Forever Never

“Remi.” Her name fell from his mouth in two strangled syllables.

He was pacing in front of her without even remembering rising while she told him her story.

He wanted to pick her up in his arms, promise her that no one would ever get that close to hurting her again. He wanted to fly to Chicago and break every fucking bone in Warren Fucking Vorhees’ body.

He wanted to carry her across the street, lock her in his house, and stand guard.

As a cop, he knew how dangerous domestic disputes could be. How quickly they could go sideways. The thought of Remi putting herself between a friend and a fucking monster took ten years off his life.

“Are you okay?” she asked, those jade green eyes searching his face.

Brick stopped mid-stride and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He would never be okay again.

“Do you want some water or something?”

“Just…give me a minute,” he said, finally managing to choke the words out. Visions of her, restrained by a seatbelt, holding her friend’s hand as she tried not to cry out. As she waited for a madman to end her life.

She nodded and picked up her coffee. And waited for him to calm down enough to pretend she hadn’t shattered his goddamn world for the second time in one night.

He would fucking fix this. He would make sure she was never alone in the dark again. Never faced an enemy alone. Never without a protector.

“So Vorhees was with the first responders on the scene?” Brick asked, trying to shift into cop mode. His hands fisted at his side, and he realized it was impossible. There was no way to be objective about the man who had tried to murder two innocent women. Especially not when one of them was his. There was no justice swift enough for that. Would he be satisfied with putting this animal in a cage for the rest of his life? Would the law give him the vengeance he needed to protect Remi? That gray area that lived between right and wrong suddenly began to make sense to him.

“Yes,” she said, answering his question. “It’s kind of a blur. But he was there with the cops. I think he spun some story about flying home to surprise her. When he realized she wasn’t there, he got worried and tried to track her phone.”

“So his story is he flew home, tracked her phone, and called the cops?” Brick summarized.

Remi nodded.

“What happened when they pulled you up?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, you won’t be surprised to know I did something stupid,” she confessed.

He wished he could sit with her and hold her. But he was afraid to touch her with this much rage flooding his system. “Just tell me what happened, baby.”

So he could finish having this aneurysm, turn in his badge, and go beat a man to death.

“They pulled Camille up first on a sled—she was still unconscious—and then they helped pull me up. When I got to the top, I was understandably distraught.”

Brick remained silent and waited for her to collect her thoughts.

“I kind of lunged at Warren and called him something like a tiny-pricked sociopath with no balls.”

“Jesus, Remi.”

“Oh, he played it cool. Pretended to be the devastated husband. Played the part. But I saw it in his eyes. That dead-eyed stare. There’s nothing inside him. Nothing human, at least.”

“What happened then?”

“It took an EMT and a cop to pull me off him. He told the officers I’d obviously been drinking. Then he asked me how fast I’d been going as if I had been the one driving.”

Brick swore under his breath.

“I told them I wasn’t driving. But I think it got drowned out in the midst of me trying to tell them what he’d done. That he hurt her. That he’d forced us off the road. That he’d stood there to make sure there were no survivors.”

“They didn’t take you seriously?” he demanded.

“I was half-frozen and most of the way hysterical. Plus I couldn’t catch my breath. So I probably looked a little unhinged. But he went all buddy-guy with the cops. ‘Obviously my wife’s friend is distraught. She’s been drinking. She has a substance abuse problem blah blah blah.”

“Fuck,” he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck.

“A trooper drove me home.”

“You mean to the hospital,” Brick prompted.

She shook her head. “No. He drove me home. Since I didn’t seem to be hurt.”

“You broke your fucking arm.” His facade of calm was showing Grand Canyon-sized cracks.

“Well, I didn’t know that at the time. I was more worried about Camille and terrified that he was going to off her in the ambulance or at the hospital. I tried to tell the cop—Trooper Martinez—the whole story again, but I sounded hysterical even to myself. I did get him to give me a breathalyzer though, which I passed.”

“So a cop drives you home, and then what?”

“Raj, my agent, showed up at my condo with a bottle of champagne, wanting to celebrate.”

