I couldn’t sleep.
The walls of the Hale estate were too quiet. Too suffocating. Even the moonlight that spilled through the high windows felt cold, like it belonged to someone else’s life.
I stared at the ceiling, my fingers curled tightly around the edge of the comforter. Dimitri hadn’t come back to the room. Not after that storm of silence he left behind. Not after the kiss he gave me that felt like a question neither of us could answer.
Why did he kiss me like that?
Why did I kiss him back?
I told myself it was just the heat of the moment. That it didn’t mean anything. But that was a lie I couldn’t sell to my own bones. My body still remembered the way his touch lingered, the way his fingers brushed against my skin like he had every right to.
But more than that, I remembered the l
