Remy (Real Book 3)

I’m in the zone.

Standing so I can stretch my legs and bounce in place, I curl my fingers and twist my neck to one side, then the other. Riley lifts three fingers, and I’m up in three. After a couple more jumps, I pry off my headphones, slip into my robe, and then wait until I hear it: “And noooow, ladies and gentlemen, say helloww to the one, the only, Remington Tate, RIPPPPPTIIIIIIDE!”

Taking off down the walkway, I follow my name, then I leap into the ring, strip off my robe, and hand it over to the guys at the corner. The noise heightens as I open my arms and turn around, taking a good look at my crowd. Hundreds of heads are turned in my direction, waving banners and shit in the air as the name Riptide shudders upward and across the ceiling rafters.

My arms still out, I keep turning, scanning the crowd until my eyes lock on her. Brooke Dumas. Sitting right where I want her. She’s framed by the groupies Pete and Riley brought up to my room, and they have nothing on her. She wears her hair down, and her smile, fuck, her smile is just for me. I smile back at her, thinking, this is for you.

Then I focus on my opponent, wait for the bell, and take him down. Working up a sweat, I take out a second fighter, a third. On my fourth and fifth, I keep jabbing, hooking, shooting out double punches, straight power punches, countering, attacking, and defending.

On my eighth, I block a power punch from his left arm, then I bury my hook in his ribs and finish him with an uppercut to the jaw that knocks him out completely with a thunk. He tries to rise, but slumps back down.

The public roars as my name takes over the entire room.

“RRRRRRIIIIIIPTIIIIIIIDE!” The ringmaster lifts my arm, and I’m catching my breath as the announcer yells, “Our victor, ladies and gentlemen. Riptiiiide!”

The screams are almost deafening, and I turn around and look at her, the smile on her lips so perfect, I can’t fucking wait to kiss it.

It takes me five minutes to shower and change at the hotel, then I cross the lobby to where Brooke waits in the back of a black Lincoln.

I slide in and shut the door behind me, and when I settle in my seat, the back of my hand rests against the back of hers. I carefully watch her for any signs of her wanting to pull away.

We head into traffic.

Brooke still hasn’t protested.

So I run the pad of my thumb over the back of hers, watching her reaction.

She inhales a quick breath, and the way her tits push up against her glittery top makes me hard. I think about running my thumb up her bare arm, her slender neck, then trailing it over that plump, pink mouth I want to feel all over me.

“Did you like the fight?” My voice is low and gruff.

She stares out at the window, her thoughtful profile making me want to fucking beg for it.

“No. I didn’t like it,” she admits as her eyes finally come to mine. “You were amazing! I loved it!”

The words hit me with such joy, I laugh, and I grab her hand, lift it to my mouth, and scrape my lips across the small rises of her knuckles, looking at her.

“Good,” I murmur, staring deep into her eyes. It takes all my effort to let go of her. But I want her to get used to me first. I want her to smell me, feel me right here. I want her to feel my body heat and get accustomed to me. My presence. Everything about me. When I sit next to her, this is the last time I want her shoulders to go tense and tight.

Soon, we reach the club. I help her out of the car, and when she slides her small hand deeper into mine, I feel so fucking possessive, I don’t let go of her. I want every man looking in her direction to know this one’s fucking mine. In silence, I lead her past the bouncers and to a private room in the back.

“Pete is getting a lap dance,” Riley tells me at the door of the private room, and I’m disappointed when Brooke quietly pulls her hand free from mine. “You don’t mind treating him to one as a birthday present?” he asks me.

We all watch as a woman in a glittering silver bikini heads for Pete, who looks goggle-eyed. Brooke squirms at my side, and Riley turns his attention to her, his eyebrows flying high. “You shy about this, Brooke?” he asks in amusement.

A soft-pink hue stains Brooke’s cheeks, and a rush of possessiveness charges through me. I engulf her hand in mine again, quietly asking her, “Do you want to watch?”

