Hope Falls: Guardian Angel (KW) (WI 2.5) Read online

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  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Melanie Shawn. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Hope Falls remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Melanie Shawn, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Guardian Angel

  Mari Carr

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the greatest “sister act” since the Brontes. Thanks so much to Melanie and Shawna for letting me play in their world.

  And also to Deb, the original Rory.

  You met Rory in February Stars. Now read the rest of her story.

  Rory Summit should be sitting on top of the world, now that she’s set herself up for super stardom. At the moment her dream comes true, she questions if this is what she really wanted. Life implodes at the unexpected death of her sister, and soon she’s on a plane to Hope Falls to care for her orphaned niece with the help of a man whose heart she broke a year earlier.

  Kevin Sanders fell in love with his brother’s new sister-in-law at the wedding. What should have been a one-night stand turned into a casual affair, whenever Rory breezed back into town. There was no denying the two of them were perfect for each other, but for six years they maintained the status quo–neither of them seeking more. That changes when one night…it all goes wrong.

  Now they’re forced to put the past behind them for the good of their niece, Angel. Playing house with Rory stirs up those same desires in Kevin, but he’s been down that heartbreak road with her before. And Rory isn’t sure how to convince him that her dreams and her feelings changed the night she made the biggest mistake of her life and walked away from him.

  Prologue

  Rory laughed as Kevin spun her off the dance floor and back toward the bar. The bartender had seen them a few times too many, so he knew their routine and was already pouring them shots.

  “Tomorrow isn’t going to feel good,” she said, even as she picked up the glass of tequila and downed it.

  Kevin was right behind her, draining his as well. “It’ll be worth it. Greatest wedding in the history of weddings.”

  “You think we might be biased, considering your brother’s the groom and my sister’s the bride?”

  Kevin shot her a look, acting as if she were insane. “Who cares who the bride and groom were? This one is making the history books due to the incredible talents of the maid of honor and the best man. We killed it tonight.”

  She laughed. “My toast was so much better than yours. Did you see everyone cracking up at my stories of Callie when we were kids?”

  Kevin waved away her boasting with his hand. “Amateur hour.”

  “I sang part of mine, a total parody of ‘Like a Virgin’. It was a riot.”

  Kevin continued to look unimpressed. “Laughter is easy. The real trick is to make them cry. I had the whole room weeping with my heartfelt toast. Two poor boys growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Chicago. They were sobbing their hearts out.”

  “Crying over how bad it was.”

  He rolled his eyes with a dismissive grin, taking no offense. “Kind of hard to believe we only just met last night. Why does it feel like I’ve known you forever?”

  “No idea. But I agree.”

  “I’ve really had a great time getting to know you this weekend, Rory.”

  The two of them had been skirting around a very definite attraction since halfway through the main course last night at the rehearsal dinner. However, given the fact they’d just met, they were there for their siblings’ wedding, and she was leaving at the ass crack of dawn on Monday to head back out on tour with her band, they’d ignored the obvious heat.

  Unfortunately, the tequila wasn’t quite as circumspect.

  “Do you want to get to know me better?” she asked in her best flirty voice, leaning closer to him.

  Kevin never missed a beat. “Your room or mine?”

  “Which one is closer?”

  He grasped her hand and tugged her out of the grand ballroom of the Thompson Hotel and toward the elevator. “I’m on the eighth floor.”

  “Fifth,” she replied, reaching into the pocket of her bridesmaid’s dress—she’d proclaimed the dress a winner the second she’d found the pockets—to pull out her key card.

  Kevin waited approximately a tenth of a second after the elevator doors closed before twisting her toward him and kissing her.

  Their first kiss.

  And they were approximately another tenth of a second into it when Rory realized it was the best fucking kiss of her life.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, liking how much taller he was than her. Kevin and his brother, Keith—her new cop brother-in-law—were built the same. Tall, broad, linebacker physiques. Muscular giants.

  Callie had once told Rory she liked how safe she felt in Keith’s arms. Rory had rolled her eyes at the mushy, girlie nature of the comment. Until now.

  Now she got it.

  They separated only briefly when the doors opened, hastily walking to her room. Mercifully, the hallway was clear, as most of the wedding guests staying in the hotel had retired earlier. She and Kevin had been some of the last diehard partiers at the reception.

  She opened her door and they walked in together. Kevin turned her toward him once they were alone inside and resumed that glorious kiss.

  As they kissed, they did a slow, backwards step that didn’t stop until Rory’s legs hit the bed. Kevin’s hands had been roaming up and down her back in a caress that was part seduction and part search party.

  “How in the hell…” he muttered against her lips.

  She laughed and lifted her right arm, twisting to show him the zipper on the side of the dress. “Looking for this?”

  His reply came in the form of a hungry look and the obvious determination to get her naked.

