Page 18 of No Fear
Once he was fully dressed again, he slid into the driver’s seat and glanced at Rachel. She’d curled up into a ball, her legs tucked up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. It was a protective, self-preserving posture. He knew it well and hated that she didn’t feel safe. More than anything, he wanted to reach out and touch her, caress her, soothe her and tell her again that nobody would hurt her but he knew his words wouldn’t fix anything. She needed more than that right now.
“So…” He said instead, trying to keep his voice light when he felt anything but, “That asshole is your brother?”
Rachel sighed heavily and didn’t speak until he had backed out of the parking space, “Craig. He’s my half-brother.”
No stutter. He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. She was scared but it wasn’t of him. The worst of his tension released and his urge to reach over and touch her multiplied by about a thousand. He white-knuckled the steering wheel.
“Seems like a real winner.”
Rachel turned her face to look at him, resting her other cheek against her knees, a pale imitation of a smile touching her lips, “Yeah, well, we can’t pick our family, right?”
“Tell me about it.” He pulled them out of the field and onto the road before glancing back to find her looking at him. “What?”
“You were really angry with Lincoln tonight. You were rude to him, called him out in front of everyone. You threatened him.”
“He had it coming.”
“B-because he touched me?”
Remy almost smiled at the slight stutter to her question. Did the idea of that make her nervous? He didn’t know if that was a good or a bad sign. Because despite her reasons for coming to him tonight, despite whatever else was happening, he knew she wanted him too.
“Yeah.” Remy gave in to his need to touch her and reached over with his right hand, lacing their fingers together, “I didn’t like him touching you. I don’t like the idea of anyone touching you.”
“You think he’d hurt me?”
He squeezed her hand and then lifted it to his lips and kissed her knuckles, “No. He’s not that stupid. But it doesn’t matter. Pain or pleasure, I’d kill him for giving you either.”
“Oh.” She squeaked slightly, and he saw her eyes widen before he had to glance back at the road.
They were silent as he drove down the dark and abandoned old highway. The barn was in the middle of nowhere. That was one of its benefits. There weren’t even streetlamps out here so he could only make out shadows of Rachel’s face from the dashboard lights.
But he could feel her watching him. He had always been able to feel her gaze on him like a caress. She always stared at him when she thought he wasn’t looking, like she was trying to put something together. He’d never said anything to her about it, had wanted to give her time to figure it out for herself. He’d known that she would, eventually, because she was a smart girl and it was so obvious.
He was hers.
As he drove, they settled into a comfortable silence and he could almost imagine they were a normal couple, just out for a drive together. Her hand in his felt so right, he couldn’t manage to let go of her. He shifted without releasing her and caught her small smile out of the corner of his eye.
It was a nice moment and he was afraid to ruin it but the truth was, there hadn’t been anything normal about tonight and they needed to talk about it. There were so many things he needed to ask her about. What had happened with her brother? Why was she scared of him? Was he the reason she’d come to find Remy tonight? But despite all of that, there was only one question that he couldn’t get out of his head, couldn’t shake, and he knew whatever happened with them would hinge on it.
“Rach?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask you something?”
Her fingers tightened around his and he squeezed in return, knowing she was expecting the worst when she stuttered, “Ye-yeah?”
“Do I scare you?”
Her head lifted and he could feel her looking at him again, “What?”
“You saw me at my worst tonight, Rach. Fighting. Not just in that cage but with Lincoln too. I broke that guy’s nose and if Lincoln hadn’t released you, I would’ve broken his too. It’s what I do. I fight. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at. Well, that and running away but I’m done with that now. No more running. So I need to know, now, before this goes any further, are you scared of me?”
“Uh… no.”
He’d expected hesitation. He’d thought she would take a moment to think about her answer and what it would mean. Instead, he got a firm and solid no without any indecision at all. And he was the one left stuttering.
“Wh-what?” He spared a glance sideways and saw her lips quirk, “What do you mean no?”
