Glad I’d gotten fully dressed, I moved cautiously down the steps toward the kitchen.
“Who’s there?” I didn’t recognize the man’s voice. A second later, a man who looked a lot like Remington, though shorter and stockier, stepped from the kitchen and pointed a gun at me.
The monkey danced around, jumping up and down between us.
“Move, Tony,” the man ordered.
Did the monkey belong to him? I raised my hands in surrender. “I… I… Please don’t shoot. Who are you?”
Remington stepped into the hall, his face dark with anger. “Lance, put the gun down now!”
Lance kept the gun trained on me and looked over his shoulder. “You telling me he’s with you?”
“Yes.” Remington put his hand on Lance’s arm, which only made me more nervous. Lance seemed very volatile.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had someone here?” he asked as he tucked the gun into the back of his jeans. Lance smiled and held out his hand as if he hadn’t just held me at gunpoint. “I’m Lance. It’s nice to meet you.”
I tentatively took his hand, but Remington growled. “Lancelot, keep your hands to yourself.”
Was his name seriously Lancelot, and did he really have a pet monkey? At least I assumed it was his pet as it was now perched on his shoulder. He didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by that.
Lance raised his brows and looked at Remington. “It’s like that, is it?”
“It’s not like anything but you touching my man after you tried to shoot him.”
“It was just a handshake. Jesus.”
I was also startled by the vehemence of Remington’s reaction, though maybe he was just wound up from the fact that Lance had been holding a gun on me. I was still more than a little shaken by that myself.
Remy closed his eyes and took a slow, careful breath. I watched his chest rise and fall and couldn’t help but think about how gorgeous he was.
“Lancelot, this is Henri. Henri, this is my brother Lancelot.”
I’d known they had to be related. They certainly had an interesting family dynamic.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Henri.” Lancelot’s voice was now low and sexy.
Remington glared at him, and I assumed he was being flirtatious to piss his brother off.
“Nice to meet you too. I take it this is your monkey.”
He turned to the little creature. “Did you already meet Henri?” he asked in a baby voice.
“Are you telling me that monkey has been wandering around the house?” Remington’s anger was back.
“You were too angry with me to notice,” Lance said.
“He woke me up. That’s why I came down. I was trying to figure out why we had a monkey in the house.”
“Because my idiot brother takes him everywhere and doesn’t keep up with him.”
“I knew where he was.”
I worried Remington’s glare would turn Lance to stone. “You knew he was waking up the man who was waiting in my bed?”
“No, but I knew he was upstairs. You didn’t tell me there was a man waiting in your bed.”
“That’s because it’s none of your fucking business.”
Lance looked between me and Remington. “Right. None of my business.”
Remington looked ready to pull a gun on his brother. The tension was getting to all of us. “I’m sorry I disturbed whatever you were doing down here.”
“It’s not your fault,” Remington said. “Why don’t you go back upstairs and see if you can get some more sleep? I’ll join you in a little while.”
“Sure. Yeah, I’ll do that.”
“Bye, Henri,” Lancelot said in a seductive voice.
“Bye. Um… Nice to meet you.” I scurried back upstairs, even though part of me wanted to stay. I wanted to know about the tension between the brothers. I could certainly see why Lance would piss Remington off, but I had to admit he seemed like a lot of fun.
19
Remington
I waited until Henri had closed the bedroom door before turning to scowl at my brother. “Don’t ever pull a gun on a guest in my house again.”
“How was I supposed to know he was a guest?”
“Do you really think a red-haired twink dressed in pajamas broke into my house to do me harm?”
Lance frowned and seemed to consider this. “I guess it’s unlikely, but you told me I should always be prepared for the unlikely.”
I had told him that, and he knew I was jumpy with everything going on. He was trying to keep us safe, but if he’d harmed Henri… “I told you to wait when you went running out of the kitchen.”
“If there’s someone breaking into your house, I’m not going to stand around and wait. How would that help us?”
“It would help because we would have the advantage of thinking clearly and not shooting someone we shouldn’t.”
“Nobody should be wandering around your house.”
“You mean like the way you were wandering around outside looking in through the windows?”
“I’m your brother, and speaking of, if you’ve got a thing going with this boy, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t aware you expected me to inform you about every man I sleep with.”
“This is something different than a usual hookup for you. You never bring men back here. This is like your sanctum.”
“Yes, and you’re in it when I wish you were gone.”
He ignored me as I’d known he would. “What’s up with this guy? Where did you meet him?”
I wasn’t about to tell him that. I didn’t need the lecture, which I was sure I would get. Impetuously picking up a man the way I’d met Henri was more Lance’s style than mine. “I met him when I was out the other night, and he is… very talented. I decided to keep him for a while.”
“So this is the same guy who was here the other night?”
“Yes.”
“How do you—”
“I had Blackjack do a background check, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. If it weren’t for Tony, you wouldn’t know he was here now.”
