Page 184 of Forever Never
“I guess I did.”
“Now, as the lovable ex-wife, I need you to hear this. Don’t play with him, Rem. He’s been waiting so long for you. If you’re not all the way in, if you’re just going to pick up and move on when the wind blows, do him a favor and walk now.”
“Things are…complicated right now,” Remi admitted. “We haven’t talked about the future.”
“Well, you should at least be thinking about it. Don’t hurt him if you can help it. He’s one of a kind, and I really don’t want to dislike you for something real.”
“Message received,” Remi said, feeling just a little unsteady. She caught a glimpse of Brick’s face at the window again and fell just a little harder in love. “So what areyoudoing here?”
“My brother told me you and Brick finally hooked up. I figured it was time for me to do some apologizing.”
“And scare the hell out of Brick? I’ve never seen him that pale before.”
Audrey’s grin was sharp. “His face when he opened the door looked like he’d just stepped on a trapdoor. He’s probably out there wearing tracks in the hardwood as we speak.”
46
Remi sat front and center at Tiki Tavern’s bar while Brick, Darius, and her very excited father on his first bar shift handled drink orders. She was determined to enjoy the night, to forget about everything weighing her down, and focus only on having a little fun.
The music was loud, bathing the packed bar in golds and shimmers of rose. The crowd still leaned heavily in favor of the residents, but there were enough seasonal workers and early tourists to shift the balance. As she sipped her drink, straight bourbon tonight, and kept up with the conversations around her, Remi thought about what she’d be doing if this were a normal night in her normal life.
In Alessandra’s life.
She would have been painting, alone into the night. Or she might have been dressed up, made up, for an event to sell herself, her talent to buyers with the right kind of deep pockets.
Instead, she was crammed in between Audrey and Kimber and lusting after her bartending boyfriend. Kimber was doing her best to ignore Kyle, who had not only shown up but bought the last two rounds and was trying to coax her sister into a dance. Spencer—having shown up on the afternoon ferry the day before—was sandwiched in between Audrey and Darius’s boyfriend, Ken.
Brick hadn’t even blinked at the extra guest. With two kids, a separated sister, an ex-wife, and a dog, what was one more?
Remi, on the other hand, had blinked an eye on her way to bed, when she’d spotted Spencer sneaking into Audrey’s room after midnight. Audrey’s arm snaking out and dragging him inside.
Brick hadn’t come home from his patrol until two, when she’d already been sound asleep, curled up with Magnus in his big bed. Their morning quickie had been interrupted before it started with a call from dispatch.
Between the full house and the beginning of the tourist season, they hadn’t had any alone time, and she was desperate for him.
The feeling appeared to be mutual. Every time he turned back to her, his gaze dipped to the lace-up front of her sweater dress. It was a long-sleeved mini dress in hunter green that hugged her curves. She’d paired it with gray suede boots that stopped at mid-thigh.
All with the express purpose of driving Brick Callan crazy.
She knew the signals of his arousal. The tightening of his jaw, the flare of his nostrils like he could catch her scent. The narrowing of those blue eyes that burned with an intensity that took her breath away. The way his fingers lingered on the glass he served her.
Hesmoldered. And she ate it up.
When AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” came on in a storm of reds and oranges, Remi dragged Audrey and Kimber out on the crowded dance floor with her. They danced like they had in high school, shimmying and grinding for the pure enjoyment of it.
When a friendly red-headed guy in a button-down put his hands on her hips, she felt the weight of Brick’s gaze on her. Heating her skin and making her nipples ache for his mouth, for that rough scratch of his beard. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and raised her arms as the song came to a climax, letting the colors, the beat of the music, flow over her.
The crowd whooped when the song ended, and Remi fanned herself. With a wave at her dance partner, she headed down the hallway toward the restrooms. A hand gripped her upper arm hard, and she found herself being propelled out the emergency exit.
Her pulse sky-rocketed as a pissed-off looking Brick whirled her around to face the facade of the building. He kicked a crate over on its side then lifted her to stand her on top of it.
“Hands on the wall,” he ordered, lips tickling her ear as those big, broad hands of his traveled the front of her body.
Light and laughter poured from the window next to them as their friends and neighbors went about their Friday night business, none the wiser to the debauchery happening on the other side of the wall.
“Here?” she whispered, eagerly slapping her palms against the clapboard siding. He kicked her feet out, widening her stance, making Remi instantly wet and aching. She’d fantasized about this for so many years. Pushing him past his limits so he had to drag her away, had to take her, and remind her who she belonged to.
The sound of his belt loosening had her breath catch in her throat.
