Page 30 of Savage Guardian

Tensing in shock, Carrie’s mouth dropped open before she demanded, “What? Why did you go there? I can’t imagine you just wandering up to the gate and them letting you in. I mean, unless you offered to suck a few dicks.” The malicious smirk on her face wasn’t new to Fae, not that it still didn’t hurt like hell to see it. Step-sister love? Hell no. Carrie had never spared a single sweet thought or good intention for Fae.

“I was invited.” The least amount of details, the better.

Especially don’t tell her about the kiss….

The same one she’d stayed awake for the most of the night replaying over and over in her head. Her lips still buzzed from where he’d devoured her. Her breasts still ached from where they were crushed against his hard chest. Her head was still swimming with sensations and thoughts and feelings she had no hope in hell of understanding. At least not until she saw him again. He was due in the suite in less than fifteen minutes, and she fully intended to be there. Usually, she’d be up and gone to the studio by 5am—a really early start to a long day of recording, video editing, uploading, and social media maintenance. Unlike what Carrie seemed to think about social media, it didn’t run itself. Carrie could post a selfie of her and her breakfast and get a thousand likes in an hour, but because Aoibheal was a niche market, it took hours of work getting the word out about her music, and hours more interacting with fans—online and on paper.

According to Teddy Beresford—yes, his name was TeddyBear—the sound technician and producer, there was a box of letters and packages waiting for her at the studio. It had been forwarded by her dad, who’d graciously volunteered to monitor her PO Box in Olsen, and send all the delivered fan mail to her in Las Vegas. Initially, she’d only expected to be in Vegas long enough for Carrie to do her Milli-Vanilli concert at The Music Box and re-record the songs she’d already written and produced on her own. But then Jimmy dropped a whole new album on her, telling her she’d missed it in the fine print. Strangely enough, when she’d gone to reread her copy of the contract, it was missing.

“You were invited….” Carrie’s voice was flat, yet somehow heavy with her disbelief.

“Yes, I was.”And while I was there, I got the hell kissed out of me by the sexiest man I’ve ever seen.

Would he kiss her again?

Fae’s words must have finally filtered through Carrie’s brain because Carrie’s eyes popped wide, an expression of shock morphing into one of venom.

“You lie. Men like the Savage Raiders wouldn’t look twice at a fat bitch like you.”

Used to the barbs, Fae sighed and sat back, the bagel and cream cheese she’d eaten before Carrie strode out of her bedroom, turning to rocks in her stomach.

“I didn’t lie. Hawk invited me, so I went. I spent the evening there with him, talking, then with one of his club brothers, Grimm. They were all really nice.”

Carrie laughed, the sound shrill and false. “You can’t be serious. Why would Hawk inviteyouand not me?”

Fae shrugged. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We were both at Danny’s Diner. He saw me, he stopped to chat, then he invited me to the clubhouse. We got there, and we talked over drinks. I met Grimm—who is a cliché of a ginger Irishman, complete with Irish charm—and then I drove back here.”

As expected, Carrie didn’t want to believe that Fae could have fun without her, rolling her eyes and waving carelessly, as if swatting away Fae’s words like they were nothing.

“You mean you forced your attention on men who had better things to do than entertain a mousy loser, who wouldn’t know a good time if it stuck its dick in her.” She snickered. “And it’d be the only dick you ever got, too.”

It was Fae’s turn to roll her eyes. Carrie knew—in detail—that Fae wasn’t a virgin. After the nightmare of a first time with Todd, she’d gone home and—desperate to tell someone, to find comfort and sanctuary in the arms of someone she knew and trusted, she’d told Carrie the whole embarrassing, sordid tale. Instead of comforting Fae, Carrie had helped Todd “paper” the school with terrible lies about her, laughing at her the whole time.

“They enjoyed my company just fine. Hawk even cared about me, asking questions, and he was actually interested in the answers.” Yeah, at least until the club slut got there, and he’d lost interest real quick.

But then…the kiss….He’d kissed her like he’d wanted to devour her whole. If that didn’t show interest, she didn’t know what it was.

“Oh, my God, you don’t honestly think Hawk would ever be attracted to someone like you?”

Heat—embarrassment at being found out and anger at being so easily dismissed—raced through her, burning her face and chest like fire.

Pressing her lips together to keep from saying something that would only trigger Mega-Bitch Carrie, who was different from the current incarnation, Snide-Harpy Carrie, Fae just stared at her sister, letting the humiliation and rage fester. Like always.

“Holy shit, you do?” she cackled. “You actually think a gorgeous, sexy badass like Hawk wantsyou? Flabby Fae? Fuggly-Faced McCabe?” Carrie’s shrill laughter filled the room, clamoring in Fae’s ears as only ugly, vicious joy could. “I can picture it now—Hawk leading you out to his bike to take you for a ride, and then waving over the forklift to help you get on. Oh, not to mention the bag you’ll have to wear over your face, so people don’t see what a hideous creature you are. Poor Hawk, he’d be better off training a bull mastiff to ride bitch. At least then he could bring it inside at night without having to worry about it eating the furniture.”

Roiling, boiling, twisting, surging—her anger bubbled and churned within her, rising into her throat to vomit her vitriol all over her sister.

She opened her mouth to say something she’d always wanted to say, but the sound of the door lock beeping, indicating Hawk’s arrival, made her slam her mouth shut.

Suddenly overwhelmed knowing that she was about to come face to face with the man who’d changed her life with a single kiss, Fae froze.

Carrie, like any predator, could sense Fae’s vulnerability, a vicious grin turning her usually pretty face into something sinister. Rising to her feet, Carrie turned to greet Hawk, still wearing her barely there nightie.

Hawk entered the room, lifting his head and stopping short at the sight before him. Carrie didn’t waste a moment, rushing to him and throwing her arms around his neck to grind her nearly naked tits against his chest. Hawk, surprised by Carrie throwing herself at him, could only throw his arms out to catch her, wrapping the thick bands of muscle around the stick thin woman.

Okay, you caught her, you can let go of her now.

He didn’t. He stared down at Carrie, a funny sort of desire and confusion in his steel-gray eyes.

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