Pulling me into his chest, he wrapped his arms around me, smushing my face into his body. I’d be lying if I said it sucked and I didn’t enjoy the proximity, but I also didn’t want him to feel guilty about what’d happened. I swear, if Remington King could, he’d find a way to take the blame for everything that happened in the world.
“Remy, I’m fine. I didn’t even know I had a bruise, so that should tell you how okay I am.” I stroked his back through the soft material of his gray t-shirt, trying to soothe him. “If the forecasters and four weather apps I have on my phone had warned us about the storm last night, I’d have been more prepared for what happened.”
“You got hurt because of the roof in a house I put you in, baby. Don’t downplay it.”
“I didn’t get hurt,” I told him forcefully. “Wrecker woke me up before the big piece on my bed came down, so I was out of bed when it happened. I thought one of us had peed the bed because it was wet,” I snorted, then blushed when I realized what I’d just divulged. “Not that I pee the bed. My bladder control is perfect.”
He didn’t say anything, but then his chest jerked as he snorted out a laugh. “How can you make me laugh when all I want to do is kick my own ass?”
Rubbing my nose into his chest and breathing in the scent of Remy, I sighed. “Unless you’re super flexible or the bottom of your legs is longer than the top, that’s nigh on impossible. You’d have to get into a position, like lying on your front on the ground, to be able to do that with normal legs.” Lifting the lower part of my leg and bending it, so it was pressed against the back of my thigh, I pulled my head back. “See?”
Of course it just so happened that my heel touched just under my ass cheek. In my defense, I’d never tried to kick my ass, so what I’d said had sounded reasonable.
When he raised an eyebrow, I mumbled, “It doesn’t count as being able to kick my own ass. More like I can skim the bottom of a cheek.”
Tucking a chunk of hair that was hanging loose from my messy bun, Remy said softly, “Tana, pack your shit and come stay at mine.” Not even giving me a chance to argue or say yes, he added, “Please?”
Sighing, I looked over his shoulder at one of the pots on the ground in the kitchen.
“I don’t want to leave the place in case it rains again. Who’ll put stuff under the leaks to stop them from ruining the floor? What if the roof actually caves in fully?”
“I’d rather it didn’t cave in while you were here,” he growled, putting his arm around my back and gently pushing me toward my bedroom. “I’ll get a couple of the guys to come in and get to work on fixing it all, but until then, you’re staying with Toby and me.”
Knowing he was talking sense, I didn’t argue or agree. Instead, I fairly stomped through to my room and began throwing things into a bag.
I’d just opened my underwear drawer and was picking out a couple of things from it when my huge suitcase, the one I’d bought to move my stuff here after I’d gotten the job, appeared on the floor beside me.
“No sense in just getting a couple of changes, Tana. If it rains again and more of the ceiling comes down, it’ll ruin all your shit. Just take it all out and put it in there.”
Right under my hand was the weird swimsuit Addy had gotten me, the one that looked like a man’s chest with hair everywhere. Knowing Remy was right beside me and would see it, I squeaked and grabbed it along with the underwear under it and stuffed the items in my bag.
“Okay,” I croaked, praying he hadn’t seen it and moving onto the next drawer to try and bury it in my case as much as possible.
It was when I got down to the drawer the rest of my swimming stuff was in that I realized my brother had gotten his revenge on me—it was empty. “That son of a bitch! I’m going to kill him.”
“Who?”
“Croix, that’s who.” I slammed the drawer shut and turned to survey the room, looking to see if he’d taken anything else. “I knew he was up to something while I was getting ready yesterday. I just didn’t know what.”
Remy frowned. “What did he do?”
“He—” I stopped talking when I realized if I continued, I’d have to explain why it was such an issue, and I didn’t want to do that. “Uh, he took something he shouldn’t have. Oh, well. I’ll get him back at some point.”