Page 19 of Must Love Fallen Angels

She didn’t have that anymore.The people she’d trusted to have her back had been making a fool of herbehindher back.

Venice’s warm hand covered hers.“Are you okay?”

“Just thinking that you’re very lucky to have Brody as a friend.”

“I am.But I’m also very lucky to have you in my life.Friends are great, but you’re wonderful.”

She leaned over and kissed him.“You’re pretty wonderful too.”

When the meal was over and the sun was setting, they returned to their cushioned seats and cruised the bay slowly.

“Can I ask you something?”she asked.

“You can ask me anything.”

“What does being truemates mean?”

“In the simplest terms, it means that we were meant to be together.”

She thought about the betrayal that sent her running, and the picture of the rental cottage that had caught her eye.It had just seemed like the perfect place to start over.How had something so good come from something so awful?

“But we still have choices, you know,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Being truemates is a choice, not an obligation.It’s a wonderful thing to find the other half of your heart, but it’s not something that wehaveto go through with.If you wanted to walk away from me, I wouldn’t force you to stay.I’m not a monster.”

She let that roll around in her head.“I don’t want to walk away.”

“I don’t either.”He smiled at her.“I’m not seeing anyone else, and I don’t have any plans to see anyone but you.I’d like to tell people that you’re my mate, even though we haven’t made things official.”

“How does us being official mates happen?”

“I’m not sure.Since I’ve never met a fallen angel before, I don’t think there are customs like the wolves have with their mates, where they bite them on the neck as a permanent mating mark.”He mused for a moment.“I think I’d just ask you to be my mate, and that would make it official.”

“I’m not…ready for that.But I don’t want to date anyone else.You can tell people we’re mates because it’s true, and it seems to be pretty well-known already in town.”She told him about Lyra teasing her at the bookstore about being mates with Venice, and Venice shared his conversation with Ronan that had spurred him to put everything out in the open with her.

“We can take things slow,” Venice said.“Together.”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, and a bolt of electricity shivered down her spine.He could turn the simplest gesture into something that made her want to straddle him and see how fast they could both come.

She was wildly attracted to him, but she also liked him.And for sure, the first early blooms of love were weaving their way into her heart.She thought falling for someone so soon would scare her, but it didn’t.She could fall for Venice, and she knew he’d catch her.

Her sweet and sexy fallen angel was a good guy through and through, and he wanted to be with her.Not just because they were meant to be together, but because he liked her too.

And how damn cool was that?

When they returned to the marina and docked the boat, they walked to the cottage, and she invited him in, knowing the kisses that would follow in the dark house would lead to the bedroom.She was totally okay with that, because there had been a lot of revelations that day, and she wanted to cement things with a few orgasms and falling asleep with his arms around her.

“Hey,” she said, looking up at him as the front door swung shut.

He moved close, the spicy scent of him enveloping her.

“I choose you, Venice.Not because of some magical truemate thing, but because I like you and I want to be with you.”

He cupped her face and kissed her.“I choose you, too, Tessa.Sweet, beautiful female.Everything I ever dreamed of.”

Swoon!