Page 94 of Devil in Her Details

He lifted her skirts before she could finish the sentence. So matter-of-factly! Lilly’s breath caught when his finger trailed over her skin where blue bruises were already blooming across both kneecaps.

“That sorry excuse for a marquess is going to bloody pay for this,” Dagger ground out grimly.

“This isn’t Calvington’s fault.” For a change. And she’d rather not have Dagger snap the man’s kneecaps. “I fell all on my own.”

He lowered her skirts. “If it weren’t for him, this would never have happened. Fortunately, you didn’t break the skin.”

She couldn’t entirely argue with that, so she let it be. “Speaking of which, what happened after we left?”

He stilled.

Lilly narrowed her eyes on the man, an ominous feeling forming in her breast. “Dagger? What did you do?”

Those brooding eyes met hers. “We caught a pest and tossed it in a dungeon.”

Lilly stared at him without blinking, her mind trying to wrap around the image forming in her head. She couldn’t quite imagine Calvington, that arrogant scoundrel, being tossed into a . . . dungeon? She’d heard that correctly, hadn’t she? “You abducted Calvington.”

“We caught a pest.”

Lily started to rise. “Take me there right now! I want to see this pest!” And this dungeon.

He pushed her back to the bed. “No.”

She did blink at him then. “No?”

“No.”

“You’re going to keep me from this?” How did that make any sense? She had “hired” him for protection. Wait, was this the matter of family again? She wasn’t family so she could not pry into this matter further?

“Yes.”

Lilly gave a harsh laugh. The injustice of it was frankly staggering. “Right. I’m not family, am I?”

His jaw ticked.

Rogue panther! She shoved him away and sat straighter. “Well, I’ll have you know, it’s been decided. I’m Calliope’s sister.” Shock, or perhaps it was alarm, cracked across his features. “So I am family. Do you object?”

*

Dagger stared up into Lilly’s beautiful eyes from where he knelt before her, asking him such a damn question with a straight face. He did object. He objected to a great many things. Not a chance he was letting her near that marquess. And that had nothing to do with her being family or not. His reasoning was pure selfishness. So damn bloody selfish, he inwardly cursed himself.

He didn’t want Calvington to lay one more glance on her.

In fact, if he could tear the man’s eyes out, he would.

“I do bloody object.”

“I decline your objection.”

“Lilly.”

“No.” Her honey eyes turned fierce. “If it’s not yes Lilly, do not call my name in that entreating tone.”

Dagger clenched his jaw, his gaze dropping to her hands. Bandaged because of Calvington’s chaos. Bruised knees because of Calvington’s chaos. He wouldn’t be told otherwise. If that arse hadn’t orchestrated that parade, she wouldn’t have been forced to make her way to Fury’s on foot. She wouldn’t have fallen. The rage that had mounted since he’d first caught sight of her hands pulsed through him, unspent.

He was going to thoroughly enjoy making that man suffer.

“I have my reasons for this, Lilly. Can’t you trust me on this?”