“Oh, go on,” Selena said. After giving a snort of his own to let her know what he thought about these odd sounds she was making, he moved on.

“So what does Breanna want to discuss with me that requires a third party?” Liam asked.

“Well…she didn’t actually ask me to intervene—”

“Ah.”

“—but there are things a sister can’t really discuss with a brother.”

“There’s a subject Breanna won’t discuss with me? The Mother truly is merciful.”

The urge to stick her tongue out at him was almost overwhelming. She settled for turning prim. “Why don’t you like Falco?”

Liam frowned, obviously confused at the turn of conversation, which wasn’t a turn at all as far as she was concerned. “I do like Falco.”

“But you don’t approve of him as your sister’s lover.”

“Lover?” Liam sputtered. “He’s not—They’re not—” He fumed for a minute. “It’s not that I object, it’s just—They barely know each other. There’s no need to rush into being…intimate.”

Jackass, Selena thought, amused at the way he was blushing—and thinking it rather sweet that he would blush.

“Liam, a few days from now, we’ll be meeting a vicious enemy on a battlefield. There is no way to tell who will walk away from that battlefield and who will travel on to the Summerland. Today may be all the time there is. Falco cares about Breanna, and she cares about him. Would you deny them the comfort and pleasure they can have from each other?”

“I’m not denying her anything. She’d be the first to tell me it was none of my business, which isn’t true, but she’d tell me that. If she wanted to take him as a lover, she would have done so.”

“Where? From what I’ve been told, there are so many of her kin living in the Old Place, there’s barely room there to pee in private let alone spend time with a man.”

“If a man wants a woman, he can usually find a private place,” Liam said darkly.

“Oh, I’m sure he can find a dark corner someplace if he wants to use a woman for a few minutes of sex—”

“What?” Liam’s yelp made half the escorts riding ahead of them twist in their saddles, their hands reaching for weapons. He shook his head and waved at them to indicate there was no danger.

“—but a man who wants to make love with a woman he cares about needs more than a corner of an empty stall in the barn,” Selena continued.

“I. Do. Not. Want. To. Discuss. This.”

“No, you just want to be pigheaded and uncaring.”