Breaking All My Rules

by Trice Hickman

Genres: African American; African American Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Born into wealth, Erica Stanford has followed in her family's successful footsteps and now runs her own upscale boutique in an affluent Washington, D.C., neighborhood. But despite her good fortune, she's still missing someone special to share her life with - until a chance encounter changes everything....

Handsome, rugged Jerome Kimbrough is hard to miss among the fellow citizens serving jury duty with Erica. And as the two get know each other over the course of a two week trial, their relationship soon extends beyond the courtroom and into a full-on passionate romance. Although they come from opposite worlds - Jerome is a working class, city sanitation employee - they’re both hard-working dreamers with big ambitions. Yet while their differences aren't an issue for them, their friends, family - and Erica's ex-fiancé - disagree. As all involved are forced to confront their hidden stereotypes, can Erica and Jerome endure the challenges in store for them - including a startling secret from their pasts?

Release date: July 30, 2014

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 320

Sample

“Nooooo!” Erica screamed over and over, gasping for breath, drowning in fear. She was falling. Falling fast. Her slender arms and thick legs flailed through the air as if she were on a runaway roller coaster. Her mouth gaped open and her eyes bulged wide when she realized what was next to come.

She knew it would only be a matter of seconds before she hit the hard, rugged earth below. Death was near. She could feel it. Hear it calling her name. Smell it invading her nostrils. The bitter taste of it filling her mouth as she screamed. Then, suddenly, her panic and fear vanished into the whisper-thin air around her. She couldn’t explain her newfound sense of calm, or what had caused the shift, so she did the only thing that was left to do at such a terrifying moment—she obeyed it.

She stopped struggling.

She relaxed her tired limbs and welcomed the uncomfortable peace spreading through every inch of her flaccid body—the kind of peace that only death could bring. This is it, Erica thought as she swallowed hard. She closed her eyes, anticipated the rough gravel and dirt that lay mere inches away, and readied herself for the fatal impact.

Bonk! Beep! Bonk! Beep! Bonk!

Erica shot straight up in her bed and fumbled as she reached over to silence the alarm clock blaring loudly near her head. Her chest heaved up and down with rapid speed as her lungs fought for air. She took two deep breaths, closed her eyes tightly, and began to slowly count backward from ten until her body no longer trembled with fear.

She breathed in and out as her heart searched for its natural rhythm. After several minutes she was finally able to inhale and exhale at a normal pace. “Thank you, God,” she whispered, covering her parched mouth with her trembling hand. The exercise had worked again, just as it had so many other nights and mornings in the past.

Erica slumped her tense shoulders and shook her head, falling back onto her pillow. Waking up like this made her wish she could end her day before it began.

It was Friday morning, and despite the fact that the weatherman had forecast a bright, beautiful day to start what promised to be a picturesque weekend, Erica felt as if dark clouds were hovering directly above her head, ready to drench her at any moment.

“Aggghhhh,” she moaned.

Erica Stanford was normally an upbeat, optimistic go-getter who always looked on the cheery side of things, no matter how bleak. If she had a bad day at work, she didn’t sweat it, because she knew the next day would be better. If she missed out on a business contract, she didn’t get discouraged, because she was confident that a much better opportunity would be waiting around the corner. Whatever the situation, she always tried to change her way of thinking so that she felt empowered rather than trapped by the challenges that faced her. But lately her state of mind had been steering counter to her character, and she couldn’t seem to shake the funk it brought in its wake.

She knew she should adopt a better outlook and operate from a more hopeful place. After all, she’d learned long ago that negative thoughts led only to negative outcomes. But no matter how hard she tried to conjure up her usual glass-half-full, rainbow-laden optimism, she couldn’t run from her haunting dreams or the seemingly bad luck that was bearing down on her.

This was the second nightmare she’d had this month, and she could feel the heavy weight of her past pressing into her here and now.

Erica turned over again and shifted her body against her dampened Egyptian cotton sheets as she adjusted her purple gown, which now clung to her skin. She wiped her perfectly arched brow, thinking about how her frightful dreams were always accompanied by unsparing panic and horrid night sweats.

Whenever she felt stressed, unsure, anxious, or confused, the nightmares would return. Some nights she was chased through winding, narrow streets that never seemed to end. At other times she was hiding from faceless assailants whose footsteps nipped at her heels. And in her darkest, most alarming dreams, she was completely helpless and without a way to protect herself. Those were the dreams she feared most, like the one she’d just had—falling powerlessly from the sky without a soul to help save her.

