“So she might no’ come down,” Rhys said, worry causing his voice to deepen. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”
Denae adjusted the napkin in her lap. “Yesterday I’d have said that, but after today, I think she’ll be here.”
“What happened?” Rhys needed to know every detail. If Lily was in danger or hurt, he would kill the person responsible. If something else had changed … well, he wanted to know that as well.
“A lot actually. She’s … different.”
Kellan motioned to a waiter and ordered a drink for himself and Rhys. “Different how?” he asked Denae.
Denae shrugged helplessly. “You’ll see when she comes down. While we were shopping, an old friend of Lily’s stopped her.”
“Did they upset her?” Rhys asked.
“In a way, though it was more like she was embarrassed the woman recognized her.”
Kellan touched his cheek as he said, “Because of her bruise?”
“I might be speaking out of turn, but I think it’s because the woman knew Lily as well as her family. Lily admitted to me that it has been four years since she spoke to her family.”
Kellan let out a whistle.
Rhys reached for the whisky as it was set in front of him and brought it to his lips. That was an interesting bit of news he hadn’t known. The glass was at his mouth when his gaze was snagged at the door by a flash of red.
He shifted and then froze as his eyes feasted on Lily. Every ounce of blood went straight to his cock when he saw the way the red dress hugged her incredible curves. The dress stopped above her knees, and the sleeves hit just beneath her elbows.
Her long, lustrous black tresses hung over her left shoulder. She held her head high, the high heels bringing notice to her gorgeous legs. As she approached, he caught a flash of a diamond at each earlobe.
Rhys set aside his drink and got to his feet, only vaguely aware that Kellan was speaking. The closer Lily got, the more he saw the frown of worry, the same hint of fear as the night before. Then her gaze slid to him.
The anxiety on her face was replaced with a slow, dazzling smile that made something shift unexpectedly in his chest. “Rhys,” she said, the voice throaty, utterly sexy.
“I was in the city. I hope you doona mind,” he said as held out her chair.
“Not at all.”
Their hands touched, sending a current of electricity through him. They were close enough for him to bend and place his lips on hers. There was nothing that he wanted to do more, but he recalled they were in public. It took every ounce of his control, but he remained where he was.
She sat and reached for her napkin. That’s when Rhys saw what was obviously a new tattoo by the redness around the words. He waited until Lily finished greeting Denae and Kellan before he held out his hand and nodded to her arm as he asked, “May I?”
Lily hesitated, but after a moment she turned her arm to him. “Of course.”
Rhys sat and gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist. Blood pounded through him in a storm of need when he heard her quick inhale when their skin touched.
By the stars, what this woman did to him. His blood pounded through him, her nearness making everyone else fade away.
He had to read the tattoo twice before his desire-filled brain could comprehend the meaning. “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength,” he said aloud.
Rhys didn’t need to ask to know there was meaning behind it. He looked into her dark eyes, drowning in the possibility of what could be.
“You look very handsome,” she said, her words soft, encouraging. “I’ve never seen you in a suit.”
“I doona often wear one.” He abhorred them. Usually. Then again, he wanted to impress Lily, to show her he was more than a man who had a different woman on his arm every night.
She looked down, her smile growing. “I love when a man is as comfortable in jeans and a tee as he is in a suit.” Her gaze returned to his. “Especially when a man can wear a suit as well as you.”
If Rhys weren’t already hard, he would be now. He rubbed his thumb along the skin at her wrist. “Red looks fetching on you. The frock does as well.”
Her eyes twinkled at the compliment. “Thank you.”
“Rhys?” Kellan interjected. “Are you going to let Lily order a drink or hold her arm all night?”
“Why can I no’ do both?” Rhys asked with a wink to Lily. It was the first time in weeks that he felt almost himself. That’s what Lily did to him. She healed the scars left from Ulrik’s magic.
Lily’s bright smile was a salve on his battered soul. She had no idea how her mere presence could soothe and calm him as nothing else could.
And that alone scared him much more than the thought of never shifting again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lily couldn’t remember ever being so nervous—or so excited.