Read Breathe Again for Free Online Page B

cheekbones. She shivered as heat suffused her blood.
    He bent down close until his lips were at her ear. “Don’t you think I remember every moment I spent with you?”
    Something inside her fractured. He made breathing hard, and she didn’t need to learn how to do that. It was natural, but this wasn’t natural. Her reaction to him wasn’t natural. Never had been. His lips moved closer to her neck, leaving her boneless.
    There wasn’t a part of her that didn’t want him right now. How was it possible to want him so much, it ached?
    “Don't.” Her voice was empty.
    He nipped at her neck. “Don’t?”
    She rolled her shoulders, and the small action caused him to pull away.
    “This is because I never wanted babies. I know that hasn’t changed, and I know how screwed up this is. This is ten degrees of wrong, but it doesn’t change me wanting you.”
    “I come with the baby, Nick, or did you forget that for next six months I am a human incubator?”
    He shook his head. “How can I forget? You think that blip on the screen was easy to un-see?”
    This was now a jump to the moon. That’s how screwed up it had gotten. A freakin’ sky-jump to the moon.
    Nick looked down at the tips of his boots, and she followed his gaze. Army type. Black. Nothing to hold his attention for too long.
    He took her hands in his. “Skye, maybe we gave up too easy. We can try again.”
     “What about the deal-breaker?” she asked, cursing the lie she kept.
    “Deal-breaker?” His gaze narrowed.
    “You said you didn’t want children ever and it was a deal-breaker. Always had been.”
    “I told you. It still is.” He sucked in a breath then turned to her and caught her gaze dead on.
    “It’s not a one or the other deal here, Nick.” She felt guilty for pushing when she was the one hiding things.
    “What if there was a way?” he asked.
    Skylar shook her head. Did he really not want this child that much? Her hand went protectively around her tummy. “Please leave,” she said.
     
    *****
     
    He was about to become a father. A dad. He had no idea what that meant. After having such a screwed-up childhood, how was he expected to be a father? Nothing good could come of this. Nick let his fingers run along the scar on his hand. The small cigarette-shaped ring was a constant reminder of things he didn’t want to remember from his past.
    Some people were meant for happy endings. Maybe it was in their DNA, he didn’t know, and right now he didn’t want to find out. He shouldn’t have married her. Thinking a man like him could have a normal life was wrong. He tightened his hand around the scar—the constant reminder of his faults, of his bad blood, and of what he could become if he let himself. The replica of his father.
    His chest constricted as he thought of Skylar and what they could have had, but he shook his head. He couldn’t risk it . He couldn’t endanger a child.
    That was the way it had to be. He couldn’t be a part of Skylar’s baby’s life. If he lost control like his father, or if he became the monster his father was, Skylar would never forgive him. He would never forgive himself. But how would he make her understand?
    Without thinking, he found himself walking up to the nursery and looking into the area the babies were kept. He knew it was wrong to ask her to give up her baby for him. It was selfish. If there was another way it could work for them both, he had to try to find it.
    He could see Skye as one of those mothers in the nursery, rocking her baby, looking at their child with loving eyes. She would have enough love to give for the both of them. She was nothing like him. He knew nothing about being a father, but she… she would be a great mother.
    Nick put his hand against the glass and touched the world he so wanted to be a part of. The same world that had rejected him, time and time again.
    “Which one is yours?”
    Nick turned around and when he saw the older man standing next to him, he shook his