She slumped against him, anger mixing with something more primal. “I did put her in the hospital,” she hissed. “Just because I wasn’t behind the wheel doesn’t mean I wasn’t responsible.”
“Your so-called friend is trying to ruin you, and you’re still worried about protecting her. What would happen if I talked to her?”
Remi felt the color drain from her face. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and held on. He went hard against her, his erection swelling behind his jeans. “Don’t you dare try to get involved in any way. Do you hear me?”
“You expect me to just stand by and ignore the fact that you’re in some kind of fucking trouble?”
“Yes! That is exactly what I expect you to do! Because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be my keeper and keep me at arm’s length. You can’t protect me from the big, bad world while protecting yourself from me!”
She’d never known want like this. Never been able to put a label on the desire she’d always had where Brick was concerned. But being pinned to the door by the pissed off, barely restrained giant, she finally had the word for it. She wanted to be dominated, wanted him to trust her enough to take everything he needed to give. She wanted to push him past those stalwart limits so he would finally take what he wanted.
She needed those vibrations shuddering through his body to ruin his walls, release that white-knuckled control, and set him free. His erection swelled, rigid and straining behind the fly of his jeans. She ached for him. And hoped like hell he was in the same pain.
“Now unless you plan to use that dick for what it was intended, back the fuck off,” she said, her voice low and shaking.
“I’m not good for you, baby,” he said. “I wouldn’t be gentle or sweet. I’d be mean, rough. And you deserve—”
“If you say that I deserve better than to be fucked exactly the way I want to be fucked, then clearly you’re not the man for the job.”
His eyes narrowed to slits, and Remi wondered if this was the time that he’d make good on all those threats to murder her. His entire body was bunched and trembling as if ready to spring.
One thing was clear. Brick wasn’t keeping his distance now.
As if reading her mind, he thrust his hips against her, pressing that hard, denim-covered cock against her, making her whimper. The tendons in his neck stood out beneath his beard as he gritted his teeth and growled.
It wasn’t enough for either of them. When he dipped his knees to press against her center, when he rammed himself between her legs, her head fell back against the door. Again. Again. Again. Desire choked her as her inner walls fluttered, desperate to be part of the brutality of his thrusts.
He stopped just as abruptly as he’d begun, but this time with his hips wedged between her thighs. His cock pulsing between them, his breath ragged.
Her pulse was racing, and she was hot, light-headed.
How had he never kissed her? How had they touched so intimately, shared so much vulnerability, yet his mouth had never taken hers? What would it be like to breathe his air? To feel the stroke of his tongue? To taste his words?
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. Their eyes locked, but neither of them moved. They were trapped just a few steps outside the real world. Here in this cramped, dark office, they didn’t have the rules that existed on the other side of the door.
“What would I find if I slid my fingers into your panties right now?”
Her mouth went dry, and the insistent throb between her legs became a frantic drumbeat.
“Why don’t you find out?”
He fisted a hand in her hair, dragging her head back. He leaned in closer until their lips were a breath apart. “That fucking mouth, Remi.”
She let out a tiny, ridiculous whimper.
Oh, God. This wasn’t happening. This was one of those fantasies. One of those dreams she’d wake up from and realize Brick Callan was never going to touch her the way she wanted him to.
“Would you be wet?” His whisper was harsh, making her nipples tighten. “And if you were, would it be for me? Or someone else?”
Her eyelids were too heavy to stay open. She felt drugged and dreamlike, being held like this by him.
“These are the questions I ask myself every fucking day. I can’t concentrate when you’re around. When I know you’re just across the street. Just across the dinner table. Just across the bar.”
Her entire body was trembling against his. She needed him. Needed more than what he was willing to give her.
“Every day, you lure me a little closer. And one day, I’m not going to be strong enough to step back.”
“Then stop stepping back.”
One of his fingers toyed with the zipper of her jeans. Brushing lightly over it.
“There are rules, Remi.”
“I’m not a teenager. I’m not dating your little brother. You’re not married.”
“Your mother is my boss.”
“You want my mom’s okay before you’ll stick your dick in me? We’re both adults, Brick. We don’t need a permission slip!”
His hand abandoned her zipper and coasted up her sweater to rest just under her breast. Her nipple strained against the confines of her bra, needing his touch. She was shaking again. But this time, it wasn’t from fear.
“I don’t want to know what you feel like from the inside if you’re just going to pack up and leave. I don’t want to watch you walk away knowing what you taste like between those fucking thighs. I don’t want to say good-bye to you knowing what my come looks like spread over your perfect goddamn tits.”
Her knees gave out on her right then and there. But she didn’t fall. Because once again, Brick Callan caught her.
“How the hell should I know if or when I’m leaving? And why does that give you the right to torture me?”
“You aren’t hearing me, Remi. If I got anywhere near that sweet pussy of yours, I would punish you for making me wait so damn long. I’d discipline you for wanting to leave me. You’re safer if I never touch you. And so am I.”
As he said the words, his cock flexed between them.
She was shaking now. He’d put voice to it. Her deepest, darkest desire. He wanted to dominate her. The thought of it, the thought of that big, hard man bending her over and…
“Show me.”
He flinched, and she saw his jaw tighten as his throat worked. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Test me. Show me how you’d punish me. How you’d make me apologize for all those lonely hard-ons I’ve left you with. All those times you had to get yourself off because you just couldn’t help it. Show me.”
She wanted, craved, needed to know what it felt like to have him powering into her, making her come.
“Never.” His whisper was jagged, broken. And it sliced her into ribbons.
“Then I guess you’re never gonna know what you’d find if you forgot about your dumbass rules long enough to slide that hand between my legs.”
His growl was a warning that she was pushing him too far. There was nothing she wanted more than to push him even harder.
“If you wanted me like that, nothing would stand in your way. Nothing would stop you from taking me and giving me what I want. So don’t stand there and act so conflicted when you’re more concerned with what other people would think if you got off your high horse and fucked me.”