ROWEN

I carried her to the bed without saying a word. She was light in my arms, but the emotions I carried felt like a thousand bricks balanced on my chest. Elora had stopped fighting, but I saw it in her eyes—rage, confusion, hurt. The kind that didn’t need words to be understood. I set her down and reached for her face. She didn’t pull away.

Our mouths crashed, desperate, angry. Her hands tangled in my shirt, yanking, tearing. I responded with equal force, pulling her closer, pressing her body into mine until we were just skin and breath and heat.

This wasn’t soft or slow. It was raw, violent...