Delia had rather thought she had the higher ground in this encounter and then he had to go and bring up Cindy. The hair on the back of her neck rose as she felt her blood boil. The unaffected air she'd been trying to maintain slipped as she rounded on him. Merlin just a few well-placed words and her fingers itched to smack that smug smile right off of his face.

Despite the height difference (one that Delia had closed on more occasions than she could count, in the past), she strode right up to him, her face a mere inches from his, the dogs barking in the background, where she hissed, "Don't you dare, bring Cindy into this." The flush on her cheeks, the curl of her fingers into fists, the breathlessness with which she threatened him all could be mistaken for something else, but he had always known how to get under her skin in more ways than one.