But no matter the particulars of her dreams, the results were always the same; she was fighting for her life, awaking just in the nick of time to save herself from a fatal ending. It had been that way for the last twenty-five years, and it had all started the night of her tenth birthday.

After a whirlwind day of fun, laughter, and gifts that had been capped off with chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream to celebrate her first double-digit birthday, Erica and her family had settled in for the evening. A peaceful quiet rested over their large brick and stucco home as her mother finished cleaning the kitchen and her father read in his study. Erica and Nelson, her twelve-year-old brother, were walking upstairs to their bedrooms when they heard frightening sounds that froze their feet into place.

From out of nowhere, a thunderous crash of glass, followed by the terrifying sound of gunshots, sliced through the still night. What happened next raced by so fast that neither young Erica nor Nelson had time to react as they stood motionless, watching the violent scene unfold before their helpless eyes.

In the span of the few seconds that it took her mother to dial 911, Erica’s father was shot twice after racing from his study to defend his family. But despite his wounds he managed to break the would-be thief ’s arm, bust open his nose and lip, and leave him a bloody mess before the man hastily limped away through the broken glass of their patio door to a getaway car that had been parked down the street.

The intruder, a drug-hazed career criminal, was apprehended the very next day. Thankfully, Erica’s father survived the brutal attack. It took months for the wounds to his right shoulder and upper abdomen to heal, but the emotional scars lingered with the family for long after. It was especially hard for Erica, a sensitive child who wore her emotions on her sleeve.

The violent home invasion had traumatized her on a day that had been otherwise filled with nothing but goodness.

Erica learned many things on that fateful night. She learned how strong and fearless her father was. How calm and levelheaded her mother was. How resilient and determined her brother was. And how painfully fragile she was. But most of all, she learned that no matter how wonderful your day started out, everything could change after the sun went down.

Looking at her alarm clock for a second time, Erica considered crawling back under her luxuriously soft bedsheets. But instead of giving in to the urge to hug her mattress and block out the world, she willed herself to stand up, put one foot in front of the other, and lumber her way downstairs to her kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

Erica knew what her problem was, and she’d been thinking about this day ever since she had looked at the calendar last Tuesday and realized its significance.

She wanted to pull herself out of the dreary place where she was stuck, because it was like being locked inside a room without a key. But try as she might, lately it seemed as if every time her mind took one step forward, something would go wrong and pull her back two paces. And this morning she felt as though the gun had sounded but she was still hunched over the starting block, already behind in the race.

“You’ve got to get it together, sister,” Erica whispered to herself as she rubbed sleep from her tired eyes.

One of the reasons for her less than enthusiastic mood was the fact that she had to report to D.C. Superior Court for jury duty by 8:00 a.m., which meant she had to leave soon. She had a jam-packed workweek ahead, filled with a million and one things she had to do at Opulence, the high-end bath and body care boutique she owned. The next three weeks were crucial for her business’s future growth.

Through a combination of networking, planning, and being in the right place at the right time, she’d managed to score a game-changing business opportunity. Opulence products were going to be included in the coveted swag bags at the highly anticipated Tracy Reese fashion show during New York City’s famed Fashion Week. Erica was ecstatic about the stroke of good fortune, because she knew it was going to catapult her small company to an entirely new level.

But ever since she’d signed the contract eight months ago to seal the sweet deal, everything that could go wrong had. From a mix-up with her chemical formulations for Paradise, the new body butter she planned to debut at Fashion Week, to a breakdown in price negotiations with a longtime supplier, to one of her employees abruptly quitting two days ago, leaving her short staffed, Erica had been scrambling to hold things together.

Her days were rushed, her nights were long, and the last thing she needed at this pivotal juncture was an all-day trip to the courthouse.

But the other source of her frustration, and what felt like a subtle blow to the pit of her stomach, could be summed up in three small, but painful words . . . Claude Daniel Richardson. Or as her best friend, Ashley, not so affectionately called him, Lucifer!

Today made exactly six months since Erica and Claude had broken up, bringing their two-year romance to a crushing end. Erica knew that she shouldn’t let a failed relationship have this kind of effect on her, especially since breaking up with Claude had been for the best. But she hadn’t met a decent man worth mentioning since their split, or even gone on a date, and now her gloomy love life only added to her already dampened spirits.

Her breakup with Claude had been just one in a long string of disappointments that she’d experienced with men, and now she was what she’d secretly feared—a statistic. She was one of the reported 42.4 percent of single black women who had yet to marry. And worse still, she didn’t see her prospects for matrimony getting any better, because one needed to actually meet and date men for that to happen, and right now things were looking fairly dim.

