Hey everyone! I'm back from China(actually I was when I posted chapter six but I forgot to add an AN at the beginning)

Anyway, I hope you like the story so far! Things are getting more serious, but I'm running out of chapters that I'd previously done so it'll probably start being longer between updates..

I know, I'm sorry. You probably hate me.

But I'm so busy with everything(VBS, and then I'm going to GA for a few days but it won't affect anything)

And then school starts back up and that'll make it MUCH worse.

But I promise I'll do my best. :)

REVIEW!

Chapter Seven

Later that night, I curled up in his arms of the sofa. They reminded me of how strong my father's had been holding me when I was a little girl. I lay my head on his chest, and he pushed a strand of my hair off my face so he could caress my cheek gently.

The room was silent, but the air was not empty. We communicated through motions and there was no need for words. His sweet, masculine smell wafted in and out of my nose as I took long, deep breaths. He placed his lips on my hair and rested them there.

We sat there endlessly, content holding each other. Finally, his careful breathing caught, and he moved his hand from my cheek to lift my chin up. I saw the love in his eyes, but there was more to it than that. His eyes were like a never-ending tunnel of happiness. Though they stayed steady looking into my eyes now, I knew that if they flickered one way or another the beauty in them would not change.

But the beauty in his eyes could not compare to the beauty in his soul. I felt his calm, yet wise; strong, but gentle soul as his lips formed around mine, a soft kiss. Despite the fact that this kiss was only one of many, something about it made it seem more sophisticated than the rest.

Perhaps because it brought with it a sense of absolute rightness. Perhaps because his hands held me tighter that ever before. Perhaps because our bodies were curved perfectly together.

It was that moment that I knew I would never stop loving him.

"I love you," I whispered against his lips, another time. Instead of getting old, the three words felt more reassuring and powerful every time either of us whispered them.

We fell asleep that night on the couch, not bothering to move up to my room. In the morning, he was watching me with curious eyes when I woke.

I smiled and leaned up to kiss him, glancing over his shoulder at the time. It was 9:13, almost two hours after school started. He noticed my worried expression and shrugged it off.

"We'll go on a hike instead," He murmured, and my heart began to race in anticipation. "We'll take the rest of the week off, to spend time together." He added.

"That would be marvelous." I told him, standing up and stretching. "Just let me go change." He nodded, and I pecked his cheek before hurrying upstairs.

When I was making my way back downstairs(after changing into a deep purple long sleeve shirt and cute grey sweatpants—it was still a little cold outside, but the snow had melted) I tripped on my untied shoelace, and tumbled down the last few steps. Luckily, Jayden had been making his way around the corner and saw me in time to catch me.

Laughing, I regained my footing and looked up at him, waiting for him to let go of me. He laughed with me for a second and then muttered, "Leave it to me to fall in love with the clumsiest girl on the planet."

I frowned and smacked his chest playfully, "Hey! I take offense to that, you know."

He smirked and leaned down to kiss me, and I gave in and leaned into him, kissing him back. He pulled back slightly, just far enough to murmur, "You know, we only have so much sunlight left in the day."

"Oh?" I answered, teasingly. He frowned down at me.

"Yes. And I really do want to take a hike, you know."

I gave him an odd look, "It's only 9:30. We have, like ten hours of sunlight left."

He smirked, realizing why we were having this argument, "Well, I'm flattered that you'd rather stay here and do that, but there's plenty of space in the forest."

I laughed at his comment and went to grab my backpack that I'd packed with lunch and safety precautions. "Well then, Mr. Stubborn, I guess we'd better get going now, if we want to find someplace flat to eat lunch."

I opened the back door and walked outside without turning to make sure he was following me. After a few steps, I felt the backpack being lifted off my shoulders, and I turned back to him with narrowed eyes. "I can carry it myself."

"It's not a question of whether you're able or not, it's a question of whether you're comfortable or not. And, no offense, but I do happen to be somewhere around twenty times stronger than you."

"Twenty times? Is someone just a tad bit full of themselves?" I shouted back at him as I began to jog into the forest, and he followed at a brisk pace.

"I thought we were going for a hike, not a run." He complained, not bothering to respond to my first comment.

"Tired already?"

"Hardly." He muttered, grinning, "But if you want to race…"

I raised my eyebrows. "Race?" I paused, "How far?" I slowed down and walked until I was even with him so that we could discuss this 'race'.

