28. Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-eight

Hannah

I think I’ve lost my mind.

It felt like it when I vaulted across the cab of the truck to straddle Remi’s lap. But he didn’t laugh at me or tell me to slow down. Instead, he slid the seat back to give us room and braced his hands on my hips.

I wasn’t as controlled. Anger fueled me, but that wasn’t what had me scrambling with the zipper on his jeans and grasping his thick cock. It was the kiss he’d given me. How he’d handled me after god knew what Watt had told him about me. The reassurance he’d given me in his solid touch. The passion he’d fed me without me asking for either.

He’d said I was on fire when I was dancing, then he’d thrown gas on my blaze. Now, I was an inferno. Desperate for him. No way I could make it home. Not without finding the relief I knew he’d give me.

Remi’s thumb hooked my panties, pulling them aside. I held his length in my fist, rubbing my aching clit against it—back and forth. His fingers tightened on my hips, and he grunted. It was the sound I longed to hear from him, pushing me over. Rising on my knees, I guided him to my entrance and sunk all the way down until my ass met his thighs.

We were alone in the dark, our panting breaths and distant sound of the highway to keep us company. His features were only hinted at by the pale light of the moon finding its way in through the windows, but his eyes were shiny and locked on mine.

“Remi,” I whispered, unwilling to break the quiet spell. “I need you.”

“I’m here,” he murmured. “Need you too, sweetheart.”

I clung to him, my arms tight around his shoulders, my face buried in his neck. I rode him, hard little pumps, slamming myself down again and again. His wide palms slid up and down my back, one gripping my nape, the other on my bottom. He kneaded my flesh, venturing between my cheeks to touch where we were joined, then higher, teasing my other opening with his index finger.

A sharp cry wrenched from deep within me when he breached me there, his fingertip pressing on sensitive nerves. If I thought he’d do it in this setting—unprepared, on the side of the road—I would have begged him to take my ass too. It wasn’t something I’d ever wanted, but I was wild for this man. He made me want him in every way.

“Remi,” I panted against his throat. “I’m going to come, baby. That feels so good.”

“Let me feel it.” He slammed me down on his cock as he arched into me. “Give it to me, Hannah.”

Sharp, colorful pleasure racked my body. Trembles emanated from my belly, spreading along my limbs until I was shaking all over. Remi held me tight, his upward pumps shorter, faster, hitting a spot that made my eyes roll and my brain go blank.

I came hard, my inner walls clenching around his length. Remi rode me through it, moving me when my bones became too melty and my muscles gave out.

He leaned me against the steering wheel and took my hips in his hands. It was too dark to see much, but he was watching us come together and slide apart, lip caught between his teeth, tendons stark in his neck.

My belly tightened once more, pressure returning, building. He was too beautiful, too fierce in his desire for me, too determined to fuck me deep and raw. I couldn’t help myself. Pleasure raced through me, embarking from my mind and pussy at the same time, meeting in a fiery collision at my center. I was set off, crying, scraping my nails along his sinewy forearms, grinding down on him, taking him as deep as he would fit.

“Mouth, Hannah.” He gathered me close, cupping the back of my head. “Want your mouth on me when I come inside you.”

“Okay,” I breathed.

I planted my lips on his. It wasn’t so much a kiss as it was an exchange of breath. Panting back and forth, his lungs filling mine and giving it back.

Remi grunted, vibrating my lips as he bucked into me in wild, short, frenzied strokes. Then he went still, his fingers digging into my ass, tangled in my hair. My insides were coated with heat, filling me and overflowing.

“Yes,” he murmured into my mouth. “Yes, Hannah. So good.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, rolling my forehead along his. “So good.”

I was messy and wet, a little sore too, but my body was sated, and my mind was satisfied. Remi kissed along my collarbone and held me sweetly. He seemed in no rush to put me back in my seat, and I wasn’t eager to go.

I turned my face into his hair, inhaling the sweat and sun from his skin. Vine-like tendrils reached from my heart, threatening to twine around his. Alarm bells should have been ringing in my head, but I was too relaxed to notice if they were.

Remi broke me from my treacherous thoughts. “I don’t want to say it, but we need to get back on the road, sweetheart.”

“We do.” I nodded lazily. “That means I’m going to need to climb off you.”

“Probably, yeah.”

Remi helped me back into my seat and offered me a few tissues to clean up. We’d stopped using condoms after the first time, mutually agreeing we didn’t need them since neither of us was sleeping with anyone else and I had birth control covered. And while I liked having him bare in me, I could have done without the mess he left behind. But Remi was a gentleman. He’d noticed I had a sensory issue with squishiness between my thighs and always wiped it away for me.

“Sweet man.” I grinned at him as I cleaned up what I could.

