The water in the shower was scalding, hot enough to turn skin red, but Evelina couldn’t feel it. She was numb.
She stood under the spray in the massive, marble bathroom of the Geneva suite, scrubbing her arm with a loofah until the skin was raw.
She was trying to scrub away the smell of the warehouse dust, the scent of Elias’s tweed jacket, and the phantom weight of Dante’s hand on her throat.
He burned my clothes.
The image played on a loop in her mind, the silk curling into ash, the fire reflected in Dante’s dead eyes. He wasn’t just jealous.
He was erasing her. He was burning away every part of Evelina Thorne until only his creature remained.
She dropped the loofah. She leaned her forehead against the wet tile, her breath hitching in a silent sob. She was naked, cornered, and th