He stared ahead with his eyebrows furrowed. "You see that tree with two large branches sticking out either way?" I frowned, seeing no such tree despite the fact that I was squinting.

"No."

He turned back to me, smirking rather proudly, "Oh, that's right. You're human." I scrunched my nose, and hit his arm, not bothering to hold back my strength. "Ow!" He exclaimed, but the expression on his face told me that it hadn't hurt him at all and he was playing along so I wouldn't be mad.

I frowned even more upon noticing that. "Well, you'll see it when we get closer." I sighed, nodding, "Ready?"

"I'm starting to doubt this is even necessary." I muttered, but he could hear it.

"Of course it is. I need more than a few reasons to boast." He smirked, and I glared at him. He ignored it and began counting down, "3…2…1…go!" He shouted, shooting out like a bullet, and he was already ten feet ahead of me when I started my sprint.

I ran a fast as I could, seriously. I was probably going faster than I'd ever run before actually, yet he was still extending his lead. Every few seconds he turned around to make sure I was a safe distance behind him, and eventually he slowed down until he was only a step ahead of me.

Grunting, I pushed myself just a little further to become even with him, but unsurprisingly, he noticed and sped back up. Glancing up, I noticed the tree he'd been talking about earlier barely fifty feet ahead of me.

My legs were burning now. I wasn't sure if I could keep up this speed until we reached the tree, but I was determined to try.

And at the same time, Jayden was determined to make me feel bad. I'd known from the start that he could easily outrun me, but I'd expected him to make this race a little fair.

Apparently, I'd expected too much of him. His eyes teased me when he turned around to look at me. My anger towards him continued to grow with every glance, and my eyes were challenging him to make me madder.

When I looked up again, the tree was only ten feet ahead, and I bristled as I pushed my legs to get even with Jayden as we crossed the finish line.

Even though I knew he hadn't been running his fastest, I took great pride in the fact that I caught him off guard and made it a tie. Smirking brightly, I slowed to a stop and stood with my arms crossed over my chest as I watched him take me in curiously.

"You run a hard bargain, Ms. Mckenzie." He noted cautiously, his eyes twinkling in amusement. I laughed musically and rolled my eyes, turning away from him and ambling further into the forest.

I felt his large hand on my shoulder, just as I'd expected, and waited to hear what else he had to say. "You run a hard bargain, and I respect you for that." He began, "You're the first person who's ever even came close to beating me in a foot race. I'm the fastest of my brothers."

I shrugged off his hand, pivoting to face him. "The only reason we tied is because you decided to tease me and stay only a step ahead of me when you could've finished fifteen feet ahead of me." I squinted in the sun that was shining through the trees, but I could still pick out his bright blue eyes.

He stared back down at me, more emotion in his eyes than could ever be expressed in words. "I tease you because I love you," He murmured, his hand caressing my cheek gently, and he leaned down to kiss me gently. He pulled back far enough to add, "And I would've beaten you by much more than fifteen feet."

I raised an eyebrow curiously, "Just how fast can you run?"

He shrugged, removing his hand from my cheek and taking my hand instead, "I guess I'll have to show you sometime."

"Now?" I asked hopefully. He watched me intently for a moment, but finally gave in.

"If you want." He told me as his eyes searched over my shoulder around the forest. He glanced back down at me, "Stay right here; don't move." He commanded me, and I nodded, watching him make his way slowly back to where he'd dropped the backpack.

I watched him imploringly, wondering what he was going to do. Shocking me, he pulled his shirt up over his head, and lay it on top of the backpack. I didn't ask what he was doing, even though it was very cold out here and he had to be freezing by now.

I couldn't have asked, even if I wanted to, though. I was speechless, staring in awe at his perfectly carved back. His back¸ I thought. You can tell he's extremely muscular just by looking at his back. I couldn't have ever prepared myself for the view when he turned to face me.

He noticed I was staring, but I didn't care. He had broad shoulders, and a defined collarbone. His lightly tanned skin was perfectly sculpted from his neck to his waist, his muscles huge and rippling, but not in an extremely terrifying way. His arms were also like a masterpiece, every inch showing off how strong he was without being overwhelming.

Well, it was overwhelming, but only because he was so beautiful. I couldn't help also noticing that he had not a six-pack, but an eight-pack. An eight-pack.