He tugged a chunk of my hair. “Don’t ever say I didn’t do anything for you.”

“I would never.”

Silence descended once we were driving again. Flashes of tonight’s events—coming upon Watt talking to Remi, hearing a snippet of what he’d had to say about me—tumbled around my head. I hated that Remi had to meet him, let alone speak to him. And god, did I hate Watt. I wished he’d never flashed his cheesy smile at me. I’d always been a sucker for a cowboy, and as awful as I now knew Watt was, he was the physical embodiment of my type.

I had terrible taste in men. The more volatile, the more my brain wanted to latch on and never let go. My attraction to Remi was an anomaly. Then again, he wasn’t exactly a safe bet. Sure, he was calm and collected, but he was a rolling stone. There was not a chance he’d stick around long term, and I was deeply rooted in this town.

My sigh was long and heavy. Remi reached for my leg, taking his spot just above my knee.

“You okay?”

“I am.” I let my fingers trail between the bones in his hand like railroad tracks. “So, that was my ex. I’m sorry you had to meet him.”

He chuffed and flipped his hand over to capture mine. “No skin off my back. Only thing I regret is not shutting him down before you came back and had to hear him running his mouth.”

“I’ve heard it all before from him.” I puffed up my cheeks, blowing out a long breath. “I had this friend, Sarah. We weren’t besties, but I’d hung around with her since high school. When I got with Watt, she kept telling me rodeo guys weren’t loyal. It wasn’t in their nature. I brushed her off, fancying myself in love .”

I let my head fall against the cool window, and Remi squeezed my hand, showing me he was listening.

“Then Graham got sick and needed more of my time. Of course, he didn’t ask for it, but I wanted to be there for him. I admit I asked Watt for support. The prognosis hadn’t been good, and I’d been falling apart a little. Maybe I leaned on him too hard, I don’t know.”

Remi grumbled, his fingers tensing slightly. Otherwise, he remained quiet, concentrating on the road in front of us.

“One night, Graham forced me out of the house so I could go watch Watt ride. I didn’t tell him I was coming, wanting to surprise him, and walked into the locker room to Sarah blowing him.”

“ Fuck ,” Remi snapped. “Fucking idiots.”

“Yeah. Sarah apologized but basically said I told you so.” I scoffed at the memory. Sarah had definitely told me, then she’d given me a live and in-person demonstration of just how right she’d been. Of course, she could’ve mentioned she wouldn’t have known what loyalty was if it had slapped her in the face, but that was neither here nor there. “And Watt…well, he’d tried to get me to forgive him, but when it became clear my interest in him had ceased the second I saw his dick in my friend’s mouth, he turned it all around. Said I’d driven him away by clinging too hard and making him uncomfortable telling him I loved him all the time. Said I talked too much, asked for too much attention, spent too much time with my family, wanted too much sex…I was too much . He wasn’t the first person to say that sort of thing to me, so it’s probably true, but he was a nasty bastard about it. His ego is too big for him to be the villain, so he laid the blame on me. As if my personality deficiencies had guided his dick into Sarah’s mouth.”

For a while, Remi didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what I wanted him to say, but the quiet after I’d finished explaining the details of my sordid relationship was deafening.

Silly me, I felt the need to wipe away the discomfort between us. “Anyway, it’s not a big deal. I’m over him, and I haven’t spoken to Sarah since. The only thing I have left from that relationship is a boatload of trust issues, but th—”

“Hannah,” he gritted out, “I’m glad you’re over him. He isn’t good enough to be the dirt under your boots. And he lied to you, sweetheart, along with whoever else told you you’re too much. It’s a deficiency in them. They don’t know how to handle a strong woman with a big personality. It’s not anything wrong with you.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I don’t know if that’s true…”

“It is. Think about your family. They get you. They adore you. None of them have ever tried to change you, have they?”

A lump balled in my throat. “No. But they have to love me.”

“What about Graham? Did he have to love you? Take you under his wing? Spend all his days with you?”

“I…well, no.” I could still hear him laughing at me when I went on one of my rants, or he caught me dancing around his kitchen or singing to the horses. “I don’t think I’m too much for everyone, Rem. I don’t hate myself or anything like that. I’ve accepted this is who I am. But I get I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”

“You don’t need everyone to like you, Hannah. Just the important ones.”

“And…you like me, don’t you?” I wanted to slap my fool mouth as soon as the question snuck out. What the hell was I—

“Of course I do. If you need to ask, I’d best do a better job showing you.”

“Oh.” I sunk into my seat, a silly little smile spreading across my face. It was a good thing the cab was dark and Remi couldn’t see me. I’d already embarrassed myself enough for one night. “I like you too, Remi.”

“Good to know, sweetheart.”

