“Burns from dropped matches, Ms. Lane? Matches one might have dropped while flirting with a perniciousFae, Ms. Lane? Have you any idea the value of this rug?”I didn’t think his nostrils could flare any wider. His eyes were black flame. “Pernicious? Good grief, is Englishyour second language? Third?” Only someone who’d learned English from a dictionary would use such a word.“Fifth,” he snarled. “Answer me.”

“I didn’t say, You are such a stuffy asshole. And he didn’t say, If you ever burn one of my quarter-of-a-million dollar rugs again I’ll take it out of your hide, and I didn’t say, Oh, honey, wouldn’t you like to? And he didn’t say Grow up, Ms. Lane, I don’t take little girls to my bed, and I didn’t say I wouldn’t go there if it was the only safe place from the Lord Master in all of Dublin.”

“Figure out another way to explain me. I don’t care what you come up with. But if you call me your latest piece of petunia again or make uncalled-for references to my mouth and oral sex with you, you and I are through.”He raised a brow. “Petunia, Ms. Lane?”I scowled. “Ass, Barrons.”He crossed his arms and his gaze dropped to my glossy Lip-Venom red lips. “Am I to understand there are called-for references to your mouth and oral sex with me, Ms. Lane? I’d like to hear them.”

“Do your thing, Ms. Lane. you might be criminally young, but the night is not.”

“From who?” “From whom, I believe is the correct phrasing.” “All right, from-the-fuck-whom, Ms. Lane?”

“Mac: "It's not the sidhe-seers."He stopped and went very still.JZB: "Who is it?"Mac: "The MacKeltars."He was silent a long moment. Then he began to laugh, softly.JZB: "Well played, Ms. Lane."Mac: "I had a good teacher."JZB: "The best. Hop on one foot, Ms. Lane."Mac and Barrons”