HAYES
I released her wrists, but I did not move my weight off her. My hands shifted down to the collar of her torn dress, pulling the green fabric completely apart to expose her throat and chest to the cold air of the bedroom. She shivered beneath me, her skin forming goosebumps immediately, but she did not try to roll out from under my body. Her brown eyes remained locked on mine, waiting.
"Look at the bed, Ciara," I ordered, my voice rough. I forced her head to turn toward the heavy wooden posts and the dark gray furs beneath us. "Nilah has not slept in this room for three years. I stripped every piece of furniture out of this wing the day she left. The sheets you are lying on belong to you. The floorboards you walk on belong to you. I don't keep relics of old contracts."
"She knew ab