But what concerned Erica even more was the thought that she might reach over to the ugly side of that dreaded statistic and become the stereotypical bitter, angry black woman who ranted about all of life’s woes and the sorry, no-good men who’d dogged her, yet didn’t have an amiable disposition to attract anything different. That was why she was always mindful to be pleasant and kind to everyone she met.

Erica shook her head when she thought about her ex. Claude Richardson was supposed to have remedied her statistical fears. He was supposed to have been “the one.” She’d thought he was her black prince, the man who would give her the two kids, the dog, and the big, beautiful home that most women dreamed of, and that she’d been accustomed to growing up.

Claude was the man who all her family and friends, sans Ashley, had referred to as a good catch. He was a successful investment banker who owned a sprawling home in the wealthy Palisades neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C. He was handsome, successful, educated, well mannered, and responsible. He opened doors, always remembered special occasions and holidays, and showered Erica with thoughtful gifts and any material thing she desired.

After their split, Erica had received condolences and a strong show of support from her girlfriends, who had said things like, “I’m so sorry to hear about you and Claude. He was one of the good ones,” and “I can’t believe you and Claude called it quits! You two were absolutely perfect together.” But within days, the very friends who had shared drinks with her, offering sympathetic words of comfort, had added Claude to their phones’ speed dial and had linked up with him through various social networking sites. The murky, shark-infested waters of the D.C. dating scene were brutal, and it was all about survival of the craftiest.

Erica opened the cabinet over her sink and reached in for her Winston-Salem State University coffee mug. “Damn, why can’t I at least go out on a decent date?” she mumbled to herself, thinking about her crappy luck with men. But she knew the answer to that question before she’d asked it. The real truth was that her work schedule and her underlying fear of being disappointed again were both blocking her way.

She inhaled the sweet aroma of hazelnut-flavored coffee and watched as her Keurig machine produced a liquid stream of black gold that filled her ceramic mug. She shook her head again, remembering how much Claude’s lying ass loved a piping hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning. “Why didn’t I see it coming?” Erica asked herself.

On the surface, Erica and Claude had been the ideal couple. They had both graduated in the top 10 percent of their class from Winston-Salem State University, loyally following in the tradition of both their parents and grandparents by attending a historically black college. They had each earned advanced degrees from Ivy League schools, Erica’s in fine arts from Columbia, and Claude’s in business from Yale. Even their backgrounds growing up had been similar. They each hailed from well-connected, old-money families and had been raised in affluent suburban neighborhoods—she in Maryland, he in Pennsylvania. As everyone had said, they were great together. At least on paper.

Erica had met Claude at a cocktail fund-raiser for a popular D.C. councilman who’d been running for reelection. She had attended the swank downtown affair at the urging of Ashley, a gregarious but pragmatic prosecutor who was in the know about all things social. “This event is not to be missed,” she’d raved to Erica. “Everyone who’s anyone will be at Councilman Perry’s fund-raiser, so put on your best dress and sexiest heels, ’cause, girl, that party is the place to be!”

Claude and Erica had locked eyes from the moment she entered the hotel’s lavish ballroom. Her confident stride and natural beauty had instantly attracted him. From her shapely figure and curvy hips, which she swayed like a gentle breeze, to her radiant chestnut-brown skin, which looked dewy to the touch, to her full, kissable lips painted in burgundy blush, to the neatly trimmed shoulder-length bob she sported with fierce style, Erica had captivated him.

Even though they shared the same undergraduate alma mater, they’d never formally met before that night. They were a few years apart in age, so by the time Erica had entered WSSU as an eager freshman, Claude was a graduating senior and an established big man on campus.

Erica had heard all the buzz about Claude during her first week of classes. She and Ashley had been roommates, but they’d shared completely different views on the handsome upperclassman. Erica thought he was amazing, while Ashley thought he was, as she often smirked, a slick-ass phony. But despite Ashley’s negative feelings about him, Erica managed to get her best friend to tag along with her to social events where Claude would be. Admiring him from afar became her hobby.

Claude had been a star quarterback, a university scholar, a popular fraternity hunk, and the object of desire in nearly every young coed’s fantasies, as well as some of the faculty members’. A knee injury during an end-of-the-season play-off game had sidelined his hopes of an NFL career, but his brains and strategic planning landed him in business school and then led him straight into a lucrative career with a prestigious investment banking firm.

Initially, Claude hadn’t had a clue as to who the gorgeous brown beauty was when he’d spied Erica gracefully sipping champagne by a buffet table with an attractive woman, who he later learned was Ashley—the only woman he’d ever met who couldn’t be lulled by his charms. But Erica had known exactly who he was, and she was looking forward to becoming better acquainted.

