accidental 11 - accidentally ever after (30 page)
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Authors: dakota cassidy
But who needed a reason to celebrate Christmas twice in one year anyway?
Toni reached to her left and patted Nina’s hand as she dug into a full plate of chicken wings, smothered in buffalo sauce and ranch dressing.
Toni lifted her red napkin and swiped at the vampire’s lips, wiping a smear of buffalo sauce. “So how’s human treating you, Nina?”
Nina smacked her lips and grinned. “Fuck, it’s the bomb. Do you have an idea how long it’s been since I’ve had a chicken wing I didn’t upchuck? For-fucking-ever.”
Toni observed Marty and Wanda, who looked to each other, their eyes worried, but they covered it up quickly and smiled at Toni.
“It’s so funny how Nina suddenly doesn’t have plans when we want to shop these days, don’t you think, Wanda?” Marty asked, her eyebrow lifting.
Wanda folded her hands in her lap. “Funnier still? The fact that we’re always shopping right near the
Wing Stop
. Crazy, right?”
Nina threw another chicken bone down on her plate, where the carcasses of at least a dozen wings lay, and licked each and every one of her ten fingers with delight.
“Shut the eff up, you two. I’m your damn dream come true. Isn’t this the shit you’ve always wanted? Me sharing in all your bullshit girl-bonding? Only now, I don’t have to sit and watch you two scarf down half a side of beef while I doze off from all that boring talk about lip gloss and cold cream. Now pass the damn mashed potatoes and shut it.”
Toni barked a laugh and patted Nina’s thigh. “Girl-bonding achievement unlocked. I’m glad you’re enjoying food again, but don’t you miss being a vampire?”
Nina plopped some mashed potatoes on her plate and shook her dark head. “Like I’d damn well miss the clap.”
“So no…?”
“Not even a GD little.”
But that wasn’t ringing entirely true for Toni, so she waved Marty and Wanda over to the table where Arch had placed his equally infamous weenies in a blanket, an eye-rolling delicacy almost on par with the bedsport, if you listened to Iver.
“How is she
really
? I mean, she’s all ‘yay wings and hamburgers’, but is that just a front?” Toni asked.
Marty sighed, her shoulders lifting. “I don’t know. I can’t tell. I worry once she gets past the honeymoon stage of this, when she realizes what’s really happened, she’ll flip a nut. It’s like she didn’t even skip a beat.”
Wanda nodded, tucking her hand to the side of her face. “Exactly. ‘Oh I’m a human again. Whatever’ has been her attitude since this happened.”
Toni sighed long and bit the inside of her cheek. “How’s Greg taking it?” she wondered as she looked at the handsome man who sat beside Nina, chatting with Iver and Heath and Keegan.
Wanda’s eyes became sympathetic. “He’s worried, too. He told Keegan the other day that she’s behaving like nothing’s any different. Except she calls Arch a hundred times a day to get recipes from him. It’s like she’s on a mission to scarf as much food as possible because she missed out on eating for eight years.”
“Do we still think it was because she drank some of Angria’s blood that this happened?” Toni asked as she watched Nina cut into a slab of rare prime rib.
Marty nodded, smoothing her hands over her red knit dress. “We do. It’s the only explanation.”
After they’d returned to their homes in New York, everything had come to a head for Nina. One ugly, failed attempt to fly, where she’d landed in a thorny bush, got scratched up from head to toe and didn’t heal, the inability to use her fangs, and an almost broken wrist from trying to move a car illegally parked in front of her castle later, and she’d found out she was human again.
“Can’t Greg just bite her and make everything vampire again?”
Wanda shook her head. “Absolutely not. It goes against everything they believe in. And even if he was willing, she’s not. Or so she says.”
“Hey!” Nina interrupted them, a napkin tucked into the neck of her hoodie, a bottled beer in her hand. “Quit talkin’ about me like just because my hearing isn’t supersonic, I don’t know you’re damn well doing it. I’m fine. Now let’s go celebrate this shit and quit whining. Isn’t that what we’re here for, framily?”
Toni threw her arms around Nina’s neck. “That
is
what we’re here for, and if you’re happy, vamp, er…human, I’m happy. I love you no matter what.”
She planted a wet kiss on Nina’s cheek, making Marty and Wanda laugh when she batted Toni away and stomped off with a grin to the table to attack more chicken wings.
“Nina’s right. We’re here to celebrate being together again, and that’s all that matters right now. Have I mentioned how happy I am for you two lovebirds? Because I’m thrilled,” Marty said with a wide grin before heading over to help her daughter Hollis catch a fairy as they buzzed throughout the room.
“Lady Wanda,” Iver said, wrapping his arm around Toni’s waist. “Any word on Cormac?”
Toni sighed a happy sigh as she leaned into him. Iver had been very supportive in their efforts to locate Cormac. In fact, he was supportive about everything she did. He didn’t care when she ate something too spicy and hiccupped fire, burning his hair—or when she made his nose grow when she asked him if he’d been the one to leave his towel on the floor in the bathing chamber.
