Page 74 of Nothing to Beat

“Yes.”

“Coy, baby, sometimes I don’t understand.”

On a laugh, she buried her face against his chest.“Isn’t that what makes the chase so fun?”

“For the first five years, maybe.Now I wonder if you’ll ever stop running.”

The air crackled.“I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.Whichever way it goes, the finish line is in sight, I promise, Stat.I promise.One way or the other—”

“That’s what you don’t understand.You think there’s a choice in this for me.”

“There is.”

“You are my choice, Sequoia, and whatever the hell shit we have to deal with—”

“Don’t swear.”Her arms dropped as she stepped away.“You know how to express yourself better than that.”

He should given the price of his education.

“You don’t realize how much of your past you carry around every minute.”

Not smart to remind her.“If I’m so burdened, why put up with me at all?”

“That’s what I’m trying to explain.I’ve accepted it.I accepted it long ago.I love you for it.God, I know you better than you know yourself.”

She couldn’t deny he had an astounding way of anticipating her, but that statement was a helluva presumptive.

“If you knew me that well, you’d know this isn’t a choice for me either.We will be together if my father is out of the way—”

“Your father lives in your head, Coy.He always has.I know that part of you, accept that part of you, love that part of you.”

“You love me for being screwed up by my father?”

“I love that in spite of your start, you’ve made an incredible life for yourself.Why can’t you let me be a part of it?”

“Because I love you, and I don’t want to ruin you.”

“You know what some of my brothers have been through.”When she tried to turn away, he grabbed her shoulder to bring her back.“What my family has been through with them.Do we ever turn them away and say it’s too hard?”

“That’s what you do for family.You fight for them.”

Virtuous family anyway, the exact opposite of hers.

“You are my family.Name or not, you’ve been a Breckenridge since before we ever met.You’ve been a Breckenridge since before you met any of us.It happened the moment my father got the call from yours.He’d never let anyone live like that, with the constrictions, the chains, the dictatorship.The disrespect.Whether you worked for the company or not, he’d have made sure you were one of us.”

“Oh, so it was my sob story that got me the job?All these years I’ve worked for the company and you’re telling me it’s nothing to do with my ability, and everything to do with my oppression?Thanks.I wish one of you let that slip out sooner.”

“Nothing slips out of me.My words are always deliberate.”His grip on her shoulder tightened to pull her back.“My father adores you, my mother, my brothers, all of us.We want you to be a part of our family and you keep pushing us away.”

“For your own good.”

“And now we’re going to have a child—”

“I’m not pregnant.”

“Whether you’re carrying my child this instant or not is irrelevant, it’s going to happen.”And with his steely determination focused solely on her, she couldn’t refute that.No matter how many times they tried to end it, the line beneath their sexual relationship always grayed.“Roxie was right, we should get another test.”

“The pizza thing—”