Moon Burning - By Lucy Monroe Page 0,33

gave him a wry smile. “Aye, when we’re around others, but in private, he’s still my little brother.”

“What am I then? Of no account in your eyes?” The humor drained away as fast as it had come. He did not like that prospect one bit.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out as a strange expression dawned on her features.

Circin laughed, the sound startling in the now-tension-filled cottage. “She sees you like family, or as near as. She never knocks me around in front of anyone else.”

“I don’t knock you around at all.” Verica smacked his arm, belying her outraged claim.

Circin and Earc both laughed while Verica blushed a sweet pink.

“We should go to sleep.” She did her best to sound bossy, but the way she worried her pleats both revealed her true inner feelings and charmed him.

“So, you think of me as a close friend?” He knew what kind of closeness he wanted to have with her and it had nothing to do with friendship.

The slight flaring of her delicate nostrils indicated she recognized his desire as well. Circin had to be able to smell Earc’s growing hunger for the man’s sister. Rather than looking alarmed by it, as she did, or offended, as Earc might about his own sister (rational reaction or not), Circin appeared contemplative. Earc wasn’t sure he liked that any better.

He knew what he’d be contemplating if the situation were reversed. Marriage. Mating. Permanence. Whether the other warrior was ready or not.

Verica looked between them, a frown marring her beautiful features. “You two may do what you like, but I’m going to bed.”

“You dinna answer my question.” He caught her arm as she would have swept by him.

Time seemed to slow down and then stop as an unseen force arced between them, making his cock hard and the breath seize in his chest. Her body jerked, but she swayed toward him rather than pulling away.

Her lips parted invitingly, the scent of her desire teasing his sexual hunger to a sharp pang. And the scent of something beyond her wolf washed over him in an intoxicating rush.

“Verica!” Circin’s near panic cut through the growing haze of lust between them. “What are you doing?”

She jerked back, her face going ashen. She stared at Earc as if he’d grown another head—or suddenly changed into Rowland before her eyes. “I . . .”

“You need to go to bed.” For the first time, Circin sounded like a man who would one day be laird.

She nodded, her eyes filled with an anguish Earc could not understand. No matter how far gone to passion they were, he would never have taken her with her brother in the room.

Her reaction was far beyond what the situation warranted.

Was she that bothered by the thought of being with him?

The leftover fear in Circin’s eyes was all out of proportion as well.

“She will take a mate one day.”

Circin nodded, his expression going grim. “I merely hope he is worthy of all her trust and affection.”

Since it was a sentiment any brother should feel, Earc didn’t reply. Instead he banked the fire for sleeping, which he and Circin did, rolled in their plaids near the door.

Chapter 8

Barr woke wrapped around his new mate.

The scent of other was strong, having become a fragrance he did not think he could do without. She fit him so perfectly. Though slender and fine boned, she was a wee bit taller than most females, making her just right for him. She curled into his body as if she’d slept there all their lives.

He did not think she was a great deal younger than him, which put her past the age when most women married. Which did not mean she was unpromised. He went rigid at the thought of her being committed to someone else. She had been untouched, but that did not mean no claim had been made on her.

“What is the matter?” she asked sleepily as she turned onto her back so their eyes could meet.

Even this proof she was so closely connected to him that she felt his agitation in her sleep did not assuage his need for an immediate answer. “Does someone else think they have a claim on you?”

Shadows filled her brown eyes, but she shook her head.

“You are certain.”

“It is not a thing I would forget.”

“You mean like your clan?”

She grimaced and then frowned at him as if he were responsible for the bit of fiction that was her memory loss. “I am promised to