Page 72 of No Fear
“Your brother?” He asked, surprised she’d spoke his name so easily, almost warmly.
“Yeah.” She frowned now, “He was smoking with some of his friends in the parking lot that day. He was a senior then and he… well he saw the whole thing and he came rushing over. He got right in the faces of those kids and he told them if they ever laid another hand on me that they’d answer to him.” She snorted, “Those girls never even looked at me the wrong way again.”
“He saved you.”
“Yeah, I guess he kind of did.” Rachel was chewing her bottom lip again, her face serious, “That’s the thing about him. I never knew what I would get growing up. He was either the good big brother that saved me from evil threats or hewasthe evil threat. There was no middle ground.” She released her lip and her voice was soft when she sighed, “I guess there’s still not.”
“Rach…” He didn’t like the way pain had colored her pretty face but she shook him off.
“I’m going to brush my teeth.” She rolled over and pushed up out of the bed, wincing slightly.
His worry about her sudden serious mood turned to the physical, “You okay?”
“Just a little sore.” She shot him a small smile over her shoulder as her cheeks flushed pink and that look, combined with knowing he was responsible for both her ache and that blush, warmed him inside out.
“Brush your teeth and then run a warm bath. It’ll help with the soreness.” He followed her up out of the bed and groaned when she bent over to pick up a shirt, her round, perfect, naked ass right in front of him. He grabbed her hips and pulled her back, flush against him, “Jesus, Rach, don’t bend over naked in front of me right now.”
“Mmm,” She moaned and rubbed against him, “Remy…”
“No.” He released her quickly, before his body could talk his head out of what it already knew was the responsible decision, “You’re already sore. You don’t need me bending you over and pounding into you. Not right now.”
Rachel bit her lip and looked up at him shyly through her lashes, that flush stretching down her neck and over her chest now, “But… later?”
“Damn right, later.” Heat coursed through him and he growled, as he pushed her towards the door, “Take your bath. I’ll figure out something for breakfast.”
“Don’t burn the trailer down. I’ll make something when I get done in the…”
Rachel’s teasing tone was cut off by the sound of something loud banging against the side of the trailer. She jumped nearly a foot in the air and clutched the shirt she’d grabbed to her chest. She started to shrink before his very eyes, all of the confidence and strength he’d begun to see in her disappearing as fear washed over her beautiful features. He grabbed her, pulling her to him, and felt her shaking.
“Rach…” He started but the pounding came again.
It wasn’t something hitting the side of the old metal trailer. It was someone. Someone was banging on the door, or if not the door, just the wall in general. He strangled a curse as he held Rachel, hating whoever had interrupted their perfect morning, hating that something so small could still scare her so badly. He wanted her to understand that she was safe here, with him, always.
“It’s okay. It’s probably just one of my…”
It was his words that trailed off this time because the pounding became incessant and a voice accompanied the banging. A voice he knew. A voice he’d hated and feared in equal measure for a lot of his life. A voice he had prayed he would never hear here, not in this place, the place he’d decided to call home, that he wanted to build a home with Rachel.
“Remington!Remington! Remington you goddamned, son-of-a-bitch, piece-of-shit! You get your ass out here right now, boy! You hear me!”
His blood ran cold at the sound of his father’s voice. Decker was here. Beating on the trailer and screaming his name, calling him every curse in the book and slurring while he did it. It was barely nine o’clock in the morning and the bastard was drunk and spewing vile hatred out of his mouth.
He was here to fight, finally. The reprieve was over. He’d figured out Remy was home, figured out he was living less than a mile away, on Bomar land no less, and he’d come to confront him. He’d known it would happen eventually but the fact that his father was here, now, when he had Rachel with him and was scaring her, that was what flipped the switch and turned the fear into anger.
His entire body heated with it and he carefully guided a shaking Rachel into the bathroom, “Stay in here. Don’t come out until I tell you he’s gone.”
“But, Remy…” She tried to hold onto his hand.
“No. He’s my father. I have to deal with him. You don’t.”
“But…”
“Rach, I gotta go before he starts breaking things.”
The sweet, open, confident woman that had woken up in his arms looked up at him with fear and worry in her beautiful eyes now. Her dark brows furrowed and her lips thinned. He knew she wanted to say something but she only swallowed hard and then nodded slightly.
“Okay.”
“I don’t want him anywhere near you. He’s dangerous and it sounds like he’s already drunk, or still drunk. Whatever the case may be, I don’t trust him with you so stay here, run your bath and I’ll be back as soon as I get rid of him.”
