“Using you and Camille as bait is doing the same thing. Intentionally putting you in harm’s way.”
“It’s not,” she insisted, slipping her arms around his waist and holding on. “Because we have you. Brick, you aren’t going to let him get close enough to her. To me. You’ll keep me safe just like you always have.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” he said, feeling broken inside. She couldn’t possibly know what she was asking him to do. She wanted him to hold up the single most important thing in his universe and dare a mad man to try to take it away.
He couldn’t resist her anymore. He had to hold her. Tucking her into his chest, he rested his head on the red hair that had haunted his dreams for his entire adult life.
“I do. And I know it’s not fair. And I swear I’ll make it up to you.”
“How?”
“I’ll spend the whole rest of my life loving you so big that you’ll never have reason to doubt it for a second.”
“Remington.”
“Brick. I love you and I trust you. And I’ve got a whole lifetime planned out for us. I’m not going to do something stupid and jeopardize it. I promise you. I’m just asking you to do what you’ve always done. Protect me.”
51
With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Brick walked in the door after seven to a full house and salsa music. Mega trotted toward him with a welcoming ruff, the cat slinking along on his heels.
He shucked off his coat and bent to pet the welcoming committee. “What’s all this?” Neither the dog nor the cat had answers.
The table was set with his grandmother’s china, and someone had brought her card table out of the basement to handle overflow seating.
The noise of people, of family, came from upstairs and down the hall. The smells of homecoming wafted toward him, and out of the noise, he zeroed in on Remington’s laugh.
And there she was. The flash of red hair. The smile that could thaw the coldest of hearts. She didn’t walk to him, she ran. Jumping into his open arms like it had been days rather than hours since she’d last seen him. This was the fantasy. Coming home to her. Opening his arms to her. Loving her.
She kissed him on the mouth, and when it was over too soon for his liking, he fisted a hand in all of that fiery hair and made her kiss him again until he was hard and she was breathless. His. The fierce possessiveness nearly choked him.
“I missed you,” she said, squeezing his hips with her thighs. “Busy day?”
He stroked a hand down her back to her buttocks, gave them a squeeze. He’d spent all the hours since Camille’s interview with the feds, setting up patrols and coordinating the arrival of a dozen more federal agents. They’d be on the island by morning. In the meantime, Mackinac officers were scheduled to patrol past his place, Remi’s parents’, and Kimber’s house every half hour.
“A bit.” With regret, he let her slide down his body to the floor. “How was yours?” he asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Good, considering. I declared it family dinner night to welcome Camille. Mom will be here soon. Kyle’s coming, too,” she said with a wiggle of eyebrow.
“Do we smell a reconciliation?”
“From what I eavesdropped on Kimber’s very private conversation today, it sounds like Kyle is changing jobs so he can be home every night, and Kimber is starting her own business. Agnes Sopp hired her to rehab her property by the marina.”
“Good for them,” Brick said. “I’m going to miss having the kids here though.”
Remi smiled coyly and ran her hands down his chest to his belt. “I’m so glad to hear you say that because I volunteered us to take them for the whole weekend next week while Kyle and Kimber go away for a sexcation.”
“When can we take one of those?” He skimmed a palm up her side to cup her breast under the jewel-toned cropped sweater she wore. A week away with nothing to do but make Remington Ford come. He’d move any mountain to make that happen.
“I was thinking. It’s been a while since I had a vacation. And it’s been such a long winter.”
“Very long,” he agreed, thumbing her nipple into a point.
“What would you say to a Caribbean vacation? Maybe a quiet villa with a private pool so I can sunbathe topless?”
He let out a pained breath as his dick throbbed behind his zipper.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, cupping his erection in her hand.
There was an outburst of laughter coming from the living room, and he heard the oven timer go off. Too many people in the house for him to carry her upstairs and make her scream out his name. “That’s a definite yes,” he growled. With great reluctance, he removed her hand from his crotch and pressed a kiss to her palm.
“Good. If you hit the shower now, dinner will be ready by the time you get back down.”
A shower sounded good.
“I don’t suppose you can join me?” he asked wolfishly.
She bit her lip, gaze zeroing in on his hard-on. His cock twitched at the attention.
“Remi, come look at this meat,” Gilbert Ford called from the kitchen.
Brick winced.
“Mood killer,” she whispered. “Go shower. Oh, and Spence wants to talk to you. I can’t imagine about what.” She winked.
He paused long enough to dig a small box out of his coat pocket before floating up the stairs, counting his lucky fucking stars.
When he came out of the bathroom in a towel, he found his brother lounging on the bed, looking at his phone.
“What’s up?” Brick asked, grabbing underwear and sweats out of the dresser.
“I need to talk to you,” Spencer said, jumping off the bed with nervous energy.
“Okay. Talk.”
“Well. I wanted to talk to you before something happened. But then something happened and—” He dropped his phone and bent to pick it up, smacking his head off the nightstand. “Ow.”
He took pity on his little brother. “You and Audrey,” he said.
Spence looked up, rubbing his forehead. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Remi saw you sneaking into her room two nights ago.”
His brother winced. “I really wanted to talk to you about it before I did any kind of sneaking. Preferably so sneaking wouldn’t be required. I’ve had feelings for her for a long time but I couldn’t tell if you were still torn up over the divorce and I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt—”
Brick held up his hand. “Spence. Stop. You have my blessing even though neither of you need it.”
“Seriously?”
“I think the four of us have wasted enough time, don’t you?”
Spencer grinned at him and brought him in for a back-slapping hug. “I love you, man.”
“Yeah, yeah. I love you, too. Now stop pretending like you’re sleeping on the couch.”
His brother paused in the door, still smiling. “This thing with you and Remi. It looks pretty serious from the outside.”
With an eye on the hallway, Brick opened his sock drawer and tossed Spencer the small velvet jeweler’s box.