Breaking the Rules (10 page)

“But where did that course bring you?” She cautioned herself to go slow. To ask more questions than she answered.

“To the pit of hell.” He hissed the words through almost closed lips, staring at the dark floor.

“And then where?”

He lifted his head, and his eyes crept back to meet hers. “Here.”

She didn’t speak. She’d learned over the years to provide the facts and let the seeker draw their own conclusions. It took time and patience and wasn’t good for business. But it was good for the seeker.

“Hmph.” He lifted a hand and rubbed his opposite bicep. “Okay… So what does the next card say, the Present?”

A shimmer of adrenaline stung her as she licked her lips, preparing to part with the words.

“The six of hearts. It’s a good card. It speaks of kindness, of the beginning of a new relationship.” She kept her eyes firmly focused on the card, the six red hearts almost seeming to beat in the flickering candlelight. “Or blessings on an old one.”

“Or all of the above?” Joe’s eyes searched her face.

“Possibly.” She stilled her tongue.

He nodded. “You’ve been kind to me. Given me a place to sleep, made me breakfast. We have an old relationship in that I remembered you and came back—for whatever reason.” He paused, blinked, his gaze darting from eye to eye. “I don’t know why I came back, I honestly don’t. Something pulled me there.”

Fate
.

She didn’t say it though. Let him draw his own conclusions. It was safer, for him anyway.

“And the beginnings of a new relationship.” His face brightened, almost glowing in the golden light from the single flame.

He held his hand out and she took it. Warm and firm. Pleasure stirred in her as she watched a smile spread across his mouth and light his harsh features.

She kept her eyes firmly fixed on his face, fighting the urge to let them wander over his thick muscles, down the trail of black hair that snaked over his belly to his…

He’d just broken the no-touching rule
.

She tugged at her hand, trying to pull it back.

“Do you really want to do that?”

“No,” she admitted. She wanted to touch him. To hold him, even. Her eyes dropped to the eagle spreading its wings over his broad chest, proud head held high.

Excitement rustled inside her at the thought of spreading her own wings. Of flying free.

Free of the bounds of tradition and obligation. Free of the “gift” that held her in bondage. Free of her grandmother’s rules and restrictions. To be an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life.

With a man.

Joe bent his head and she instinctively rose to meet him. His lips brushed her cheek, warm breath caressing her. He slid toward her, crushing the cards as his arms closed around her shoulders.

Her hands slid under his armpits and stretched to reach around his thick torso. “Oh, Joe.” The words escaped her as she let herself fall into his embrace. So solid, warm and steady.

And more.

Joe kissed her ear, his tongue flicking gently over her earlobe to send a shudder that rippled to her toes. As her nipples hardened they grazed the firm muscle of his chest. She gasped at the sensation, fleeting yet so intense.

Then she remembered the third card.

The five of diamonds. A card of warning.

Joe’s finger skated up her spine as goose bumps sprang up on her arms and breasts. His hand dove into her hair, fingers tangling behind her neck as he cupped her head and tipped it back.

Her fingers stiffened, ready to push him back, to give him the warning. But his mouth stole her breath and her resolve.

As his tongue plunged in she softened in his arms. He’d come to her, come
for
her. He wanted her.

She didn’t know what exactly he wanted. Not a lifetime of love. He wanted her body. Her breasts. One broad hand covered her right breast, chafing the nipple with his thumb. Already creating tremors, spasms in muscles she never knew she had.

What was she doing?

She knew. She’d been there in her dream. Felt the ghostly foreshadowing of these powerful sensations, now far more intense in reality than in imagination.

He tugged her to him, his hard arousal pushing bluntly against her belly. The fierce edge of his need tangible in the force of his kiss, in the pressure of his fingertips on her skin.

And she felt her own need growing within her like a dark force. Twenty-three years old and until Joe she’d never known the touch of a man. Never had a rough cheek brush against hers, or known the demand of a strong embrace.

His hands slid down her back, grazing the skin in a gentle caress, sending shivers of longing that penetrated to her heart.

