‘Sorry,’ he says, and I open them again to see him wrapping it around his waist and sitting.
‘I was hoping we could talk.’
‘Okay… What about?’ he asks, picking up a small stone from the planks and throwing it into the water. We both watch as the ripples circle out from where it lands. ‘As long as I’m not going to end up with the Hunters after me.’
‘Just for talking to me?’
‘Have you met Cillian?’ He rolls his eyes and I laugh, then see him narrow his eyes. ‘Are you two?—?’
‘No!’
He lifts an eyebrow. ‘I know he’s obsessed with you. I also know you slept in his room the first night you met him. He doesn’t just let anyone sleep there. In fact, as I remember, Vittoria never slept over.’
I go still with this information, unsure how to process it. ‘Did Rose ever know about that? Me sleeping in his room.’
‘Not sure, but I wasn’t going to start mouthing off about what I saw Cillian Hunter doing in his own house. Especially given why I was there.’
‘He didn’t approve of the two of you?’
Matt pauses for a moment, then shrugs. ‘He didn’t love it… but he didn’t kill me either. And he could have done. Court-sanctioned removal of the dangerous guy who’s fucking his little sister. Every protective big brother’s dream.’
‘Court sanctioned?’
‘Cillian was sent to hunt me by the Court, instead he let me come here. He must care for you, too, to not kill you after killing Kin. Or was he actually outrun by a human?’
‘I’m not sure. There was…’ I stop, deciding it’s probably best not to share any more information than I have to. Cillian was pretty set on hunting me through the forest, and it didn’t feel as though he’d let me go by choice.
Matt nods, hesitates, then says, ‘Has Rose… has she met someone?’
I’m not entirely sure what answer he wants, but the last thing I want to do is hurt him with the whole unvarnished truth. ‘No one special, not yet.’
He nods again, and I can’t work out if he’s pleased or upset by this news.
‘She graduated, though?’
‘Yes. Cillian blackmailed her into studying by—’ Nope, not something Matt needs to know. ‘So, you knew about all of this– the Underworld, the Kinfolk, everything.’
‘Niamh, I’m one of them.’ Matt stares at me. ‘Even after all these years, you didn’t know?’
‘Over the past couple of days, I seem to have discovered that I do not, in fact, know anything at all.’ I shrug.
‘You’ll get used to it. Although they make most humans forget,’ he says, shooting me a sidelong look. ‘So… back to you in Cillian’s bed.’
‘There was nowhere else to sleep.’
‘Uh-huh. There were plenty of people on the sofas and curled up on the floor in both the lounge and the drawing room.’
My cheeks heat. ‘Nowhere else that Cillian approved of. There were a lot of couples… doing couple stuff– including you and Rose, apparently.’
Matt grins at me.
‘Cillian said he had work to do, so I slept in his bed, while he… worked.’
‘Right.’ Matt’s lips twitch and he breaks out into a peal of laughter that I can’t help joining in with.
‘I guess I was a little naïve and trusting.’ I sigh. ‘But nothing happened. Well, nothing much.’
‘Nothing much?’
