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“I need to take you to the pond. We are safe
from prying ears there.” Trucker leaned to kiss her forehead. Her
smell calmed him. “Get ready, my beautiful love. I will meet you
downstairs.”

He stood up and pulled his pants up, snapping
them he looked at her. “I hope I can kiss you like that in fifty
years.”

He left uncharacteristically at a snail’s
pace down the stairs and she suspiciously shook her head. She tried
to take it all in.
O
ur whole story,
what more was
there. She got up and sat down in front of the mirror. She looked
horrible and still wondered how they must appear together. She was
lethargic as she combed through the mop of hair on her head. After
throwing on some old clothes, she decided it was time to face the
utter confusion that was now her life.

Julie entered the living room where Trucker
sat on the couch knotting his fingers together and slowly nibbling
on his tongue. His eyes were downcast. The past month had been a
roller coaster of emotions, but none like that.

“Ready?” He got up and held out his hand for
her, still never meeting her eyes. The coldness was depressing as
he slammed the door behind her.

Chapter 19

Their pond was exceptional that day. The wind
softly blew ripples in the water. The wildflowers swayed almost in
the same rhythm as her beating heart.

“It’s beautiful,” Julie said as she pointed
out a sunbeam dancing across the water.

“It’s nothing special,” Trucker answered,
shrugging his shoulders.

He gently caressed her back with his hands,
sending shivers down her spine. She was willing to listen to him
but then he was going to fuck her until she collapsed in total
bliss.

“The only beauty my eyes can see is yours,”
Trucker said.

With a hard, long breath, he pressed his
cheek against hers. He started lightly biting down her neck when
she saw the two men standing on the other side of the pond - the
mind-sweepers
.
She gasped and started
shaking. He held on to her as she twisted his shirt in her
fists.

“They won’t touch you, except if you want
them too. They can’t even come on this side without you asking them
too.” His face was in her hair flooding her with his aroma.

“What?”

“This pond is protected. I owe a high
priestess a favor, but I needed a safe place for us.” He guided her
to sit down under the weeping willow. She marveled at the way his
skin was cooling. She turned and straddled him. Julie couldn’t get
close enough. Trucker took a deep breath, searching for words. “The
first time I saw you was not when you thought, but it was August
eighth of last year,” he said and kissed her forehead.

“Huh?” she asked, floored.

“We came down to look at where they were
going to build our house. I was paying close attention to
everybody’s auras that day, when you walked out of the bank. Yours
blinded me. I’ve seen true angels that didn’t glow like you. It was
confusing because you appeared human.”

She held up her hand to stop him. “I am
human.” Something about that statement panicked her.

“I know, but it was hard for me to believe
that a human could have a glow like that. Then you looked my way
and smiled.” He pushed the hair off her face, and beamed thinking
about that day.

“I never saw you.”

“But I saw you. My beat-less heart sparked
when you smiled. My human side was on fire. I had to know you. But
my demon side was scared. That one little heartbeat was terrifying
to it.” He stopped. “If this gets to be too much stop me,
promise?”

“I like it so far.” She placed her head on
his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.

“I started finding reasons to come here to
see you, and then started following you. First, it was out of
curiosity. I’ve always watched people, amazed at their ways, but
you were different, you were better. The more I watched you, the
more my human side came alive. I had feelings come up inside me
that I didn’t understand. My demon side was torn. The feelings were
too much for it. The more I came, the more I needed you. Your whole
life is in your face. My demon side became fascinated with you too.
I got to a point where I couldn’t function. All I could manage to
do was sit there in the woods beside your house listening to
you.”

“Listening to me?” she asked. She saw the
seriousness in his eyes, but also he was in awe at the first
memories of her.

He kissed her forehead. “Yeah, I can hear a
whisper up to a mile away if I listen closely. I could hear
everything in your house. There was the time when you fell and hurt
your ankle.”

She thought back, that had been in May. She
had fallen off a chair and fractured her fibula bone.