She shakes her head, and I quietly tug and lead her outside, noticing how she flattens her palm against mine, her soft fingers interlaced with my bigger ones. God, she’s so perfect. All my instincts are raring for me to claim her.

She lets me lead her through the throng like she knows she’s mine, or like she wants to be. There’s noise and a crazed crowd of dancers, and as an Usher track reverberates through the room, Brooke leaps in excitement.

“Oh, I love this song!” she tells me, squeezing my hand in a way that makes my chest hurt.

The blonde groupie spots Brooke from within the dance floor, and before I know it, she’s pulling her away.

“Remy!” The redhead who’d been dancing on the table of my suite grabs me and hauls me in by their side, and I can’t take my eyes off Brooke. Dark haired and sexy, she moves as gracefully as a cat as she dances. Hips swaying side to side. Long golden legs. Debbie pulls Brooke closer by the hips and they’re dancing as one, the undulating movements of Brooke’s small waist and narrow hips heating me up to the point of madness. She laughs and turns around, arms waving in the air, as the chorus of “Scream” begins.

She spots me. I’m not moving, even though everyone else around me is. Only my heart thunders inside me. Mine mine mine.

There are things you’re certain about. That you’d bet your life on. Things that you just know. You know the heat of a fire will burn you. Water will quench your thirst. She is one of those things; the most unerring certainty of my life.

She looks into my face, the look in her eyes soft and giving, and every inch of me wants to take what she’ll give me. I reach out, spin her around, and crush her body against mine. I dive hungrily to her lovely neck, brushing her hair to the side, and pressing into her spine, inhaling her like a madman. Her scent curls around me and I part my mouth, hungrily grazing her skin with my teeth before my tongue flashes out for a taste of her.

She moans as she reaches up behind her, locking my head to her neck as the crowd dances around us. I grab her hips and pull her harder against my cock and, holy God, I want her.

Heart pounding, I spin her once. Then, her gold eyes lock to mine, I see they’re liquid with wanting. I’m shaking with need as I grab her chin in one open hand and gently nuzzle her.

“Do you know what you’re asking for?” My voice is husky with arousal. “Do you, Brooke?”

She doesn’t reply, so I grab her ass and haul her closer, my mouth almost on hers. I want to have her now. Tonight. I want to wrap my hands in her hair while I pound inside her, I want to smell her desire all over me and drown my tongue in her taste. She slides her fingers up my chest, into my hair.

“Yes.” As she pushes up on her toes, she pulls me down by the head, and suddenly her body slams into mine. My arms fly out to steady her.

“If it isn’t Riptide and his new pussy,” some dipshit sneers behind her.

Over her dark head, I see the motherfucker.

Scorpion.

A human-size insect, wearing his usual shit-eating smirk, while his three goons flock his side.

The thing about fighting is you never know when to stop. They just shoved Brooke, and I want to shove each of them back to the ground, then break their arms in half. I fucking can’t—and even if I could, right this moment I’d rather take her away from these motherfuckers than stay here and punch their faces in.

“What’s your girlfriend’s name? Whose name does she call out when you fuck her, huh?”

Gathering a piece of her top in my fist, I use it to guide her out of the dance floor, then I turn her to me and block Scorpion’s view of her with my body. “Go back with Riley and ask him to take you to the hotel,” I quietly tell her.

She meets my gaze. “You can’t get in a fight, Remy.”

“We’re talking to you, douche-nozzle,” I hear from over my shoulder.

“I heard you, asshole, I just don’t give a fuck what you have to say,” I shoot back.

I sense him move and swing around in time to see his fist coming and duck, then I shove him hard enough to slam his ass to the floor. Grabbing the other one by the shirt, I push him back a couple of steps. “Take a hike or I’ll cut your fucking balls off and then feed them to your mother!” I growl as I grab the other two and shove them back, and when the first one stands and approaches me from behind, I let my elbow swing back, high.

