Her brother strode off with his wife.

She turned and Remy was looking a little pale himself. “Are you okay? That was a heavy scene.”

“Lisa, I…”

Shit, she was going to kill her brother. Everyone was betting on them. Everyone was looking at them. “Remy, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. These guys fuck around with everyone.”

He stared down at her. “I don’t want to hurt you. Your brother… I’m not your brother. It’s not going to go that way for us. If I took you with me, god, Lisa, I would be taking you into something you don’t deserve. My family is difficult and the town is weird and you deserve your life.”

He wasn’t changing his mind. She wanted to tell him that she liked weird, but he’d been honest with her. He was worried she would get hurt if she started to believe that she could change him. Hell, she didn’t want to change him. It was okay. “I’m not asking for more than you’re willing to give.”

Maybe if they’d had more time before he needed to leave. Maybe if he’d said yes to her the first time, but he hadn’t and she couldn’t ask a man she’d been with for three days to take her with him when he left town.

Even if she really wanted to.

“But your brother…”

“My brother likes to screw around with people,” she said. “I don’t take him seriously and neither should you. Consider that nothing more than a bit of hazing. And all the betting is going to be for nothing. Maybe we should get in on that. Would that be fair?”

He reached for her hand. “Maybe I should back off.”

Now tears threatened. “If my family makes me less desirable to you, then yes, we should reevaluate.”

“Nothing in the world could make you less desirable to me,” he said. “Not now that I know you.” He brought her hand to his mouth, kissing her. “But I’m not Prince Charming.”

“I don’t need you to be.” She wished he was, but she was going with the flow, taking what life had to offer her. “I need you to be Prince Right Now. And if you want to tie me up and do nasty things to me, all the better.”

He took her hand. “Now that I can do.”

He started to lead her toward the playroom, and she swore that she would live in the moment. It wouldn’t be that hard. After all, the future wasn’t all that bright.

* * * *

Remy led her to one of the small rooms off the main play area. It was a room specifically done up for suspension play. It was the room he spent most of his time here in. All of his life he’d been around rope, learning to sail from an early age. It wasn’t surprising that a lot of his kink centered around ties and knots. He’d grown up being told to make sure his precious boats were secure or they might drift away and all would be lost.