Chapter 8
Note to Self: Sunset dates with fallen angels are addictive
At six o’clock on the dot, there was a knock at Tessa’s front door. Her heart pounded in anticipation as she walked to the door to open it.
For her first date with Venice.
After he’d shared so much about his past with her, they’d cuddled on the couch for a while, and then he’d left to get ready for their date. He’d told her to dress casually but bring a sweater in case it got chilly after the sun set.
She’d opted for her favorite outfit: a long, pale blue skirt and a white peasant blouse. She’d always considered it a romantic outfit and had hardly ever worn it. But it seemed like the best time to wear it.
As she walked to the door, one word kept pinging in her mind: truemate.
Part of her thought she should maybe be worried about a word that carried such weight with it. Truemates meant forever, and she was just getting to know the fallen angel.
Venice was sexy, and he had the best smile.
And she really just liked him.
It was easy to imagine a future with him, and not just because the word truemate sounded so serious.
But they’d agreed to take things slowly and get to know each other, so she wasn’t going to get ahead of herself.
Especially when she felt like she needed to prove to him that she didn’t see him as a novelty, the way the woman from his past had.
He was a person of worth, and he was important to her, and not because he’d been an angel at one time.
She opened the door, and the first thing she noticed was that he was holding a large crystal vase of carnations. They were white, pink, and yellow.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said. “I know that roses are traditional date flowers, but they die really fast. Carnations stick around.”
“They’re actually my favorite,” she said, taking the vase. “Thank you so much.”
She set them on the coffee table and smiled at the thoughtful gesture. She grabbed her sweater off the arm of the couch. Joining him at the door, she said, “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
He offered her his arm, and she took it, stepping onto the porch and pulling the door shut behind her.
“I’ve never been on a date before,” Venice said.
“Really? But you’re so…” she let the words die before she finished her thought.
“I’m so what?”
“Gorgeous.”
He snorted. “You’re very sweet.”
“It’s true. You have to know how good-looking you are. Plus, you’re a cop, and there are definitely girls out in the world who like a man in uniform.”
“Present company included?”
“It’s not the first thing I noticed about you, but you do look very yummy in your uniform.”
To her surprise, they didn’t go to his truck, but took the path to the beach and walked toward the lighthouse.
“What’s the first thing you noticed?” he asked.
“Your eyes.”
“I noticed your lips first. You have very kissable lips.”
She smiled. “You’re making me blush.”
They reached the end of the path, and he led her to the docks where several boats were tied up. They walked down the main dock, and he let go of her hand, stepping onto a boat and then offering her his hand.
As she stepped down, the boat rocked a bit, and she clutched his hand tightly.
There were two padded chairs by the steering wheel and a long, cushioned seat at the back by the engine.
She sat in one of the chairs and put on an inflatable life jacket that he handed her.
He turned on the engine, put on a life jacket, and then smiled at her.
“I’ll drive us along the shore, and then we’ll find a place to float and have dinner. I picked it up from the diner.”
“Sounds perfect.”
He untied the boat from the dock and pushed it away, then sat behind the wheel and engaged the engine, turning the boat toward the open water. They drove up and down the shoreline. The water was calm, so the ride was smooth, and she enjoyed the trip immensely.
He turned off the engine, and they floated within view of the lighthouse.
He turned on the boat’s lights so they’d be visible to other boaters, and then he joined her at the seat in the back.
He unpacked a cooler with their dinner: chicken salad sandwiches on croissants and a wild rice salad with feta and cranberries.
While they ate, he told her about Brody teaching him how to drive the boat and taking him tubing the previous summer.
“We hit a wave, and I went flying,” Venice said with a chuckle. “Brody swore he didn’t do it on purpose, but I definitely heard him laugh.”
“He sounds like a really good friend.”
“He is,” Venice said. “He’s my best friend. Before he and his mate Delaney got together, he felt pretty alone, too. He’d been kicked out of his coven and had come to Sable Cove to start over. I was happy when he and Delaney got together, but it made me feel lonelier too, if that makes sense.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“So they’re like family to me since I don’t have family. I’ve fought by Brody’s side when danger has come to town, and I know he’d show up for me in a heartbeat if I needed him.”
That made her heart hurt a little bit.
She didn’t have that anymore. The people she’d trusted to have her back had been making a fool of her behind her 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 we have to 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!
She was going to combust if he didn’t touch her.
So she told him. As she pulled him toward the bedroom with her finger hooked in his belt loop, she said, “You’re mine, Venice. All mine.”
His laugh echoed in the hall. “You’re mine too, sweetheart.”