Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood 10)

Tough to know whether the lying or the burn in his chest was making him so chatty.

"No Last Meal for you?"

"Nah. "

Cue crickets in the background. The Jeopardy! theme. A nuclear bomb - not that Qhuinn would have noticed even a mushroom cloud at this point.

God, Blay's eyes were so damned blue. And. . . holy crap, the two of them were actually alone. When was the last time that had happened?

Oh, yeah. Right after Blay had hooked up with his cousin for the first time.

"So you've taken out your piercings," Blay said.

"Not all of them. "

"Why? I mean. . . they were always, like, you, you know?"

"Guess I don't want to be defined that way anymore. "

As Blay's brows popped, Qhuinn's kind of wanted to do the same. He'd expected something else to come out of his piehole. Something like, "Meh. " Or, "Whatever. " Or, "I still got 'em where it counts, don't you worry. "

After which he could honk his package, and snort like he had balls the size of his head.

No wonder Saxton seemed attractive.

"So, yeah. . . " he said. Then cleared his throat. "So how are things with. . . you guys?"

Cue second trip to the heavens for those red eyebrows. "I'm good - we're. . . ah, good. "

"Good. Ah. . . "

After a moment, Blay glanced over his shoulder, toward the door into the butler's pantry. Clearly, it was the beginning of a back-away.

Hey, as you leave, Qhuinn wanted to say, will you do me a favor? I think my left ventricle is on the floor, so don't step on it as you pull out? Thanks. Great.

"Are you feeling okay?" Blay murmured.

"Yeah. I'm going to go work out with John. " He'd already said that. Fuck. This was a train wreck. "So there you go. Where you headed?"

"I'm going to go. . . get some food for Sax and myself. "

"No Last Meal for you guys, either. Guess we have that in common. " Someone bust out the pom-poms and cheer for the team. Yay. "So, yeah, enjoy yourself. Selves, I mean - "

Across the foyer, the vestibule door swung wide and John Matthew came in. "Son of a bitch," Qhuinn muttered. "The bastard is finally back. "

"I thought you said he was - "

"I was covering. For us both. "

"You weren't together? Wait, you get caught without being with him - "

"It was not my choice. Trust me. "

As Qhuinn beelined for Mr. Independent, Blay was right with him, and John took one look at the pair of them and his ahh-satisfied expression got ghost sure as if someone had booted him in the ass with a nine iron.

"We need to talk," Qhuinn hissed.

John glanced around like he was looking for a bunker to jump into. Yeah, well, tough balls for him; the foyer was essentially empty of furniture, and the dumb bitch couldn't jump far enough to reach the dining room.