Los Angeles - 9:00 PM - Tinsely Villa
Celeste was painfully patient as he spoke, waiting eagerly for Niko to find the words that were seemingly lost upon him. As he spoke, she found herself staring at those lips, so soft yet dangerous. Nikolai explained the rumors surrounding his family, and Celeste couldn't help but to smile. She lived for scandal, and ate up everything he said following the admittance of the rumors surrounding his family. For the first time in a solid 50 years, she passed no judgement. She listened, and loved every word she heard.
When he mentioned being caught stealing from her father, Celeste laughed loudly. She had heard that something occurred, rumors of the great Garamond catching a thief, but Celeste was always shooed away when the details started to come to light. It was at this moment, a horrific idea came to her mind. I couldn't possibly be the punishment for his theft... The moment she thought those words, she suppressed them, deeply wanting to be wrong. If this marriage was going to work, Celeste knew that the details must stay unspoken. When he spoke again, about Mors a Conjugium this nearly confirmed her fears, but she said nothing, holding hard onto the fake smile upon her face.
As Niko rustled something in his pockets, distracting her from what he was saying. She slowly found her focus again, and brought her eyes up to his. Within moments, he was kissing her in a fashion she had never imagined was possible. She leaned into him, allowing her weight to force their lips against each other even harder. With no hesitation, Celeste reached up to gently put her hand on his chest, sliding it up to rest around his throat. The soon to be newlyweds stayed like this for a moment, enjoying each other's lips- and bodies. All prior concern faded away, as long as he was touching her. Finally, he ended the kiss, leaving her breathless.
"All I desire is a family..." He said, offering her a final kiss and apologizing. She smiled and shook her head, nonverbally communicating that she didn't mind his forwardness whatsoever. In fact, she enjoyed this. Previously, men had thrown themselves to her and she simply tossed them aside in disinterest. She was never interested in men before. Sure, she had dabbled in intimacy, but never felt like she did on this particular evening. Celeste was constantly leaning into Niko's energy, drunk off of his presence.
In the other room, her father was making a speech of some sort, but she couldn't hear a word he was saying. As cliche as it was, Celeste was lost in Niko's eyes, and everything else around the couple had faded away into a blissful nothingness. She was only brought away from her groom when Gringoire and Elena came into the foyer- interrupting Celeste's waking dreams.
Celeste and Greg often went back and forth in a painfully competitive manner. They loved each other greatly, but commonly found themselves trying to one-up the other. As children, it was small games and sports, as adults, it was attention and affection from their peers. Celeste knew there was going to be an unspoken competition on who made the better couple. Funnily enough, Niko and Greg were friends, which likely allowed Niko to feel like he wasn't completely disliked by the Tinsley clan.
"I rather like him, considering you found the poor lad in the streets of Paris so long ago." Celeste smiled coyly, calling attention to her brother's and Niko's history. "He's quite the gentleman, hasn't laid a hand on me yet I swear!" She said sarcastically, bringing a hand up to check if her lipstick had smeared. At this Celeste stood to hug Elana, whom she had grown rather fond of over the years. She embraced her fondly, and as they parted she left one arm hooked around her sister-in-law. Celeste playfully rested her chin Elana's shoulder.
"The real question, dearest brother and sister, is what he thinks of me." Celeste shot a smile at Niko, wanting desperately to hear his praise once again. She was aware of his affection, but the words would never grow old to her. For how confident the young vampire was, she found herself highly needy for Niko's verbal affection. Without waiting for his response, however, she turned to her brother.
"Shall we take our sweethearts to the gardens? It would be a shame if daddy spent all that money getting them redone just for us to not walk through them." Celeste stepped away from Elana, and offtered a hand to Niko, both to help him up and to lead him to her favorite spot on the entire property.