Now he gripped Breen’s arm. “Stop. Stop now. She had no right to say such a thing to you. A lie, and a cruel one. I’m ashamed of her and for her. I will speak with her.”
She’d been angrier than she’d realized, Breen admitted, and had bottled it up.
Well, she’d uncorked it now.
“I don’t care if you speak to her or not. I know I’m not to blame for any of this. And I don’t care—why should I?—that you slept with her.”
“Sleeping wasn’t much of it. I don’t have time for this, but I’ll take this time, as it’s wrong what she said, what she did. And that business in the courtyard was nothing.”
“It was something,” she corrected, and felt considerably calmer now that she’d popped the cork. “Since she staged it hoping I’d see—or someone would and it would get back to me.”
“You can’t—”
“I’ve spent most of my life watching people, Keegan,” she interrupted, “because I had such a hard time interacting with them. I’d sit on the bus and watch them, and from their faces, their gestures, and so on, I’d decide who they were, what they were feeling.
“I saw your body language out there with her.”
“My body speaks now, does it?”
“The way you stood, the way you made certain not to touch her when she insisted on touching you. Polite and cool, that’s what you were. You dumped her—I know the signs there, too, as I’ve been dumped. And she didn’t want to be. Broke things off with her,” she explained when he frowned at her.
“As I was trying to say before you went off on your speech there. I ended it, as I began to see she wanted what I couldn’t and wouldn’t give. I never went to her bed after I went to yours.”
And that mattered, Breen thought, for the simple respect.
“I don’t want to make this about you and me.”
“Well, we’re in it, aren’t we?” he countered. “I never wanted her the way I wanted you, and that was unfair to her. I don’t have time to want you now, and still I do.”
And that, though she might wish otherwise, mattered, too.
“I didn’t tell you all this because I wanted you to be angry with her, or make me feel wanted. Or only partly there, because I can be as petty and needy as anyone. But I felt such rage in her, and desperation and … ambition.”
“I’m aware it’s more the taoiseach she’s wanted than myself. I’ve always been, but what did it matter? Now it does. I’ll speak with her.”
“I’d be careful there if I were you.”
“Well, you’re not me, are you?” he said simply. “Now I have work, and you need to change out of your nightclothes.”
When he walked away, she looked down at Bollocks. “Did that go well? I’m not sure it did. But I got it out of my system, so there’s that. Let’s go make ourselves presentable and find some breakfast.”
When she walked back into her room, she found Marco waiting, Bollocks’s bowls filled, the table ready for breakfast for two, and her bed tidily made.
“Well, hi, and…” She looked around as Bollocks made a beeline for his breakfast. “Who did all this?”
“Brigid and Lo. They’re assigned to look after us. Somebody spotted you out walking, and they came in like—what’s that thing?—dervishes. I don’t know what that is except it moves fast. I said how maybe you and me could have breakfast together, and bam.”
She went straight for the pot of tea. “Where’s Brian?”
“Back on duty.”
“Sit,” she ordered, and did so herself. “Tell all.” Then she lifted the lid off a pot. “I think this is porridge. We’ll give it a shot. All,” she repeated.
“We spent a lot of time next door.”
“No! Let me find my shocked face.”
Laughing, Marco spooned up some porridge of his own. “We talked a lot, too. And we did finally walk down to the village—cool place—had a pub meal, listened to music. Kiara was there with some other people, so we hung out for a little while. But we wanted to come back, and he stayed until he had to report in this morning.”
“You look so happy, Marco.”
“Girl, I’m stupid with the happy. I think I love him. I think he loves me.”
Those big brown eyes of his looked into hers, implored. “Can you just fall in love—the real deal—just like that? Because I’ve fallen in the lusties, and the guy is hot or fun or interesting—all that real fast. But nothing like this, not for me.”