Page 83 of Savage Guardian

Fae waited for him to continue, more than a little interested in the story of Liz and Trouble, but when Hawk didn’t keep going, she sighed.

Blowing out a loud breath, she turned her back to the window and crossed her arms.

“I saw Carrie on my way in,” Hawk reported, a dry chuckle following. “She looked none too pleased to be remanded into the care of the Las Vegas police department.”

Fae laughed flatly, watching Hawk’s reflection in the glass. One big hand gripped the back of his neck, rubbing it. The other one was on his lean hip. He looked nervous.

“I also hear that Jimmy was arrested a few days ago.”

He had? Well, apparently, Hawk was gone, but he still had a working phone because someone had told him about Jimmy.

“Yeah. Picked up by the FBI—not associated with Special Agent Tyler—and taken wherever they take scheming assholes who commit Federal crimes. Apparently, hiring murderous stalkers across state lines is a no-no.”

When Jimmy had hired Teddy, he hadn’t expected the man to help a psycho killer stalk, then kidnap and beat his client, but that hadn’t stopped law enforcement from throwing the book at the weasel using the information AFK had found on Tyler’s devices.

“Why are you here, Hawk? I figured that when you got gone and stayed gone for six days, I would never see your face again.”

He grimaced, his jaw clenching, his lips thinning. Oh, so he wasannoyedat her pointing out the obvious.

“I’m here now,mo chroi, and I’m not leaving again,” he replied emphatically, raising his hands, palm up.

Hearing the endearment, Fae spun around, mouth gaping. Did he expect her to place her hands in his and start singing a jaunty end credits scene, where everything was well and good, and the hero and the heroine skipped off into the beachy sunset to their happily ever after?

No matter how many times she wished otherwise, her life wasn’t a romance novel. And it definitely wasn’t the kind where the hero messes up, the heroine gets into trouble, the hero saves her, and all is forgiven. That wasn’t reality. Reality was that forgiveness was only offered when the person who messed up actually proved they were apologetic. When they actuallywantedto be forgiven.

Hawk was acting like nothing happened, like he hadn’t hurt her so bad she rewrote a love song out of pain and despair.

If Hawk thought that because he rescued her, she’d forget about what he had done the night before her kidnapping, he was mistaken. Yes, she was grateful that he saved her and wiped an evil, vile man from the world, but that gratefulness in no way meant he was forgiven. After tearing her heart out of her chest, shitting on it, and leaving it out for the flies to lay their maggots in, he had some goddamn groveling to do before she ever let him near her again.

“Don’t do that, Hawk. Don’t you dare come in here, after what you said to me—how you’ve treated me—and expect me to just stop being angry at you.”

“That’s not—”

“You hurt me,” she admitted, tears burning the back of her eyes. “So much. I have never felt as betrayed as I did when you looked me in the eye and told me I was nothing.

“All the clues were there, Hawk, and you ignored every single one because I didn’t meet your mental criteria of your perfect woman. Sure, you fell in love with Aoibheal through her music, but when you finally met Carrie—who youthoughtwas Aoibheal—you were taken in by her big tits, her perky ass, and her pretty face, and nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter to you she doesn’t speak a word of Gaelic, that she never once went to the studio, that she was about as interested in Aoibheal’s music as someone who’s never heard of her before. All those clues, right in your face, and not once did it occur to you she was an imposter. I wasright therethe whole time.Me, the real Aoibheal, but my tits aren’t as perky, my ass is three sizes too big, my face is plain, and my thighs touch—so I couldn’t possibly be the woman Hawk had been dreaming of.

Hawk growled, thrusting his hands through his mangled hair. “No, Fae, that isn’t—”

“Isn’t what? The truth? Fae McCabe is too fat and ugly to be the great and talent Aoibheal, right? That’s what you meant when you said I was jealous of Carrie, that I wantedto be her, right?”

Hawk stalked toward Fae and grabbed her arms, holding her in place as he bent down to look her in the eye, foreheads touching.

She stiffened—not scared…but utterly unsure.

“It wasn’t about how you looked, Fae.” She opened her mouth to protest, but with a single, pleading look, he silenced her. “It wasn’t. Do you think I would have fucked you twice if I didn’t find you sexy as hell? I knew that sleeping with you would complicate the shit out of everything, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted you, so goddamn bad. Even when I wasn’t with you, I thought about you, I yearned for you, I fantasized about you. I probably bruised my dick from all the jacking off I did thinking about your curves, your sweet pussy, your bitable ass, and the way you sound when you’re being pleasured by me.”

Heat and wet pooled between her thighs, and she barely stopped the climbing moan.

“Y-you…actually wanted me?” she asked, mentally cringing at the stupid awe in her voice.

He smirked down at her, reaching up to run a fingertip across the apple of her cheek.

“I still want you…so fucking much,” Hawk rasped, his voice deepening.

The velvet agony in his voice licked along her flesh. Shots of filthy, hot desire zinged through her blood, lighting her up. Her nipples hardened to diamond points, her breasts aching for his touch.

Her breath shuddering, she rasped, “Then why? Why did you treat me like that? Why did you act like you wanted to be with me then…I don’t know, treat me like I had a disease or something? The back and forth, the push, the pull, the cold, then hot…I never knew what to think, what to feel, all I knew was this man I craved was more interested in my sister than me—even after we fucked. So what was I supposed to think other than I’m too fat and ugly for you? I’ve seen the club women, Hawk. I know you type. Amelia and Carrie. And I know Carrie was your client, but it was like you turned your back on me. Abandoned me for her. You chose my sister over me—just like everyone else does.” She couldn’t hide the pain in her voice because it was pouring from her.

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