“It took everything in me not to run to you,
to heal you. I had never wanted to protect anybody. My miserable
life had been about my pleasure, my comfort. Not some girl. I got
angry. My other side came to the surface and I stayed that way. I
wanted to make the feelings go away. If you feel the good ones . .
. you also feel the bad ones. My other side magnifies them. I
decided I had to stay away from you. I did for four long weeks. I
was in misery, everything reminded me of you. I talked to my dad.
He has no true feelings, but he knows my human side is a very
important part of his plan. He told me to attack you and get it
over with.” He cringed. “I came that night. You were reading
outside in your backyard. I stepped out of the tree line. I was
going to take you. I didn’t know how innocent you truly were.” He
held her close to him as she started trembling. “Your dad came out,
you looked up at him and smiled. I could no more hurt a hair on
your head then I could hurt myself. I left and drove for days. I
needed to figure out what to do. I knew I had to know you. I went
back to both of my parents. My dad agreed that if I proved you
could handle my lifestyle, I could have you. I coerced your friends
to not show up for your birthday. I wanted you to myself.”

“My birthday, it was you?”

“Angel, I’m sorry. I wanted you so bad and
you turned me down. It crushed me. I’ve never been told no before.
I started to believe you were my own personal demon. I ached for
you for days, both parts of me. I decided I would summon you. I
called for you for weeks. I needed you to know I wanted you.”

“I never felt it, your call.” She snuggled
closer to him.

“Yeah, you did. You just didn’t realize it.
The night you first called me, I was elated. When I saw you sitting
in my car, it was the greatest high in my life. I wanted you to see
me. I could use coercion on you, make you see anything I wanted,
but I needed for you to see me, the real me. I wanted you to meet
my mom, sister, even my grandmother.”

He paused and took deep even breaths as she
started unbuttoning his shirt and raking her teeth over his
collarbone.

“I knew that if you were going to see the
darkness in my life, you would need to see the bright side of my
life as well,” he said through hard breaths. “I wasn’t ready for
you to find out yet, but the council gave me no choice.” His
fingers brushed down her spine, sending a charge through her. “I
asked you to stay that night, so we could sit down with you and
explain it all. Then I don’t know what clicked at the park, but it
threw me. He . . . my demon was enthralled with you. He wanted to
come out and take you away for himself.”

He cupped her face, forcing her to stop.

“When you told me you love me, he had already
taken over. No one had ever told him that.” His hand gripped the
back of her neck, his fingers dug in almost painfully. “Angel, he’s
more powerful than you can imagine. You ask me if I’m immortal, and
I’m not, but the demon in me has lived before. Only one other of my
kind is more powerful and you’ve read about him in that bible of
yours.” He expected her to run, scream, at least cry, but she
stared at him wide eye like a newborn bird. “I can keep him under
control most of the time, but he was in charge that day and then .
. . How can you even love me when I’m like that?” He didn’t give
her time to answer, he continued on. “When I saw your hand and
realized what had happened, there’s not words.” His hand slid down
her arm and he lightly held her wrist.

“I try not to question you. But what you did,
when you broke my wrist. What kind of control of that do you
have?”

“Baby, I thought I had one-hundred percent
control of that. I’d never lost control before. I don’t know why I
did that day. I do know I’ve never experienced that range of
emotions before. The thought I just hurt you even if I could fix
it. The emotions racing through my body were mind blowing. For the
first time in my life, I truly hated myself. Then you said you
loved me. How could an angel like you love me? I’ll never hurt you
like that again.”

“You can control it?”

“Yes.” His gaze darkened and his voice
lowered almost eerily.

“What is it?”

“Do you want to see it?” he asked, fearfully.
She started rubbing her wrist. “Not on you, never again.” He
promised.

“Yes,” she answered and moved from his
lap.