His nose cracks under my bone, and he howls.

“Sorry, dude, my bad,” I say.

Scorpion is grinning. I find myself bloodthirsty enough to grin back. You happy I’m about to break your skull in two, motherfucker?

Then, suddenly, Brooke materializes from out of nowhere with two bottles, and she’s whipping them up in the air and crashes them over the two bastard’s heads. Glass explodes and rains down on the floor, then she runs back to the bar so fucking fast she’s like a little bullet.

I would be highly amused if every single protective instinct inside me hadn’t shot off the charts, and if she hadn’t run back with a third bottle—a third fucking bottle!

I grab it from her hand before she can do anything and nudge her back toward the bar, where I slam it down hard. Then I toss her over my shoulder and charge back to the private rooms. I swear if I don’t get her out of here right now, I’m going to end up killing someone.

Brooke squirms and tries to pry herself free, slamming her fists into my back, complaining, “Remington!”

I tighten my hold on her ass to still her and see Pete chatting with a group of women. “Scorpion’s out there with his fucking goons—I’m out,” I growl at him, then charge outside and shove her into the back of the car.

Our driver jumps behind the wheel and quickly pulls into the traffic. I’m struggling with myself in the backseat while Brooke tries to catch her breath, and holy god, I’m trying to erase the image in my head of watching her recklessly charge two fully grown, bloodthirsty men. “What in the hell did you think you were doing?” I explode, shaking with rage.

For her part, Brooke doesn’t look one bit concerned—she looks fucking delighted. “I just saved your ass and it felt amazing,” she says breathlessly, looking like a goddamn vision in that gold little top.

God! I want to fucking shake some sense into her, and at the same time I want to push her skirt up to her hips, bend over between her legs, and sink my tongue in her until she moans my name and makes me forget everything that just happened.

I don’t fucking like Scorpion looking at her.

I don’t like him talking about her.

I fucking don’t like him pushing her.

And I can’t even put into words how I feel about her smashing the brains off his minions with a couple of fucking bottles. Jesus.

I scrape my hands down my face and then rub the back of my neck, all my limbs shaking. “For the love of fucking god, don’t ever, ever, do that again. Ever. If one of them sets a hand on you, I’ll fucking kill them and I won’t give a rat’s fuck who sees me!”

When she only stares at me with a defiant little gleam in her eyes, I catch her wrist and squeeze so she understands she can’t fucking take on men like them, releasing her when she gasps. “I mean it. Don’t fucking ever do that again.”

“Of course I will do it again. I won’t let you get into trouble,” she counters.

I can only stare at her, a thousand things I’ve never felt in my life hitting me all at once. “Jesus, are you for real?” My chest feels like a knot as I drag a hand along my face and stare outside, trembling when I think of all the years nobody has given a shit whether I get in trouble or not. “You’re a stick of dynamite, do you know that?”

Her cheeks flush a deeper red as she nods. She looks as beautiful as a fucking rainbow. I want to stop with this arguing, take her up to my room, and make love.

Going up the elevator, I stay away. I want to finish what we started at the dance floor. I want to grab her, kiss her, hold her. I want her to promise me to never do that again. Never risk herself for me, or anyone, again.

“It’s okay,” she says, touching my shoulder, and all I can think is, God, Brooke. You’re so sweet and so innocent. Are you going to do this when I’m black?

I’m all knotted up inside as I see her fingers on me, and in my mind, I bend my head and lick my tongue up her fingers, all the way up her arm, her shoulders, her neck, to latch onto her mouth. Before I can, she steps back to her corner and stares at me, her eyes wide and confused.

I flex my hands and try calming down.

“I’m sorry you had to see those assholes,” I say, pulling on my hair for a second. “I’m going to fucking break all Scorpion’s bones and pull his goddamned eyes out when I get a chance.”

She nods, and I’m calmed somewhat, but even then I’m fighting the urge to put my arms around her.

