“I don’t need it,” Remi insisted as he returned it to her.

“Then take a fucking breath and prove it.”

“God, you piss me off.”

“Right back at you, baby. You piss me off, wind me up, and leave me wanting more of something I never should have had in the first place.”

“Why did you marry Audrey?” Her question slashed through the air like a whip. Silence rang in her ears after.

His mouth closed in that firm line. His answers locked in the vault.

“What? You wanted to talk. So let’s talk. Why did you marry Audrey? Why did you pick her? Why not me?”

He was so stubbornly silent.

She shoved at his chest, not moving him an inch. Somewhere in the back of her mind, it registered how much they both seemed to like it.

“Because I couldn’t have you,” he said hoarsely.

“Why the fuck not, Brick? You knew I loved you.”

Again, she was met with silence. But this time it wasn’t so indomitable. Brick was vibrating with an energy that demanded to be let out. With words that wanted to ring their truth.

“You loved me?” he repeated.

“Of course I did. I loved you, and you chose my best friend over me. Why?”

“Because I couldn’t fucking have you!”

“What does that even mean? Why not? Audrey was my age. So it wasn’t that I was too young. My parents have adored you since they met you. I wanted to be yours so much, and you just kept rejecting me.” Her voice broke along with the dam of emotions she’d held back for too long.

He was trembling against her, and she knew something was about to happen.

“You rejected me over and over again,” she whispered. “You made up reasons that we both know were just excuses. Then you chose someone else. And when you finally let us start to explore this thing between us, you give me a couple of orgasms and say you can’t do it anymore. What do you want from me, Brick? Am I here just because Audrey isn’t?”

“I married Audrey to ruin any chance I had with you.”

She felt sick, dizzy, devastated. And in some mean, dark corner of her mind, a little voice said I told you so.

“Why?” She barely managed to get the word out.

“God damn it. I can’t live with you looking at me like that,” he snapped.

“Like what?” A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and burned a path down her cheek.

“Like I just destroyed you.”

Her laugh was humorless. “Many men have tried,” she quipped, wiping her cheek with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

“Don’t fucking joke about that,” he said, whirling her around to face the wall. She braced herself against the drywall and cursed her body for begging for what she wanted. She tilted her behind back, offering herself to him.

His hand coasted down to cup her rear end.