Page 33 of Bind Me
“You love your job.”
“Do you expect me to work at GV? I’m not saying I never would, but…”
He shook his head. “Not unless you want to.”
The stiffness in her back loosened by a fraction. She was on a roll, so she added, “Also, if someone makes you uneasy, that’s a conversation. Not a ban.”
His fingers stilled around the chain. “Not unless he oversteps.”
“And if you misread that?” she challenged.
“I don’t misread men.”
Bea’s eyes narrowed. “That’s too arrogant by half.”
“I’m not stopping you from seeing Dao, am I?”
“Mostly pouting,” she conceded.
He gave her a look. “Then trust me to know the difference between discomfort and danger.”
“What ifIdidn’t like one of your lady friends?” she asked, fluffing the pillow behind her back.
He pulled too sharply. One of the knots cinched smaller. “I don’t have lady friends.”
“But what if you did?”
“I don’t keep women in my life who blur lines. You won’t have to compete.”
Bea nodded. The room went quiet again while she let that answer sit.
She reached for her water glass on the nightstand, took a sip. She’d been saving this last one, or maybe it was more accurate to say she’d been avoiding it. But it mattered. The most.
“I want it written into our marriage contract that, if it’s ever necessary, our children can be raised in Canada through their school years.”
The chain hung between his hands. “No.”
“Rafael.”
“Absolutely not.”
“There are other ways to grow up,” she argued, her fingernail worrying a seam in the comforter. “Other cultures they can experience.”
“People choose the UR every day,” he replied. “Laurent. You.”
“Laurent was sent. I was an adult.”
His jaw worked. “You’re talking about leaving the UR.”
“I’m talking aboutusleaving,” she corrected calmly. She reached a hand out and placed it on his forearm. “Together.”
The breath he drew was slow.
“The marriage law made something clear to me,” she went on. “I don’t fully understand the system I’d be handing them over to.”
“You write the internal memos for M and S. You know our system works.”
“I know most of it is extraordinary,” she agreed. “But I want the option to show them another wayifwe need to.”
