“Ah . . . she’s one of yours then.” Ruairi’s hand dropped. “Pity.” He should’ve moved on except the man had a death wish, so he sat next to her. Far too close. A shift in position and he’d get his disgusting scent all over her. “What’s your name, human?”
I looked like a crazed eejit with my dagger, so I put it away. For now. “Lady Keelynn, this is Ruairi.”
“Alady. How fancy.” He sniffed her like the animal he was, getting too feckin’ close but never touching. “She doesn’t smell like a lady. But she doesn’t smell like you either,” he said with a smirk.
If Keelynn and I had been sleeping together, Ruairi would’ve been able to smell my scent mixed with hers. And he wouldn’t have dared to get within ten feet of her. An arrangement himself, Rían, and I had made centuries ago. Speaking of my brother . . . “Is anyone else coming that I should know about?”
Ruairi shook his head. “I couldn’t convince Rían to leave his hovel.”
For some unknown reason, my brother had bought a cottage in shite up the coast near Hollowshade. Heaven only knew what plans he had for the dilapidated thing. Probably some sort of torture chamber. At least this new obsession was better than what he’d done the first few months after Aveen had died.
“Who is Rían?” Keelynn asked.
Ruairi answered before I could. “Rían is Tadhg’s younger brother.”
Technically, he was my bastard half-brother, a biproduct of my father’s philandering ways. Not that I wanted to talk about either.
Keelynn gripped the edge of the stone with shaking hands. When I asked if she was all right, she glared and claimed to be fine.
“Are you sure?” I dropped to one knee. Her forehead felt cool, but her face held no color.
“I said I’mfine.” She shoved me away and stalked toward a half-full bottle of wine someone had left on a stone.
I shifted the thing before she could do something she regretted. That shite was pure alcohol. “What did I tell you about the wine?”
Ruairi stole it from me and gave it back to the wasp. “If theladywants a drink, then I say let her drink.”
Keelynn’s chin lifted as she took the wine and drank straight from the feckin’ bottle, only to gag and spew drops of drink into the night air. Ruairi’s laughter echoed around the forest while the rest of the gathering giggled.
“That’s enough.” Any more than that and she’d be flat on her arse in the next twenty minutes.
What’d the wasp do?
She took another feckin’ drink.
And a third.
Defiant eyes met mine, glassy and glazed.That’s it. End of.I wasn’t spending my night worrying over this woman. I caught her arm, holding firm when she struggled. “You’re going to bed if I have to lock you in the feckin’ room myself.”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to stay and have a chat with the handsome pooka.”
Ruairi?Handsome?
The bastard’s grating chuckle would be his last.
“Keelynn—”
“Let the human go.” Cormac clapped a hand on my shoulder, squeezing until my neck hurt. “All it takes is one.”
What had I been thinking, touching her like that? I knew what happened when I let my emotions get the better of me. If Keelynn reported me for manhandling her, there’d be hell to pay. And not just from the Airren authorities but from Rían as well.
Cormac helped her right herself, keeping his hands at her arms.
A possessive hand snaked down my chest. “She’s not worth it,” Áine insisted.“Besides, you and I have some business to attend to.”
Not now,dammit. Couldn’t she see I was busy? “You can wait until I’m finished here.”
“I’ve waited long enough,” Áine whined. “You promised, remember? I’m calling in our bargain.”