Free Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts

by the likes of you, Mary Brenna O’Toole.” She stiffened her spine, rolled back her shoulders. “I’m a grown woman now. I’ve been to university. I have a career.”
    â€œOh, that’s fine, then. I suppose it’s past time you jump the first man who catches your fancy and take a wild ride.”
    â€œHe’s not the first who’s caught it.” With a slow smile that made Brenna’s eyes go cold and narrow, Mary Kate tossed her hair. “But caught it he has, and there’s no reason not to let him know it. It’s my business, Brenna. And not yours.”
    â€œOh, you’re my business, all right. Are you still a virgin?”
    The utter shock in Mary Kate’s eyes was enough to reassure Brenna that her sister hadn’t been throwing herself naked around the corridors of the university in Dublin. But before she could so much as sigh, Mary Kate’s temper lashed out. “Who the hell are you thinking you are? My romantic dealings are my business. You’re not my mother or my priest, so mind your own.”
    â€œYou are my own.”
    â€œJust stay out of it, Brenna. I’ve a right to talk to Shawn or go out with him or anything else I choose. And if you think you’ll go running to Ma with tales on my behavior, well, we’ll just see what she thinks about how I came on you and Darcy playing poker with your holy cards.”
    â€œThat was years ago.” But Brenna felt a little panic at the thought. Her mother wouldn’t consider the years between. “Harmless girls’ foolishness. What I came in on in the kitchen isn’t harmless, Mary Kate, but it is foolish. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
    â€œI can take care of myself.” Mary Kate gave one last toss of her head. “If you want to be jealous because I know how to attract a man instead of going about trying to be one, that’s your problem. Not mine.”
    The slice came so fast and true, Brenna stood frozen, hardly realizing that she bled until Mary Kate stormed out and slammed the door behind her. Tears stung at her eyes and made her want to slide into one of the old sugan chairs and just let them come.
    She wasn’t trying to be a man, she was just trying to be herself.
    And she’d only wanted to protect her sister. To stop her before she did something that would hurt or embarrass her. Or worse.
    It was all Shawn’s fault, she decided. The little voice inside her head that whispered differently was ignored. It was Shawn’s fault for luring her young and innocent sister into infatuation, and she was just going to deal with that right this minute.
    She strode out, shaking her head as Aidan shifted to lay a hand on her arm and ask her what was the matter. When she stalked into the kitchen now, her eyes were bright. But not with tears. It was something closer to murder.
    â€œNow, why did you go dragging Mary Kate out like that for, Brenna? We were just—”
    He broke off because she’d marched up to him, the toes of her boots ramming hard against the toes of his, and her finger was drilling a hole in his chest. “You just keep your hands off my sister.”
    â€œWhat on God’s green earth are you talking about?”
    â€œYou know damn well what I’m talking about, you bloody lecher. She’s barely twenty, hardly more than a girl.”
    â€œWhat?” He shoved her hand away before she could stab straight into his heart. “What?”
    â€œIf you think I’m going to stand by idle while you add her to your string of ladies, then you’d best keep thinking.”
    â€œMy . . . Mary Kate?” Sheer shock came first. Then he remembered how the young girl—no, no, young woman, he corrected—had looked when she’d smiled and fluttered her pretty lashes. “Mary Kate,” he said, more thoughtfully, and with just a hint of a smile.
    A hot red haze filled Brenna’s head.