POV: Alexander
I'm close enough to see her pulse jump at her throat, close enough that stepping back should be simple, and I don't do it. Figure it out. I said the words and then closed the distance myself instead of waiting for her to decide anything, and now we're standing in the library with maybe six inches between us and every instinct I own screaming at me to close the rest of it.
Sandra doesn't move either. She looks up at me, confusion and something else tangled together in her expression, something that looks a lot like want fighting a losing battle against everything she's been taught to expect from me.
"Alexander." My name, barely more than breath. "What are we doing?"
I don't have an answer that doesn't terrify me. I built this marriage on distance, on careful walls, on bei