  She shivered slightly when he gripped the tab of the zipper and lowered it. Rory wasn’t so well endowed that she needed more than the built-in bra provided by the dress, so she was pretty much naked the second the silky material hit the floor. All that was left was her thong and her strappy sandals.

  Kevin took a step back to grab a better view.

  Rory had spent the better part of her life onstage, under the constant scrutiny of thousands of screaming fans. She was used to being looked at. But that didn’t change the impact of this more private viewing. Kevin was practically eating her alive with his eyes, and she had never felt more beautiful, sexier.

  “I’d tell you to take a picture,” she joked, “but I suspect you’d take me up on the offer.”

  He grinned. “My cell is right here.” He pretended to pat the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket, drawing her attention to the fact he was way too overdressed.

  “Take it off,” she whispered.

  “The jacket?”

  “All of it.”

  He shrugged out of his jacket as he toed off his shoes. She helped him by working loose the knot in his bowtie. By the time she’d slid that free from the collar and gone to work on his shirt buttons, he’d freed himself from his pants and briefs.

  Her fingers stumbled a bit when she reached the last button, distracted by his erection.

  She wasn’t aware she was staring until he said, “We could go tit for tat on those nudie pics if you want.”

  Rory laughed, aware that was pretty much all she’d done this weekend. And equally aware she wasn’t the type of woman to laugh much. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a sense of h
umor or fun. She just wasn’t the giggly type. Except with Kevin, it seemed.

  “How many condoms do you have with you?”

  He reached down, retrieving his wallet from his pants. “Three.” As he responded, he tossed the packets on the nightstand table.

  She blew out a long breath. “Not sure that’s going to be enough.”

  Kevin gently pressed on her shoulders, guiding her to her back on the bed. “I have more in my room.”

  She grinned. “Came prepared, huh?”

  “Boy Scout training.”

  “You were in the Scouts?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  Before she could laugh—again—he kissed her, erasing everything from her mind, which was no small task. Rory was a thinker, her brain constantly jumping from one worry or concern to the next without cease.

  That wasn’t the case with Kevin. Right now, right here, with him, she couldn’t be anywhere other than in the moment.

  He hadn’t bothered to take off his shirt, so instead it lay open, allowing her to run her hands over his chest, then grasp the lapels to tug him even closer as they kissed.

  Kevin rested his weight on his elbows, his hands gripping the sides of her head, turning her this way and that as he sought to deepen the kiss. Their tongues touched, stroked, tasted, and she jerked slightly when he nipped her lower lip.

  His cock rested, thick and hard, at the juncture of her outstretched thighs, but he didn’t try to enter her. Instead, he seduced her with his lips, driving her passion higher as he pulled her hair just a bit harder, adding a rough edge to the kiss.

  Rory drew her nails along his chest, applying enough pressure that it was more scratch than tickle. For some insane reason, she wanted to mark him, to find a way to make sure he remembered her on Monday after she was gone.

  “Kevin,” she finally said when her need was too intense. She was in a state of almost pain. “Please. God. I need to—”

  Her words morphed to a groan when Kevin slid lower, sucking one of her nipples into his mouth, the suction tight.

  “Holy shit,” she muttered when he treated the second nipple to the same. She recalled his tit-for-tat comment as she reached for his light brown hair. It was short, well-groomed, the complete opposite of most guys she hung out with. She was surrounded by rockers, so she was used to guys with long hair. In fact, before this weekend, she would have said that was what she preferred, what she found sexy in a man. Long hair, tats, the ability to thrash on an electric guitar.

  So much for that. Short-haired, clean-cut accountants were apparently where it was at. Rory ran her fingers through Kevin’s hair, then closed them around the soft strands, pulling it like he had hers.

  He released her nipple with a pop, his eyes lifting to find hers. His lids were narrowed as he studied her face.

  “Careful,” he warned. “You’re triggering some buttons here, Rory. Making me want to take things a hell of a lot further than you might be comfortable with.”

  She didn’t reply with words. Instead, she tightened her grip on his hair as she lifted her head and bit his shoulder, the imprint of her teeth evident when she released him. “I think our comfort levels are pretty compatible.”

  From that moment on, they both dropped their guards, let go of all inhibitions, taking everything they wanted then demanding more.

  She’d never been a passive lover, always managing—okay, demanding—to get hers as well. It never failed to surprise her how many men didn’t deem the woman’s orgasm as a necessary part of the deal. Rory had no problem correcting that misconception.

  Kevin needed no lessons. Jesus. After ten minutes of mind-blowing, gorgeous torture of her breasts, he moved farther south and really made the magic happen. He knew his fucking way around a woman’s body. Hell, he even introduced her to previously undiscovered hot buttons. She had already come twice and Kevin hadn’t even put on the condom yet.

  She was wrung out and strung out and worried about hanging in there through the main event. This was madness. Beautiful madness. If he’d given her three seconds to collect her wits, she probably could have written a song about it. As it was…

  “Please,” she whispered as Kevin continued to play with her clit, three fingers pumping deep inside her.

