Page 48 of Devil in Her Details

“Yes, the tap room,” Lilly sneered. “But not anywhere else, correct?”

“That’s our main gathering area,” he said, still as softly.

“So I gathered.”

“Lilly.”

She knew she was being a snip, but she couldn’t stop herself. She was suddenly simply furious with the world. Why did this have to happen to her? What had she ever done to deserve this? She didn’t know. Didn’t care. Her feet were moving, and before her mind had the chance to catch up to her body, she’d already grasped Dagger’s face in both her hands, lifted onto her toes, and kissed him.

Her first kiss.

One she’d always thought, far in the back of her mind, she would receive from her future husband. However, whatever she’d imagined this kiss, this payment, to be, it bore no resemblance to it at all. Not even close. His lips were soft, not as hard as the man as she had imagined, and he didn’t reciprocate. He stood stock still, allowing her to do what she pleased, quietly accepting what she offered.

Lilly opened her eyes and met his dark ones.

Slowly, she pulled away.

“Aren’t you supposed to close your eyes when you kiss?” she asked grudgingly.

“I wasn’t kissing.”

No, he was watching her kiss. Her face flamed. “Well,” Lilly muttered, “payment for services have been delivered.”

“Thank you.”

Thank you? That was his answer? Lilly had no idea what to do with that thank you, except hurl it to the ground and stomp on the deuced words.

“Now that that’s done and out of the way,” he growled, “I can do this.”

An arm snaked around her waist and hauled her against a powerful chest, pushing her up against the wall of the hallway and claiming her lips in a full, true kiss, crowding her with his body. Well. She supposed she understood now why he hadn’t bothered closing his eyes for her peck. That was one kind of touch . . . this quite another.

This was a Dagger Fury kiss.

His tongue swept into her mouth without apology, his lips molding over hers like he’d sooner devour her than let her go. She gripped his shirt, meeting him without the sense God gave her, and made an absolute ruin of her earlier conviction that she’d made the right choice in leaving.

A bolt of something wild tore through her, and she clutched her fingers tighter. She couldn’t define what this man tasted like other than to say pure sin. A damning indulgence that sent her body into a riot.

He was not the man she should be falling toward.

He was everything a sensible woman knew to avoid.

The worst possible man for a woman like her. She could not live in his world, and he could not live in hers. A pointless attraction. Yet she was returning his kiss with the same passion in which he kissed.

Her face burned as hot as her body.

This wouldn’t do! She balled her right hand into a fist and hit him. Asking for a kiss as payment and then stealing one right after. What sort of trickery was this?

He eased away slowly, lifting his head, blazing eyes locked with her. “Worth it.”

She punched him again, and he grunted, clutching his side, yet still managed a chuckle. Concern broke through her indignation. “Are you hurt?” Right. The fight! “Where? Let me see.”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing.” She grabbed him by the arm and steered him into her chamber to the bed. “Sit. Remove your shirt.”

Lilly crossed to the bedside table and lit the candle, the small flame catching and steadying just as the last of the evening light began to surrender. She turned back to the man and stopped short. His long legs stretched out before him, one arm braced behind him on the bed, broad chest on display as though he hadn’t a care in the world. His gaze followed her, missing nothing.

The good lord was testing her, wasn’t he? Why else send such a man to her?