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“There’s no point,” she murmured softly, seeming to sense what I was thinking. “They all know, and they’ve all jibed Eoghan over it.”
“Jibed? What do you mean?”
“Teased him.” She shrugged. “They’re like little boys when they’re all together. Eoghan, by the sounds of it, doesn’t mark his women.”
Well, that was a dubious honor.
Apparently, my expression said it all, because she snorted out a laugh. “You’ll get used to them. They mean no harm.”
My brow puckered. “I don’t understand their dynamic.”
“No, I can see you don’t.” She tilted her head to the side. “Is it so different for you and your sisters?”
I shrugged. “We were close, but my eldest sister ran off when I was fourteen, and Vicky is almost that age now, but she’s a brat. We’re not close anymore.”
“You probably will be when you’re all older. But these boys grew up together. They’re all very tight, and they help each other out. It’s a different world than the one you were raised in.”
I knew that without her telling me.
Her lips curved at my eye roll. “You figured that out on your own, huh?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Aidan Sr.’s certifiable,” she said cheerfully, “but we’re a family. Not a brotherhood. There’s a difference.”
“How would you know?”
“Finn tells me things he probably shouldn’t,” she said wryly. “Not business, just…” She shrugged. “Interactions.”
“His read on a situation?”
“Yeah.”
My nose crinkled. “So, Eoghan doesn’t suck on his whores’ throats like a vampire. I guess I’m unique.”
“You’re his wife. He’s bound to treat you differently.”
The soft words had me closing my eyes, because I wanted that. I just wanted to be enough.
It was a ridiculous question, rude and insufferable, and she was kind and didn’t deserve me to ask her things that weren’t polite, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Does Finn have a mistress?”
I half expected a slap, or for her to stalk off back to the dining table. “No. He doesn’t,” she answered on a chuckle.
“How do you know?”
“I don’t. I mean, he does things with his days that don’t involve me, and I own a bakery… We’re both busy people, and we have a baby together. But I know he doesn’t.”
“How?”
“Because what we have together is unique. Like Paul Newman said, ‘Why go out for a burger, when you’ve got steak at home.’” She grinned. “To Finn, I’m prime beef.” At my shocked laugh, her grin widened before, abruptly, it softened, and she reached over and patted my arm. “Finn and I didn’t have the best of starts.”
“You didn’t?” Though I’d initiated the conversation, I couldn’t believe we were discussing this just off the bathroom, but hell, it seemed fitting. This entire visit wasn’t going to plan.
“No. He blackmailed me into sleeping with him.”
My eyes rounded. “Finn blackmailed you? I mean, Aoife, you’re beautiful, but Finn is…”
She grinned. “I know. He makes Chris Hemsworth look ugly, am I right?”