Once Claude introduced himself, they exercised the standard Q & A etiquette that available singles in their social milieu practiced. They quickly established a connection, and despite not wanting to swoon over him, Erica was hooked at their first hello.

Claude was everything she had wanted in a man. His handsome good looks and commanding presence had ignited a smoldering flame inside her that hadn’t been sparked since she’d ended her last relationship the previous year. He was well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and toned muscles, and looking at Claude was like experiencing a dash of charming wrapped in a bundle of sexiness. And although his college athletic days were well behind him, he was still in tip-top condition.

Now, finally meeting the famed Claude Richardson face-to-face, Erica knew she’d struck gold. She could also see that Claude was still a highly sought-after commodity, as was evidenced by the women sprinkled throughout the room who leveled envious stares in her direction each time he gently touched her arm during their conversation or smiled with interest as she spoke.

Erica liked the fact that Claude’s moves were purposeful and deliberate, meant to demonstrate a point. His actions made it clear to her and everyone else at the event that she was the only woman who was getting his undivided attention. From that night forward, they were a couple. A power couple.

Claude’s hotshot corporate bravado contrasted to and yet complimented Erica’s easygoing entrepreneurial spirit. She took pleasure in the fact that her handsome boyfriend was a seasoned professional who was socially connected and well respected in the right circles. And for his part, Claude was proud to boast that his beautiful girlfriend was the accomplished owner of an upscale, ultrachic bath and body care boutique that catered to some of D.C.’s most sophisticated clientele.

The first few months of their courtship were so blissful that Erica thought she was living in a waking dream. Claude was kind, attentive, and the epitome of what a good boyfriend should be. Their sex life was strong, and their bond outside the bedroom was just as solid. Erica was in heaven!

They went to all the best restaurants, attended all the “happening” parties and social events, and held front-row seats at the most coveted performances at the Kennedy Center. They spent four out of seven nights a week together and were practically inseparable. Their relationship was quickly shaping up to resemble something that looked like it was leading toward the yellow brick road to marriage.

They had been dating for one year when Claude proposed to Erica at her favorite restaurant on the anniversary of the night they met. It was a traditional and very romantic candlelit moment. When Erica ordered her favorite dessert, a flawless two-and-a-half-carat diamond in a dazzling platinum setting accompanied the piece of cake, all served on an antique silver platter, surrounded by red rose petals. It took her only a half second to say yes, cementing their intent to walk down the aisle. Her father gave his blessings, her brother wished her luck, and her mother shed tears of joy when she told them her happy news.

But a curious thing happened shortly after Erica accepted his proposal. Slowly, very slowly, things began to change right before her eyes.

What she had initially thought was Claude’s commanding presence eventually revealed itself to be a hugely inflated ego. What she’d thought was pride in his personal appearance was really his extreme vanity in motion. And even his thoughtfulness turned out to be nothing more than skilled manipulation and calculated strategy. He had pretended to be considerate, when all along his acts of kindness and generosity had been motivated by what he could get from them in return. But it wasn’t until one of Claude’s disgruntled exes sent her an anonymous e-mail detailing his shady ways, that Erica finally learned just how dishonest he really was.

She learned that his monthly out-of-town business meetings with one of his prime accounts had really been time spent in the company of an exotic dancer named Chocolate Kiss. The twenty-five-thousand-dollar engagement ring he’d supposedly bought her was really a complimentary gift he received from one of his wealthy international clients who was connected to the blood diamond trade. And the nephew he visited every so often down in North Carolina turned out to be the child he’d fathered ten years ago—the result of a one-night stand with an old college flame during a homecoming weekend.

After that explosive e-mail, Erica came to see that everything about Claude was a big mirage. Because of many disastrous relationships, she’d wanted a prince so badly that she put up with more than she should have, losing sight of the fact that she was a queen, deserving of much more. He was all show and flash on the outside, and as hollow as a drum within. And to her great disappointment, the very things that had drawn her to Claude turned into deficits that eventually bankrupted her feelings for him.

“Bullshit mind games and straight-up triflin’!” is what Ashley had said about him.

Soon after Erica’s eyes had been opened to the real man behind the facade, her relationship with Claude died a quick death. Never having been rejected by a woman, he’d been livid when she broke up with him, prompting harsh words and high emotions that she still remembered to this day.

As Erica stirred a teaspoon of brown sugar into her coffee, she realized that Claude was another reminder of how things could start out well but end in disaster.

