dinner party. Remember, when you were so sweet and invited us to your horse stables?"

"I do," I say, heaving a deep breath of relief as I'm freed from the dress's rib-strangling embrace. She takes the next dress away from the store manager with a stern glare, worthy of the wife of a New York State Supreme Court Justice, and helps lift it over my head herself.

"Now mind you, I was scared shitless," she says. Looking over my shoulder at my reflection. "I mean, who the hell just appears in your back seat, right? I swear, I thought he was a bat."

"Is this meant to be a pep talk to inspire me?" I ask. "Because so far, it's not working."