Page 22 of Devil in Her Details

Allie laughed softly and nudged his arm. “Oh, come now. Say what you want, but you are enjoying this just as much as I am.”

Lilly smiled and shook her head as her friends started to tease each other, leisurely sipping her tea. Well, this was the lot of the superfluous friend when it came to a couple. They should invent a word for that. But despite her earlier request that they keep their affection to themselves, she didn’t mind. She loved watching them be happy. That was all she had ever wanted for her friend. Her attention wandered over to the other lone occupant of the room seated at a distant table.

Their eyes locked.

Lilly started at the unexpected connection. The man lounged back in his chair with the unbothered composure of someone who did not concern himself with the comings and goings of others. Dark hair brushed his face, and a scar sliced through one brow. His gaze, however, was piercing and fixed directly on her.

A faint chill skittered along her spine.

She quickly averted her eyes, turning back to Allie and Leo just as the two of them began bickering softly over stockings. Normally, coming from them, the topic would have intrigued her. But she could not, for the life of her, concentrate on their conversation. Rather, curiosity of another kind tugged at her. The man on the other side of the room. She hadn’t recognized him, and yet he somehow struck her as familiar. She simply couldn’t put her finger on why. He’d never come to her shop, which was the only place she came into contact with anyone, and she would have remembered a man like him if she’d seen him elsewhere. He cut a menacing figure.

Her gaze slid back across the room.

He was still watching her! But this time, a smile had joined his dark gaze, making him appear even more sinister!

Who on earth was he?

What was it about him that stirred this strange sense of recognition?

A predator, perhaps. Or a . . . a . . .

No.

A panther.

Dagger Fury.

The man looked remarkably like Dagger Fury.

“Lilly? Is something amiss?” Leo asked.

Lilly snapped her head back. “Oh, no! No, no, no. Nothing. That man over there just looked familiar, and I was trying to place him.”

Allie glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, him. He’s here every day. I suspect he might be the owner, though he’s never approached us, so I can’t be sure.”

“I see,” Lilly murmured. Was she imagining things? The lack of sleep must be playing tricks on her. She took a sip of tea, shaking off the sense that she had unwittingly stepped into the devil’s lair. Fate, however, did not give her the chance to shake anything before the very man himself, Dagger Fury, stepped into the inn.

Tea splashed from the cup as she jerked in surprise, hot liquid kissing her lips and dripping down her chin. She set the cup down and furiously wiped at the embarrassing evidence of her shock.

“Lilly!” Allie exclaimed. “Are you all right? Did you burn yourself?”

She didn’t have time to give Allie an answer before Dagger Fury’s gaze found hers. She sucked in a breath at the intensity in it. There was just something in that dark stare that bound her straight to him. What was he doing here?

“Lilly?”

Leo’s concerned voice finally dragged her attention back to the table. Flustered, it took a moment for her wits to gather again. “Sorry,” she said, smiling at her friends. “I thought I recognized that man.”

Allie arched a questioning brow, her gaze flicking to Dagger and back, dismissing him instantly as a familiar figure. “You seem out of sorts. What aren’t you telling us, Lil?”

Relieved her friend hadn’t made the connection, Lilly cleared her throat and set her teacup aside, uncomfortably aware of Dagger passing their table and taking a seat at that man’s table, facing her, too. Did that make it more likely that they were family, then? Did that mean this was Dagger’s inn as well? Well, suspected to be.

Her mind went blank, and Lilly suddenly did not know what to think. Or how to act.

Which was ridiculous. Lilly Trenton prided herself on composure. And wit. And never being rendered speechless!

Get a hold of yourself, Lilly!

He was merely a man.