" Firth and Stone came to relieve us, something I always looked forward to. I loved Firth.
“Karish, my beautiful, my one, my only,” she crowed, as she always did.
Karish, who had risen to his feet as the ladies entered, scooped up Firth’s hand. As he always did. “Claire, my lovely,” he said in a voice as smooth as sanded wood. “It is a treasure to see you, as always.”
“You liar,” she retorted. “You’re such a tease.”
That was a little blunter than usual. Fun to see Karish gape like a fish, though. “I never am,” he protested.
“Sure you are, lad. All heat and promises and just when you get a girl all worked up you slither out of it.”
Karish blushed. I cackled. Stone smirked.
Granted, I wouldn’t want a man as old as Firth drooling all over me, but Karish asked for it. He was something of a slut and wore the reputation almost proudly. From what I understood, Firth was a slut, too, and she’d had many more years to practise it. She knew how to make the elegant, confident, suave Lord Shintaro Karish blush in a way no one else could, and it delighted me every time I saw it. He should have learned to back off by then. On the other hand, he might have forgotten after all that time spent away from High Scape. For certain he beat a hasty retreat out of there, taking me with him.
“Rrrrr,” Karish growled, once I closed the door behind us. “You have too much fun with her.”
Hey, it wasn’t my fault. He’d started it the year before by oozing all over Firth when they met. “I have nothing to do with it.”
“No, you just sit back and laugh.” He sounded almost bitter about it.
“Poor boy.” My feigned sympathy couldn’t have sounded more false. “Can dish it out but you can’t take it.”
He appeared scandalized. “I never behave like that.” He pointed a thumb back over his shoulder at the Stall.
“No, you’re a little more subtle, but give it time.”
He huffed. “I will never act that way.”
“All right.” We’d wait and see. When his looks began to fade a little. In twenty years or so.
“Brat.” He took my hand, and we trudged through the snow back towards the city "

― , The Hero Strikes Back (Hero, #2)