“You expect me to just stand by and ignore the fact that you’re in some kind of fucking trouble?”

“Yes! That is exactly what I expect you to do! Because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be my keeper and keep me at arm’s length. You can’t protect me from the big, bad world while protecting yourself from me!”

She’d never known want like this. Never been able to put a label on the desire she’d always had where Brick was concerned. But being pinned to the door by the pissed off, barely restrained giant, she finally had the word for it. She wanted to be dominated, wanted him to trust her enough to take everything he needed to give. She wanted to push him past those stalwart limits so he would finally take what he wanted.

She needed those vibrations shuddering through his body to ruin his walls, release that white-knuckled control, and set him free. His erection swelled, rigid and straining behind the fly of his jeans. She ached for him. And hoped like hell he was in the same pain.

“Now unless you plan to use that dick for what it was intended, back the fuck off,” she said, her voice low and shaking.

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

“If you say that I deserve better than to be fucked exactly the way I want to be fucked, then clearly you’re not the man for the job.”

His eyes narrowed to slits, and Remi wondered if this was the time that he’d make good on all those threats to murder her. His entire body was bunched and trembling as if ready to spring.

One thing was clear. Brick wasn’t keeping his distance now.

As if reading her mind, he thrust his hips against her, pressing that hard, denim-covered cock against her, making her whimper. The tendons in his neck stood out beneath his beard as he gritted his teeth and growled.

It wasn’t enough for either of them. When he dipped his knees to press against her center, when he rammed himself between her legs, her head fell back against the door. Again. Again. Again. Desire choked her as her inner walls fluttered, desperate to be part of the brutality of his thrusts.

He stopped just as abruptly as he’d begun, but this time with his hips wedged between her thighs. His cock pulsing between them, his breath ragged.

Her pulse was racing, and she was hot, light-headed.

How had he never kissed her? How had they touched so intimately, shared so much vulnerability, yet his mouth had never taken hers? What would it be like to breathe his air? To feel the stroke of his tongue? To taste his words?

Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. Their eyes locked, but neither of them moved. They were trapped just a few steps outside the real world. Here in this cramped, dark office, they didn’t have the rules that existed on the other side of the door.