The morning after Cole, Maddie didn’t wake up in his bed. She didn’t need to. She let herself out while he slept, warm and tangled in the sheets, his breath still heavy from what they’d done. His scent clung to her. The…

The cabin was quiet again, the evening sun casting long golden rays through the tall pine trees. Jack stood shirtless at the workbench, arms flexing as he planed a fresh slab of cedar. The scent of sawdust mixed with his…

It was late afternoon when the knock came. Jack had just finished sanding down a thick walnut slab for a custom headboard, his shirt long since abandoned in the summer heat. Sweat glistened off his muscled torso, every line of…

The house had gone still. Maddie stood barefoot at the threshold of Cole’s wing, her white robe barely tied at the waist, skin still dewy from her bath. The moonlight from the window cast pale ribbons across the floor, but…

Maddie barely slept. After Lucien left her curled in the furs of the greenhouse, after his final kiss and promise—“No one has to know. Unless you want them to.”—she’d stayed behind a while. Let the candles burn low. Let the…