His hands clenched to fists on the word “celebrate.”

“Easy, big guy. Not like that,” Remi assured him, then frowned. “At least I don’t think so. He sure does call a lot though.”

He shook his head, deciding to file away the agent issue for later. “He shows up at your place, and then what happened?” he prompted.

“I was trying to change my clothes so I could go to the hospital. I didn’t want to leave Warren alone with her. I was hyperventilating a little.” He pinned her with a stare. She rolled her eyes. “Fine. A lot. He overreacted, called an ambulance, and they took me to the emergency department.”

“That’s where they discovered your arm was broken.”

“Yes. It’s also where I was escorted out by security after causing a scene in the trauma bay where they were stabilizing Camille. Raj stopped me from kneeing Warren in the balls. I haven’t forgiven him for that yet.”

She was getting worked up—he could tell by the hitch in her voice.

“Someone called for security, and Warren pretended to help Raj restrain me. He leaned in real close and he told me if I caused him any trouble at all, he’d take it out on Camille. He said her life depended on me.”

That fucking piece of shit was going to wish he’d never been born. Brick was going to make sure of it. He was going to destroy the man.

There were more questions. But they could wait, he decided. Enough of the pieces had fit together to give him a clearer picture to decide what happened next. He already knew Remington wasn’t going to like it.

“We were talking about you when it happened,” she said, her smile a little dreamy as she rested her chin on her knees. “Camille and I. Now, here we are. It’s ironic, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t ironic or coincidental. He and Remi had been drawn together since the day they met. She belonged to him.

That’s why she’d walked into his arms her first day back. Why she’d chosen the house across the street. Why she’d shared her bed and her secrets with him.

Jesus. She wouldn’t have told him, he realized.

“Would you have told me this if we hadn’t slept together?” he demanded, stopping in front of her and putting his hands on the arms of her chair.

She looked way up at him, amused. “No.”

Just the possibility of that what-if had his blood pressure spiking.

“Are you okay?” she asked again. “You’re breathing kind of heavy.”

He closed his eyes. “I’m fine,” he lied.

“You really don’t sound fine. How about I get you that water? Or maybe some cookies?”

He plucked her out of the chair and carried her over to the couch, where he sat with her in his lap and tried not to crush her against his chest.

“Do you believe me?” she asked, her fingers toying with the hair at the back of his neck.

“Of course I believe you.”

She relaxed against him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was a ticking time bomb about to go off.

“What was your plan?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral. If he knew one thing about Remi, she would never allow the man to walk the earth consequence-free.

“My plan is to go back to Chicago and confront—”

“No.” The word came out ice-cold, casting a chill over the room.

“No?” she repeated.

“That’s never going to happen,” he said firmly, consciously loosening his grip on her. “You aren’t going near this man,” he told her. “Not ever again.”

“But—”

“No.”

“Brick,” she sighed.

He gave her a squeeze. “Remington. You shared your secret with me. Now we’ll work on a solution that doesn’t put you in harm’s way.”

“We?” she asked, looking at him with hope in her eyes.

“We,” he sighed.

“You’re not going to tell my mom are you?”

It was such a 16-year-old Remi thing to say that he lowered his forehead to hers. “I’m not making that promise.”

She started to squirm in his lap. Intending to challenge him. To argue. It had the unintended consequence of making him go stone-hard.

She moved to stand, but he stopped her, pulling her over his thighs so she straddled him. He slammed her down against his erection and held her hips still.

“Stop it,” he enunciated.

He saw the light of rebellion and lust in her eyes as her lids went heavy. Her lips parted.

There were so many things that he needed to do. So many things he needed to say. But in that moment, he had one priority. He needed to remind Remington just who she belonged to. Who she gave herself—problems, secrets, and all—to.

“Brick,” she said, more breathlessly this time.

Using her hips like handles, he dragged her over his arousal and back down.

Her breath caught in her throat.

“Are you sore?” he asked gruffly.

She shook her head even as she whispered, “Yes.”

“We should sleep,” he said, repeating the motion but adding a thrust of his hips.

