She nodded, unable to stifle her moan of desire.
“I need you safe even more than I need you naked. That’s how important you are to me.”
Her head was spinning. After fourteen years of rejections, she couldn’t just accept that this was the way it was between them. If she opened herself up to a relationship with him, a real chance at one, he could just as easily change his mind like he had before. Where would that leave her when she’d only just begun putting her pieces together again?
She had a chance at surviving a monster. But Brick? It would be fatal.
“Tell me what you’re thinking right now,” he demanded. Those blue eyes were hard and flinty as they searched her face.
She shook her head.
He dipped at the knee, bringing his hard-on between her legs and pinning her with it. Then he found her mouth and made her surrender to him. When she was sure she’d never draw another breath again, he pulled back. “Tell me, Remi.”
“Ugh,” she moaned. “I-I love it when you box me in like this. When you don’t give me an escape.”
“You were made for me, Remington. Don’t ever fucking doubt that.”
“I’ve done nothing but doubt that for almost fifteen years, Brick. There’s no guarantee that this about-face of yours is going to last. One good night’s sleep, and you could change your mind. You could marry someone else or decide to leave Mackinac and me behind again.”
His face turned to stone. But he didn’t argue. He didn’t promise her that this time was different. He didn’t say any of the words she needed to hear.
“All that aside, you’re safer if you’re not connected to me. If Warren gets it into his twisted mind to hurt me, he’ll start with you. He’ll start by destroying something I care about. I need you to keep some distance.”
“There is no more distance between us.” His tone was steely. “Got that? Not after last night.”
She buried her face in her hands until he brushed them aside.
“Look at me,” he demanded, waiting until she complied. “This is the repercussion of letting me into your bed, Remington. We both knew it would be like this. Now we have to deal with the consequences.”
She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. “What if I run?”
“I’ll chase you down and bring you back. As many times as it takes.”
Ignoring the fluttering around her heart, she slapped her palms to his chest and pushed. But he didn’t budge. “It’s not safe, Brick. Don’t you get that?”
He gripped her upper arms tight. “I need for him to understand that in order to get to you, he has to go through me. I need you to understand it, too.”
She shook her head as her eyes went damp. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know what he’s capable of. He found me here less than twenty-four hours after I got here.”
“What do you mean, he found you?”
35
For once, the law wasn’t on his side. The gap between black and white, right and wrong, had widened overnight into a foggy, murky swamp of gray.
No judge would issue an arrest warrant based on some news clippings and a shredded painting. Certainly not when the defendant was a United States senator.
But that didn’t make the threat any less real. Senator Warren Vorhees was a fucking monster. And sooner or later, he’d escalate beyond vague threats. And Brick would be ready for him. It was with boiling blood he’d logged the evidence and opened a case file. An unofficial one.
He included Remi’s thick stack of research. It made his stomach churn to think of her alone, scared, scrolling through internet searches for hours hoping to find the key to putting the man who’d hurt her behind bars.
Well, she wasn’t alone now. And Brick would build a goddamn prison around Vorhees if that’s what it took to keep him away from Remi.
His phone signaled an incoming text.
Remi: Do you really think I can’t bust out of Brick Jail when you leave Spencer in charge?
He’d charged Spencer with keeping an eye on her while he went back into the station.
It made him anxious to be away from Remi. Especially after seeing how upset she was over her own desecrated painting. She’d covered it up. But he could still see the hurt. That alone made him want to break the asshole’s jaw.
Brick: I know exactly what you’re capable of. I’m just hoping you’ll choose to behave yourself until I get home.
Remi: Me? Spence is the one who just challenged Phil Coolidge to a pull-up challenge.
Brick felt the ghost of a smile on his lips. Phil Coolidge was an 82-year-old, retired triathlete who’d called Mackinac home since the late ’90s. His husband was in a rehab hospital on the mainland recovering from bypass surgery, and Phil was lonely without him.
Brick: Don’t let either one of them break anything.
She responded with a short video of Spencer and Phil running wind sprints on the street.
His phone rang and he answered.
“Remi.”
“You can’t keep me under guard forever, you know,” she warned.
He closed his eyes. “I realize that. This is a temporary solution until I can find a way to keep eyes on Vorhees.”
She blew out a breath. “This doesn’t need to be your fight, Brick.”
“I thought I made myself clear this morning.”
“Your testosterone was in the stratosphere after fucking my brains out. You weren’t thinking clearly.”
He glanced around, making sure none of the other officers were within earshot. “You need to accept that this is the way it is. I know you’re scared. But you’re not alone anymore, and if you think I’m going to let you face this alone, then I really must have fucked that brain right out of your beautiful head.”
“Dirty dirty dirty,” she purred.
His cock stirred in his pants, and he pressed the heel of his hand against it. “Behave yourself.”
“Do you have plans tonight?” she asked, all innocence now.
“Yes.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
“They involve you. Naked. In my bed.”
“What about Spence?” she asked, sounding a little breathless.
“He’s not invited.”
Remi laughed. Then sighed. “By the way, the show you put on for Mira this morning seems to be the equivalent of pissing in a circle around me. Phil congratulated me on our ‘new romance’ when I got here.”
“Good.”
“Brick,” she groaned.
“Remi.”
“You can growl my name as sexy as you want, but we’re still going to discuss this. There’s no reason for you to sign up to be my friend with benefits and my bodyguard.”
If she thought the two were mutually exclusive, he had a lot of educating to do tonight. But he had to walk that line with care. Too much pressure, too many rules, and she’d spook.
“Looking forward to it,” he said as Carlos Turk strolled over and leaned against his desk.
“Oooh. Cop voice,” she purred. “Are you trying not to say anything personal? Like how hard you had to work to get every inch of that huge—”