Page 60 of No Fear
Chapter Eleven
“Honey, I’m home.”
Remy grinned as he pushed into the trailer and kicked his boots off at the door. Damn, there was something about coming home to Rachel that tied him up in knots. It felt so… normal. Domestic. But it was also foreign and special and he loved the idea of it because he’d never really seen scenes like this anywhere but on TV.
Decker had certainly never hurried home after a long day of work. He’d never been happy to come home at all. Whenever he did stumble in the door, he’d been drunk and angry and he’d taken it out on his wife and children. Chrissy had never been the kind of woman to wait up on him either. She’d never been sitting at home, making dinner and keeping house and home for him. Their house had never been a home but that was what Remy and Rachel were building.
Home.
Maybe it had only been a few days but those days had been perfect and their nights had been magical.
They woke up wrapped around each other. They fought over warm water in the shower or he snuck into the small space and teased her until the space was hot and the water was cold and they both ended up being late to work. She rode into town with him every day and kissed him right there on the street where they’d first met. She went to Split Ends and he went to Fine Lines and whoever managed to get away grabbed lunch and they ate together every day. They rode home together most nights and then Rachel insisted on cooking dinner and they cuddled on the couch until inevitably cuddling turned into something else.
They hadn’t made love yet. Not yet. Not for lack of wanting to on both of their parts but he’d stopped them from taking that step time and again.
He wanted it. He wanted her. He wanted to claim Rachel and make her his in every way. He loved her and he thought she loved him but she hadn’t told him yet and he couldn’t bring himself to take her virginity until she did.
Maybe the words shouldn’t have mattered so much to him. Not when it was obvious in all of the ways she looked and talked and touched him that she did. But he needed the words. Maybe because he’d never heard them much in his life. Maybe because there’d never been anyone that told him those words that he’d been able to believe. But he needed to hear Rachel say she loved him so he could believe it was true when he was certain she was still keeping something from him.
That thought sobered his good mood just as it had for the past five days. Ever since Ford had shown up at the track that day and told him Lincoln wanted to talk to Rachel. Ever since he realized that Rachel’s brother was a low-life member of Lincoln’s crew and that they were looking for a rat in that crew. Ever since the thought had entered his mind he hadn’t been able to shake it.
What if Craig was the rat they were looking for? What if that bastard was threatening more than just Rachel? What if he was the threat to Remy’s family too?
He’d tried asking Rachel more about her brother but she shut down whenever he mentioned Craig. She’d told him about her half-brother threatening to hurt her, about the times he’d come home drunk or high and smacked her around. She’d told him about the few times he’d shoved her in her room and told her not to come out because his shitty friends were trying to touch her. But whenever he brought up what had happened that last night when she showed up at the barn scared for her life, she shut down.
He’d let it go this week or, he’d tried to let it go. He’d let her get away with distracting him from his line of questioning with kisses and touches. And he’d told himself that he was overreacting, worrying about nothing, that he was assuming the worst. But the truth was, he assumed the worst because in his life, that was usually the way things went. If it could go bad, it would but this was Rachel and he refused to let the worst touch her.
Lincoln would be back tonight. He’d sworn he would. He’d been mute about where it was he’d been for the last week but he’d said he would be back tonight for Cash and Jemma’s wedding. He wouldn’t miss the biggest family event in years. Not even if Cash would have preferred he stayed far, far away from his pregnant, soon to be wife. The entire family would show up tonight to celebrate the happy couple, or for the open bar, and Remy planned to corner his cousin as soon as possible and demand answers.
“Remy? Is that you?” The sweet voice drifting out of his bedroom pulled him back to the present and he smiled again as he remembered it wasn’thisroom anymore. It was theirs.
“Nope, it’s the big bad wolf.” He chuckled as he headed down the tight hallway.
Her giggle floated to him and he basked in the sound. That was the best sound he’d ever heard. It didn’t matter if he actually said something funny or not, he loved the sound of her laughter wrapping around him. She’d told him that was what Skylar called him the first time she warned Rachel away and though he didn’t find the reference all that funny, she seemed to, so he used it… a lot.
“Babe, we’re running late so I’m gonna hop in the…”
He stopped in the doorway of the bedroom because his heart stopped at the sight of her. His throat went dry and whatever it was he’d been saying, he forgot it. The pain in his chest was so sharp and overwhelming that he raised his hand to the spot and then worried that he’d suffered a heart attack and he was dead. Because the vision standing in front of him was his version of heaven.
Rachel was standing in front of the dresser, her back to him as she adjusted the necklace that dangled around her slim neck in the mirror. Her dark hair was down and curled around her shoulders. Her small, curvy body was hugged by the most seductive piece of black satin that he’d ever seen. The long sleeves belled from her arms whimsically and covered her elegantly even though the short hem left her shapely legs bare. The matching heels completed the picture perfect look and instantly he was hard as he imagined bending her over the dresser and sliding beneath that short dress.
“Remy?”
Rachel saying his name jerked him out of that fantasy and he met her gaze in the mirror. Her face was done up with makeup again which he hadn’t seen since that night at the barn. Dark red lipstick and thick black eyeliner highlighted every bit of her beauty. Her big, blue-gray eyes met his and his heart jumpstarted again as he rushed towards her.
“My God, you’re gorgeous.”
“Really?” She turned before he reached her and the worry he’d seen in her eyes in that mirror was still there.
He didn’t stop, he simply got close enough and then pulled her into his arms, “I love you, Rachel.”
She gasped but he didn’t give her time to respond to the words. He captured her mouth with his and moaned as her sweet taste flooded his system. She kissed him back but when he tried to deepen the kiss, wanting, needing, to meld himself to her, she nipped his lip and then pulled back.
“Stop.”
He instantly released her, “What?”
Fear slithered through his veins and rejection made him step back. He’d told her the first time he kissed her that if he ever did anything that scared her, anything that went too far, all she had to say was stop. She hadn’t, not once, not when they were kissing or touching or when she was coming apart in his arms. But he’d told her he loved her and…
