Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

Changed first.”
    Her eyebrows lifted. “Again? Is he…Hannah’s death hit him hard.” Harder than Lily
     had expected, but she hadn’t known that the previous Rhej had been Isen’s oldest lover
     as well as his friend, not until after she died. Ham and eggs, Laurel and Hardy, lupi
     and secrets—they went together every damn time.
    “It did, but that’s not the reason.” He sighed and, at last, really looked at her.
     “Today is Mick’s birthday.”
    Mick…Rule’s half brother, several years older. Mick, who’d killed and conspired to
     frame Rule for it, longstanding envy ripened into madness by an ancient staff and
     the crazy telepath who’d wielded it. Mick, who had died the same night Lily killed
     Helen. Died saving Rule’s life.
    She felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “I didn’t know. I should have.”
     Rule had mentioned Mick’s birthday last year—not the exact date, but that his father
     had gone off by himself for two days on the anniversary of his second son’s birth.
    “Isen didn’t want you thinking about it. You would have been careful with him. That
     would have annoyed him.”
    Was Rule talking about his father or himself? Didn’t matter, she decided, and set
     her glass down and stood.
    Rule had the sexiest eyebrows she’d ever seen on a man. Even when they drew down like
     they did now in a go-away frown, they were a total turn-on. “I’m okay, Lily.”
    “I know. But ‘okay’ is a pretty roomy place, isn’t it? Room for all sorts of stuff
     you do not want to talk about. I get that.”
    His fingers tapped on the table rather the way a cat’s tail twitches when it’s annoyed.
     “Think you know me pretty well, do you?”
    “Yeah, I do. Especially the parts that are a lot like me, like when you work really
     hard so you don’t have to think about something. The problem is, now that I’ve forced
     you to talk about the thing you weren’t thinking about, it’s going to be harder to
     cram yourself down into those reports.”
    “It will be easier once you stop talking about it.”
    She nodded as she reached him. “That’s one option, but it will be a bitch, won’t it?
     Pretending you give a damn about, uh…” She tilted her head to read the heading on
     one page. “EPS.”
    His mouth tightened—but maybe that was because he’d had to work to keep it from twitching.
     “Earnings per share is a vital part of analyzing a stock’s potential.”
    “I’m sure it is.” There was just enough room, she judged,and slid one leg over his lap, and sat. “Kind of crowded here.”
    His hands came automatically to her hips. Large, warm hands, their heat all on the
     surface at first.…“Lily—”
    “I was thinking you might have to up the ante, go for physical distraction since I’ve
     made the mental sort harder.” She threaded her hands together at his nape. “I was
     also thinking that this is the first time we’ve ever had the house completely to ourselves.”
    Oh, yeah, his mouth did twitch this time. “No Carl.”
    “No Isen.”
    “No Toby.” His hands shifted slightly, but the motion seemed more restless than caressing.
     “It seems more appropriate to distract myself with work than with pleasure.”
    Lily had never lost a sibling. Both her parents were alive. She didn’t really know
     what Rule was feeling, but…“My father’s mother is extremely alive, but his father
     died before I was born. Grandmother has observed his birthday every year.”
    “I didn’t know that.”
    “When I was a kid, it was a mandatory family thing. We’d go to Grandmother’s every
     April sixteenth and eat ourselves sick—Chinese food for dinner, followed by an array
     of American-style desserts starring an enormous birthday cake. She and my father would
     talk about Grandfather. She wanted us to know him, but she also wanted a party. Birthdays,
     she says, are for celebrating life, and neither grief nor death erases the life someone
     lived.” She smiled slightly. “Mother is more traditional, which is funny, since she’s
     third generation, while Grandmother is so very Chinese. Have I told you about Qingming?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Mother observes Qingming every year by taking flowers to the graves of her ancestors—first
     her grandparents’, then her parents’ graves. So that’s how I honor my grandparents
     on her side, because that’s how she does it. But every April sixteenth, I have a Grandfather