Erica drank her coffee, pushing both Claude and her disappointing love life out of her mind. She knew she didn’t have time to think about either, because she had so many other challenges to juggle.

She had postponed her obligation to report for jury duty three months ago, when she’d received the notice, which had come during the time she had the formulation disaster with the Paradise body butter she planned to include in the swag bags for Fashion Week. It had been a trying and frustrating time. But she couldn’t get out of her civic responsibility this go-round, because it was mandatory by law. She had a gargantuan amount of work to do at Opulence in preparation for the boutique’s debut on the national stage, and spending her day at D.C. Superior Court was only going to put her further behind.

Erica finished her coffee and headed back upstairs so she could get going. After she showered and did her hair and makeup, she milled through the neatly lined garments in her spacious walk-in closet. As she looked at the abundance of expensive clothes, shoes, and jewelry she owned, she thought about what a blessing and a curse her life had turned out to be. She was happy, thrilled even, about her professional success. But lately, her long hours and demanding schedule made it difficult to achieve what she longed for just as much as her career accomplishments—a loving mate to come home to and share in her good fortune.

She held a candy apple red–colored wrap dress up against her body, inspecting herself in the gilded full-length mirror in front of her. It was an outfit more fitting for a hot date out on the town than a day in court. But she needed to boost her spirits, so she removed it from the silk-padded hanger and slipped it on. “I guess sometimes you’ve got to break the rules,” she whispered, pulling the dress over her hips. She stood back, admiring how nicely the dress complimented her curves. She wished that she really was getting ready to go on a date instead of to court. “Why don’t they ever tell you about this part of the fairy tale?” Erica asked out loud. “Prince Charming my ass! It’s all a sham.”

But before she started feeling sorry for herself again, she shook off her negative thoughts and concentrated on all the great things she had to be thankful for: her loving family, fantastic friends, and good physical health. And the fact that she owned her own business and was living her professional dreams was a blessing she didn’t take for granted. Being able to do what she loved gave her purpose.

Ever since she was a small child, Erica had had a love affair with lotions, oils, and perfumes. When she was six years old, she baked her first cake in her Easy-Bake Oven, and later that evening she raided her mother’s vanity tray, spraying and rubbing every kind of perfume, powder, lotion, cream, and oil she could get her small hands on, all over her tiny body.

Although her mother had been less than thrilled, and had taken Erica straight to the bathroom to wash it all off, it was then that Erica developed her passion for body care products and fragrances. And as her love for skin care grew, she quickly realized that cooking food, like the cake she’d baked, and creating luscious body products required similar skills—the right ingredients, precise measurements, and careful attention to detail.

When she was in high school, she experimented with recipes in her mother’s kitchen, mixing creams, oils, and lotions to create ambrosia-like scents and silky textures that made her smooth, soft-to-the-touch skin the envy of her classmates. By the time she graduated from college, she was creating her own body oils, just like the African vendors at the local flea market had taught her. She’d also perfected her skills by developing scents that were so hypnotic, men often stopped her on the street to ask what she was wearing.

Armed with a degree in business and a talent for making products that could put the formulations at any department store’s beauty counter to shame, Erica knew it was time to set out on a path that would put her on the road to fulfilling her dream of starting her own boutique.

She knew that in order to be successful, she had to plan, research, and save her money before she took the leap of opening her own store. After years of studying the market as well as her competition, mastering her own original concoctions through trial and error, and squirreling away the lucrative salary she earned as a senior beauty editor at Washington Woman, a local magazine, Erica stepped out on faith and opened the doors of Opulence.

Over the past five years Opulence had grown into a premier destination for discriminating customers, offering high-end, all-natural bath and body care products that left one’s skin smelling good, looking radiant, and feeling silky to the touch.

Erica was very particular about how she wanted her boutique, as well as her employees, to look. Sophisticated, elegant, and of course, opulent—that was the brand she had built and had become known for. Opulence was all things rich and luxurious, from the super-emollient body creams customers loved to the amethyst-colored designer aprons that each employee wore over a crisp white shirt and stylish black pants. Erica had cultivated her boutique to reflect who she was and what she wanted out of life.

Erica raised her wrist, looked at her stainless-steel Patek Philippe, and let out a deep sigh when she realized the time. “I better get going,” she said as she slipped on her heels and grabbed her handbag from the upholstered sitting bench at the foot of her king-size bed.

For a split second she thought about skipping jury duty altogether, but she knew that the penalty for not showing up was a price she wasn’t willing to pay. So, like many things in her life, she swallowed her discomfort, put a smile on her face, and headed out the door to face her day.

Erica scrolled through her phone. . .