Page 27 of Broken Rules
She woke up and feltthe bed next to her.
It was cold.
Her smile vanished. She opened her eyes. Soft morning light slanted through the gap in her sheer ivory curtains. Sitting up, her heart felt compressed by the silence of her empty house.
Falling back onto her pillow, she grabbed the one next to her and smooshed it over her face, but then she breathed in Damien’s scent.
“Damn it!” She threw the pillow across the room.
Tears stung her eyes. “No!” She shook her head, refusing to shed even one.
Sitting up, she threw the covers off and made herself stand, or else she probably wouldn’t get up for the next week. She’d hide under her soft duvet and cry him away. Standing, she crossed to her dresser and slipped on a pair of white cotton panties and a white tank top—at least she could dress the part of an innocent, instead of a pathetic rule-breaker.
Looking in the mirror, she shook her head.
She had double-crossed herself and let a man into her life who could have held up a sign that read ‘Iwillbreak your heart.’
“I’m changing my name,” she said out loud.
“I love your name. Why would you change it?”
She whirled around.
Damien was standing in the doorway to her bedroom, holding a drink caddy with two to-go cups and a white paper bag.
In that moment, the emotion she’d been holding back pushed it’s way up her throat as a knot she couldn’t swallow down. Tears flooded her eyes. She whirled away from him and silenced the sob of surprise and disbelief by pressing her hand over her mouth.
In a breath, he was at her side. His hand gently rested at her waist. “Was coffee a bad idea?” he asked softly.
She turned and shook her head, swallowing hard. “Coffee was a brilliant idea.”
He held up the bag. “And éclairs.”
She smiled, nodding her approval.
“I noticed you have a balcony,” he said, pointing to the sliding door.
“A balcony, yes,” she said, her heart and mind still trying to catch up to the fact that he hadn’t discarded her. “A view, definitely not.”
He cupped her cheek. “I have all the scenery I need, right here.”
She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Let me grab my robe.”
After she wrapped her cotton robe around her waist and slipped on her flip flops, she followed him out the door onto the balcony.
He chuckled. “You weren’t kidding about the view.”
Below them was the back parking lot to a set of condos on the right and a small Chinese takeout on the left. Beyond that, there were rows of cottages and small streets until, in the distance, the strip of sand and ocean could at last be seen.
“The restaurant’s dumpsters are never going to be the subject of a great still life, but their egg rolls are really good.”
He inhaled deeply. “Smells good.” He shifted his gaze back to her. “How long do I have you for?”
Her stomach flipped.Forever. She cleared her throat. “What do you mean?”
He pulled her chair closer to him. “I mean, what time do you have to go into work?”
“I have the day off.”
