Page 52 of No Fear
His lips pursed when she stuttered and she held her breath, waiting to see if he called her out. Waiting to see if his patience with her obvious half-truths ran out. Because he knew the stutter meant something was wrong, he just didn’t know what. Instead, he only pulled her closer as he rolled to his back and drew her against his chest. He stroked her back and she only felt worse about lying to him when he tried to reassure her.
“You don’t have anything to worry about, Rach. You’re safe with me. Nobody can hurt you here. I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you ever again.”
She held on to him tight and forced the words out, “But what happens to me when you’re not around anymore?”
“Am I going somewhere I don’t know about?”
“No… just…” She blew out a rough breath, “People break up all the time, Remy. People leave. Y-y-you left once before.”
He tensed beneath her and she immediately regret voicing her doubts. She hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation. He’d told her why he left. She understood. She couldn’t use that against him. But it didn’t mean she wasn’t scared he would leave again, or leave her, when he knew the truth about her family.
“I told you that I had to leave before. It was my only option. I ran because I thought it was the only way but I’m not a scared kid anymore, Rachel.” He twisted until she was looking up at him, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m done running away from my problems. I came home. Iamhome. Cash and Colt and the girls. You. You’re my home now and nothing and nobody could ever make me leave you.”
She bit her lip to stifle a flash of tears as her heart swelled. Home. He included her in his family. He called her his home. And she had always wanted that, somewhere to belong, someone to belong with, someone to love her. But she’d been scared so long it was hard to believe it was even possible.
She chewed on her lips, “I know you might not want to leave me but… what if… what if something happens to you?”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to me, baby.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t know that.”
“Rach…”
“No!” She shook her head when he said her name in that consoling tone, “I know you only fight for Lincoln to save your brothers but it’s still dangerous. Who’s going to save you?”
“You are. You do.”
“Remy, be serious.” She frowned, “I’m not as naïve or as innocent as you think I am. I’ve lived with Craig for years. I’ve seen the kind of men he deals with, works with, and some of those men are your cousins. They’ve been to my house. I’ve seen things, heard things. It’s not safe for you to be working with them, Remy.”
His brows furrowed, “What cousins?”
“Remy…”
“What cousins, Rachel? Who’s been to your house? Who hangs out with Craig?”
“That wasn’t my point. You know that right?”
“Who, Rachel?”
“Ugh, I don’t know.” She threw her hands in the air, “I’m bad with names and you all kind of look alike.”
His lips twitched, “We don’t all look alike.”
“Yes, you do. How many sets of twins are there? And the rest of youdoresemble.”
“If you mean we’re all handsome as hell, then yeah, I have to agree we probably do.” He laughed when she rolled her eyes, “What? We are.”
“Yes, I know. I know all about the Bomar eyes and the Bomar dimples and the Bomar bone structure. I’ve heard all about the Bomar legends working in the salon. Girls talk. You’re all a bunch of dangerously sexy man-whores and as far as the women in this town are concerned, you’re all fairly interchangeable.”
“I may have heard those rumors.” His gaze turned serious when she huffed “But we’re not interchangeable to you, are we?”
“You were… before… All of your cousins looked alike because I was scared of all of them, all of you. But then…”
“Then you met me.” His lips twitched again.
“Well, technically I met Colt first but…” Rachel squealed as he rolled them, pinning her to the bed, “Hey! I was saying something!”
“Mmhmm.” Remy settled between her legs and she gasped when she felt his hardness. It took everything in her not to flex her hips up against him. She bit her lip and tried to focus on his words and not the way his strong body felt holding her down. She would have thought it would freak her out, being pinned, but with Remy it did something else to her entirely. “You were saying my brother’s name and I had to put a stop to that.”
