Breaking the Storm by Sedona Venez Read Free Book Online Page A

hadn't gotten to the real down and dirty sex stage—yet.
    Light clapped her hands, sloshing beer all over her jeans. “Hot damn, I knew it.” She kissed me soundly on my cheek. “When you didn't come home last night, I was hoping that you finally uncrossed those sexy legs and gave it up. Jeezus, he's been sniffing around you like a wolf in heat. It's cute in a pathetic kind of way.”
    I shook my head. One of the drawbacks of having a best friend who is also my cousin is that she is a shameless, prying witch. “Are we really having this conversation now?”
    She shimmied against me. “Don't get all uptight.”
    “I'm not getting uptight. I just don't want to talk about it in the middle of a party,” I responded. Light raised an eyebrow. “Okay, should I dance to celebrate the luck of finding a guy with a mean tongue game?”
    “Oh , hell yeah! It’s a miracle, like striking gold—eureka! Now get past oral and move to the real thing, baby. Call it a parting gift.” She winked, dancing around me.
    I gave up and danced with her. “You're truly crazy. You know that, right?”
    “The craziest witch you know, baby!”
    We danced with wild abandonment, forgetting for a minute all of the troubles of our world. College was our reprieve from reality and our overbearing mothers who were reason enough to make us do a happy dance. It was like a four-year hall pass. As soon as we graduated from high school, we were plotting to get away from our mothers. We were thinking states and miles away but had to settle for going to an Ivy League university in Manhattan. There were safety risks, according to our mothers, that the long-distance logistics wouldn't allow. Again, the last of the Credence bloodline paranoia reared its head.
    So the second we moved out, we literally never looked back, acting like we were miles away instead of minutes. No going home for the holidays and no guilt about it. Our mothers didn’t celebrate holidays anyway. They spent it in Europe with their latest boy toys while Light and I traveled in the opposite direction to ensure no awkward mother-daughter moments.
    I actually blossomed while being away from the pressure of trying to live up to the Credence name. It was like a breath of fresh air. I dated and flirted without a care in the world because I had no intention of falling in love. The guys were fun. And when they started wanting to become serious, I cut them off and moved on to the next one in line. I was so sure that the Credence Curse wouldn't get me here—that was before I met Knox.
    Light’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. “That reminds me, the cackling hens called last night from Vegas.”
    I almost choked; they rarely called, respecting our need for independence. “What did our mothers from hell want?”
    Light pointed at me accusingly. “Your mother had a premonition, something about a bird—no, an eagle. Then she babbled about how you need to watch your back and that the Credence Curse is about to rear its ugly head again.”
    I stopped dancing, my heart pounding nervously. “What?”
    Light ’s eyes were a little dazed. “Huh?”
    “Light, did it even occur to you to mention this earlier?”
    She blew a strand of hair from her forehead. “Why? You're not stupid enough to fall in love…” She sloshed her beer. “Oh, hell no! Tell me you didn't fall for him!”
    My eyes widened as a feeling of near hurl status gripped me. “No! I know the Credence rule…” I took a sip of beer, staring into space. Shit, I was truly fucked. I wanted to go running out of the club in sheer terror.
    Her eyes narrowed. “Do what you do, Storm. Keep it simple.”
    I swallowed nervously before the lights flickered. The music lowered. Yeah, right. The time for simple was over the minute I met him. Happy for the distraction, I pointed to the stage. “It's about to start.”
    “Wait a minute. Isn't that Stalker Luke talking to Kaydee?” She pointed to the other side of the club.
    I looked