Page 96 of Forever Never
“You know what? I’m getting really tired of being everyone else’s problem. If you all hate being around me so much, leave me the fuck alone!”
She was so tired, she just wanted to sink down to the bottom of the tub and stay there. As if reading her mind, Brick reached in, shut off the water, and plucked her out of the tub.
Her wet legs left a damp trail over his crotch as he lowered her to the floor. Either he was hard or he’d found a new place to stow a nightstick. But it didn’t matter anymore. None of it did.
She needed to sleep. To curl up in a ball and sleep until the world was ready for her.
“You’re shaking,” he observed.
“You will be, too, if you don’t get the hell out of my bathroom.”
He ignored her threat and pulled her into the living room. She stood there and watched as he found the control for the fireplace and nudged the gas higher. When he started to pace in front of the fireplace, Remi gave up on standing and flopped down on the couch.
“What did you mean tonight?” he demanded, pausing mid-stride to stare at her with a strange intensity crackling in those blue eyes.
“You’ll have to be more specific,” she said, lolling her head on the back of the sofa. “I talk a lot.”
“When you were talking to Kimber.”
“I said a lot of things to my sister. And none of them are your business,” she said, pulling a soft throw off the back of the couch and spreading it over her legs.
He was pacing again.
“Wait, you’re mad at me about something I said to my sister in a private conversation?”
He stopped again and took a step toward her, then shoved a hand through his hair. “Mad doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.”
She’d never heard that tone from him before. It was brittle, jagged. He swallowed hard like the words were lodging themselves in his throat. But she squashed the desire to fix it, to make him more comfortable.
“You told her that you were hard to love. That you thought you were too much.”
The man had fought her off, zip-tied her, then hauled her ass to a holding cell, andhewas upset that she’d announced a universal truth to her sister.
She tucked her feet under her. “I’m tired. What’s your point? What do you want me to say?”
He was moving again. Stepping into her space, he put his hands on the cushion on either side of her head. The fire flickered behind him as he loomed over her.
“Do you believe that?” His voice was a rasp, his eyes almost silver in the low light. A long beat of silence stretched on, broken only by their breaths.
Finally, she nodded. It was the truth. One she’d known as long as she’d known her own name.
“Remington, anyone whoevermakes you feel as if you’re hard to love is a damn fool and doesn’t deserve to be in your world.”
She blinked. His nearness was taking the chill out of her bones, lighting up the shadows.
“Why do you care?” she whispered.
In slow motion, he removed one hand from the back of the couch and gently cupped her cheek. On instinct, she nuzzled against his palm and was rewarded with his hiss of breath.
“Because you’re the best person I know.”
His words were like a caress. A balm on some raw spot that had never healed. His thumb brushed over her lips. Once. Twice.
And then he was pulling back, straightening away from her. “Go to bed, Remi.” The order was gruff yet gentle.
Mouth open in stunned silence, she didn’t move from the spot as Sergeant Brick Callan put his hat back on and walked out, locking the door between them.
26