“We should?”

The motion was sliding the waistband of his underwear down enough to release the head of his penis. Her whimper had him throbbing, and he couldn’t stand not being inside her a moment longer. He stripped the sweatshirt over her head and tugged those silky purple panties to the side.

When Remi’s eager fingers wrapped around his thick shaft, guiding it between her legs, his head fell back against the cushion. The kiss of her core, wet and warm, around his tip sent a fire racing through his body. He was being invited back to heaven.

“Slow.” His whisper was harsh as she tensed around him, lowering herself onto his aching dick.

So fucking tight. Remi’s channel gripped his erection in a velvet fist and squeezed. Every nerve ending was fired up. There was so much to feel. Pleasure at finally being where he’d dreamed of for so long. Pain for not being deep enough. Yet.

“Baby, you’re not ready to take all of me yet,” he warned her, tightening his grip on her hips.

“You sure about that?” She gritted out the words as she sank lower to take more of him.

She was going to be the death of him. He should go slow, make this special for her.

Brick stilled, holding there, reveling in the possession. Her muscles quivered around him, electrifying his senses. Making him crazy with the need to rut. To forget everything but the way her body welcomed him.

Being this deep in her had his arousal swelling, stretching her even farther.

He’d finally found his way home.

She was chanting his name over and over again.

“Are you okay? Am I hurting you?” When she didn’t answer him right away, he nipped her shoulder. Hard. “Answer me.”

“I didn’t know,” she said on a broken whisper.

“Didn’t know what?”

Those jade green eyes fluttered open and locked on to his face. “How right it would feel,” she confessed.

His cock flexed inside her at the confession. It was right. This was everything he’d ever wanted and so much more than he’d known was possible.

And he’d almost lost her before he ever had her. The realization terrified him to his soul.

“Baby doll, I need to move.”

“Move. Fast and hard,” she ordered. “Make me yours.”

“You are mine.” There would be nothing else between them from now on. He gave a testing thrust that had her writhing against him, loosening his tenuous grip on sanity, chivalry.

“Spoiler alert: I’m gonna come real fast, Brick.”

“That’s just the first time.”

“Thank God you’re not all talk,” she said through trembling lips.

He dug his fingers into her hips. “You asked for it. If it’s too much, you tell me to stop.”

“I want too much. I need you to give me too much. Don’t let me think about anything else.”

There was no holding back. Not with her permission snapping the leash he had on his control. Not with the sinful slide of her as he pulled out and the slick victory of slamming back into her. His hips worked into a wild rhythm that had nothing to do with finesse.

His balls slapped against her as he lunged into her. Unrelenting.

He couldn’t get deep enough, couldn’t go hard enough. He needed to erase the distance between them. She came immediately, choking his cock so hard with her inner walls he almost poured himself into her then and there. But he held on—barely—and rode out the ripples of her pussy.

“Fuck, you’re good at this,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath. “Would it be greedy if I asked for another one?”

He gripped her jaw and throat with one big hand. “You will ask me for anything you want. And I’ll give it to you. Do you understand?”

She sank her teeth into her lower lip while he leisurely fucked her.

“Do you understand?” he repeated, tightening his hold on her just a fraction.

There was a glimmer of excitement in her eyes when she nodded. “Yes, Brick.”

“Good girl. Now tell me what you want.”

She looked triumphant, and he wondered if he’d walked into one of her little traps. “I want you to bend me over the arm of this couch and fuck me until you come so hard you can’t stand up.”

He went a little mad then. Because he didn’t remember standing up or folding her over the rounded arm of the couch. But he did come back to himself to appreciate in exquisite detail peeling those underwear off her behind and down her legs. His eyes feasting on the subtle souvenirs his hands had left on her soft skin.

He trailed his fingertips over her back, her ass, her thighs, until goose bumps rose over every inch of her skin. Going slowly now, because once he was seated inside her, there would be no slow, no gentle, no savoring. He pushed her hips a little higher on the arm, bringing her to her tiptoes so he could line up with her entrance.

