West (A Roam Series Novella) Read Online Free

married, but I refuse.”
    “Why?”
    “I won’t just marry any man,” she looped her finger in and out of her necklace. “I won’t marry someone I don’t love. I want someone who… someone who just… just takes my breath away…,” she blushed, turning away. “Too many romantic notions, as my father would say.”
    Gazing at her, I longed to take her hand in mine. This was really happening; no resistance, no questions, no struggle. She was giving herself to me, no strings attached, and I nearly gaped at her offering.
    “Annie,” I swung around another tree, careful not to hit the piece of wood in the road. “I need to show you something. And if you are willing to trust me, I will take care of you. Like you said, we haven’t known each other but for a minute, but the words I have to say have waited for lifetimes.”
    Her eyes lit with stars, and her face filled with hope. “That is so… dreamy ,” she whispered, moistening her lips once.
    I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. Son of a bitch, she was so willing. I reached for her.
    Effortless.
    I pulled along the road near the woods. When my fingers found hers and squeezed, she pressed back against the seat.
    H er breath caught in her throat only seconds before a scream tore through her chest.
    I caught her, gripping her against me. She didn’t figh t; her arm was on fire, I knew the feeling. It was torturous, like intravenous acid.
    Pressing her face into my chest, she cried out, sobbing in a mixture of pain and confusion.
    “I have them, too,” I held my arm out to reflect the coordinates for Raleigh, North Carolina. They came when you were born. I was marked for you. Coordinates. We were meant to be , and I’ve been searching for you for twenty-one years.”
    The pain was subsiding; her heart rate was slowing, and she turned in my arms. Her teary eyes blinked rapidly. “Me?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why? Why am I special?”
    G od, she was enchanting. Every hardened belief, every horrible memory, and every time I’d failed evaporated from my mind as I locked in her gaze. The sunshine streamed through the window, and I lifted my finger to her chin.
    Tracing lightly, I tipped her face to mine. “How did I get so lucky , Annie?”
    The world centered on our little truck, post hurricane, along the side of the road in Raleigh, North Carolina.
    She lay across my lap. I lowered my face to hers, catching her top lip softly.
    She breathed a tiny cry, sliding her hands up my arms. “Mr. Perry,” she protested, weak, holding onto my shirt as though she would fall from my arms at any moment. “This is indecent- you must think I’m…,”
    “I think you’re my angel,” I pulled her more fully into my arms, my lips returning to hers. With the other girls, our first kisses had felt like first kisses- all sensations, no emotions.
    Now, I was sinking.
    She responded, eagerly, sliding her arms around my neck. I cupped her tiny waist, her hip, her leg, memorizing ever inch of her. “Baby, I need you to sit back so I can drive. I have some things to tell you, and I can’t focus with your sweet mouth on mine.”
    “I’m so embarrassed,” she covered her lips, pressing as far away from me and against the door as possible. “I can’t believe… I behaved like… what is happening? What are these numbers? Just like in my dreams?”
    It began; the confusion, the panic. I spoke calmly, the same speech I’d delivered four times before, and by the time we’d reached Rocky Mount, she was listening to my words.
    “A prophecy?” She exhaled slowly, her fingers lingering over her stomach. “Our child will save the world? I’m… afraid,” she realized, and I reached for her hand. “I see my arm, I see your arm, and I know there is something happening here that I don’t understand. But, my whole life… I’ve known you, ” she let me hold her hand. “I’ve dreamed about you.”
    “ Some part of you remembered us. That’s never happened before, not in any