Page 128 of Devil in Her Details

The man turned on his heel and left.

Bloody hell. “Lilly.”

In a room full of her people who would use his blood as a dagger to his throat, she’d rendered the weapon useless.

Christ. He loved her.

She stepped closer to him, eyes so damn bright. “I finally thought of all the reasons why. All the whys of the reasons I ignored in Brighton.” Her honey eyes softened. “And I realized that there are no reasons that can stand against what I feel for you, and there are no whys that matter enough to keep me away. There is only what is and what is not. And that all points to you.”

Words failed him for a third time.

He could only stare at her the woman he loved beyond life itself.

“It means, Dagger, that I truly do love you. All that is, is you; and all that is not you, is unfathomable.”

Dagger swept her up into his arms and strode from the ballroom. A rough, uncouth growl burst from deep within him. From everything he’d suppressed since they’d been apart. “My lynx. Mine.”

His woman.

His responsibility.

A promise. An oath that he would never break, and that every inch of her—from her body, her heart, her breath, to her very soul—would always belong to him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lilly laughed as Dagger carried her out of the Avondale residence. She’d never felt as free as she did at that very moment. A weight had lifted from her heart the moment she had confessed to the entire ballroom that Dagger was her man and she loved him. There was only one thing that came close to that feeling, and that was the touch of the man himself.

“Are you all right, or are you still shocked?” She’d sensed her poor panther’s bewilderment. But not just bewilderment. He seemed dazed, wholly out of place, and Lilly just wanted to protect him from all the eyes that had been directed at them. It seemed rather absurd, really, to imagine she could protect him. That he might even need protection in the first place, but she loved that she could provide even the smallest amount for him.

“Ask me in a year.”

Lilly grinned at him, taking in each tired line of his handsome face. “I still can’t believe you’re here. In London. At a ball.”

His dark eyes captured hers. “I can’t believe you’re here either.”

She kissed his chin. So, still shocked. “In your arms, you mean.”

His arms tightened around her without breaking a stride. “Don’t think you are ever leaving them again, love.”

Lilly narrowed her gaze on this man again, suddenly recalling how they’d parted. “I’m not the one who sneaked out of the window in the middle of the night.”

“I didn’t sneak, I left the way I came, and it wasn’t the middle of the night. I left at dawn.”

“You could have woken me up!”

A look of pure disgruntlement crossed his face. “I whispered your name. Several times.”

Her heart melted all over. “Well, it’s my fault, too. I fell asleep.”

He pressed his face against hers. “It’s no one’s fault, love. Let’s leave the past in the past.”

Warmth spread through her. “I can do that.”

A carriage came into view, and he wrenched the door open, stepping inside smoothly with her still in his arms, settling into a seat with her on his lap. Lilly’s eyes widened as they fell on Saint, who reached over and shut the door. The carriage rocked forward.

“Kidnapped her, heh?” Saint remarked dryly.

Lilly scoffed. “I came willingly, thank you very much.”