It was fucking hypnotic, watching the first two inches of his cock slide into her. “So fucking tight. Are you going to make me work for it?”

She moaned impatiently into the cushion and bucked against him. He gave her a light slap, then gripped her hips and slammed home.

“Brick!”

Her scream made his ears ring. His answering shout of triumph made his throat raw. The angle took him so impossibly deep.

Her breath was coming in gasps, each one tightening her hold on him.

“Calm down and breathe, baby. I need to move, and I can’t do that until you relax.”

“So deep,” she cried.

“That’s right,” he said, stroking a hand down her back. “There’s nothing between us. No secrets. No holding back. Just holding on.”

He couldn’t take it anymore. Need had him by the throat. He pulled out, staring down in erotic fascination at how slick she’d made his hard-on with her arousal. He worked his way back into that inviting warmth, and when she moaned, something broke inside of him.

Brick leaned over her and wrapped a handful of her hair around his fist like reins. Worshipping her scent, he slammed himself home again and again, powering his hips into her until his balls slapped rhythmically against the back of her thighs.

She was completely at his mercy, folded over and bared to him. Yet she was still chanting “yes.”

He’d offered her the world, and all she’d asked for was for him to fuck her so hard he couldn’t stand up after he came. He didn’t want to blink. Didn’t want to miss a second of this tableau as he pistoned into that tight, welcoming pussy.

His balls were churning, desperate to release their load. He told her so through gritted teeth. He told her everything, all the dark and dirty things he wanted to do to her. Whispered lewd promises against the silk of her shoulder as he fucked her into oblivion.

When she quickened around him, when her muscles tensed, he thanked the gods for this woman, this fucking miracle.

He wanted to erase every memory of terror she had. Wanted to replace it with a new memory. Of what happened when she trusted him with her body, her heart, her soul. He’d take away the pain and the fear one kiss, one fuck at a time.

“Brick!” she whimpered. “You’re making me—”

Her entire body seized around him. His cock was locked inside her as thousands of tiny muscles gripped and clutched. Biting his lip until he tasted blood, he held on as her pussy rippled up and down his shaft. She was shaking as her release rolled on. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Could only feel Remi’s body accepting what he gave it.

And when she was done, trembling and loose, when his own release was scorching its way up his shaft, he pulled out. Gripping his dick, he gave it two savage pumps with his fist and came violently on her back, her ass, her thighs. His shout scorched his throat as his semen branded her on the outside. Over and over again, he fucked into his fist until every last drop was hers. Until his balls were empty, his heart full.

Until he’d given his woman what she needed and she’d rewarded him for it.

He cleaned them both up then carried her back to the living room. Not ready to be apart, he settled her in his lap and sat against the couch, legs stretching toward the fireplace.

“How are you still hard?” she whispered, shimmying over his unflagging erection.

“Fourteen years of not being inside you,” he told her, pulling a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it around her.

“I don’t feel close enough,” she murmured, reaching between their bodies and guiding his cock between her legs.

“Baby, you’ve got to be sore,” he cautioned, stroking a hand through her wild hair.

“We don’t have to move,” she said as she slowly lowered herself onto it. “I just feel empty without you.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic. Not when he could hold her and stay where he most wanted to be, buried deep inside her.

She sighed, pressing her face into his neck, and he let himself trail his fingers up and down her back.

“Are you cold?” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple when goose bumps erupted on her skin.

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He smiled against her hair. Breathed in the scent of her shampoo. There was something happening in his chest. And it wasn’t a heart attack. It was much, much worse.

He was in love with Remi Ford. He always had been. And someone wanted to take her away from him.

He stared into the fire and tried to focus on where their bodies were joined instead of the rising panic.

She sighed into his shoulder, and her tongue darted out to taste his skin there. His half-hard cock flexed inside her.

“Mmm,” she murmured as it swelled thicker. “This feels so fucking good, Brick.” She shifted forward just the tiniest bit, and the little gasp that left her mouth made him even harder.

She rocked back down and sighed. Gently, tenderly, she welcomed him into her body.