“But I do, and if you like him enough to want to keep him a secret, then—”
“It’s not like that. This is a temporary thing.”
Lance shook his head. “I just don’t get it. You like him. He’s cute. He seems nice, and he likes Tony.”
“He did not say that he liked Tony.”
“I could tell he did, and Tony likes him too.”
I ran a hand over my hair. “Why are you like this?”
“The blessing of fortune?”
I sighed. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
“If there’s a chance Henri could be the one, don’t fuck this up. Don’t do what Pop did.”
“If Pop hadn’t done what he did, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Or maybe we would, and Marjorie would be our mom. Who knows? That’s irrelevant. Don’t fuck up something that could be special.”
“It’s not like that.”
Lance studied me, and I felt like he could see far too much. “Are you sure? Because something is telling me it is.”
20
Henri
I lay in bed, unable to sleep. I was tempted to creep back downstairs to find out what Lance and Remington were saying. Would Remington tell Lance how he’d met me? I’d chosen to work the streets, but that didn’t mean I wanted that broadcast to Remington’s family. Still, if he wanted to tell his brother about our business arrangement, there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I was doing what I needed to do to secure a better future for myself. It wasn’t even that I was ashamed about what I did for a living; it was more that I wished this time with Remy was more than that.
I walked over to the window and looked out, contemplating whether or not I could climb down and escape. There was a drainpipe near the window, but I wasn’t some agile cat burglar from a movie. I was reasonably sure I’d fall, and even if I managed to climb
down, I would certainly make far too much noise. As alert as Remington was, he and Lance would no doubt investigate even the smallest odd sound.
I shouldn’t even be thinking about leaving. I needed the money Remington would pay me. It would allow me to totally change my life, but if my heart was utterly broken, would I be able to pick myself up and put myself back together? I’d not really managed that since I’d lost my mom. I didn’t know if I could handle another loss. I also didn’t know what I was doing thinking a man who’d hired me for sex for two weeks was interested in something more. What was wrong with me that I thought I would be losing someone by walking away from him? I’d only be losing money, and since he was by far the best client I’d had, I needed to stay.
As I stood there still staring down at the courtyard, I heard footsteps on the stairs. I leapt for the bed as if somehow Remington would know I was considering escape. When he opened the door, I was sitting on the bed cross-legged.
“Didn’t I tell you to get some more sleep?” he asked.
“I couldn’t sleep, not after being scared awake by a monkey.”
Remington huffed out a breath. “He’s not supposed to let Tony wander around my house. He knows better.”
“Where did he get Tony?”
Remington shook his head. “That’s a long and complicated story, but he’s had the little menace for over a year and that is a year too long for me.”
I wanted to know the story, but I could tell Remington wasn’t going to get into it now. “What did you tell him about me?”
As soon as I asked, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. “I told him I met you when I was out one night, and that when I did a background check on you, nothing suspicious came up.”
“And?”
“Cher, the nature of our relationship is private.”
All the tension I’d been holding left me as I exhaled. “Thank you.”
“You know I’m not ashamed of what you do, but I also know it can change the way people perceive you. It’s nobody’s business.”
How had I gotten so lucky? I almost hadn’t approached his car.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said, brushing the backs of his fingers over my cheek. I realized how sweet he was being, how caring. Did that really come naturally to him?
“I’m thinking of things we could do besides sleeping that we might enjoy more.” I gave him a coquettish smile.
He frowned. “I would hope if that’s what you were actually thinking about, there would’ve been a smile on your face.”
“Why don’t you see if you can put one there?”
“There’s no question about that, but I’d like to know what was bothering you.”
“Who are you really? What do you do that your brother thought he needed to hold me at gunpoint?”
Remington frowned. “You’re better off not knowing.”
That was probably true, but it didn’t stop me from being curious. Now wasn’t the time to push, though. I lay back against the pillows, reached into my pajama pants, and circled my hand around my cock. “Why don’t we forget about unanswered questions and lack of sleep and enjoy ourselves?”
Remington accepted my offer. Things moved slower than they had before, and I felt Remington holding himself back. The raw need I’d felt from him the night before wasn’t there. He was creating distance between us. I tried to ignore the sadness that stirred in me. Everything he was doing still felt amazing. Remy giving part of himself was better than any other man I’d been with, but I wanted all of him now, and that made me think I should have snuck out the window when I had the chance.
21
Remington
I avoided Henri for most of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation I’d had with Lance. No way in hell would I admit it to him, but Lance was right. What I had with Henri was different than anything I’d experienced before in several ways, the least important of which was that I was paying him. But the difference that had me avoiding him was the fact that I wanted to keep him. The thought of anyone else touching him had me ready to burn the world down.
