Page 28 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

When she opened her eyes, she’d walked closer without realizing it and was standing only a few feet away.

“Hold on.” Charming pushed the midwife’s hands away. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. It must have just been a spasm.”

Rosie felt more than saw Carnal’s eyes on her. She wanted to ignore him, but he was a powerful presence. When she looked his direction, he’d turned his attention back to Charming.

“That’s impossible,” said the midwife, but it was hard to argue with Charming when he was getting to his feet laughing. Everybody watching knew that even whiskey couldn’t make that much of a difference.

Carnal looked around before his eyes settled on one of the trainers. “Track, what happened?”

Rosie noticed that Carnal’s voice was rougher than the one he used when he spoke to her.

“He did a flip over Tag, showing off. He came down too close to where Fray and Dominion were sparring with rods and caught a backswing.” Track shrugged. “Happens. You know that better than most.”

Carnal scanned the onlookers and spied Fray looking close to devastated. He walked over to where Fray stood and said, “Come with me.” Fray didn’t look happy, but did as he was told. Carnal walked up a berm in silence until he judged that they were out of earshot. “Did you mean to hurt Charming?”

Fray blanched. “No! Charm’s my friend.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” Fray stared.

When he said nothing, Carnal followed his statement with, “Right?”

“I, uh…”

“Stop that stammering. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. Right?”

Fray looked into Carnal’s eyes for a full minute before saying, “Right,” almost too quietly to be heard.

“Then don’t worry about it. Training field injuries are part of our lives. Sometimes we get. Sometimes we give.” Fray nodded slowly. “Alright then. Get back to work. I’m going to take my brother for a brew.”

Fray smiled at that and nodded again.

Carnal walked straight to Charming. Putting his big hand on his youngest sibling’s shoulder, he spoke to Track. “I’m taking my brother home to change his pants and getting him a drink. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

Track’s eyes flicked from Carnal to Charming. He didn’t look like he was completely down with that suggestion, but shrugged, letting it go.

When Rosie got back to the bar, Dandy was waiting.

“You left the bar unattended.”

“Charming was hurt.”

“Yeah. I heard. But you left the bar unattended.”

“Charming was hurt.”

“You get cuckoo disease or something?”

“I wanted to go see for myself.”

“Why?”

Rosie gaped. “Because I live in the same house with him. Because when I first came here, he was the only person who treated me like a person for a long time. Because I was worried about him. That enough?”

Dandy sighed. “It is,” she said quietly. “But you can’t leave the bar unattended.”

Rosie crossed her arms over her chest. “I’d do the same thing if it was you.”

Dandy tried not to smile, but lost the battle. “So you going to make a list of people who’d be worthy of post abandonment?”

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