He walked over to the pond and closed his
eyes. He took a deep breath and held up his left hand. Rays of
light slowly began to radiate from his hand. She looked closely. It
appeared that he was bouncing a small sun in them. A bolt of
lightning sprung forward, and across the water. She winced,
thinking about the burst of light that coursed through her wrist.
She glanced out over the water and about two dozen dead fish
floated to the top. He turned slowly to face her. His expression
was full of regret. Her mind stunned to the point that all she
could do was stare at him, perplexed.

“Julie,” he said in the softest tone, slowly
walking toward her. Her eyes filled with fear. “Don’t be scared,
Angel. I won’t hurt you. I know you’re terrified, but I can’t.” He
hesitated. “I won’t hurt you again.”

She rubbed her wrist, remembering the intense
pain, and slowly backed up from him. He screamed out and blasted a
tree into splinters. She turned, needing to take a break. She would
never run from him again, just step away and breathe. He flashed in
front of her.

“I won’t touch you, just don’t leave?” He
held his hands out so she could see them.

“How, why?” she asked and took a step
backwards.

“Self-preservation, I’m a selfish creature by
nature. It’s one of the ways I have to protect myself.” He spoke
slow and soft. She twisted her hand around her wrist. “Baby, I’m in
complete control of myself. I’m in control of that. Please, just
feel my skin.”

Julie slowly raised her hand to him. “You
won’t hurt me,” she said, her voice nearly inaudible. Shivering,
she reached out to touch him. He groaned. Pausing before slowly
touching his forearm, she felt the coolness of his skin as she ran
her fingers down his arm to hold his hand. She turned his hand over
to inspect it and traced his palm with the tips of her fingers. She
thought of falling asleep in those arms, those hands tenderly
stroking her hair, trailing down her back, holding her. “You’ll
never hurt me,” she said as conviction filled her. “Trucker?”

“What, Angel?”

“You love me?”

“Most definitely.”

“Make love to me?” she asked and leaned
willingly into his arms. His smell wrapped around her. It was the
most relaxing and stimulating scent all balled up into one
creature, her monster.

“You’re too damn perfect to be my mate. I’m a
beast, just like my murdering father.”

“Trucker, your dad has. . .” She hesitated.
“Killed?”

“Yes, Angel” he whispered.

“Emily?” Julie asked and held on tighter to
Trucker’s waist.

“Yes,” he said with much regret.

“Have you?”

He didn’t answer. She raised her head to look
him in the eyes. They were tight and hard.

“You don’t have to answer, I already know,”
she whispered back.
My sweet monster, how could you? You’re not
that man. The man your dad wants you to be.

“Last night was the worst, you had to feel
what I live with, what’s in me.” He started caressing her back. His
movements were hard and rushed, but she could only begin to imagine
the emotions coursing through him.

“I’m glad. I needed to feel that. I wanted to
know what you fight to be with me. You thought I wouldn’t love you
after that?”

“Yes,” he answered and glanced out over the
pond.

“It made me love you more. You fight that
every minute we’re together just to be with me. I can fight
anything to be with you.”

“Can you do it? Can you handle by world?” he
asked, cautiously.

“Yes, if it means I have you.” She nodded her
head.

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out
a folded up sheet of paper. He handed it to her and she carefully
unfolded it. It was a contract between his dad and the brotherhood
stating that as long as she followed the path laid out before them,
all other agreements were voided.

“What does this mean?”

“That means as long as you’ll have me, I’m
yours.”

“I’m yours. No more sharing with Emily.”

He rolled his eyes. “She’s never meant
anything compared to you, but yes, no more Emily.”

Julie leaped in his arms, straddling his
midsection. A smile beamed across her face. He swung her around as
she bear hugged him. Brushing his fingers through her curls, he
lightly tugged at them. “Angel, you have no idea. You. Are. Mine.
Forever.” He dipped his head and hovered over her lips. She slowly
brushed her mouth over his. He paused for a moment, “No more test,
just you and me,” he whispered against her lips before he kissed
her.

“My turn,” she informed him. She would
overlook so much of his past, if only he made his future with
her.

“Okay.” He looked defeated. He put her back
down and stared off into the distant. She noticed the two men were
gone.