She moaned as he cupped her buttocks and pulled her up against him, crushing her breasts against his chest, burying them in the eagle’s wings. Her belly rubbed against his, over the scar that had healed but would never disappear.

She knew his scars went beyond the visible. She’d seen the pain in his eyes, black as they were, like hers. She’d looked past the reflective onyx surface to the soul within, and his was wounded. Possibly in a way that would never heal.

He wasn’t hers to keep, and she knew that.

Tonight you shall meet the woman you are destined to spend your life with
. Her own words taunted her.

What if she’d acted differently then? If she’d claimed the life presented in the crystal ball? If she’d reached out to him?

But he was
gadjo
—non-gypsy, unclean and off limits. And she was spoken for—by tradition, by pride, by family.

What she did now was wrong. All wrong.

She shoved her fingers roughly into his hair, tugged on it. Her body hummed with strange messages, contradictory songs of warning and desire, and she couldn’t understand them. Didn’t want to.

And Joe’s hand slid under their bellies and between her legs. His fingers already wet with evidence of her longing.

Heat softened her limbs, melting her as desire threatened to quash all rational thought. But as his hand dove into the hot, damp space between her legs, she knew they were coming close to the point of no return.

“Stop.”

Instantly he stopped. Withdrew his hand from between her thighs. Opened his eyes.

His arousal throbbed once against her belly, startling her. Then he pulled away, leaving nothing but empty air touching her skin. Leaving the cards crumpled and disarranged on the bedspread.

He knelt before her, fiercely aroused yet holding himself back. Respecting her.

She hesitated, kneeling, naked and glowing with arousal. Muscles pulsed, soft tissues throbbed, craving his touch.

“I’ve never done this before.”

“That’s okay. We can take it slow.” She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “Or stop.”

A muscle twitched in his cheek.

She should stop. This was crazy.

Did she really want to risk losing her powers? To give up the gift that set her apart?

Joe held out his hand to her, palm up. She took it.

“It’s okay to be nervous. We can just hold each other.”

Heat from his palm sizzled against hers. The vibrations stronger than anything she’d ever felt from the cards or the seeing globe.

The energy gathering between them threatened to dwarf the powers she’d cultivated and nurtured, that she’d built her whole life around.

But how could she live if she no longer had the ability to read fortunes? Could she fake it?

Or should she fake it now? Tell him she’d changed her mind. That she wasn’t interested. Invoke the rules.

Joe settled back onto his haunches, squeezed her hand. She could see his desire still rigid and unyielding, waiting and hoping.

And she hadn’t warned him about the third card. Again she held secrets close to her chest, guarding her advantage.

But this time her chest was bare. Her breasts exposed, nipples tight and flushed with arousal. She owed him the truth. This time at least she wouldn’t deny him that.

“The third card…” She paused, tossed her hair behind her back, then regretted it as she realized she’d left her breasts totally uncovered. Joe’s eyes dropped to them.

Again she felt the power she wielded. Not just psychic power but the power of a woman, the power to give or to withhold.

Joe’s black eyes rose to meet hers.

“The third card…?” he repeated, a question in his voice.

“It’s not a good card.” She swallowed.

“No.” He blinked. “I didn’t suppose it would be.”

She saw the glow in his eyes dim a little, the hopeful optimism lighting his features wither. And that hurt her heart.

“It’s just a card.”

“What exactly is the meaning?”

“It speaks of cowardice, rumor, possible betrayal… It’s a card of warning.”

“Been there, done that. Are you going to betray me, Susana?”

“I don’t know.”

“At least you’re honest.”

He squeezed her hand gently. Looked at her with eyes soft and brown in the shifting candlelight.

“I don’t know what the future holds, Joe.”

“So you’re a fake?” He said it warmly, tilting his head to one side. It occurred to her that he wanted her to be a fake. Didn’t mind if she was ordinary. And at that moment she wished she were.

“No, I’m not a fake. My powers are real, but they are limited. I can see possibilities, potential problems, but I can never predict a clear outcome.”

“Do you tell your clients that?”

“Sometimes.”

“You didn’t tell me that ten years ago. You spoke with such assurance.”

