Page 60 of Nothing to Win

Something he’d claimed with such ease in the past.

“You backed me up.”

“Followed your lead, Irish.”

“Would you let me…” Splaying her hands on his chest, she fortified herself.“You’re for me in a way no one ever has been.You walk beside me.”

“No,” he said, both hands holding her face.“I walk with you.You’re strong, baby.You’re too used to giving in.Stop letting them dictate your life.”

“It’s easy to say that.Right now I feel strong because you’re here.”

“Things will change,” he said.

“When we’re over?”she asked and shook her head.“With my family?I don’t…”

“You have to assert yourself.”

“I can do that when I’m with you.”

“That’s in contradiction to how most people see me.”

“Funny that.”Her arms went around him as he embraced her.“You have all the strength in the world, but you don’t let people in.What can they do to you?Why keep yourself so…?”

“People respect what they don’t understand.”

She laughed, swaying until her chin almost met his chest.“I suppose that’s true.I respect you and don’t understand how…”

“Ask me,” he said, inscrutable.

“It’s so easy for you to distance yourself.”

“Is it?”

“From where I’m standing,” she said.“You know yourself so well.I’m a stranger to myself.”

“I don’t think you are.You know yourself, you don’t trust yourself.There’s a stark difference.”And he had absolute faith in himself.Justified, granted, but it was another of his enviable traits.“You accept your father’s view before your own.Eventually you’ll figure out he’s full of shit.Man’s got no fucking idea what he’s doing, and he sure doesn’t know you.”

She liked that he was so certain.After such a short time, it was unlikely he honestly did know her better.Still, his resolve strengthened hers.

“I like to think he wants the best for me.”

“That’s what’s so sad,” he said.“You deserve better.”

“Thought we weren’t bitching about my family anymore.”

“In front of them.And this isn’t bitching.You need to see what’s in front of you.Soon I won’t be around to remind you.”

No, but she didn’t want to think about that.This wasn’t the end.Not yet.

Rising on her tiptoes, she hoped to beg his lips.“Will you remind me now?”

“Remind you how that fire works?”

Because when she called for him, in those climactic seconds, she could see herself as invincible.Or she would if her brain worked in that ecstasy.

He picked her up to toss her onto the bed.Home.With her family.With her guy.The two were so different.Right then, only one really mattered.

NINETEEN