He said it like he truly meant it, and more than anything, I wanted to believe him.

I must’ve dozed off because the next thing I knew, the truck had come to a stop and Remi was unbuckling my seat belt. I glanced around his hazy eyes, surprised to see the house and not my apartment.

“You forgot to take me home,” I croaked.

“Oops.” He pulled me out of the truck, his arm around my waist, guiding me to the porch. “Guess you’ll have to spend the night with me.”

Butterflies launched in my stomach. After the heaviness of earlier, I was surprised he didn’t want a break from me and more than a little pleased to be wrong.

I laid my head on his shoulder, my smile kept secret under the cover of darkness. “I guess so.”

I woke in the morning tucked against Remi, my face in his underarm. I had no clue how I’d gotten into that position, but I wasn’t upset about it. He was so warm there, and his natural scent was even stronger. I nuzzled my nose into him, his soft hair tickling me, and took a deep whiff.

His low chuckle alerted me I wasn’t the only one awake. “You’re sniffing my armpit?”

“Mmhmm.” I tugged on his pit hair and pushed up on my elbow, grinning at him. “I like how you smell.”

His hand came to the side of my face, cupping me gently. “That’s sweet and cute and a little gross.”

I laughed. “You just described me on a daily basis.”

“Nope.” He rolled us so he was half on top of me. “You smelling my pits is only a little gross—nothing about you is. You’re funny and alive. You sleep like the dead except when you’re invading my personal space and my armpit. But you’re so cute about it, I don’t mind. Plus, you’re incredibly hot.”

I blinked at him, my cheeks flaming and heart going pitter-patter. Those tendrils that had been a threat last night were back in full force, clawing at my chest to attach themselves to Remi.

“Holy wow, Remington. I’m going to want to wake up to you every day if all these compliments are included.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It will be when you’re gone and no one’s telling me I’m hot at—I checked the time on his digital clock—“nine in the morning.”

His fingers flexed in my hair, and something dark and stormy clouded his eyes for a moment before he shook it off.

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about a shortage of compliments, sweetheart.” He dipped down, pressing a firm kiss to my lips before sitting up and rubbing his face with both hands. “Let me make you breakfast. Waffles?”

“I like waffles.” I knifed upright and shifted to my knees behind him, my chin on his shoulder. “Fair warning—I don’t have my medicine with me. The chances of me spacing out or saying something before thinking it through are high. Don’t be alarmed if it happens.”

He turned, rubbing the side of his face against my nose. “Got it. We’ll get you fed then home for your meds. Anything you say or do will not be held against you.”

I kissed his shoulder, my chest so very warm. “Thank you, baby.”

He left the room, and while I got dressed, I glanced around at the decorations. This had been Remi’s childhood bedroom. There were still relics from that era scattered around. A football trophy. Ribbons from the county fair where he and Caleb had shown a few cows. Framed drawings Remi had done when he was little. A poster from a band I’d never heard of. A piggy bank filled to the brim with coins.

He’d replaced the twin bed that had been in here with a queen-size one, but otherwise, this room had been frozen in time. I’d asked Graham about it once. In his typical, nonchalant style, he’d told me it wasn’t his stuff and Remi would decide what to do with it when he came home. He’d been so sure Remi would return, and in the end, he’d been right.

As far as I was concerned, he could keep this bedroom the same. Maybe this would be his new home base where he’d land in between jobs. It would be nice for him to have that, even though the idea of him flitting in and out of Sugar Brush felt like an anvil dropping on my chest.

I had to stop thinking about the end when we were only just beginning. This thing between us might fizzle out on its own and all this worrying would be for nothing. Who knew?

I kept this thought clutched tight to my chest until I entered the kitchen. Remi was standing at the island, stirring the waffle batter. His hair was mussed, a few dark strands hanging over his forehead. He’d thrown on a T-shirt and sweatpants, both threadbare and barely stretching over his frame. Like he’d pulled them out of the drawers from his high school days. When he moved just right, a sliver of his stomach was revealed. I could have stood where I was and watched him all day.

How dare he call me hot when he looked like this ?

“How do you feel about sprinkles?” He held up the spatula covered in batter and colorful sprinkles. “I hope positively because it’s too late.”

I swallowed down my heart currently trying to leap out of my throat. Not only was he obscenely attractive, but he did cute things like put sprinkles in our waffles.

“I feel great about sprinkles,” I managed to answer.

“Good.” Remi patted the island beside him. “Now, put your pretty ass right here and keep me company. It’s been a while.”

I shuffled forward, giving him a wobbly little grin. “All of five minutes.”

His eyes danced over me. “Like I said, a while.”

Oh…I was screwed. But I hopped up on that counter anyway. If I was going down, I was going to enjoy every damn second of it.