Chapter Two
Charlotte glanced around the apartment that Savage had sent her to just the other day. She hadn’t intended to come by this place so soon, but with her mother, she should have known it would come sooner rather than later.
She partly expected the apartment to be in the rough side of Rivermont Ridge, but it was actually one of the brand-new buildings that had recently been finished.
She knew several years ago there had been a lot of protest to more housing work being done within Rivermont Ridge.
However, this one had gone through as they knocked down the older building and proceeded to build it from the ground up.
It was beautiful. She also knew the apartments were not cheap, and from the way Savage was talking, he owned this place outright.
There were no pictures or décor on the walls, but he at least had some furniture, which was nice.
She hadn’t moved in. All she did was bring a change of clothes and her makeup box.
That was all she was interested in doing.
She didn’t want to hide in books anymore.
Maeve had told her to be an awesome makeup artist, she needed to practice.
When she wasn’t working or studying, she was practicing.
So far, Charlotte didn’t have anyone to practice on—only herself.
She pulled her makeup kit into the main dining room and was a little amazed Savage didn’t spend more time here. He hated mess of all kinds. She didn’t even know him that well, but she knew him well enough to know that. He would do anything to keep a clean ship.
It was an open-plan apartment. She stood in the space next to the dining room table and was able to see the kitchen, sitting room, and there was a small door she assumed went off into the bedroom.
Curiosity got the better of her, so she made her way toward the door and it opened into a small corridor that also had two additional doors. Opening each one, she saw they were both separate rooms—a two-bedroom apartment, and Savage never came here.
She wrapped her arms around herself. She was aware of the dangers of Chaos Monsters MC.
There were many nights she spent listening to her parents argue.
Her mother calling them so many names under the sun.
Of course, her dad would often state that Nancy didn’t mind, as long as she could live a cushy life.
She blew out a little breath, then she took a deep one and sighed.
Her parents had been toxic to each other, but she loved both of them.
Pushing all of those thoughts to the back of her mind, she instead got to work with her makeup kit.
She was not going to waste a single moment when learning to apply makeup.
Maeve always said the key was to practice, and she set up the mirror, along with her eye shadow palette, and started to build a smokey look.
On one side, she looked like she had a bruised eye.
She’d packed on way too much eye shadow, and it had started to look patchy.
She wrinkled her nose and grabbed a different brush to work on her other eye, which was a little better.
The only problem was, the pigment was too strong.
She let out a growl, then grabbed some makeup remover, dabbed a cotton pad, and cleaned up.
She had to get this to work, otherwise her mother was going to be right, and she would be wasting her valuable time.
Charlotte wanted to cry as she got to work, the makeup wasn’t sticking, and she felt like a complete disaster. Just as she was about to clean up her fourth attempt, there was a knock on the door, and she frowned.
Charlotte didn’t know if Savage was expecting visitors.
This was not good. She let out a little sob, but the knock didn’t stop.
Getting to her feet, she made her way down the hallway to look through the peephole, and she was shocked to see Savage there.
She opened the door, his eyes went wide, and he tensed up.
“Wow,” he said.
She frowned. “Don’t laugh. This is not funny. I look like a freaking monster.”
“I was thinking more rock star. Is that not the look you were going for?” Savage asked.
“This is not funny.” She stormed back to the table. “What are you doing here?”
“To check and make sure you are okay.”
“How did you know I was even here?”
“I got an alert, and I wanted to check on you. Especially as your mom stopped by the club and started yelling at your dad to have a conversation with you.”
Charlotte growled. “She never listens to what I want. It is always about what she wants.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I probably sound like a child.”
“It’s all good. I never had any parents to compare.”
She paused and turned to look toward him. “You didn’t have parents?”
He shook his head. “Not a single one. I was in an orphanage growing up. Trust me, you would be glad for a pain-in-the-ass bitch of a mother, compared to having nothing at all. That fucking sucks, especially when no one wants you.”
Charlotte hadn’t known that was his back story.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t fucking feel sorry for me. Sure, it sucked, but I was a first-class asshole. They were probably glad I left at thirteen and never looked back.”
