Perfectly Broken by Emily Jane Trent Read Free Book Online

would be nice, but she didn’t
expect it.
    And certainly, she knew from experience, that it
was the physical contact she could count on. And it was that she craved. The void inside her was another matter. There were
other crutches to help her deal with that. The drugs and alcohol
muted the emotional pain, though it always came back.
    Pulling open the door to the pub, Susanna went
inside. Normally, she would have scouted for male attention, but
that night she just didn’t feel like it. Could it be that Tomas had
really satisfied her? It was possible.
    Anyway, she was hungry and a bit tired. It had
been a long day, and she had to go to work the next morning. Eating
wasn’t such a bad idea, so she ordered the cottage pie. The meat
pie was served promptly with its crust of mashed potatoes on top.
It smelled good, but Susanna didn’t have the appetite she should
have.
    After a couple of bites, she pulled her phone
out of her pocket and texted her friend. Rowan worked a lot, and
many times if she didn’t call, he would just stay glued to his
computer screen at home. He needed to get out more.
    The quick reply said he would be right over.
Susanna wrapped her arms around her chest even though she wasn’t
cold. While waiting for him to arrive, she tried to avoid the gazes
of men at the bar. Maybe they’d seen her some other time.
    Hoping no one there that night had been with her
before, Susanna studied her partly eaten pie. Then she got up and
asked the waitress to seat her at a table. It would be less
conspicuous. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.
    She needed a drink, but she was at least trying to cut back. The drawback was that as one vice got
under control, another reared its head. The less alcohol she
consumed the more alone she felt, and the excessive need for sex
took its place.
    Susanna knew she was different from other women
in many ways. Her behavior could easily be criticized due to her
proclivity for sex. But she didn’t know how to stop, any more than
she knew how to abstain from drinking or getting high.
    The best she could do was to keep her addictions
in check. Though she didn’t do such a great job of that either. Yet
giving them up wasn’t possible. It was too much. Even she had
limits. And without the comforts, even as frowned upon as they
were, Susanna couldn’t make it through the day.
    Rowan Ash walked up to the table and gave her a
hug. In his sweater and jeans, he looked attractive. Though women
didn’t gravitate to him. Her friend was a bit quirky, but that was
partly what she liked about him. He tossed his coat over the back
of the chair and sat down across from her.
    His long, dark hair touched his shoulders, the
wave in it defying all styling. The pale blue color of his eyes
against his pasty skin made him look more like vampire than man.
His face was narrow and his eyes were close-set. But he was
goodhearted, smart, and a good friend to have.
    “Okay, baby doll, what are we eating?”
    She smiled. “I ate. Have what you want. I’ll
stay for the conversation.”
    Rowan studied the menu, though he knew it well.
They met there often. “Beef stew, love,” he said when the waitress
came by.
    The server looked at Susanna. “Just water,
please.” It was a rare moment of control, as she didn’t order
wine.
    “How was your day?” Susanna liked to hear about
her friend’s very normal life. He worked for one of the many tech
companies in the Docklands, the area of the city that boasted a
slew of new startups. It had been dubbed “the heart of tech in
Europe.”
    “Yeah, good. I was working on some stuff at
home. It’s this new project.”
    “You’ll have to show me.” Susanna liked to see
his graphics, though she didn’t completely understand his job
description, which was as high tech as the work he did.
    Rowan looked at her with interest. “Glad to. And
what about you? What was your day like?”
    Friends didn’t have secrets, and he knew her
lifestyle. Amazingly, he liked