“Did you paint something today?”

I jumped at the question, the unexpected voice of a man breaking into my far-off thoughts. I looked up and squinted into the amused eyes of a dark-haired gentleman in a black suit jacket.

“Excuse me?” I snapped, not feeling at all sociable at the moment.

“I asked you if you had painted something today,” he repeated, continuing to smile down at me, which continued to irritate me. When I refused to answer, the stranger gestured at my clothing with the long, tapered fingers of a pianist. “You’re covered in paint,” he explained slowly, as though I were a dull-witted puppy who had just run smack into the back end of the living sofa. With my face.

I narrowed my eyes at him, then quickly took stock of the gentleman before me. Good-looking, confident, and cheeky, if his grin and dancing brows were anything to go by. I raised my own brows questioningly as I turned up my face to him. “Are you lost, sir?” I asked politely.

He laughed, and my temper simmered. Had I a sign strung round my neck, inviting strange men to hit on me all day? “There is an information desk at the entrance to the library,” I elucidated. “You would have walked right past it as you came in; you know, en route to prey upon lil ol’ me.” I batted my eyelashes up at him innocently, but he just laughed again, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets and rocking back onto his heels.

“I quite like your snark,” he announced happily, and several other library patrons looked up at us with interest.

I shrank back into my seat and buried my hot cheeks behind my hand. “How lovely for you,” I muttered.

“Tell me your name, darling, before you burst into flame behind your hand, there,” he leaned forward and tried to see my eyes, hidden as they were behind my fingers.

“You’re the devil,” I hissed, my cheeks stinging with heat.

“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I am,” he agreed cheerfully, and handed me his card.

I lowered my hands from my face slowly, taking him in. I glanced at his card, which indeed read, The Devil; At Your Service. Then I stood, gathered my belongings, and went directly home, where I immediately converted my library card to an online account.