“Susana.” Roman spoke slowly. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing, all right. I’m taking charge of my own life, and if anyone doesn’t like it, they can keep their thoughts to themselves.”
Joe shot a glance at her and took in the confident tilt of her chin with a swell of pride. He was genuinely glad to see her stand up for herself.
“But the family…” Janus hurled his words out like fists, and as he trailed off the unspoken ones seemed to clang together in the air around them.
“The family will only know as much as you tell them,” said Susana. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I can’t live someone else’s life any more.”
“Susana.” Roman’s eyes narrowed. “You are Granna’s successor. It’s your duty to help shape the direction we all go in.”
She blew out a frustrated snort. “I’m twenty-three years old, for crying out loud! I can barely figure out what direction I want to go in when I leave my apartment. I have no business telling a bunch of other people what to do.”
“You have the power.”
“The power to what? See the future? Who cares about the future? We’re all living in the here and now.” Her voice was getting shrill, and Joe could see her starting to tremble. “I’ve lived my life for everyone else until now, and I have to start living for me.”
She was on the verge of tears from the sound of it. Joe stepped forward. “I think you should leave now. You can see I’m not keeping Susana here by force.”
He couldn’t help but notice Janus’s disdainful glance at his tattooed torso, and he raised his shoulders. He was taller than both of them, fitter too. Not that it mattered, since he had no intention of indulging in any more Neanderthal antics.
“I’m staying,” she said firmly.
Roman nodded, his face grim. “As you wish.” His long coat swished as he turned to the door, and the resulting tang of incense tickled Joe’s nose. Why on earth was he wearing a coat in midsummer? Don’t ask. Janus followed close behind him, jaw clenched, a faithful pit bull deprived of a chance to draw blood.
As the door clanged behind them, Susana let out an audible breath of relief.
“See? No one’s dead.” He turned to face her fully for the first time since her cousins interrupted their lovely morning in bed. She still held her chin high, but her hands were trembling and her face chalky.
He reached out and cupped her cheek with his palm. “You took a stand, Susana. And they listened.”
She nodded. He pushed back a loose strand of hair. She still looked wonderfully unkempt, wild, her dress slipping off her shoulder. He slid his hand down her soft neck to where the slim bones of her shoulder lay bared.
“You’re a woman now,” he whispered. She shivered slightly as he placed one hand at her waist. She softened, and on instinct his hand rose to her breast. He covered the soft roundness with his palm, feeling her nipple tighten under his flesh.
Testosterone and adrenaline still roared through his system, and apparently the feeling was mutual. Susana reached out and snatched his ear roughly, tugging him toward her. He seized her around the waist, almost knocking her off her feet. As she thrust her cool tongue into his mouth, a flame of arousal speared up inside him.
Their tongues tangled, and he grabbed at her dress, shoving it down over her lush curves, pushing it past the delicious fullness of her hips and thighs. She moaned, the sound vibrating through him, as her nails scored his back and shoulders.
“I want you, now,” she rasped, breath hot on his neck. She slid down the length of his body, arms around him. Her breasts grazed his torso and brushed against his hard arousal for a moment before gliding over his shuddering thighs as she pulled down his jeans.
As he stepped out of the pants, almost falling, she stretched herself out on the floor of his unfurnished living room.
Sunbeams danced over her body, making it shimmer golden in the morning light. Her black hair splayed over the shining floorboards.
“Oh, no.”
“What?” Her eyes were black with desire, her lips flushed dark.
“No more protection. We used up all the condoms.”
“No!” Susana rolled onto her side, burying her face in her hands. He squatted on the floor beside her and stroked her backside, then slipped a finger into the hot wetness of her sex. She writhed against his finger as he thrust it deeper and caressed her with his thumb. Almost immediately he felt the quivering muscles that signaled her release.
“I want to please you, too,” breathed Susana. “But I don’t know how.”
“Licking works well,” he murmured, almost deranged at the sight of her face glowing under the tangled mane of black hair.
She flashed a dangerous glance at him, climbed over him, then stuck out her dark berry tongue and licked his lips with it. The resulting shiver shook him from head to toe. She trailed her tongue over his torso, following the hollow between his pectorals down to his belly button. His skin jumped in response.
His erection quivered as she drew near, anticipating the caress of her hot mouth. As she lowered her lips over his painfully aroused flesh, his eyes closed and he gave himself over to the agonizingly intense sensation as she licked and sucked him to the point of total madness.
His heart stretched almost to bursting as the rush of his orgasm shook his limbs, and he clutched Susana to his chest.
He didn’t want her to leave. Ever. He wanted to hold her safe in his arms until the world stopped spinning and faded away. The past and future evaporated in the mist of pleasure fogging his senses and nothing was left but the sweet immediacy of their embrace.
Even on the hard wooden floor of his apartment they fit together like a hand and glove, and he wasn’t sure which was which. Didn’t care either. He just knew everything was a hundred percent perfect at that moment.