He didn’t even mind when she jumped into the ocean and swam with Muriel. She’d retained the powers of the shoes once they were removed, and she’d set about helping King Dick secure them so no one ever got their hands on them again.
Iver also encouraged her to learn how to use a sword, giving her tips when he wasn’t learning the business of running Shamalot from his father, who he’d become quite close to since he’d returned home.
Iver had made his peace with King Dick for making the deal with Jon with the help of Queen Jane, who smoothed the way. And Toni and Queen Jane had rather hit it off, spending their afternoons together while she taught Toni the fine art of being a princess and someday queen.
Jane was funny and bright and far more than a woman who wore fancy dresses and had lavish teas. She was warm and loving and most of all, she loved Iver as much as Toni realized she did.
Wanda reached out and squeezed his arm. “I think we have a location, if Roz’s vision is right. We’re on it as soon as we leave here.”
Toni’s stomach jumped into high gear. “You will let me know if I can help, won’t you?”
“Nope. I will not. You heard what Roz said, right? You’re in danger. You stay here at Castle Beckett for as long as necessary and we do the heavy lifting. Now, let’s focus on this awesome celebration. Did I tell you two kids how happy I am for you both?” Wanda asked, her smile beaming.
“Did I tell you how happy I am that Archibald brought coffee grounds to last me a lifetime?”
Wanda chuckled, giving her a hug. “You look beautiful and happy and healthy, and that’s all I can ask for. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I heard the words roast and beef. They call my name.” She blew them a kiss followed by a wink and wandered off to the far end of the table, where her husband smiled at her as she took her place beside him.
Iver wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, nuzzling her ear and making her shiver. “I declare this particular ball a success. Well done, Lady Toni.”
As Toni watched the people who’d become so dear to her eat, laugh and pass food, as she watched all the new faces she’d met today interact with each other while the children played, the girls in their princess costumes and tiaras, the boys with their plastic swords, fencing.
As fairies buzzed about and Ellesandra read to the children, and Resplendant and Jon Doe smooched in a dark corner, and Dannan and Darnell told old war stories, she burrowed in closer to his chest.
“It’s been an amazing day. Thank you for this. You’re a good prince. Have I told you that today?”
He turned her in his arms. “Nay. I think the last I heard such praise was this past eve, during the bedsport.”
Ah. The bedsport. It went against all royal Shamalotian rules, but it wasn’t as though they hadn’t broken a half dozen of those already. What was one more?
And it was amazing. Fulfilling. Everything she’d always dreamed it could be, and as Iver became more skilled, as he tempted her with what he joked were his smooth new moves, she fell deeper in love with each passing second.
Their royal wedding was set for the spring when, according to Iver, the hills beyond the castle would eventually roll with green, the honeysuckle and sugared pears would scent the air, and the breeze would warm their souls. He promised her a wedding the likes of which no one in Shamalot had ever seen.
Until then, they talked long into the night and the better part of the days, they laughed, Jon taught her all the shortcuts in the enormous castle, and they conspired to find a way to bring phones, Netflix, and the Internet to Shamalot.
But mostly, they loved. They grew as a couple. They made plans for a future filled with children and their version of a happily-ever-after.
Looking up at his beautiful face, tracing the outline of his jaw, her heart fuller than she could ever remember, Toni said, “How could I be so remiss? You, my one true love, are the best prince a girl could ask for—bar none.”
But Iver frowned. “Have you asked for others?”
She pushed her arms up under his and laughed. “It’s an expression, silly. It means, there’s no one else like you in the world and I wouldn’t trade you—not even for a lifetime of Starbucks and a flushing toilet.”
“Not even for your beloved, most revered Starbucks? Milady, it must be true love,” he murmured against her lips, making her sigh.
“Ya think?” she asked on a giggle.
“Nay, princess in training,
I know
,” Iver whispered back as he swept her up in a kiss.
Oh, and it
was
love.
Everlasting—true—the kind fairytales are made of.
The End
I so hope you’ll come back to find out what’s going to happen to Nina now that she’s a chicken-wing-eating, beer-guzzling, bona-fied human again as the girls of OOPS search for Toni’s brother, Cormac, in
Bearly Accidental
! Coming winter of 2016!
Author’s Note
I do hope you enjoyed
Accidentally Ever After
! I’d so appreciate it if you’d help others enjoy this book, too.
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About Dakota Cassidy
Dakota Cassidy is a
USA Today
bestselling author with over thirty books. She writes laugh-out-loud romantic comedy, grab-some-ice erotic romance, hot and sexy alpha males, paranormal shifters, contemporary kick-ass women, and more.
Invited by Bravo TV, Dakota was the Bravoholic for a week, wherein she snarked the hell out of all the Bravo shows. She received a starred review from Publisher Weekly for
Talk Dirty to Me
, won an RT Reviewers Choice Award for
Kiss and Hell
, along with many review site recommended reads and reviewer top pick awards.
Dakota lives in the gorgeous state of Oregon with her real life hero and her dogs, and she loves hearing from readers!
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