Page 41 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
“I haven’t shared a bed with anyone in weeks,” Kieran protested. He blinked in astonishment as the truth of that statement struck him.
He rose and stalked to the shelf where they kept the decanter of whisky, then poured three glasses. He bolted back his first tumbler, then poured himself another before turning to his brother and Dom.
“I’m not serving you like a ruddy footman,” he clipped.
Both Dom and Finn rose and came forward to take their glasses. They all studied each other over the vessels’ rims, wary as any soldier expecting an ambush.
“In any event,” he continued in the taut silence, “I’m not ruining her. Everything she’s doing is by her choice, which is a fuck more than what you and your father are giving her. Forcing her to marry Lord Montford.” He glared at Dom.
To his credit, a look of surprise crossed Dom’s face. “Forcing? She always seemed happy to be in his company.”
“Because shehasto,” Kieran said darkly. “Your father’s grand plan of making her into a countess, and then a marchioness. Ned Kilburn’s great victory. And if she refuses him, then you and your father can bid adieu to your social prestige and cachet.” He shook his head, disgusted. “Fuck’s sake, it’s all so goddamned medieval.”
Compared to an earl who would one day be a marquess, what was Kieran? Merely a third son who would never have a title or inherit ancient land.
“Damn,” Dom muttered. “If it’smycachet she’s protecting, she needn’t bother. I don’t give a fig.”
“Your father seems to,” Finn noted before taking a sip of his drink. “And if it is of significance to him, she apparently feels she hasn’t a choice in the matter.”
Dom’s shoulders rose and fell. “Well, hell. But that doesn’t explain what she was doing with you,” he said to Kieran.
“We all must marry,” Kieran answered, “or none of us gets a cent. Yet no one’s going to consent to be our brides with our godawful reputations. Celeste is helping me remedy that.”
Dom finished his drink in one swallow and slammed the glass onto a tabletop, then stuck his finger in Kieran’s face. “I don’t like having you near Celeste.”
“It isn’t up to you,” Kieran said tightly.
Dom took a warning step toward him, but Kieran wouldn’t flinch or back down.
“This isn’t how ten years of friendship ends,” Finn said, slipping between them with his hands upraised. “In this skirmish, consider me the sapper, disarming you both. Step back, take a sodding breath, and collect yourselves like goddamned grown men.”
Kieran and Dom glowered at each other before they both retreated to opposite sides of the parlor. As his brother had advised, Kieran hauled in a serrated breath. His hands hung at his sides, lightly shaking with unexpected anger. But that made no sense. It wasn’t as though he and Dom were unused to having rows, given that they were both men ofstrong natures and even stronger opinions. A handful of weeks ago, they’d nearly come to blows over the outcome of a knife-throwing competition, but then, as now, Finn had stepped between them and in short order they were toasting each other over many pints of ale.
But this anger now surged through him, as fierce and possessive as a dragon guarding its hoard.
Was he angry... for Celeste’s sake? Even now, Dom didn’t seem to understand the depths of his sister’s strength. He remembered how she’d said that her family refused to see her for who she truly was, and didn’t that just stick in Kieran’s craw like a choking bone?
Her fight had become his fight, and by God, he’d be sure she got everything she desired.
“Fine,” Dom finally said through clenched teeth. “If you mind your fucking manners, I’ll allow Celeste to help you.”
Kieran exhaled a rueful laugh. “No oneallowsCeleste to do anything. She’s her own person, and her choices belong to her alone.”
“Well,” Dom hurled back, “I choose not to shoot you in the face.”
“You—”
“Like grown men,” Finn said warningly. “You asses.”
“How do you intend to enforce your will, Finn?” Dom retorted. “I can bludgeon you with a teacup.”
“There are more effective means of defeating a man than through blunt force,” Finn replied with surprising cheer. “I know all of them.”
“Crafty bastard,” Dom said.
“How approving you make that sound,” Kieran noted, and snorted in amusement.
A moment later, Dom’s rumbling approximation of laughter sounded, followed by Finn’s smooth, cool chuckle.
