“You fucking bastard. You’ll answer for this.”
“Undoubtedly. But not to you.”
“It will be me, I promise you.”
“Stop it. I mean it!”
When Larkin’s fists bunched again, Moira had to fight the urge to bean him with a candlestick. “Lord Larkin, as your queen I command you to step back.”
“Oh, don’t start bringing rank into it,” Cian said easily. “Let the boy try to defend his cousin’s honor.”
“I’ll beat you bloody unconscious.”
Out of patience, Moira shoved between them. “Look at me. Damn your thick skull, Larkin, look at me. What room are we in here?”
“The bloody buggering bastard’s.”
“And do you think he dragged me in here by the hair, forced himself on me? You’re a numbskull is what you are. I walked here, and I knocked on Cian’s door. I pushed myself into this room, into this bed, because it’s what I wanted.”
“You don’t know what—”
“If you dare, if you dare to say
to me that I don’t know what I want I’ll beat you bloody unconscious.” She drilled a finger into his chest to emphasize the point. “I’ve a right to this private matter, and you’ve no say in it at all.”
“But he—you. It’s not proper.”
“Bollocks to that.”
“It’s hardly a surprise your cousin objects to you sleeping with a vampire.” Cian moved away from them, picked up his cup. Deliberately he dipped a finger in, licked the blood from it. “Nasty habit.”
“I won’t have you—”
“Wait.” Larkin interrupted Moira’s furious spate. “A moment. I’d like to speak with Cian in private. Talk only,” he said before Moira could object. “My word on it.”
She pushed a hand through her hair. “I don’t have time for either of you, and this foolishness. Be men then, and discuss what is none of your business or concern as if I’m addle-brained. I have to dress and speak to the troops who march today.”
She strode to the door. “I’ll trust you not to kill each other over my private relationships.”
She went out, slammed the door.
“Make it quick,” Cian snapped. “I’m suddenly weary of humans.”
The worst of the temper had faded out of Larkin’s face. “You think I hit you, that I’m angry because of what you are. I would have had the same reaction, done the same to any man I’d found her with like this. She’s my girl, after all. It wasn’t part of what I was thinking, as I wasn’t thinking in any case.”
He shifted his feet, blew out a hard breath. “And now that I do, well, it adds a complicated layer to it all. But I don’t want you thinking I planted one on you because you’re a vampire. The fact is, I don’t think of you that way unless, well, unless I think about it. You’re a friend to me. You’re one of the six of us.”
Even as he spoke, the flush of temper came back. “And I’m saying clear, me demanding, here and now, what the sodding hell you were thinking of taking advantage of my cousin has nothing to do with whether or not you have a fucking heartbeat.”
Cian waited a moment. “Are you done with that part of the speech?”
“I am, until I have an answer.”
With a nod, Cian sat, picked up his cup again. “You put me in a position, don’t you? Calling me a friend, and one of you. I may be the first, but I’ll never be the second.”
“Bollocks. That’s a kind of way out of things. I trust you as I trust few others. And now you’ve seduced my cousin.”
Cian let out a snorting laugh. “You’re not giving her enough credit. Neither did I.” Idly, Cian traced a finger over the beaded leather. “She unraveled me like a ball of yarn. It doesn’t excuse not making her leave, but she’s persuasive and stubborn. I couldn’t—I didn’t resist her.”