“I was young. I’ve learned a lot since then. Learned to use my readings to guide people into making their own decisions.”

“Like a psychologist, helping them figure out their lives?”

“Yes.” She held his hand firm. “You understand. That’s exactly how I see my work.”

Her relatives laughed at her grand ideas about helping people. They were happy to pocket the money and send the punters on their way with a smile on their face. A dose of hope and a fistful of questions to keep them coming back. But that wasn’t satisfying to her.

“You’re helping me right now.” One side of Joe’s mouth lifted into the beginnings of a smile.

“Oh?”

“The past and future may be a bit cockeyed, but I’m enjoying the present very much.”

His throaty voice roamed though the air, rich with suggestion as his eyes drifted slowly down over her neck, her breasts and belly, to her thighs.

He released his grip on her hand and let one finger trail over the inside of her wrist, over her palm. She shuddered at the sensation. “Perhaps I should read your future.” He glanced up, his eyes black again, shimmering with intrigue. “I see you trying something new…something different. Something a little risky. And a lot pleasurable.”

As he spoke his fingertip traced a circle over her palm. Then he lifted her hand and covered her palm with his hot, wet mouth. Licked along her heart line, along her life line, along the line representing the head she was in grave danger of losing.

“You’re a virgin, aren’t you?” He lifted an eyebrow and looked at her.

“Yes,” she admitted quietly.

“And do you wish to remain one?” He spoke formally, as if interviewing her. But his voice emerged low, husky and seductive.

“I don’t know.” She shifted again, heat and wet uncomfortable between her legs. She craved this man. Craved everything about him. His big hard body, his handsome scarred face, his pain-filled eyes. She kept her gaze fixed on the blue ink scrawled over his torso, avoiding the obvious sign of his fierce arousal beneath it.

“You should stay a virgin.”

Even as he said it she knew he didn’t mean it. His hand skimmed along her arm, traced the curve of her armpit and slid down to glide along the underside of her bare breast. The sensation of fingertips on the sensitive skin made her suck in a breath.

“You’ve saved yourself until now. You should wait until the right man comes along.”

But what if you are the right man
?

She didn’t say the question aloud, but he heard it anyway.

“I can’t offer you anything beyond a night of pleasure. I know I can offer you that.” His eyes narrowed. “Sexual pleasure is one area of life where I know I won’t disappoint. Where I won’t be disappointed. I guess that’s why it beckons me now, when there’s nothing else I can count on.”

She dropped her eyes to the hand caressing her breast, then back up to meet his steady gaze. “If you think I should wait, why are you still touching me? You’re breaking the rules.” Her voice emerged as a whisper, breathless with want. And with fear. Fear of her own aching need.

“It’s the beast inside me. The crazy, dangerous part that keeps me awake at nights when everyone else is sleeping. The beast wants you.”

“And the honorable man?”

“He wants you, too.”

He cupped her breast and lifted it slightly. Lowered his lips and kissed her nipple. Then gently let go and withdrew his hand.

“But the honorable man can rein himself in, tug the beast back and shove him in his cage.” Candlelight flashed in his eyes as he lifted his head. “If that’s what you want.”

“Why do you want me?”

“Because you’re a beautiful girl.”

“Is it that simple?”

“There’s nothing simple about it. It’s why we’re here. The future of humanity depends upon a man wanting a woman.”

“Or a woman wanting a man.”

She wasn’t a girl any more. She’d become a woman, ready to claim the pleasures of a woman.

She let her eyes drift down to explore the man she wanted. His body still hard, rigid and humming with barely contained aggression—but now desire drove him, not anger. His muscles steady and unmoving as she roved over his tan skin with her mind.

She didn’t read auras, not even as an amateur, but she could feel the halo of warm color around him, feel the pull as every cell in his body murmured,
come to me, take me, hold me.

Love me
.

Even just for one night.

“I don’t have protection,” she whispered, afraid to hear her voice in the still night air.

“Don’t worry, I have some.”

He climbed off the bed and found his jeans where they lay crumpled on the floor. He fished in a pocket and pulled out a blue packet. Still rock hard, he climbed back on the bed and held it out to her.