Forever Never

by Lucy Score

“Brick. I’m eighteen. I’m out of school. I’m not seeing Spencer anymore. I’m not a damn virgin. What the hell are you waiting for?”

“Don’t,” he warned. “Don’t what? Damn it, Brick. Don’t you want me?” “Is that what you think?”

“I’m tired of thinking, of guessing. Spell it out for me. You’re there every time I need you, sometimes even before I know I need you. You know all my deepest, darkest secrets. You are the only person who can tell when I’m lying. When you look at me after you’ve worn through all your willpower for the day, ...

“One way or another, you need to tell me where I stand with you.” “You’re safe with me. That’s all you need to know.”

I’m tired of keeping you out of trouble and keeping my damn hands off you.”

“And I don’t want to ruin you.” “Ruin me? Good lord, man, have you had your ears cleaned? I’m not a virgin.”

“If I let myself touch you? If I let myself go? Neither of us would survive.”

“Remi, baby, if you knew one-tenth of the things I’ve thought about doing, you’d run away and never look back.”

“I don’t run, Brick.”

“If I reached under that belt right now, what would I find?”

“No use praying for help. Jesus isn’t worried about your dick, Brick.”

“I’m not touching you.”

“What if I tou...

“Do you want me to? If you do, you have to say it. You can’t just hope it’ll happen. You need to say the words.”

“Do you want me to touch you, Brick?”

“Yes.”

When she cupped his erection in her palm, he shuddered against her like a man destroyed. Again, he dropped his forehead to hers. His hands fisted on the wall on either side of her head.

“Fuck,” he groaned, thrusting into her hand.

“Remi, baby. If you take my dick out, I’m going to fuck you in a dirty alley.”

“I see no problem with that,”

“Then where?” “Not here.” “But somewhere? Soon?”

“Yes.”

“Will you kiss me?”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “Promise me?” “I promise.”

“Brick left,” her father said.

“The island,” her mother announced. “He got a job at one of the horse farms on the mainland.”

“He just said it was time for a change,”

Remi’s heart, on the other hand, had just splintered into a million tiny shards. He hadn’t wanted her after all. He hadn’t even thought enough of her to say good-bye.

She was never going to forgive him as long as they both lived.

But to her, the painting meant Brick. So she’d kept it close.

If Remi Ford had a superpower, it was nurturing a good grudge. And Brick was feeling it. The average person wouldn’t know it just by looking at him, but she knew that beneath that stoic surface, her freeze-out was slowly killing him. She was proud of the effort.

But he’d assumed his life would be so much easier if Remington Ford didn’t need him anymore. He just hadn’t realized what not being needed would do to him.

The madder he got at her, the harder he got for her. Needing to discipline her was a sickness swimming in his blood.

“I swear to Christ, if you ever leave your house without your inhaler again, I’m going to lock you up.” “If my recollection serves, I didn’t call you. This isn’t your problem.”

“You didn’t call, but I came anyway. That’s the way this works. You will always be my problem.”

“No one told you to put your damn hand up my shirt,”

don’t hear you asking me to remove it,” he shot back. “I didn’t ask you to remove your hard-on from my ass either. I’m too polite.” “Jesus, Remi.”

But when he made a move to drag his hand away, she held it in place. “Don’t,” she whispered. “Why not?” he asked through gritted ...

She’d given him his chance. Millions of them. And he’d turned his back on every single one of them.

don’t want you to let me in just a little. Give me just a glimpse of what goes on in your head. Because you’re just going to shut me out again. You’re just going to reject me and tell me I’m not good enough or not what you want or get pissed off about something I do. So let’s not.” “Remi.” “Brick.”

“I don’t know how to be what you want.”

“You can’t be what I wan...

accepting that. This is what you wanted. Distance.” “It feels…...

“Why do you have a news alert set for Camille?”

“Because she matters to you.”

“You told her that you were hard to love. That you thought you were too much.”

“Remington, anyone who ever makes you feel as if you’re hard to love is a damn fool and doesn’t deserve to be in your world.”

He believed her.

“Now unless you plan to use that dick for what it was intended, back the fuck off,”

“I’m not good for you, baby,” he said. “I wouldn’t be gentle or sweet. I’d be mean, rough. And you deserve—”