Susana sighed, snuggling even closer inside the circle of his arms. Their lovemaking was so raw and steamy, the aftermath so tender. He was coming completely undone and it felt way too good.
The phone rang again.
Joe groaned and hugged Susana tighter. “Don’t go. Don’t ever go.”
There he’d said it. He really did want her to stay. Was that so crazy? She could move in with him, even bring the mean old parrot if she wanted. They’d get to know each other quick enough. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut.
“I have to leave. I have appointments this morning.” Her voice was husky.
“Blow them off. You’re giving all that up, anyway.”
“Not so fast. I have to pay the rent.”
“No, you don’t. You could come live here.” There, cards spilled all over the table.
She pulled her head back and stared at him. “I suspect some part of your body other than your brain is talking.”
“That may be partly true, but we’re good together. Maybe there’s something to that destiny racket you’ve been peddling.”
Susana didn’t reply right away and Joe held his breath. Damn, she already meant so much to him. He’d bargained on hot sex, not on wanting so much more. How had he gotten way over his head so quickly?
“I’ve always believed my destiny is to cherish my gift as a seer and devote my life to my people.” She squeezed her eyelids closed, as if hit by a sudden headache.
“But you don’t think that any more, right?”
“No…” She pressed her face into his shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I believe any more. I’m trying to figure it out. Don’t rush me, okay?”
“Okay.” Rushing in without knowing all the facts. That’s what got him into a jam ten years ago. He’d taken lust for love and paid the high price of betrayal.
Betrayal. The third card. The memory of their last reading hit him. He’d been so doped with lust at the sight of her naked body he hadn’t paid too much attention to the cards. But she’d warned him. He’d sworn he’d never let a woman hurt him again, and here he was laying himself out on the floor
like a rug to be trampled.
They didn’t know each other. But did anyone ever truly know another person? He’d changed so much just since he’d met her. Last week he’d been an empty husk of a man incapable of feeling anything except raw anger. Now he felt alive, tender, capable of feeling way too much. And Susana had done that to him.
“You’re magic,” he whispered. “And I don’t mean because of your powers.”
She opened her eyes and flashed him a warm glance that heated his blood. “You’ve made me feel beautiful. I’ve never felt that before.”
“You’re the most beautiful woman in the universe.” He pushed his fingers into her thick, silky hair. “The most beautiful woman in the history of the world.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Don’t forget there have only been two girls, and the first was a case of mistaken identity.” He narrowed his eyes, “I went to this fortune-teller, you see…” He trailed off deliberately and they both shook with silent laughter.
“I can’t believe you never slept with anyone else!”
“I’m a one-woman man.”
“You’re something else, Joe.” She pushed their torsos apart slightly and traced his long scar with her finger. “That wound must have been bad enough to kill you.”
His skin shivered where she grazed her nail over the raised line of flesh. “So they tell me. There’ve been times I wish it did.”
He should tell her what happened. Let her know who he really was. Would she still want to be with him?
The phone rang again.
“Someone wants to get hold of you pretty badly.” She raised a slim black brow.
“Maybe it’s for you? Your family didn’t seem to have any trouble finding you here.”
“I’ve got to get my locks changed. Now Granna’s gone I don’t need the whole gang trouping in and out when they’re in the neighborhood.”
The shrill beeping rang through the still air of the apartment. Joe groaned and rolled back, his skin aching at the loss of contact with Susana’s warm satin flesh.
He scrambled to his feet and grabbed the phone. As he made an appointment to meet with the CIO of Drake Morgan Investments that afternoon, he watched Susana dress herself and attempt to tug his comb through her hair.
He hung up the phone. “We haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“I have to go.”
“Call me. Or just come see me.”
She nodded, and pushed a lock of hair awkwardly behind her ear. He reluctantly tugged on his jeans. He didn’t want to open the door.
Her goodbye kiss stung his lips, pleasure torquing with pain at the thought of parting from her, even for a minute.
Don’t go! He kept the words to himself, knowing they wouldn’t keep her. She’d been prisoner to other people’s needs for too long. She needed to taste her freedom and find her own way to what she wanted.
She didn’t say goodbye, just turned from him and walked down the short hallway to the stairs. When he heard the metal door downstairs close with a loud clang, he knew with chilling certainty that she wouldn’t come back.
CHAPTER 10
Susana was in the back room counting the day’s earnings when she heard someone enter the shop. The bell over the door tinkled, and she groaned. She’d wrapped up all her appointments and wanted to get home to a hot bath. Or a cool bath. Anything to try and soothe the ache racking her muscles, to quell the prickle of her skin, to ease the uncomfortable thudding of her heart that assaulted her whenever she thought of Joe.
Joe.
He occupied her thoughts from dawn to dusk and all the hours in between. He haunted her in dreams, the scent of him, the feel of his arms around her, mocked her as she lay alone in bed, tossing and turning in the summer heat.
There was no doubt that her powers as a seer were diminished. She’d given them up willingly, like so many women before her, choosing a life in the present over peering into the mists of the future. Choosing to know the transient yet intoxicating pleasures of the flesh. She understood now why her mother had gone astray. Had created her.
