Page 26 of Nothing to Beat

“How can you think—you really think you can do this?”

“It’ll take time.”

“And in the meantime?I just wait around until you make it all better?”

She so wasn’t that woman.

“I’ll wait,” he said.“I won’t ask you to do the same.”

Zairn damn Lomond had a lot to answer for.He shouldn’t go around putting ideas in people’s heads.What?Because things were all roses for him and Roxie, somehow, he believed that should make things roses for everyone?Life wasn’t like that.

“Go back to Breckenridge.”

“No.”

“Go back to the house at least, it isn’t right for you to be here like this.”

“I’ve made up my mind, Coy.”

And that stern attitude betrayed his adamance.Great.This train was on the tracks.How long before it wrecked?

This was surreal.“You’re sleeping on your brother’s couch.”

“It pulls out.”

Oh, and that made all the difference?

“You’re being a regular joe, not taking advantage of the generosity of those who care about you…” Which was funny given how generous he, and all the Breckenridges were.“You’re playing this like you know no one, like you don’t have access to what you have access to.”

“I don’t need access to do this right.Darroch and Savvy don’t mind me being here, they stay at B House too.They have space anywhere they need it.”

Support not judgment.Oh, Breckenridge.

“Regardless, you can’t kick them out of their place.”She exhaled and swiped up her purse.“You still have a key to my apartment.Use it.Stay there.”

“Coy, I won’t rush you—”

“Yeah, you’re not getting any, don’t even think about that.I have a second bedroom.”That she had designs on turning into a nursery.With those ideas on hold, there was no reason he shouldn’t use it.“And don’t go telling people we live together.It’s temporary.”

She got two steps before he snagged her wrist to halt her.“Where are you going?”

“To the source,” she said, as fueled by urgency then as she had been on arriving, though for different reasons.“To do something I should’ve done a thousand times already.”

ELEVEN

HOW LONG HAD SHE known Zairn Lomond?A long time.They’d never been close, yet that wouldn’t stop her giving him both barrels.What was he thinking of putting ideas in Breck’s head?Yeah, okay, so Breck wasn’t usually easily led, in fact, some may call him a cynic, a skeptical cynic, but this U-turn was way out of character.

If Zairn had the idea she was some wallflower, he was about to learn otherwise.Breck wanted to take action?She’d take action.Damn right.Get her shit together?Her shit was about to be collated quick smart.

Returning to Rouge HQ, the scene of the crime, so to speak, the elevator granted her access to the executive floor where security guards spotted her.Crossing the floor’s lobby, she called a different elevator, one with intricate engravings, different from the others: Zairn’s private elevator.

Her clearance wouldn’t get her any higher, no, but she’d made a call.Not to the Rouge Overlord himself, nope, why give the guy notice of her wrath?No.Calm down.That wasn’t the way to think about it.This impromptu meeting couldn’t be adversarial.They should be allies.Fat chance of that if he matched her attitude.

She should’ve got rid of her fizzing energy before rocking up there.Another bad idea, she was on a role.The available outlet for depressurization before the journey over was Breck… and an empty apartment.And, oh, yeah, that guy was plenty good at diverting and expending her energy.Nope.Nope.Bad.Bad plan.She wasn’t sleeping with him again until he’d gothisshit together.And the shit she meant wasn’t close to what he meant.

What had she been thinking telling him to go to her apartment?Yes, it made more sense for him to have his own room than to take up residence in his brother’s girlfriend’s miniscule loft.Not that it was embarrassingly miniscule—it was palatial in Manhattan terms at the estimated price point—but way too small to hold two Breckenridges.

It wasn’t like she and Breck had never lived together before, they had on and off for years, though it was “unofficial.”It wouldn’t surprise her if Darroch and Savvy’s living arrangement was unofficial too, regardless of their engagement.Alice Breckenridge liked to think of all her boys living at home and no one refuted that.

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