Page 8 of No Fear
Her face was painted with makeup tonight and he decided instantly that he hated it. Hated that the thick black liner only made her big eyes bigger. Hated the way that rosy red mouth all but begged to be kissed. Hated that the sex doll outfit and makeup wiped away every trace of the innocent girl he knew her to be.
The only spec of innocence left was in her eyes when their gazes collided, and even that was tinged in something darker, something that he knew mirrored his own. Want. Need. Desire.
She nervously licked her lips and he had to swallow a groan. That was the most frustrating part of his desire for this girl. He knew she felt it too. Knew from the first time she looked up at him that she wanted him too. She was wary and distant and shy with everyone else but from the moment they met she’d looked at him with stars in her eyes and he’d wanted to give her the sun and the moon and everything in between.
God, he’d never wanted anything in his entire life the way he wanted her. Hadn’t thought he could want like this. Not after everything that he’d been through. Not carrying all of his baggage. But then she’d walked into his life and everything he thought he knew about himself had gotten shaken at the very foundation.
Because if all he’d wanted was her mouth, that full, red, pouty mouth that had given him more hard-ons in the past few weeks than he’d had in a lifetime, he would have simply taken it. If all he’d wanted from her was a tumble in the sheets to sate his lust, he was certain he could have seduced her already. But he wanted so damn much more than that, he wanted everything his brothers had with their women and he wanted it with her.
With Rachel.HisRachel. Damn it, she was his and knowing all of these other lecherous assholes were staring at her and imagining getting their hands on her made him violently, impossibly angry. Because he hadn’t claimed her yet, hadn’t wanted to push her too hard or too fast, had known she was scared and wanted to take his time with her, but coming here, coming here dressed like that, it blew apart all of his good intentions.
All he could think wasmineand he had vowed to protect what was his this time around.
It wasn’t safe for her to be here. She didn’t belong here. She was too good, too sweet and pure and innocent to be in a place like this. If she knew what the kind of men that hung out in places like this wanted from her she would be terrified because as best as he’d ever figured out, men in general scared the living hell out of her.
He didn’t know why that was. She’d never told him. He assumed someone had hurt her, an old boyfriend maybe, but he’d never asked. It was a touchy subject for him. He knew it would be for her too. That was one thing he feared they had in common and maybe, that too, was one of the reasons he gravitated to her.
Because she was still good. Her shadows hadn’t swallowed her whole. They hadn’t eaten her alive. She had survived whatever had been done to her, to damage her, and she was still whole. She was still good and sweet and that needed to be protected at all costs.
That had been his first instinct with this girl from the moment he met her. Protect. Not seduce. Not bed. He’d wanted to protect her and that same part of him was screaming to grab her and get her the hell out of here right now.
He stamped down on his raging lust and looked at her again, more closely, looked at more than just her incredible body and beautiful face and he hated what he saw. Behind the makeup and the sexy outfit, he saw fear lurking in the depths of her eyes and it gutted him.
Something was wrong. He knew it. Why else would she be here? In a barn, at a cage fight, surrounded by hundreds of men that would rip her apart and destroy her goodness given even half a chance? Something was wrong and he had to find out what it was and fix it for her but first things first, he had to get her out of here.
Remy stepped towards her before he even told his feet to move. One step, two… and then a big, solid arm jutted out in front of his chest. It stopped him in his tracks.
“Where you think you’re goin?”
“Move, Ford.”
He’d forgotten his cousin was even standing there, “Not a chance.”
Ford shook his head and then glanced over his shoulder, directly at Rachel. Shit. How long had he been standing there, staring at her? Too damn long if Ford had figured out who he was looking at and where he was headed. Remy had an insane urge to tell his cousin not to look at her but he swallowed the threats that coated his tongue and tried to appear calmer than he was feeling.
“Let me go, Ford.”
“No can do. Link’s introducin’ ya now. You said you were ready to do this.”
“I only need a minute.”
He needed way more than a minute but he’d settle for one. He could grab Rachel and get her out of here in a minute. At the very least he could figure out a way to keep her safe while he was in the cage. Because as much as he wanted to walk out of the barn with her right now and never look back, he couldn’t. He’d made a promise to the family to fight tonight. If it was only Lincoln, he might have blown it off but he wasn’t doing this for Lincoln. He was doing it for Colt and for Cash.
“It’s one fuckin’ minute, Ford.” He growled when his cousin only shook his head.
“You can’t wait until later to get a piece of ass? Really? You don’t need the distraction right now.”
“Don’t call her that.” He grit his teeth.
“What? A distraction?”
“A… never mind. I need to talk to her. Now.”
“Yeah, yeah, line your prize up for after the fight but make it quick, okay?”
That hit him like a sucker punch. His prize. His brain screamed that thinking about Rachel like that was a bad idea. She wasn’t some groupie. She was good. But his body burned at the very idea of claiming her. She was his but he’d promised himself he wouldn’t push her since she was so skittish, that he wouldn’t rush things or force her into anything she wasn’t ready for, that he wouldn’t put her in danger by claiming her publicly but she was here, now, and it was the only way he could think of to protect her.
Fuck it.
