Page 15 of Must Love Fallen Angels
For now, it was enough to just let herself be in the moment with him and see where it led.
Because Venice was a sexy mystery, and she liked him already.
Venice stared at his phone while he waited for Ronan to join him on their patrol.Normally they all patrolled alone, but Brody had suggested the occasional team-up, and Venice had been happy to have the dragon along.He and Sierra had been a welcome addition to the force since their clan had come to town.Before that, Venice and Brody were on call constantly.
Venice hadn’t seen Tessa since Saturday, but they’d been texting and had spoken on the phone Sunday.As he re-read their texts, he rubbed the space over his heart with his fingers, the ache dull and present since he’d left the cottage.And her.
“Hey,” Ronan said as he opened the truck and sat down.“Brought you some kind of nonsense coffee that Lyra made.It’s caramel…I don’t know.”
He set two travel mugs in the console holders and buckled up.
“Thanks,” Venice said.“Lyra likes making coffee?”
“She wants to convince Zay to let her sell coffee and tea in the bookstore, but Zay’s not on board with it yet.I think with Tessa starting today, Lyra believes she’ll have more time to do things like make coffee for patrons.”
At the mention of her name, Venice’s chest went warm.
He pulled out of the familiar adoption center’s parking lot where he’d met with Brody pre-dawn, and cleared his throat.
“You’re toast, man.Burnt and buttered.”
“What?”Venice asked, turning onto Main to begin their patrol.
“I mentioned Tessa’s name, and your face went red.You’regone.”
He bristled.Not in denial, because he was most definitelygonewhen it came to her.But because he wasn’t comfortable discussing things when he hadn’t really figured out what he wanted to do himself.
He could feel Ronan looking at him, so he said, “I am seeing someone, I guess.”
Ronan snorted so hard he coughed.“You guess?Everyone in town knows, man.Sable Cove isnota keep-things-to-yourself town.I know that you and Tessa are a thing, that she’s your truemate.Why are you being weird?”
The wordtruematesent a bolt through Venice, not unlike the fiery sword that cut off his wings.“I don’t get one.I don’t get to hope.”
“Are you serious?”
Venice stopped at a light and looked at the male.“Angels don’t have truemates.”
Even as he said the words, they rang hollow.Because he knew how hefelt, he just didn’t know how she felt.And after what he’d been through when he fell, he just flat out didn’t trust himself.His heart had lied to him before, giving him tunnel vision, so he missed all the red flags.
“Absolutely untrue, dude.Angels fall because they have the capacity to love.So why wouldn’t you get a truemate?Every other supernatural creature on the planet has a truemate out there somewhere.And yeah, sometimes the two never meet, and that’s a shitty situation.But for the ones who do meet?You’d better grab on with both hands.”
The light turned green, but Venice didn’t press on the gas right away.His hands clenched on the steering wheel.Was what Ronan said true?
Someone honked, and Venice pulled forward, crossing the intersection and taking a side road to drive along some of the back roads that bordered the town and to ensure there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.
“What if I’m wrong?”Venice asked.
“About what?”
“That she’s my…truemate.”
The word was rough in his mouth, like it was coated in sandpaper and glue.
Silence filled the truck, and that made Venice feel worse about what he’d said.The words just hung there like wet laundry on the line.
The streets blurred from one to the other, until he stopped at a stop sign and had to look at the street sign to figure out where he was.
“You can’t protect yourself forever.And the reality is that if you don’t trust her with the truth of what you are, you’re just telling her that you don’t trusther.And girls don’t like that.”