Slow. Measured. Torturous. Every undulation had him growing thicker, harder.

Remi sat up and put her hands on his shoulders. There was a glassy-eyed gleam in those beautiful green eyes as they peered at him from under thick lashes. Her lips were full and parted as if there were more secrets she had yet to reveal, and all he had to do was make her feel good enough, safe enough, to share.

He let her rock into him, thighs tightening around him as she changed angles.

Her breasts were at the perfect height for some much-needed attention. As she worked his cock lazily with her slick pussy, he pulled one tight tip into his mouth and latched on.

The moan that climbed its way out of her throat was downright sinful. He wanted to hear it again and again. He wanted his touch to be the only one that could elicit that pleasure. He sucked, taking long, leisurely pulls at her breast, and felt the answering quiver in her core.

His hands slid down from her waist to her hips, and then around to cup and spread her cheeks. She let out a long, luxurious sigh as he kneaded the muscle beneath that smooth, freckled skin.

She tweaked her hips, arching her back, and Brick read the invitation. As he moved his mouth to the other breast, he drew his middle finger along the cleft of her ass.

When he took his next long pull at her nipple, he nudged his fingertip against the tight ring of muscle he found there.

It wasn’t a gasp of derision that escaped her lips. It was a breathy sigh of “yes.”

This woman. This fucking woman. He sucked harder, reflexively tensing at this as yet unexplored fantasy. He wanted to know every inch of her. Needed to know it.

If she wanted or craved something, he would be the one to give it to her.

She tilted her hips again, taking his shaft all the way to the root and rocking against his finger at the same time.

He reached lower, to the place they were joined, and spread the wetness he found there higher. Again and again, he followed the path from where she was filled by him to where she was empty.

Each time, he pressed a little harder, a little deeper.

Finally, he slid his finger in deeper.

“Brick.” She breathed out his name reverently as if she was saying a prayer, giving thanks. She began to move again, riding his cock and his finger.

He laved her nipple with his tongue.

His erection was fully hard and aching at the slow, gentle slides of her walls around it. He wanted to thrust. To lunge into her trembling, tender sex until they both forgot everything but the scent of each other.

But this, this was fucking beautiful. Remi riding him leisurely as he nuzzled at her breasts, teasing her toward another orgasm.

“It’s so good,” she whispered. His teeth grazed her nipple, and then he returned to the long, deep pulls.

His finger worked her tight little ass in time to her languid pace.

“Please don’t stop,” she whispered. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her lips parted in what looked like awe.

His chest felt as if it might burst with love, with pride, with the need to tell the world she was his.

“More,” she begged.

She started to rock a little harder, a little faster. He could feel that slick, swollen bud against him when she hit the bottom of his shaft. The greedy little tilt of her hips gave him the easiest access to her ass and helped her drag her clit over him.

He went back to the first breast and started rhythmically sucking, hard and deep. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and her breathing went ragged.

He wanted to stop. To tell her to fucking breathe. But she wanted him to trust her. Trust her to take everything he needed to give her. Trust her to be able to accept it.

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh. God.”

His cock jerked in her, making her walls quake around him. Moving like fingers on piano keys. Making beautiful music.

He pushed harder with his finger and sank in all the way. There he could feel the trembling too. She was going to erupt around him, and when she did, she would milk another impossible climax out of him.

“Brick, I’m coming.”

The most beautiful fucking sentence in the entire English language was Remi telling him he was making her come.

He was right there with her. Those delicate little muscles clamped down like a vise, making his cock shudder. When her muscles released, he thrust himself as deep as he could go and the first wrenching spurt of his orgasm exploded up his shaft.

He grunted against her soft breast, sucking harder, fucking harder with his finger, timing it to the waves of his own release. The waves of her pleasure surging and fading around his dick, his finger. Her greedy core demanding he surrender every last fucking drop of his seed to her.

She cried out as he filled her with everything he had to offer. He was rewarded with her shudders as she clung to him and whispered his name, loving him with her body.

No one was going to hurt her.

No one was going to get close enough to try.