  He lifted his head. “One more this way.”

  “I need you inside me.” Her weak, almost whiny voice felt foreign to her own ears.

  “One more this way,” he repeated in a tone that was pure alpha male. Demanding and sexy as fuck.

  “Are you sure you’re an accountant?”

  He chuckled, even as he lowered his head and nipped at her clit. “Shame on you, rock star. Are you insinuating accountants can’t be good in bed?”

  “You have to admit that’s a pretty buttoned-up career. All stiff collars and ties.”

  Throughout their conversation, he’d continued to stroke her pussy, his fingers moving in and out slowly. He pulled them free, grinning when she grasped his wrist in an attempt to guide them back in.

  He shook off her hold, taking both hands in his and pressing them to the mattress by her hips. “Keep your hands on the bed or I’ll introduce you to some of my ties.”

  Oh, shit. Bondage. Just when she thought Kevin couldn’t get any hotter. However, regardless of her desire to be tied up, she kept her hands exactly where he put them, unable to make herself disobey him because she was too desperate to get to the good stuff. And right now, the only good stuff she wanted was him inside her.

  “Good girl.” He rose up to his knees and reached for one of the condoms, rolling it on. He placed the head of his cock at her opening, then leaned over her body, caging her beneath his large frame. “Maybe we should revisit that comment about me being stiff.”

  He pressed inside her as she half-laughed, half-groaned.

  “I said your collars were—” That was all she managed to get out before he thrust the entire way inside. White lights flashed behind her closed eyes as she tried to stave off her orgasm. The damn man had pushed her right to the brink with his fingers and now there was no way she was going to be able to resist…

  “Open your eyes, rock star. Look at me.”

  She forced her lids open, grateful he’d made the request when she found his handsome face just inches from hers.

  “You’re so beautiful, Rory,” he whispered. “This thick mass of black hair, those ice-blue eyes, your smile. Your laugh. Everything. You take my breath away.”

  She’d been told a million times in the past that she was pretty. She worked in a field where image mattered almost as much, if not more, than talent. Agents and record producers declared her the total package—sex appeal with a strong voice. Those words had never made her feel anything less than completely cheap.

  Hearing the same from Kevin was different. Being beautiful to him made her feel special, valuable, adored.

  They didn’t say anything else as Kevin began to move, thrusting inside her deeply. Given their foreplay, she’d expected the sex to be hard and fast and rough. Instead, Kevin was giving her something she didn’t know she’d like so much.

  Rather than fucking, this felt a hell of a lot closer to making love. And it was amazing. She came, but he just kept moving, holding on to her body and her gaze as if his life depended on it.

  When she felt yet another orgasm begin, she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist, tilting her hips so that he went even deeper. They both groaned, coming together. Kevin remained on top of her, inside her for a few moments more, neither of them seeking to break the bond.

  Then he fell to her side, tugging her closer, her head resting on his chest.

  “That was…” His words faded, the description unspoken, and she wondered if he was filling in the blanks with the same words she was.

  Incredible. Perfect. Unbelievable.

  A mistake.

  He was an accountant from some Podunk town called Hope Falls. And she was a rootless rock star whose current mailing address was her sister�
�s place in Chicago.

  They had nothing in common, and yet she’d never felt closer to anyone—with the exception of her sister Callie—in her life.

  “Kevin,” she started, thinking perhaps it would be best to call it a night here.

  “You leave Monday, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Then we’re going to make Sunday count.”

  “I’m not sure—”

  “I know what you’re thinking, Rory. You don’t have to worry. I’m not asking you for anything more than one day. One day to try to work whatever this is out of our systems and then we’ll settle into our roles as proper in-laws.”

  She laughed. “I’ve never been proper a day in my life.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “You know what I mean.”

  Rory lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest. “You think twenty-four hours will be enough to scratch the itch?”

  He shrugged. “If not, there’s always the holidays. You planning to spend Christmas with Callie and Keith in Chicago?”

  Rory tried to decide how she felt about what he was suggesting. In truth, every impulsive, throw-caution-to-the-wind part of her wanted exactly what he was offering.

  “Yeah. I am.”

  “Then I’ll meet you under the mistletoe. Sound like a plan?”

  She nodded, even though there was the tiniest little piece of her heart that knew meeting would be a mistake.

  Because despite their differences—career-wise and geographically—she was falling for Kevin Sanders.

  Chapter One

  Six years later…

  Rory stood on the stage, listening as the emcee of the February Stars singing competition announced her name. She’d won.

  So much of her life had been spent building up to this point, this moment on this stage.

  Years of voice training and guitar lessons, practicing until she was hoarse and her fingertips bled. Week after week spent on the road, in shitty cars or old busses that smelled like dirty socks. She’d lived a lifetime where she slept sitting up, her head resting against some flat surface, that occurrence happening more often than the opportunity to actually lie down.