Page 113 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“I have to admit, there were times when I thought all his studying was going to end in a research paper, not a wedding. But I had faith in the plot. And, eventually, Victor looked up. Sparks flew. Hearts skipped. Bellies fluttered. Knees went weak. Like every good romance novel.

“Pandora, you have proven yourself to be the leading lady in your own story. And, Victor, you have shown us that even the most stoic of heroes can fall head over heels for the right woman.

“So, to my best friend and her very own Mr. Darcy – may the rest of your story be filled with grand gestures, witty banter, smoldering stares, and only the absolute best plot twists ever.

“And, of course, may there always only be one bed, notes in the shower steam, and kissing in the rain. Here’s to your happily ever after. Cheers!”

“Cheers!” Everyone smiled brightly, buying into the story Lucy had just read to them.

Pandora wanted more than anything for it to be true. And her heart ached at the reality of their situation. Of theactualtropes their story featured.

Fake dating.

Marriage of convenience.

Nothing that featured all of the grand romantic gestures that everyone around the table assumed.

Victor’s arm slid around the back of Pandora’s chair as he turned his head away, so no one else could see what he was saying.

“You OK?”

“Yeah,” she said, but she didn’t even bother to put anyconviction in her voice as she raised her champagne to her lips and took a sip, the bubbles popping on her tongue.

“Pandy,” he said, tone pleading. His breath was warm on the shell of her ear, making a shiver move through her. “Cold?”

“Yeah,” she said, lying. Or maybe she wasn’t. But it was not the kind of cold that he meant. It was in her heart.

Because, despite her bone-deep belief that things had changed between them since touring the flat, nothing had happened since.

She tried to convince herself it was simply because he was working flat-out to finish his thesis and session at uni. And what little free time he did have, it was full of wedding planning and furniture-shopping, since everyone was going to expect the two of them to want to live together immediately after the wedding. That was what real married people did, after all.

The thing was, she was starting to worry that, to him, all it was between them was the occasional spicy, mutually satisfying stolen moment. And not, as it was for her, feelings. Of the love variety.

While this may have started as a fake-dating marriage of convenience, somewhere along the way, she’d fallen head over heels for her fiancé.

Victor’s hand started to chafe her arm for a moment before he shrugged out of his blazer and draped it over her shoulders.

It was still warm from his body and smelled of that perfect vanilla, cinnamon, and leather scent of him. It only made the longing worse.

A little whimper escaped her, despite herself.

“I think you’re just exhausted,” Victor said, voice low.“You’ve been running around at warp speed for months. Working. Planning the wedding. Meet-ups. Dress-shopping. Finding us the perfect flat. You need a nice, long break.”

He wasn’t wrong about her having been busy.

Sure, any wedding required a lot of work. But hers doubly so because of the shortened timeframe, as well as trying to thwart her family’s crazy plans. Including some insane blood ritual requiring the kind of chanting that would have had his family and friends running for the hills.

And, yes, she was burnt out. But not physically, like Victor thought. She was emotionally spent. From pretending to be in a happy, loving relationship, from never so much as letting her smile slip because she knew Bellatrix and Ambrosia were watching her every move, looking for anything to be off, so they could pounce and expose her.

Increasingly, all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed with the covers over her head. Not even with one of her beloved books. Because, suddenly, love stories just made her all the more aware of her one-sided romance.

It was almost over, she had to keep reminding herself. Even if, objectively, this last part of the whole ordeal was the most painful.

Sebastian’s and Lucy’s speeches had been gutting.

She knew she should have been thankful to her friend for coming up with something so personal and heartfelt, but Pandora’s heart ached more with each word she said. Because Pandora wanted them to be true so badly.

And once this event was over, there was the wedding the following day to get through.