He was still moving closer to me, smiling as I ogled him. I shook my head slightly, waking me from my daze. "How come I've never seen you without a shirt on?" I muttered, running my hands down his chest when he was within reaching distance.

He laughed, kissing my forehead and hugging me close to him. "I didn't realize you would react this way." He whispered into my hair.

"How could I not?" I traced one of the curves on his stomach, causing him to shiver slightly, "You're beautiful."

He laughed again, "Well, that's not exactly what a guy wants to hear, but I'll take it."

"How did you get like this?" I asked, looking up at his just-as-beautiful face. Well, handsome at least.

"One of the advantages of being a Demon Hunter." He said, shrugging. "Be right back." He added, smiling and stepping away from me with a playful look on his face. He was a blur as he ran off, and after a few seconds he was out of my sight and I had no idea where he was.

Just four seconds later, I felt his arms slip around me from behind. "Jayden!" I exclaimed, surprised. He smiled, not even breathing heavy when he leaned in and kissed the top of my ear. He raised a beautiful, long stemmed rose up to my nose and I inhaled its smell deeply. "It's beautiful, where did you find it?"

"There's a rose bush about three hundred feet in that direction." He pointed, and I frowned.

"Y-you ran six hundred feet and picked a rose in seven seconds?" I stuttered, flabbergasted by this information.

"Now do you believe I would've beaten you by more than fifteen feet?" He asked, releasing all but my hand and began walking deeper into the forest, the backpack already on his back.

"And got the backpack?" I asked in pure astonishment.

He grinned down at me, "It's one of the necessary skills a Demon Hunter possesses."

"Yeah, one you definitely overuse." I muttered, still taking in all of this new information.

We walked for about another half hour, chatting quietly about each other's pasts and getting to know each other as best as we could, before we finally entered a large, flat, clearing.

Jayden beamed, dragging me into the middle and laying out an entire picnic before plopping me down onto the blanket beside him.

"This is… perfect." I whispered, scanning over the food he'd packed earlier. "You didn't even tell me about half of this stuff."

"I wanted it to be a surprise," he murmured, taking my hand and pressing it to his lips. I blushed, leaning into him and resting my head on his shoulder.

"I love surprises." He slipped his arms underneath me and scooped me into his lap. I suppressed the urge to giggle and breathed in his smell. He leaned forward to grab a grape and popped it into my mouth.

We ate the entire lunch he'd packed, and then were about to get up and begin walking, when Jayden tensed and pushed me behind him.

"What's wrong?" I whispered into his ear, but he put a finger over my mouth to shush me.

"Demons," he muttered, "Hold on." He swung me onto his back and jumped up, landing a high branch of a nearby tree and climbing up a few more before leaving me with the backpack on one of them. "Don't move, I'll be right back." He leapt down from the tree and I watched him complete a series of motions that made him look crazy.

He was fighting an invisible opponent. Many invisible opponents. And he was winning. Although he looked as if he was practicing karate, I knew better than to think that.

From the amount of time it took him to stop and the way he moved, my guess was that there were about six demons attacking. I could tell how small they were by his movements, but they definitely seemed small but deadly.

Instead of concentrating on the demons, though, I marveled at Jayden's strength. His muscles rippled as he fought, and sweat glistened on his chest when the sun streamed through the trees I was situated in.

I knew my love for him was true. For how could I not love such a perfect, heart-wrenching being with an irrevocable love for me in return? No, my love was not a fantasy.

But the depths of my mind wanted me to believe that, though my love was real, perhaps he was not. He, who stormed into my life in the midst of the biggest disaster of my life. He, who was the first to befriend me and make his way close to my heart. He, who knows my deepest, darkest secrets.

He, who's the cause of my deepest, darkest crisis.

Lyrics from a familiar song popped into my head while I pondered this. Was he a ghost? Was he a lie? That made my body, laugh and cry. Then by my side, the proof I see. His little one, gods of the sun, bring him to me. Miss Saigon. The story of a Vietnamese orphan who sells herself to an American marine, falls in love with him, and then is left with only his son as proof that he even existed.

But what was my proof? The fact that my father really is dead? No, although Jayden says he was behind it, anyone could have been. Maybe then the fact that he's standing right beneath me, acting as if he's fighting off many off his claimed enemies? But if I'm questioning his reality, then I too am questioning his human—or inhuman—body.

So then there's really no excuse to deny the fact that he is real.

And just as he is real, he is mine.