Page 82 of Devil in Her Details

“There are other things we could be doing,” he said, his voice dropping just enough. “Things much more pleasurable.”

Beautiful suspicion entered her gaze. “You’re just trying to distract me,” she said. “Trying to get your way so we don’t go to the shop.”

He pressed her hand to his chest. “Would I ever use such underhanded methods?”

She pierced him with a knowing look. “Yes, I believe you would.”

Dagger chuckled. Worth a try. He released her hand with reluctance. If he could make the world stop at this moment, he would do just that. He’d trap her in this moment, this house with him forever. Maybe not forever. Just long enough to set his brothers on Calvington and deal with him permanently.

His brothers . . .

Dagger flinched.

“What?” Lilly’s concerned voice a balm to his soul.

Dagger shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“You were thinking about your brothers, weren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

She shrugged. “You only get that look when you think about them.”

He had such a look? And she’d noticed? Had he not spent the better part of his life perfecting the art of being unreadable? No one outside his family had ever noticed his tells. Both the curse and the magic of family. They knew one best.

Lilly Trenton had known him a scant few days.

And already . . .

He pushed the forming thought down deep.

He wanted her safe, her pest dealt with, and his brothers at peace. And the clean, straightforward life of a man with no particular attachments. That was simple. That was something he understood. The rest of it didn’t matter.

His eyes moved over her face.

He wanted her to have noticed his tells for years, not days. That was the thought he pushed down deepest of all.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter Seventeen

Lilly could scarcely believe this was the same shop she’d left after being attacked by those brigands. Not an item seemed out of place. The windows had been repaired—in fact, anything that might have been damaged had been set to rights, and she had no idea how to begin making a list of what. The events of those dire moments still weren’t clear in her head. All that vividly remained was her panther, fighting to protect her and standing amidst the chaos as the victor.

Her gaze instantly landed on the small tin of ointment Dagger had gifted her—her first gift from him—and hurried over to it, the man himself hot on her heels.

She cast him a glance over her shoulder. “You don’t need to dog my every step, you know.”

“Rule number one.”

Lilly rolled her eyes.

Yes, yes. Stick close to him at all times.

“Does this count when inside a building as well?” The carriage, she didn’t even ask about. He’d been plastered against her like a cub sensing heat.

“It counts everywhere.”

Very well, she would not argue with the man. She set the valise she’d brought on the table and gathered up the leather design she’d been working on before he’d arrived that day and carefully arranged it inside. The dagger was gone. Back with him. No matter, she had plenty at her disposal if she needed them.