RR&R 01 Real (35 page)
Do you miss your family?” I ask as he joins me.
He pulls loose the drawstring of his Riptide robe and eases the satin off my shoulders. He likes me naked so he can do all his licking lion-like things, and I like pleasing him. So I pull my arms out and toss it aside, loving when he cuddles me up against him, skin to skin.
Suddenly, with all my might, I want to give him all I have. My body, my soul, my heart, my family.
If I
told you something,” I whisper as we find our favorite spot, facing each other, my leg between his thighs, our bodies entwined and touching as much as possible, “would you remember tomorrow?”
I feel his feet moving restlessly against mine, and I smile and reach up with my arms to stroke his hair to help him relax, and then I get an idea. A brilliant one. One where he will understand what I want to say, and in this way I won’t pressure him into anything he might not feel comfortable with. In fact, he won’t really need to respond to it at all.
I reach over him to the nightstand and grab headphones and his iPod, praying that I will find the song in there. I am crazy about this song and I have never, ever, identified with it until this second when I want to shout each of these lyrics to Remington Tate right now.
Put these on,” I say excitedly. He grins because I know he loves it when I play him music. He straightens up against the headboard and puts on his headphones and then drags me toward his lap, and I crawl there.
So I select Avril Lavigne’s “I Love You” and play it.
I hear the music start, and excitement courses through my veins as he raises the volume and I can hear the lyrics start speaking to him even from where I sit on his lap.
in.
Play it again.” His voice sounds so asperous, I almost had to read his lips to understand what he said.
And in the next second, I’m listening to the “I Love You” song that I just played for him.
And which Remington Tate now plays for me.
I close my eyes, my heart shuddering in my chest, what I feel for him swelling inside me until I feel full and helplessly consumed on the inside. I feel his lips on mine, the song playing in my ears as he starts kissing me in a way that is not sexual, but infinitely tender.
Remington has a day off from training and is now completely carb loading and piling up his muscles with energy—and his plate too. He refused to eat Diane’s meals and brought us all down to the hotel restaurant buffet instead. The men are eating separately, discussing “fight” stuff, and I’m having a lovely time with Diane trying to determine the ingredients of what we’re eating. A taste of … orange? Hint of cardamom?
And then my phone bleeps. I’m thrilled to see it’s a message from Mel.
Melanie: I hate to give that ahole Riley any credit, but he was right. There’s a picture on the internet of you kissing that embodiment of Gross that night!! And it’s going viral!
My world stops.
Of course.
My bottom drops, and I feel like I’m drowning before the storm even comes, just at the mere sight of the cloud incoming.
With frozen lungs, I lower my phone back into my purse, somehow feeling as though everything I do seems to be in slow motion. I glance at the table where the men discuss their strategy for tomorrow night, and I notice Remy is easily listening to them. One second he’s normal, relaxed and lounging back, with his legs splayed open on a pink dining chair of the hotel restaurant, and the next I see him looking intently at his phone as it vibrates.
My heart sinks to my toes, but seconds pass, and nothing happens.
I can’t read his profile, but he has gone utterly still. Then it all happens in a blink of an eye. He turns the entire table with a gigantic crash, and Coach ends up on the floor, with a thousand plates and food over him.
In the same move when Remington catapults to his feet, he shoots his cell phone across the room, where it crashes into pieces against the wall as he starts for me, and Pete scrambles to his feet and reaches into his back pocket.
No, Pete, no!” I burst out, loathing the idea of Remy being tranquilized.
Trembling in my seat, I stay utterly still as he comes to stand before me, breathing like a bull, his nostrils flaring, his eyes burning black in his face, his fists trembling at his sides. But it’s the hard desperation in his gaze that sends awful chills down my arms.
It takes me about ten times the normal effort to speak. “Do you want to talk to me, Remington?” I ask, my voice raw.
I brace myself for his shout, but somehow, the cold sliver of a whisper he answers with is infinitely more threatening.
I want to do
more than talk to you.”
He looks bigger than ever, and the entire restaurant is looking at him.
Diane scrambles away to the toppled table to help Coach clean up.
Remington’s hands flex and fist at his sides as he glares down at me. His jaw works as he breathes, fast and choppy, and I notice Riley has just come up behind him, next to Pete.
There’s a fierce battle inside Rem’s eyes. He’s struggling like he knows he has to control himself but can't. As if the anger is beyond him.
calm
him
. I know that when I set my hands on any part of his body, he relaxes under my touch. I know he needs to receive my touch sometimes as fiercely as I need to give it to him. Except he’s never been like this, and I’m afraid that for the first time in my life, my touch won’t be welcomed by him.
He hasn’t even spoken, and yet I can feel his turmoil so completely surrounding me, whatever he has to tell me already hurts somewhere deep and profound inside my body. I hurt him. I hurt him, and I instantly hate me for it. My wind pipe swells in pain.
I just went to see my sister,” I painfully breathe, a well of regret and anxiety roiling inside of me.
I went to see my sister, Remy. I couldn't care less about the scum.”
He touches my hair, and the touch is so very unexpectedly gentle, I want to die with the way it contrasts with the lighted frenzy in his eyes and the way his thumb starts desperately scraping over my lips. “Yet you kiss that fucking
asshole
with the same mouth you kiss me.”
“
Please just count to ten.” Helpless, I touch his sleeve.
motherfucker
with the same mouth I would kill for?”
My lips hardly touched the tattoo.” My voice is whisper quiet as my windpipe begins closing down. “I did just what you do when you let them get a hit and give them false confidence so I could see my sis.”
He slams his chest with a loud noise. “You’re
my
fucking girl! You don’t get to give anyone false confidence!”
“
Sir, we need you to leave the premises now.”
Remy’s head swings around as the manager comes forward, and suddenly Pete and Riley stop the poor man from getting closer, Pete swiftly extracting a checkbook as the terms
cost of damages
echo in the room. Remy’s narrowed eyes slide back to me, and he’s so angry and gorgeous, and such a damn handful, I just don’t know what to do with him.
He comes closer and slides a finger down my jaw, and I respond to it, my scared body primed for sex with the barrage of hormones his temper has shot through me. “I’m going to go break that fucker’s face,” he whispers, the velvet promise laced with threat as he leans and slips his tongue into my mouth, “and then I’m going to break
you
into my submission.”
“
Remy, calm down,” Riley says.
“
That’s all right, Riley, I don’t break that easy, and he’s sure welcome to try,” I snap, finally giving Remington the big black scowl he seems to be begging for.
He scowls back and ducks his dark head, breathing hard into my face as he grabs my hair in his fists and crushes my mouth with brutal possession, swiping my lips with punishing flicks of his tongue. “When I get you in bed, I’m going to scrub you raw with my fucking tongue until there’s nothing anywhere on you from him. Only me. Only
me
.”