Sage: Take the Risk (F&L Story #3)

Sage: Parts 19 & 20

Part Nineteen

Friday, July 30, 2010.

“Sage!  Get your butt out here!”

Carey's voice vibrated the walls, accompanied by another door slamming.  Gracious, does that man even know how to properly close a door?

She walked calmly into the living room and studied his livid face.  So, Momma came through for me.  “You rang?” she asked in a snooty tone.

“Don't give me that innocent look,” he snarled.  “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Maybe you should explain yourself because I've been here all evening.”

He stomped over to her, and she lost the moment in the way his thighs bunched under those striped pants, and she had to blink up and meet his eyes.  Blue fire.  “You told your mother to buy me,” he said, looking down at her.

She smiled prettily at him, and he growled.  “So, I did.”

“So, what?  Now I'm supposed to work for your mother?”

“You were going to have to work for someone anyway,” she said.  “Why not my mother?”

“Because it'll be hard to explain why I strangled her daughter's pretty little neck,” he snapped back at her.

She rolled her eyes.  “Please.  You told your aunt all about us, and now you're getting on to me because I asked my mother to bid at a charity.  You've got some nerve, batboy.”

“I told my aunt because I'm trying to help you,” he said.

“And I asked my mother because I'm trying to help the charity,” she countered, not backing down.

“You went behind my back on this, Red.”

“And you didn't?  What happened with keeping this little secret a secret?!”

“So, you decided to get back at me by pimping me out to your mother?”  His eyes blazed hotter.

“No, I didn't,” she nearly screamed.  “I asked Momma this morning – before you called your aunt – to do this for me.”

“Why?!”  His fingers twitched by his side, and although they were two feet apart from each other, he dominated her space with his anger.  She'd had enough of his high-handed behavior and two-faced sexist attitude.

“Because you're mine!” she spit at him, and he reared back with astonishment.  Sage quickly covered that impulsive statement with more lies.  “I knew Momma was going to that auction, so I was just trying to cement our story by going all psycho-girlfriend, and asked her to buy you for me.  I didn't want her finding you there and then giving me grief about it later.”

He stared at her like she'd grown an extra head.  “How many lies are we gonna have to tell, Sage?  When does it end?”

“When we 'break-up',” she answered, drawing quotation marks over her head.  “That was the plan, remember?  And then you went and compromised that by telling your aunt.  How do you think that makes me feel?  That your stupidity might ruin my chance at a normal, independent life?”

“My stupidity?” he roared at her.  “What's stupid is the fact that I have a virgin living under my roof, and I'm not allowed to touch her!”

She took a step back.  Carey bore down on her, inadvertently stalking her until her back connected with a wall.  “Is that what this is all about?” she asked, swallowing down a lumpy mass of nerves.  “You're upset because I'm a virgin?”