The night before, I’d deliberately tried to focus only on the physical. I wanted to see if I could make sex with Henri feel like it did with any other man. I desperately wanted to take him on his back, looking into his eyes, watching his every reaction, and preventing him from muffling any of his sounds. I couldn’t do that and keep any distance, though, so after exploring every inch of him, I’d turned him over onto his hands and knees and taken him from behind.
I did everything I could not to let myself feel more than the tight clasp of his ass around my cock. It hadn’t worked. Holding all that intensity inside made me feel like my chest was going to explode, and when I came it felt amazing, but not as good as it had been the night before when he’d stripped me bare in a way no other man had. I wanted to give myself to him. Sex like that, purely physical with nothing else between me and my partner, had always been enough for me. Now I wasn’t sure it ever would be again.
Instead of taking what I wanted that morning, Henri on his back, looking into my eyes, giving me his whole self as he welded our souls together, I left him a note, headed out early, and didn’t go home all day. It was foolish. We had limited time together, and I wanted to take advantage of every second, but nothing had ever scared me like my feelings for Henri did.
Fortunately, I had two obnoxious brothers and an array of cousins and family allies to take out my frustration on. I was a short-tempered asshole all day as I conducted business, managing multiple facets of our criminal empire.
The one time I was able to fully distract myself was when Lance and I met with Giorgio and Niall just after their arrival in town. X had told them the proposed plan where Niall would pretend to still be a fed and convince Clark they had evidence against him but were willing to cut a deal.
“What we need is something to use, some concrete details about his work for the gunrunners.”
I nodded. “Our intel says he owes these men and has no choice but to do their bidding, but we’re looking for specifics on that. We’ve heard he keeps anything he wants secret from the rest of the family in a safe in his bedroom. The hope is there’s something there we can use.”
“How quickly can you access it?”
“Tonight,” Lance answered.
“Perfect. Giorgio and I will make sure we’re seen staking out Clark’s house. That will put some fear in him.”
Giorgio grinned. “And it will be fun. I might just rattle him a little too. A well-placed bullet sends a strong warning that he’d be safer in witness protection.”
I grinned. “I like the way you think.”
Giorgio punched Niall in the shoulder. “See? He appreciates me.”
“Give him a while. Your charm wears off quickly.”
We nailed down the rest of the specifics, then Lance and I began making plans for a strike on Clark’s home.
My brother insisted I accompany him and Dax. There were plenty of other people I could send, people who would do a good job, but being there myself would keep me occupied. I needed something to focus on other than Henri, and there was nothing like breaking into the enemy’s lair to keep my mind focused.
My father would be pissed as hell if he knew what I was doing. He would tell me to send someone else, someone a lot more expendable, but sometimes I enjoyed doing my own dirty work. The thrill of being able to walk right into danger fueled me.
I called Henri to let him know not to wait up for me. I hated the sound of sadness in his voice. He’d told me he missed me, and I wanted to tell him I’d missed him terribly all day, but I didn’t. I just told him to use my card to order whatever he wanted for dinner and find a way to amuse himself.
Next, I called Corbin. This surveillance mission would work best with the vehicle I’d fucked up the night I met Henri. “I need you to get my SUV back from Beau before tonight. If he hasn’t finished it, lean on him.”
“That guy is an asshole.
Can’t you use somebody else?”
“No, we most certainly cannot use someone else. He owes me because I helped get him out of prison, and he’s damn good at what he does. If there’s anything he can’t do for me, he’s got connections to people who can.”
“When I stopped by yesterday, he told me not to rush him. That he’d get to it when he got to it.”
“Then assert yourself.”
“But shouldn’t he just—”
“People don’t bow down to us automatically. You’ve been given everything your whole life. People aren’t going to give you their obedience. You’re going to have to take it.”
Corbin blew out a loud breath. “I hate him. He’s so…”
“So what?”
“Fucking dismissive.”
I didn’t doubt it. Beau was one tough-ass motherfucker. He’d done well for himself in prison, and he didn’t take shit from anyone. We had a mutual understanding, but I had no doubt Corbin pissed him off. My brother thought everything should be handed to him, and when he didn’t get his way, he was more a toddler than a predator. He had to learn these lessons somehow, and this was a good place to start. Beau wouldn’t actually hurt Corbin—he knew what the consequences would be for that—but Beau would sure as hell challenge him.
“Go get the damn car. If you can’t do something as simple as this—”
“Shit, Remy. You’re always on my case, and I’m—”
“I’m always on your case because you keep fucking up, and in our world, a lot of fuckups are fatal.” I didn’t want to lose him over something stupid.
“This car isn’t—”
“If you ever want to really have a stake in the family business, like Lance and me, you’re going to be in life-or-death situations. I have to know I can count on you.”
“You know I have your back, Remy.”
I knew he intended to, just like I knew he loved me and I loved him, but he had to learn how to show strength. He had to stand up for himself instead of expecting the doors to be opened for him.
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