~ TESS ~
My heart thunders as fear coils around my ribs like barbed wire. I don’t even know where to start. I can’t look Killan in the eye, so I lower my gaze and blurt, “Where does your family live?” Not the question I need to ask, but it slips out anyway.
“Not far,” Killan says, his tone soft and steady—like an anchor trying to keep me grounded. “Just a few hundred miles north.”
He turns his hand and cradles my face, the rough pad of his thumb brushing gently across my cheek. I try to look away, but he waits me out. Patient. Present. Unshakable.
And somehow, I end up looking at him.
“Now,” he says softly, “ask me the questions you’re scared of. You’ll stay scared unless you do. And there’s no reason for you to be anymore. Not when you are with me.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, th
