Brick gave the coordinates while watching Remi’s chest rise and fall through labored breaths.
He spent the next three minutes glaring at her while he waited for the EMTs to arrive.
“Here comes the parade,” Ben said cheerfully as three snowmobiles broke through the trees and raced toward them.
Brick stomped over to meet them and grabbed the paramedic. “Got a bronchodilator on you?”
Edison McDonough, island native and twenty-year emergency medicine veteran, had red hair going gray that peeked out from under a thick ski cap. He glanced in Remi’s direction and reached into one of the dozen pockets of his bag.
Brick fought the urge to snatch it from the man’s hands and shove it into Remi’s mouth himself to put an end to her torture…and his. There was a protocol to be observed. Rules that existed for a reason.
“You check out, Mr. Kleckner,” Edison told Keisha, the other EMT. “I’ll deal with Chief’s kid.”
“You got it,” Keisha said, grabbing her bag off the back and heading for Ben. “You got any cookies for me, Mr. Kleckner?”
“Remi Ford. Still getting in trouble, I see,” Edison teased, kneeling down in front of her.
Brick positioned himself at her back, standing guard.
She wheezed out a laugh. “You know me. Always…dying to be…the center…of attention.”
“Can we hurry this along?” Brick snarled, ignoring the looks they both shot him.
“Well, since I’m here.” Edison pulled his stethoscope out from under his coat.
“Is Mr. Kleckner…okay?” she asked, peering over the paramedic’s shoulder to where Keisha was coaxing Ben onto a sled behind one of the snowmobiles.
“He looks good,” Edison said. “It’s a good thing you found him when you did. You kept him warm and awake. Could have been a lot worse.”
Brick doubted that she was aware of doing it, but Remi had sagged back against his legs. It helped loosen the tightness in his chest.
“Is this any worse than previous attacks?”
“Ha. Walk…in the park,” she joked. But her labored breathing was like razor blades in Brick’s gut.
“Don’t have your rescue inhaler on you?” the paramedic asked, as if it wasn’t colossally irresponsible of her not to be carrying it. Brick’s fingers curled into fists. There was a time for bedside manner and there was a time to lay down the law.
Her shoulders tensed, and she shook her head. “I didn’t bring it. I’m…fine,” she insisted. “I can wait…until I…get back.”
Brick met Edison’s eyes and shook his head.
“All the same to you, Remi,” Edison said. “I’d sure feel better if you’d let me treat you here. You don’t want me having to face the wrath of your mom, now do you?”
“She is…terrifying,” she agreed weakly.
“Then let’s get some albuterol in you, and we’ll go from there. It’s too bad you don’t have your rescue inhaler on you,” he said, pulling a nebulizer out of his bag.
“Ah, shit,” Remi croaked, pressing her hands into her knees.
“You know the drill,” Edison said.
The paramedic left Brick to supervise Remi while he checked on Ben’s condition. Brick stayed where he was, supporting her from behind as she took slow breaths that fogged the mask. He couldn’t seem to stop his own fingers from toying with her hair. She’d pulled it back in a long tail at the base of her neck.
In less than five minutes, her breathing was easier, and she ripped off the mask.
“Remi, I swear to God if you don’t—”
“How’s my other favorite patient?” Edison interrupted. He took out his stethoscope again and listened to her chest. “You’re going to need to get looked over by the doc. And it’s a real small island, so I’m gonna know if you don’t go straight there.”
“She’ll go,” Brick promised.
She looked up at him and frowned. He gave her hair a tug.
With Ben swaddled in thermal blankets and strapped to a sled, Brick gave the signal, and the EMTs packed up.
“We’re set to head out. Want a ride, Remi?” Edison offered, patting the back of his snowmobile. “I can take you straight to the med center.”
“She’s riding with me,” Brick snapped.
The paramedic threw him a salute and started up his machine.
Remi hadn’t argued with him, which added concern to his roiling temper. He boosted her onto Cleetus’s back with a hand on her ass.
“You need a keeper,” he said, climbing up behind her.
“We both know…you’re not volunteering,” she shot back through chattering teeth. She was holding herself stiffly away from him, shivering in the thermal blanket they’d given her since her coat was soaked through.
With quick, mean moves, he yanked her blanket away, opened his own parka, and yanked her back against his chest. He spread the blanket in front of her and clenched his jaw as she wriggled the soft curves of her ass against his already aching dick. The madder he got at her, the harder he got for her. Needing to discipline her was a sickness swimming in his blood.
She tried to pull away from him, and in the ensuing struggle, her sweater slid higher. He couldn’t stop himself from splaying one hand over her now bare stomach.
“Hold the fuck still,” he ordered as he spread the thermal blanket around her.
He tried not to think about his thumb’s discovery that the infuriating woman against him was not wearing a bra. There was nothing between his thumb and the soft underside of her left breast. Just full, silky flesh begging to be squeezed, sucked. His pinky finger was wedged an inch into the waistband of her sweatpants.
He kicked the horse into motion and gritted his teeth. The slow roll of the saddle added a constant friction between Remi’s sweet, round ass and his granite erection. Heaven and hell intertwined as he finally learned what she’d feel like under his hands.
They broke out of the trees minutes later into civilization.
“Where are we going?” she asked when he guided Cleetus away from downtown and the health center.
“We’re going to your place to get your rescue inhaler and the rest of your prescriptions. Then I’m taking you to the med center and telling the doctor to lecture you until you actually listen.”
“I don’t need your…assistance,” she sniped weakly. “I can do all that…myself.”
“Yeah. Sounds like you could run a lap around the island right now, too. Would you rather I dropped you off at the Kleckners so your mom can give you that scary look of hers?”
“No,” she said sullenly.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked in her ear.
“I’m fine.”
They lapsed into silence. Her heart thumped steadily against his palm, and her skin gradually began to warm under his touch.
The snow fell harder now. Fat flakes floating from the sky, blotting out the horizon as Cleetus picked his way down the road.
“I swear to Christ, if you ever leave your house without your inhaler again, I’m going to lock you up.”
“If my recollection serves, I didn’t call you. This isn’t your problem.”