“Shut. Up. Spence,” Brick growled.
His brother held up his hands. “I’m just pointing out the obvious here. You’re holding yourself to some impossible standard that no one else would.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, I saved the best for last. She’s my boss’s daughter.” Go ahead and tear that one apart, Brick thought smugly.
“You think Chief Ford is going to fire your ass for banging her consenting, adult daughter?”
“Spence, I swear to God, if you keep talking like that, I’m throwing your ass out of here.”
Spencer grinned. “You’re into her,” he said.
“No. I’m not.” Brick helped himself to a surly sip then fought the urge to knock back the rest of the contents.
“Holy shit. You don’t want to just have some naked fun with her. You want more, don’t you?” Spencer said, slapping the bar.
Heads turned in their direction.
“Keep your voice down,” Brick warned.
“Are you in love with her?”
He winced and didn’t cover quickly enough. Because his brother’s eyes widened. All joking disappeared. “Holy shit, man. Why didn’t you say something? Hell, why didn’t you do something? How long has this been going on?”
Brick shot back the contents of his glass in one gulp that burned all the way down his throat to his stomach. He reached for the bottle again, poured. “Shut up, Spencer. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His brother leaned back on his stool. “I thought you two could barely stand each other. I mean, you got along great when we were kids…”
Brick’s stupid face must have betrayed him again because Spencer leaned over the bar. “Even back then?”
“She was underage,” Brick warned.
“Please. She was sixteen and a half when we moved here.”
“Which makes it wrong and illegal.”
“But not that wrong or that illegal. Dad met Mom when she was sixteen. They got married when she was seventeen.”
“Yeah. And look how that turned out,” Brick pointed out.
Spencer eyed him but said nothing for once. Brick closed out a few checks and went out on the floor to clean up a table.
When he returned, Spencer was sitting there looking morose. “You let me date her when you had feelings for her.”
“You were an age-appropriate option,” Brick said. Plus, it had kept her close.
“So when you punched me over the prom truck thing—”
Brick hung his head. “Spence. Please. Can we not talk about this?”
“I think it’s about damn time that we started talking about it, don’t you?” his brother countered. “I put her in danger. You knocked me on my ass and told me to find my own way home and you took Remi back to the ferry.”
“Spence.” The memory of it still made his throat burn. Watching his brother walk away with the girl he wanted. Watching Spencer be careless with her.
“You must have been so pissed. Not only did your favorite little brother fuck up like that, I got your girl hurt, too. I can’t believe I never saw it.”
Brick’s chest hurt. “We’re done talking about this.”
“Yeah, we are,” Spencer said, getting off his stool and ducking under the service bar. “Go get your girl. I’ll keep your tips.”
28
“What the hell part of back off don’t you understand?”
Remington opened the fucking door in just a sweater and white cotton briefs.
He pushed his way inside and collided with her like a freight train. He picked her up without missing a stride and kicked the door shut behind him.
This time, when he pinned her to the door with his hips, his mouth slammed into hers, sealing any protests, any smartass comments, any dirty talk between them.
That mouth. It had spent years tormenting him with smart comments and red lipstick. With fucking popsicles in the summer and chaste greetings where she pressed those lips to his and danced away again, daring him to grab hold and keep her there.
She didn’t melt against him. There was nothing soft and surrendering about her reaction. No, Remington Ford counterattacked. And when he forced his tongue into her mouth, and she let out a sexy little moan, he knew he was going to find out finally just how wet she got for him.
Tonight. Now. Finally.
He hadn’t earned her. He didn’t deserve her. But for once in his life, that wasn’t going to stop him from taking what he wanted. What he needed.
“Tell me what you want,” she whispered, squeezing those thighs around his waist like he was a mount she was urging faster. “Show me what I can give you.”
Eyes closed as he reveled in the feel of her against him, he shook his head. “It’s what I need, and if I told you everything I need to do to you, you’d run.”
“Try me.”
His shaft, nestled up against those fucking white panties, throbbed as pictures raced through his mind.
“I need to suck your nipples so long and so hard they get hard every time you see me.” The words came from a throat full of shards of glass. “I need to own your sweet pussy with my mouth and my dick. I need to know what it feels like to have you come on my hand, my tongue, my fucking cock. I need to come so deep inside you, you never stop feeling it.”
She trembled against him, shaking like she was cold. But everywhere he touched, her skin was hot.
“I need to bend you over and peel down those wet panties so I can turn your cheeks red with my hand.”
This was where she would laugh or cry. This was the part she would tell him he was sick. Even as he waited, holding his breath for the rejection, there was a powerful relief in finally putting the words out there. Finally releasing his secret.
She cut him off with her mouth. Pulling him down to her and kissing him like she was drowning and only he could save her. She trembled again, a full-body shiver that made him want to apologize for the confession even while he did every filthy thing he’d ever fantasized about to her.
Pulling back, she looked up at him, starry-eyed and stunned. “Yep. Let’s do that. All of it.”
He groaned.
“You don’t mean that, Remi.” She couldn’t mean that. She couldn’t understand what years of yearning would amount to if she gave him access to her body.
She lunged forward, her teeth caught at his bottom lip, and he tasted blood.
“This is where you tell me to walk away, Trouble,” he whispered.
Those heavy lids lifted, and beneath thick lashes, those green eyes looked into his fucking soul. Her hair was a tangle of rich, red fire in his fist. “You never listen to me when I tell you to leave me alone. Besides. This time it’s different. This time I’m saying yes to everything.”
He thrust his hips against her. She let out a silvery little gasp. Music to his fucking ears. “You aren’t hearing me. I want to use you, ruin you.”
“Then you better get started.” She wasn’t taunting him. The woman meant it.
“I’m fucking serious, Remington. If I start, I don’t know if I can pull myself back.” If he couldn’t control himself, he was no better than his father.