Morning light struggled through the heavy rain clouds, turning the pool house into a hazy sanctuary of soft grays and shifting blues from the underwater lights. Elena and Marcus had dozed in fits and starts, bodies entwined, but neither had the will to slip back to the main house yet. Victoria’s return from Portland loomed like a shadow, but for these stolen hours, the world outside the glass walls didn’t exist.

Elena lay on her side facing him, her curves pressed along the length of Marcus’s muscular frame. His hand rested possessively on the swell of her hip, fingers occasionally flexing as if to reassure himself she was real. Traces...