Page 43 of No Broken Promises

PARKER

The most annoying voice in the entire world filters through my supposedly soundproof headphones, and my teeth grind so hard that I cringe.

Admittedly, he isn’t annoying so much as he is aggravating. After he had kissed me more passionately than I ever thought possible, Remy threw down the challenge of a lifetime and refused to take it any further until I made the first move.

“When you’re ready for more, Parker, you know where to find me.” He walked away, leaving me in a melted puddle of need and desire. That was a week ago. A week of hidden glances, of him staring at my every move, and a senseless game of seeing who will break first.

He wants me; he even told me so. But he refuses to do a thing until I give in.

Fucker.

“Sorry,” Remy practically shouts to be heard over noise-canceling hum in my ears while I glare at him. I am already dealing with the side effects of two concussions, and the only quiet I can find is with the headphones, which apparently suck.

I definitely need to invest in better soundproof headphones if I am going to spend any more time around him. When ignoring him doesn’t work, and Remy doesn’t immediately leave so I can get back to taking care of payroll, I pull off the headphones so they aren’t blocking out all of the noise and set them on my keyboard. He stands there with his short hair rumpled, staring at me with the scruff on his face, and I have to bite my lip to keep from licking my lips.

The black-and-blue BPD sweatshirt he wears is the same one I keep trying to steal from him every time he leaves the house, but he keeps hiding it so I can’t. To top it off, he is wearing a pair of gray sweatpants that do absolutely nothing to hide the bulge of his cock and leaves my mouth watering with what I know they are concealing. He isn’t even trying, and I have about three seconds, tops, until I throw myself at the man.

The groan leaves my lips before I can stop it, and for a second I think he misses it. That is, until he swoops down and presses a kiss against my lips and wraps one hand around the back of my neck to keep me from leaning away from him.

We’ve been playing the same game for a week. I want him; he knows I want him, but he won’t make a move until I do. Literally all I get from him is a kiss strong enough to melt my panties every time we are alone. I am so close to breaking it isn’t even funny, but I’d rather implode with sexual need than admit to him that he wins.

I don’t bother looking up from Remy’s dick, which I can very clearly see outlined in those gray sweats that might very well be the death of me.

“Um.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Nox and I are gonna go for a run before I take him to school.”

“Wait, what?” I wipe the corner of my mouth, not realizing that I’ve been drooling. “You’re gonna do what?”

Remy’s smile spreads all the way across his face as he realizes what I’ve been doing, and he motions to his body. “I’m going running. Nox wants to go with me, pretty much insisted on it as soon as he got up. So we’re gonna head to the trail before I have to take him to school.”

Biting back the sting of jealousy that he’d been the one taking Nox to and from school for the last week, I nod. “Okay. But keep an eye on him.”

Remy surprises me by squatting down in front of me so that we are face-to-face. “I would do anything to keep him safe, Parker. For both of you.” The gravity of his statement, followed by the fact that he leans forward and kisses me right on the nose, brings me close to tears.

“Hey, Remy.” Nox whistles as he walks into the living room. “Are you ready yet?”

I choke on air when I see that he is wearing the exact same outfit that Remy is. From the black child-sized hoodie that has ‘BPD’ emblazoned on the front, to the same gray sweatpants that Remy has on. The hero worship reflecting out of his eyes sends alarm bells ringing all the way through my body and down into my bones. And I don’t miss that he is no longer referring to Remy as ‘Uncle Remy.’

Remy must have caught on to my anxiety because he places one of his hands on my crossed legs and squeezes. “Don’t worry, Mom.” He winks. “Nox promised he’d take it easy on me.”

He lets go, and the two of them walk out together with Daisy at Nox’s side, taking a huge piece of my heart right along with them.

In the silence left behind, I stare at the dimly lit laptop screen and try to concentrate. After being discharged from the hospital, Remy retrieved my laptop from Lucy’s. He told me that I could work, as long as I worked from home and that was it. His argument, and it is valid even if I don’t want to believe it, is that I can do everything I need to from home. Payroll, scheduling, and ordering are all things that can be dropped off or done electronically.

I know that if I just push through, I will be able to go back to work, and I will be back in my own house. But I also know that Nox needs me to be healthy. Not only that, but if we were staying with anyone else in our family, I wouldn’t actually get any rest. Between Linc and his chaos, Rose and the amount of attention she’d try to give us, and Jake with his newborn baby, there isn’t really anywhere else for us to go.

Remy lets me be me. He doesn’t force me into conversation and doesn’t interrupt the time I spend with Nox every night reading. Actually, more often than not, I find him sitting there listening to the stories right along with Nox.

In an extremely short period of time, he’s found a place in our routine. The thought of going home seems to fade a little more every day that I spend with him.

Realizing that I’ve been staring at the computer without actually doing anything for over ten minutes, I shut the screen with a sigh.

Looking up, I see the three-foot-tall photo that Remy has hanging on the living room wall. The same one I walk by multiple times a day and remember the life I used to have.

Danny, Linc, and Remy stand there in the middle of the photo, all wearing their dress blues and smiles on their faces. Kennedy and I stand with them, along with Casper and Cassie. My heart aches when I think about the fact that we’ll never take a photo like that again. Both Danny and Cassie are dead, and nothing will bring them back.

“Oh, what the hell,” I whisper with a groan. “What am I getting myself involved in?”

The dog tags.

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