I winced and mumbled another curse. Lugh and I were going to have another talk about respecting my privacy. “So he’s convinced you to argue his case, which is why he didn’t bother me last night.”

Brian grinned at me. “Actually, no. He tried to convince me to argue his case. I even told him I would. But frankly, I’d much rather stay out of the middle.”

I drank a little more coffee as I pondered his position. I supposed it made sense. Unless Lugh had convinced him that my safety was at stake, there was no reason to suspect Brian of siding against me. Of course, suspicion is second nature to me.

“He’s right about one thing,” Brian continued, and my suspicious nature leapt to the forefront.

“Aha!” I practically shouted. “Now comes the part where you argue his side while trying to sound like you’re not.”

Brian gave me a look of long-suffering patience. “If you’ll let me finish. .” I bit my tongue and nodded. “As I was saying, he’s right that this is a battle you’re eventually going to lose. I can’t stay here to keep you awake every night, and you can’t stay awake indefinitely.”

Pissed off at him even though I didn’t really have any reason to be, I shoved the covers off and made a beeline for my closet to grab my robe. At least, that’s what I intended to do, but Brian took hold of my arm to stop me.

“Why are you angry with me?” he asked quite reasonably. “I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

I glared at his hand until he let go of me. I felt at a distinct disadvantage arguing with him while I was stark naked, so I put on my robe, giving myself a couple moments to calm down. I knew I was overreacting. I knew it wasn’t really Brian I was angry with. But somehow, that didn’t seem to help me fight off the anger.

“Instead of getting pissed about it,” Brian said, “why don’t you just sit down and talk to me and we’ll see if we can come up with a way out of the problem.”

I let out a huff of frustration. “There is no way out, as you just pointed out.”

Brian crossed the room and turned me to face him, his hands warm and solid on my shoulders. “We’ll find one, okay? Can you just assume I’m not the enemy and talk to me?”

The hint of hurt in his eyes made my heart ache, and before I knew what I was going to do, I had put my arms around him and squeezed tight.

“I know you’re not the enemy,” I murmured against his collarbone as he returned my embrace. “And I’m sorry I’m such a bitch. I just. . I want my life back, and I know I’m not going to get it, at least not anytime soon.”

“I understand,” he assured me. “And I love you even when you’re being bitchy.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “Good thing, that.”

His lips brushed the top of my head. “Yup.”

I laughed again, slapping his chest and taking a step back. “Jerk! You didn’t have to agree with me.”He just grinned. I let the humor bleed out of me and retreated back to the bed, grabbing my coffee once more. Brian joined me, sitting close enough that I could feel the heat of his body beside me as I quietly sipped my coffee. He didn’t say anything, choosing instead to sit beside me in supportive, companionable silence. It felt surprisingly good. Domestic, even. And then Brian had to go and ruin it.

“You know,” he said softly. “If we were living together, we could have quiet mornings like this every day.”

My hand clenched on my mug, and I ground my teeth. It had been quite a while since he’d trotted that one out. I’d turned him down enough times in the past that I would have thought he’d have learned his lesson. I shook my head and refused to look at him.

“I’m really grateful to you for staying with me last night,” I said, “but we still have. . issues. You know that.”

“You mean you have issues,” he countered, but he didn’t sound particularly upset.

I should have bristled, but somehow I couldn’t find the energy. “If one of us has an issue, then we both have an issue.” I put the coffee mug down and turned to face him. He was wearing his lawyer face, the one he wore when he didn’t want me to know what he was feeling. I hated that face, but I couldn’t blame him at the moment.

“Even if I totally forget about how you and Lugh have teamed up against me, I can’t forget that there are a lot of people out there who want to kill me, and they’re not the sort to worry if an innocent bystander gets hurt in the process.”

“We’ve been through all that before. I’ll be in the line of fire no matter what.” He smiled, but it was a half-hearted expression. “But don’t worry. I didn’t expect you to fall into my arms and give me everything I want. I just wanted to remind you that I still want it.”

What can I say? The man is just too good for me, but I can’t seem to convince him of the fact.

“So now that we have that out of the way,” he said, “let’s talk about what you should do with the Adam and Dominic situation.”

Neither one of us actually believed that it was “out of the way,” but I decided I could pretend as well as Brian. “If you have any brilliant ideas, I’d love to hear them.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know if this counts as a ‘brilliant idea,’ but I do have a suggestion. You think that if Lugh gets to introduce the idea to Adam, Adam’s going to agree, right?”

I nodded. “He won’t like it, but when Lugh says to jump, Adam’s one of those idiots who asks ‘how high?’”

“And you think Dominic will agree because he wants to be a hero.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up.”

“So maybe you should try to convince Dominic to be a different kind of hero.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

“Adam will agree because he thinks he has no choice but to obey his king, but it’s going to tear him up inside. So make sure Dominic understands what putting Saul back in his body will do to Adam. Maybe then he won’t be willing to host Saul.”

I bit my lip, thinking about it. It made a certain amount of sense. But timing could be very important. If Adam mentioned his extracurricular activities and Dom didn’t take it well, then he might not be in the right frame of mind. I suddenly wished I hadn’t badgered Adam into agreeing to tell the truth.

“That sounds like as good a plan as any,” I told Brian, “but I’m still going to wait before I say anything. I’d rather have something more foolproof.”

Brian gave me a grave look. “I don’t think foolproof is going to be an option.”

He was probably right. But as they say, hope springs eternal.

Brian left shortly after lunch—actually, breakfast for me, if you want to be technical about it. He said he need to catch a few Zs, and I figured he was more than entitled.

I was still feeling pretty groggy after my long night’s sleep. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself today. I could try to harass Tommy in hopes that he’d let something slip, but aside from the fact that I didn’t think it would work, I was also pretty sure it wouldn’t be good for my health. Probably Tommy wouldn’t stoop to any kind of violence against me, not when he would be the immediate prime suspect and a conviction could get him killed. But this was one of those instances where I’d really hate to be proven wrong.

With my brain feeling so fuzzy, I decided to set myself to the patently uncerebral task of doing laundry. I spent most of my afternoon sitting in my building’s creepy basement laundry room watching my clothes spin in the dryer. I’d have gotten through it much faster, but apparently Wednesday was Little Old Lady Laundry Day, because there was a steady procession of them hogging the machines. I had to hang around like a vulture waiting for its prey to die.

I was in a decidedly grumpy mood and still had one more load to do when I gave up for the day. That damn laundry room was super-heated from all the hot air of the dryers, I was soaked with sweat, and my throat was parched from the dry heat. I couldn’t take any more, so I dragged my current clean load upstairs and told myself I’d finish up later.