It had been four agonizing days since she’d seen him. So many times she’d been tempted to pick up the phone and call. Or her feet began to lead her restlessly westward, in the direction of his apartment.
And then each time she remembered all the reasons why they shouldn’t be together. It would break the family apart. Joe and her brothers would hate each other. She’d lose the people who cared about her, and if it didn’t work out with Joe—a distinct possibility—she’d be truly alone in the world.
The third card was a card of warning.
The hollow empty spaces inside her seemed to swell as she counted on her fingers all the many reasons why fooling around with Joe was stupid, senseless and could lead to nothing but heartbreak and disaster for both of them.
She heard the scrape of the chair on the old wood floor as the visitor outside in the storefront sat at the table. Ugh. She didn’t have the energy to hear any more troubles today. She had enough of her own. Maybe if she just sat back here, kept silent, they’d go away. She missed the little cat that used to brush around her ankles. It had run away two years ago, and for a while she’d envied it. But for all she knew it was probably dead. Curiosity killed the…
The door to the back room flung open.
Joe.
Her skin stung as she rasped in a breath. She dropped the money she was holding and wrinkled notes fluttered to the floor.
His eyes fixed on her, shining black in the dim light. The door closed behind him, sealing them together in the dusty, cluttered storeroom behind the ofisa. Neither of them spoke.
He radiated energy, which rippled toward her, raising the tiny hairs on her skin, jingling her nerves. White-hot intensity that swirled amid the dust and incense. Not anger, as she might have expected, but something far more complicated, mixed up and messy like this whole crazy affair.
Passion.
The dim light from the single bulb shone across his harsh, masculine features, highlighting his scar and the thin shadow of stubble that dusted his jaw. She could hear him breathing—or was it her own arrhythmic inhalations and exhalations that disturbed the eerie silence?
Passion could be a dangerous force when unleashed into the world. It wasn’t tied to love. It could just as well be driven by hate. It conquered hearts and minds, knew no limits but its own.
Susana swallowed. She sat on a high tabletop, the only unbroken piece of furniture, and it raised her almost to eye level with Joe. She held his gaze, even as it almost cost her the ability to breathe.
“You didn’t come to me.” His low voice shimmered through the thick air.
“I couldn’t.”
“So I came to you.” He didn’t move.
He wore a suit, gray, with a white shirt and a dark tie loosened at the neck. The uniform of respectability. But she could see his feelings for her were anything but respectable.
The heat smoking from his gaze steamed up her body until pricks of perspiration trickled down her spine.
His eyes drifted over her face, grazing her lips and cheeks, where she felt the two familiar spots of color spring to life.
“I need you, Susana.”
She could feel his need lapping toward her, splashing up against the depthless lake of her own. Every part of her ached for him.
But it wasn’t simple sexual yearning any more. Something deeper. She cared about him. She wanted him to be happy.
He took a step forward, and she heard herself gasp. Her fingers flew to the edge of the table and gripped it like the edge of a precipice.
“Don’t worry, I won’t touch you.”
Please touch me! her body cried, as fear and desire crackled through her like wildfire.
“I know you only wanted one night of pleasure,” he continued, eyes narrowed. “That’s all I wanted, too. We made no promises to each other.” He swallowed and his Adam’s apple moved above the starched white collar of his sh
irt. “But something happened between us. Something…magic.”
The oddly incongruous word slid off his tongue and hung in the air between them.
Magic. It was magic all right. But there was good magic and bad magic. What they made was black magic—dark, intense, a dangerous force that crept out at night and drove strangers into each other’s arms. The kind of enchantment that made you give up everything you’d ever known and all the people you held dear.
That wasn’t the Romani way. Arranged marriage for the good of the families. Family first. Girls were married off very young, before they had a chance to make their own mistakes. She’d escaped that fate, but it didn’t mean she had to go tearing off in the other direction.
Did it?
Joe took another step toward her.
“You said you’d never lie to me. Is that still true?”
She nodded dumbly.
“Can you honestly tell me you feel nothing for me?”
She shook her head. She felt far too much. Feelings she didn’t understand and couldn’t name.
Fire flashed in Joe’s eyes, and she heard her breathing quicken. She struggled to shove down the chaotic mix of emotions swelling inside her.
Are you going to betray me, Susana?
I don’t know.
Remembered wisps of conversation danced in her head as she gripped the table, willing her body not to respond to his nearness.
It was time for betrayal. To save his life. To save her own.
“Do you think I still owe you?” she said coolly, her heart seizing as she forced out the cruel words. The flicker of confusion that crossed Joe’s face cut her.
“No,” he spoke low. “You don’t owe me anything.” His features tightened. “I’ve taken my payment. In full.”
His eyes dropped crudely to her chest, as they had when he’d first entered her ofisa. Her breasts stirred beneath the dark blouse, craving his touch. She felt a flush of heat rising up over her face.
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