Blood and Lace: 6. The Surrender and the Claiming

The rain hadn’t stopped since midnight.

It drummed against the tall windows like an impatient hand, filling the penthouse with a muted roar that made the world outside feel very far away.

Elena sat on the edge of the bed, the silk robe pooling around her thighs, her bare feet pressed into the deep carpet as though she could root herself to the floor. She’d been telling herself to leave for the last hour. Her overnight bag was already zipped. The car downstairs was waiting.

But she couldn’t make herself stand.

Not when she could still smell him on her skin.

Not when the ghost of his handprint still warmed her hip.

Not when every time she blinked, she saw the way his gaze had raked over her earlier that night—possessive, unapologetic, hungry.

The door clicked open.

She didn’t have to turn to know it was him. The air shifted; the atmosphere thickened with that impossible presence, the one that made her heart beat faster and her breathing