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He laughed humorlessly and gripped Remi by the jaw, the grip probably painful, but he struggled to care. “Yes, I do. Your parents are paying me a fuckload of money to keep your ass alive, and I don’t think they’re going to thank you if they find out you wandered away from your goddamn bodyguard.”
Remi’s lips trembled. “They were right. You’re in this because of the money. You don’t actually give a fuck about—”
Jeremiah slapped his hand over Remi’s mouth, his body blazing hot. His free hand was fisted at his side and encased in hellfire. It took all of his self-control not to shift. “Do you seriously think that? Look me in the eye and tell me that you think everything that’s happened between us is because of money. Do you know how rich I am, Remi? Do you want to see the statements?”
Remi swallowed heavily, and he said nothing for a long while after Jeremiah pulled his hand away. “Why are you really here, then?” he whispered.
Jeremiah pulled himself together, extinguishing his fire, and then cradled Remi’s face between his palms. He knew his skin was probably too hot, but Remi just sighed and leaned into the touch. “You know why I’m here. You and I are entirely wrong for each other, but everything in me doesn’t give a single fuck. I have no idea what our future looks like, but I will not walk this earth if you’re not in it. If someone got their hands on you, Remi…”
“I was fine,” he tried to argue half-heartedly.
Jeremiah shook his head. “The last time you said that, you were almost killed. And you have been nearly taken from this campus. This is not a game,” he repeated. “You don’t get to walk off without me because you’re having a crisis of self-esteem.”
“That was mean,” Remi said, his voice shattered.
Jeremiah hated himself for causing the pain, but he had to be honest. “It was mean, but it was the truth. You were reckless, and you let people who don’t even care about you get to you. I thought you trusted me.”
Remi winced. “They just… it’s so…” He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side. “They had no idea what you’d see in someone like me, and it’s not like they’re wrong. I’ve thought about that since you first kissed me.”
“You’re smarter than that,” Jeremiah told him. He gave him a gentle shake and waited for Remi to meet his gaze. “I get paid so I can take care of my team. So they can live better lives than the ones we had before I founded this company. But you are more than a client, and if I’ve failed to show you that before now—”
“No. It wasn’t you,” Remi said. His jaw started to tremble. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so fucking stupid sometimes. I—”
With that, Jeremiah leaned in and captured his lips in a slow, pressing, searing-hot kiss. Remi melted under his attention, sagging in his arms as Jeremiah wrapped them around his waist, and he pulled him away from the wall and walked him to the couch without breaking apart. He laid him out, then pressed his knee to the cushion and eased back with several soft pecks.
When Remi’s eyes were back on his, Jeremiah let his fangs slide out, then sank them into Remi’s neck. He gasped, arching against him as the tang of blood hit Jeremiah’s tongue, and he laved it over the wound until it was closed.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Jeremiah whispered against his skin. “But I know that I won’t just die for you, Remington. I will live for you, and I will fight for you. And I have never made that vow to anyone before in my life. Do you understand now?”
He pulled back, and Remi reached up, tracing a touch over his lips. “I get it.”
Jeremiah nodded. “Good. Now, promise me, princeling. Never again.”
Remi nodded, and Jeremiah felt a pulse of truth in his words. “Never again.”
19
REMI
“Is the warden going to let you come to the Pimps and Hoes party tonight?”
Remi didn’t look up from his notes. He wasn’t actually reading anything—and not just because he’d been schooled in archaic Midlonian since he was learning to read, but because it was easier than looking Brendan and Thad in the eye.
The Pimps and Hoes party was something their frat threw every year. In the public eye, the party was for charity. In reality, the party was a good way to humiliate future pledges and brothers who were hoping for a spot in the frat house and a good way of getting people drunk enough to say yes to things they normally wouldn’t.
The whole thing had always made Remi feel sick to his stomach, and he avoided events like it as much as he could. And it was somehow worse now that he and Jeremiah had connected in ways that no human would ever be able to understand.
“I know that look,” Brendan said, leaning forward and dropping his voice. “Someone’s getting some regular dick. Is that a bonus part of the package? Do you get to tell him what to do because you’re paying?”
“Fuck off,” Remi hissed.
Brendan sat back, laughing his annoying, high-pitched laugh. “What’s it like? Does he have a dog dick?”
“Don’t be an ass,” Thad snapped, then clapped Remi on the shoulder. “He’s high.”
Remi didn’t think that was the problem, and he was pretty sure Thad would have gone along with the shit Brendan was saying if it wasn’t a social event he needed a crown prince for. “Whatever. It’s fine. I probably can’t come.”
“Dude,” Thad said from behind a sigh, “you can’t let this guy dictate everything you do. Like, I get there’s shit going on, but this is your right. You’re a high-ranking member—”
