SERENA

I stayed on the spot for barely twenty minutes when I suddenly felt like I just couldn't take it anymore. Anytime his eyes looked up, I felt like I was being lit on fire.

The scratching of the charcoal against the heavy grain of the paper stopped abruptly. The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the shallow, hoarse sound of my own breathing.

I stayed frozen on the spot, my back arched until my spine protested, my breasts thrust out like a desperate offering under the blistering heat of Killian Reed's watching eyes. I could feel a stray bead of sweat—or perhaps the intense heat of my...