a huge scandal and nearly ruined an innocent man and was forced to visit his friend.”
Bannon glared at her. Why did she always have to be such a tattletale? She made it sound worse than it was. He gave her a pointed look. Don’t give too much away, he cautioned with his eyes.
She rolled hers, then gave him a look equally as pointed. Relax, the look seemed to say. Then she whispered, “You have to give info to get info. Give a little bit of trust to get a little bit of trust.”
Damn her, she was probably right. Bannon sighed and looked back at Ciaran. Fine, he’d give just a tiny bit. “The man I tried to ruin wasn’t even there, so there was no almost about it. Besides, if my parents had listened to me in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths. I told them that Griff was not right for my brother and that they needed to call the engagement off. I even told them my brother was in love with someone else.”
Ciaran seemed to think about it for a moment. He turned his head a little in contemplation, as if Bannon were some sort of enigma. It was a look Bannon had always associated with older people, probably because older people always looked at him like that, but he suspected Ciaran was about his age. Ciaran turned his body a little and lifted his leg from the stirrup as if stretching out his leg. “They dinna listen tae ye?”
Bannon’s gaze honed in on Ciaran’s thick, muscled thigh, peeking out from under the blanket he wore. Galaxy, he was tall—almost seven foot. Or maybe his legs just looked that long because of the blanket? If it would inch up just a little farther…. Ugh! He was supposed to be fishing for information, not ogling the… enemy? Blast, what had he asked? Oh, right! “They never do.”
“So as usual, he took matters into his own hands and ended up ruining himself,” Louie said with an abundance of smugness.
Bannon glared at her. She made it sound like he did it on purpose.
“I did not ruin myself. I… well, I had no idea that footman was going to mistake me for my brother’s fiancé and kiss me right when Lady Philips walked in. And it certainly wasn’t my fault that the man was a good kisser. I was stunned into kissing him back. It doesn’t matter now anyway. I’m going to turn over a whole new leaf. No more scandals.” He’d made himself a promise that if he survived…. And here he was, so he meant to stick to it.
Ciaran stopped stretching his leg out and went perfectly still. His body stiffened up a little.
Uh-oh. Bannon realized his blunder too late. He’d forgotten about Payton’s warning that not everyone on other planets, including Englor, approved of homosexuality. Galaxy help him, he’d never even thought not to say that. He’d just opened his mouth and stuck both his highly polished—well, not so highly polished now—Hessians into his big mouth, and he couldn’t even blame Timothy this time. So much for not giving too much away. His pulse sped up, and his brain sifted through explanations and ways to retract his statement.
“What I meant was—”
“How exactly is that saving ye brother?” Angus asked, riding up on the other side of Louie.
Aware of Ciaran watching him, even though he was looking at Angus, Bannon hesitated, trying to measure his words. “My brother was engaged to someone he didn’t love. Or perhaps I should say he was in love with someone else, so I set things up to try and get him out of the engagement. If his fiancé was caught kissing someone else, then Blai—he could easily break the engagement and no one would think ill of him.”
“And kissing a man would ruin this person?” Ciaran asked.
“Uh, well, I suppose kissing anyone could technically ruin someone’s reputation, especially if that person were engaged or underage. However, a footman was all I had to work with, so….”
“Are you underage?”
Bannon blinked. “I… um… no.”
Ciaran nodded, then put his foot back in the stirrup. “If kissing men ruined a person, I’d have been completely destroyed years ago.” He heeled his horse and took the lead, leaving Bannon staring at his broad back.
Oh boy! Maybe we should try seducing information from him, Timothy whispered.
Bannon rolled his eyes, but his body seemed to like that idea. It tingled in places he should be