Brian kissed her like nothing was broken.
His hands moved over her hips, his lips brushing along her collarbone, his breath hot and possessive against her skin. Emily lay back against the velvet headboard of the master suite, silk sheets tangled beneath her, limbs pliant but heart sealed shut.
She didn’t resist when he parted her robe.
Didn’t flinch when his mouth closed around the hollow of her throat.
She simply breathed—steady, even, deliberate.
Like this was survival.
“Look at me,” Brian murmured, his voice low and commanding as his hand slipped beneath the lace waistband of her underwear. “Emily. Eyes on me.”
She turned her gaze to him, slow and obedient. The illusion had to hold. For now.
But her mind was nowhere near the bed.
Not on his skin, or his heat, or the way he whis
