Breaking the Rules Read Free

Filled with pain, his eyes searched her face.
    Did he want to think she’d been lying? That she’d lie to him now?
    Would she? His heavy burden of sorrow and anger frightened her. He was no longer the innocent boy she’d met all those years ago.
    A few dismissive words would make him go away, and she doubted she’d see him again.
    “I did see you meeting the love of your life that night.”
    “But she wasn’t. I thought she was…” A muscle twitched in his cheek. “I thought she loved me.” His voice cracked and Susana’s heart clutched in response.
    “I said you would meet the love of your life. But I didn’t tell you who she was. I didn’t describe the woman I saw in the seeing globe that evening.”
    She glanced at the globe as icy fingers of apprehension clawed at her gut.
    Should she tell him?
    “No, that’s true.” His expression softened a little. “You didn’t describe her.” His fists still hung clenched at his sides. His plain white T-shirt stretched over his muscled chest, revealing the raw physical strength coiled and waiting in his hard body.
    All that strength scared her.
    “Was she blonde?” He spoke hesitantly, suspicion darkening his eyes. “The woman you saw?”
    She shook her head.
    “What did she look like?” A wary look flickered over his strong features. He didn’t trust her, but he was listening.
    She held her head steady, held his gaze as she spoke. “She looked like me.”
    He blinked and flinched very slightly. “You?”
    “I saw myself in the globe when I did your reading that night.”
    There. She’d said it. She stiffened, bracing against any number of possible reactions: rage, disgust, disbelief, violent retribution.
    But he looked curious. His broad shoulders shifted a little, as if he could rearrange the heavy burden they carried.
    “Why didn’t you say so?”
    She shrugged, trying to lighten her own burden of responsibility, the obligation she’d shirked when she told him only half the reading. “I was young. I didn’t have faith in my ability to read accurately. I thought perhaps I was seeing what I wished to see.”
    “You wished to see yourself—with me?”
    “Perhaps.”
    What thirteen-year-old girl didn’t dream of walking arm in arm with a handsome boy? A carefree, healthy young man in a white sailor suit. He’d been the stuff of teenage fantasies back then, with his dark hair buzzed short, his handsome face shaved clean and his dark eyes shining with youthful optimism.
    Different from the man who stood before her now. The man whose lips parted as he struggled for words. The youthful optimism gone, replaced by a hard stare of accusation leveled at the world and at her in particular. His striking features marred by a semicircular scar that pierced one eyebrow, and the dark stubble shadowed under his jutting cheekbones.
    “Thirteen years old!” He shook his head. “And I listened to you as if you were the Oracle at Delphi. Don’t know why I did. I came into the storefront on a dare. I guess you told me what I wanted to hear, so I chose to believe it.”
    “You wanted to find love?” She spoke so softly her words almost disappeared in the smoke from the incense burner.
    “Yeah.” He nodded. “Who doesn’t?”
    “Do you still want to find love?” The words slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to catch them. What was she doing?
    His reply was a dismissive snort. “No, no, no. I’m all done with love . No more for me, thanks.” He shook his head again, and a bitter, silent laugh racked him. “Love, hate and everything in between. I’m done with it. I’m not going to marry anybody or fight anybody ever again.”
    The glint of dark humor in his eyes surprised her. Susana struggled to keep her confusion from showing on her face.
    “Funny thought, isn’t it?” He let out a sharp choke of laughter. “I had the hots for you that night. While you were sitting there reading my fortune, I was thinking about your breasts.”
    Her