“Thirteen?” she asked.
“Yep, made my own way in the world. Eventually got into the wrong crowd, got in a fight with Doc, he knocked me out, and the rest is history.”
She was amazed. “My dad knocked you out?”
“Your dad is a fighter, honey. Trust me, he is terrifying. So, if you’re not trying to be a rock star, what are you trying to be?” he asked.
“I’m trying to perfect a smokey eye look.”
“Perfect? I think you should just try to do a good eye shadow look.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you think you can do a better job than me?”
“I stood at a fucking fair and watched Maeve for nearly ten hours applying makeup. Yeah, I think I could do a good job.”
Charlotte knew how hard it really was. She held the fluffy eye brush out to him. “Go on then, prove it.”
“You’re not going to cry like a little bitch when I get this done better than you?” he asked.
“Yeah, right. I do not cry like a little bitch.”
Savage grabbed a chair, spun it around, and straddled it.
There was no way he would be able to make this work.
However, he cleaned up the mess, then he tapped the eye gently, and surprised her even further by prepping the eye with primer and setting it down.
She didn’t like this, as she watched him dip into the eye shadow palette but he barely got any eye shadow on the brush.
Next, he started to work, and what he was doing felt nice, only he did both eyes. It was nice, kind of reminded her what Maeve was like. Always a gentle touch.
The time ticked by, and Savage didn’t talk, he just got to work and changed out his brushes, until finally he put it down, clapped his hands, and spoke with an accent.
“My masterpiece is done.”
She went to reach for the mirror.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
“What did you do to me?” she asked, her suspicions growing again.
He winked at her. “I’m going to teach you to have some patience.”
And then, he spun the mirror around.
Charlotte didn’t know what she expected, but a perfectly done smokey eye was not it. The neutral look appeared flawless. She was in shock. She couldn’t believe he’d been able to perfectly execute a flawless smokey eye.
“Wow,” she said. “How did you ... I mean, this is amazing. Are you, like, a makeup artist in real life?”
“Not at all. Just ten hours across multiple days of watching Maeve. Also, I might have a kind of knack.”
“A knack?”
“I tend to pick something up by watching it,” he said, with a shrug.
“I can’t even do this and I’ve been practicing for months.”
“It’s not hard. You’re loading your brush up. You want to start out light and build. You don’t want to thickly put it on and have to smudge it. Also, it didn’t look like you set down your primer, which will result in patchy.”
“I hate you right now,” Charlotte said.
“Well, if you hate me, then there is no way you’re going to be able to practice with me here.”
“Practice?”
“I was going to offer you the use of my beautiful eyes, but if you hate me, that is not going to happen.”
“No, no, please, I don’t hate you. Hate is too strong of a word, but please let me use your eyes.”
****
Savage had every intention of ignoring Charlotte. She was too fucking young.
But, when he got the alert of his apartment being entered, he knew it was her.
Nancy on the warpath also provided that clarity.
He had mixed feelings about Nancy. He was very much aware of her cheating ways.
Even though Nancy and Doc had been together before he arrived on the scene, he had known it was rocky from the start.
He also knew Nancy was a player. She had even propositioned him, but he refused to bite.
There was no fucking way he was playing on Doc’s turf, and besides, Nancy was not his type.
Not that he actually had a type. That was a lie, he enjoyed pussy from all unattached females, but certainly not from wives of men he respected.
There was over fifteen years difference between him and Doc. At thirty years old, Savage had seen it all. Most didn’t know he was only thirty. Many assumed he was close to forty years old, but that was life surviving on the streets.
Doc had met him when Savage was sixteen years old, and he’d been a punk ass kid.
Of course, he’d attempted to steal from Doc, which resulted in a punch to the face.
He got knocked out, and from that day forward, Savage had been loyal to Doc and the Chaos Monsters MC.
He did his time. Earned his patch before he turned eighteen and hadn’t looked back, not even as they settled in Rivermont Ridge.
Savage knew Doc wouldn’t be happy with him hanging around Charlotte. Not once during the last eighteen years had Savage spent any time with his little girl. He didn’t like kids.