“Can I come to your room until the guys get back?” she asks.

I hesitate, then the thought of her leaving her scent all over my room makes me nod like a true masochist, and she follows me. In my suite, she settles down on the living-room couch and I flick the TV on as a distraction. “Do you want something to drink?”

“No,” she says. “I never drink the day before flying or I’ll get doubly dehydrated.”

I bring two water bottles from the bar and sit next to her.

“Why did you get in trouble when you were pro?” she asks.

“A fight like the one you just prevented,” I answer in a thick, textured voice. Then I stare off into the screen, jaw clenched as I remember. I’d awoken to find the TV ablaze with news about me. I’d been manic. I’d been provoked. I’d acted—like I always do. My life was over, just like Brooke’s when she tore her ACL.

Yet she sits here, next to me, my female.

My strong, beautiful female who defended her male tonight.

The need to pull her in my arms eats me. No woman has ever made me want to cuddle and nuzzle her to me, but if I cuddle her to me, I’ll kiss her pretty mouth, and if I kiss her pretty mouth, I’m not going to stop there.

I’m still jacked up, my testosterone flooding my veins, my body tight with weeks of pent-up wanting. But I need to get closer, and I find myself slowly stretching my arm out over the back of the couch. So fucking close, I feel her soft hair against my forearm.

She watches me through her lashes like she wants me to get even closer, and I realize some sort of heavy kissing is on the TV, annoying me enough to make me turn it off. I want it quiet enough that I can hear the sound of her breath, hear it quickening just for me. My hand goes to her nape, and I gently caress the soft skin at the back of her neck with my thumb. She trembles.

“Why’d you do that for me?” I ask her, my voice husky.

“Because.”

She holds my gaze, her amber eyes so alive and mesmerizing, there’s a fire at the pit of my gut as I squeeze her nape, insisting, “Why? Somebody tell you I can’t take care of myself?”

“No.”

Her mouth is more tempting to me than anything I’ve ever wanted and had to live without. I close my eyes and drop my forehead to hers. I’m hungry for her scent, I can’t stop breathing her in. I hear her breathing me in too when a light touch of a fingertip brushes across my lips. My chest knots up with hunger and my tongue darts out. I’m anxious for a taste. For her. She shudders. Undone, I groan and suck her finger deeper into my mouth, my eyes shutting as I savor her.

“Remington . . .” My name on her lips makes me hot enough to blow.

“Honey, I’m home!” A slamming door and Pete’s sarcastic voice stuns us. “Just wanted to make sure you guys got here okay. Scorpion sure seems to have a hard-on to get your ass back in jail.”

The lights flare on, and the knowledge of what I’m doing slams into me like a sledgehammer. I drop her finger and stalk to the window, breathing hard as I struggle for control. What the hell am I doing? She has no idea about me.

“I’d better go,” she says.

Pete watches her leave, then he looks at me as I stand here, feeling tortured like it’s my last day. “I’ll just wait for you here, Rem,” Pete says calmly.

Burning inside my skin, I clamp my jaw in frustration, curl my fingers into my palms, and follow her to her room, so wound up I’m ready to burst through my jeans.

I want her so much I’m not even thinking of anything except the way she looks, the way she smells, the way she just fucking stuck her finger into my mouth.

As she slides the key into the slot, I let myself fantasize that this is our room. Or at least that it’s just hers. And she’d open up the door, and I’d follow her inside. I’d kiss her slowly. Set her down on the bed. I’d kiss her all over.

But it’s not just her room. I’ve been booking her with Diane, so I’d stay away. But maybe I don’t feel like staying the fuck away anymore!

She waits a moment and then finally turns.

“Good night,” she whispers, and looks up at me.

Before I can pull myself back, I grab her face and kiss her lips. “You look beautiful.” My thumb runs with desperation along her jaw. I tilt her chin and kiss her—softly, drily, quickly before I lose it. “So damn beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off you all evening.”