Mary's POV

I never meant to break my vows so quickly.

My name is Sister Mary. I’m nineteen years old and the youngest novice at the remote monastery. For three months I had tried to lose myself in prayer, in silence and in the heavy folds of my white habit. But every time Silas, the groundskeeper, walked past me in the courtyard, my heart stumbled and a forbidden warmth bloomed low in my belly.

Silas was not a monk. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man in his late thirties with rough, soil-stained hands and dark hair that always looked slightly tousled from the wind. His deep voice carried quiet strength,...