“All men lie.” She turned, tears clinging to her thick lashes. “Except you.”
“Yes. Well. That’s not entirely accurate.” I lied by omission. I twisted the truth.
“He doesn’t find me attractive anymore,” she sniffled.
The idea that Áine wasn’t attractive was absurd. She, like all faeries, was stunning. “We both know that’s not the case.”
“Do you?” she whispered.
“Do I what?”
“Find me attractive.”
My stomach tightened. “You know I do.”
Her knees pressed against my thigh when she scooted closer. “Then why won’t you look at me?”
Beauty was a faerie’s curse, rarely reaching below the surface. Most of them were like ripe apples hollowed out by worms: rotten on the inside. Áine didn’t care about my brother—or me, for that matter. Áine only cared about herself.
“We should go back.”
Her hand slipped up my thigh. “And if I don’t want to go back?”
I caught her fingers, fighting the tug between us with everything inside me. “This wasn’t part of our bargain,” I managed through clenched teeth.
“Then I think it’s time for our bargain to change. Go on, Tadhg. Give in. You know you can’t resist.”
I had no desire to touch the woman and didn’t want her touching me, but all I could do was shake my pounding head and grip the rug beneath me until my fingers ached. My eyes screwed shut, and I held my breath.
Her hand stopped right before she reached my groin. “Why won’t you look at me?”
Because I wanted to pretend the hand next to my cock belonged to someone else. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Is that any way to speak to me? I have helped you for almost a hundred feckin’ years, and you want to ‘get this over with’?Look at me.”
I shook my head.
“It’s that hideous human, isn’t it?” she seethed, nails digging into my thigh. “You’d rather be with her over me?”
Finally, a question I could answer honestly. “A thousand times over.” Keelynn didn’t know any better because I’d kept her in the dark. But Áine knew better. And yet, here she was, trying to take advantage of my weakness.
Her lips twisted into a mocking smile. “I’d love to see if your little pet enjoys the taste of hellsbane as much as she enjoys our wine.”
Hellsbane was the worst of poisons and nearly impossible to cure, giving those who’d digested it a slow, agonizing death. “You forget yourself, Áine.”
“Go on, Tadhg,” she crooned, her hand resuming its trek north. “Give in.”
She wanted me to give in, did she? “All right,” I whispered.
Her lips lifted.
And I kissed them.
18
Keelynn hadher hand on Ruairi. It was just his arm, but I could tell from the stillness in his stance and the way his lips twitched into a smile that he never wanted it to end, and if she didn’t stop, I was going to kill my best mate.
When I’d returned to the forest and found her seat empty, I’d hoped she’d heeded my warning and gone to bed. Then I evanesced into the tower and found all the feckin’ rooms empty as well. Blind panic had seized my chest when I returned to the bonfire to search the few remaining stragglers for signs of her.