Free Remy by Katy Evans

to kiss it.
    It takes me five minutes to shower and change at the hotel, then I cross the lobby to where Brooke waits in the back of a black Lincoln.
    I slide in and shut the door behind me, and when I settle in my seat, the back of my hand rests against the back of hers. I carefully watch her for any signs of her wanting to pull away.
    We head into traffic.
    Brooke still hasn’t protested.
    So I run the pad of my thumb over the back of hers, watching her reaction.
    She inhales a quick breath, and the way her tits push up against her glittery top makes me hard. I think about running my thumb up her bare arm, her slender neck, then trailing it over that plump, pink mouth I want to feel all over me.
    “Did you like the fight?” My voice is low and gruff.
    She stares out at the window, her thoughtful profile making me want to fucking beg for it.
    “No. I didn’t like it,” she admits as her eyes finally come to mine. “You were amazing! I
loved
it!”
    The words hit me with such joy, I laugh, and I grab her hand, lift it to my mouth, and scrape my lips across the small rises of her knuckles, looking at her.
    “Good,” I murmur, staring deep into her eyes. It takes all my effort to let go of her. But I want her to get used to me first. I want her to smell me, feel me right here. I want her to feel my body heat and get accustomed to me. My presence. Everything about me. When I sit next to her, this is the last time I want her shoulders to go tense and tight.
    Soon, we reach the club. I help her out of the car, and when she slides her small hand deeper into mine, I feel so fucking possessive, I don’t let go of her. I want every man looking in her direction to know this one’s fucking
mine
. In silence, I lead her past the bouncers and to a private room in the back.
    “Pete is getting a lap dance,” Riley tells me at the door of the private room, and I’m disappointed when Brooke quietly pulls her hand free from mine. “You don’t mind treating him to one as a birthday present?” he asks me.
    We all watch as a woman in a glittering silver bikini heads for Pete, who looks goggle-eyed. Brooke squirms at my side, and Riley turns his attention to her, his eyebrows flying high. “You shy about this, Brooke?” he asks in amusement.
    A soft-pink hue stains Brooke’s cheeks, and a rush of possessiveness charges through me. I engulf her hand in mine again, quietly asking her, “Do you want to watch?”
    She shakes her head, and I quietly tug and lead her outside, noticing how she flattens her palm against mine, her soft fingers interlaced with my bigger ones. God, she’s so perfect. All my instincts are raring for me to claim her.
    She lets me lead her through the throng like she knows she’s mine, or like she wants to be. There’s noise and a crazed crowd of dancers, and as an Usher track reverberates through the room, Brooke leaps in excitement.
    “Oh, I love this song!” she tells me, squeezing my hand in a way that makes my chest hurt.
    The blonde groupie spots Brooke from within the dance floor, and before I know it, she’s pulling her away.
    “Remy!” The redhead who’d been dancing on the table of my suite grabs me and hauls me in by their side, and I can’t take my eyes off Brooke. Dark haired and sexy, she moves as gracefully as a cat as she dances. Hips swaying side to side. Long golden legs. Debbie pulls Brooke closer by the hips and they’re dancing as one, the undulating movements of Brooke’s small waist and narrow hips heating me up to the point of madness. She laughs and turns around, arms waving in the air, as the chorus of “Scream” begins.
    She spots me. I’m not moving, even though everyone else around me is. Only my heart thunders inside me.
Mine mine mine.
    There are things you’re certain about. That you’d bet your life on. Things that you just know. You know the heat of a fire will burn you. Water will quench your thirst.
She
is one of those things; the most unerring certainty