I hate my body's betrayal.
Standing under the hot shower spray, I scrubbed my skin nearly raw, trying to erase the lingering sensation of Ronan's touch. No matter how hard I tried, my body remembered—his hands sliding across my bare skin, his lips at my neck, the weight of him pressing me into the training mat.
And Kaelen... the way he'd looked at me yesterday, like he wanted to consume me whole.
"Stop it," I hissed to myself, turning the water to cold. The shock of it helped clear my head.
These men had tormented me for years. They'd humiliated me, blamed me for things I never did. I needed to remember the pain, not these moments of... whatever this was.
A knock at the bathroom door startled me.
"Miss Seraphina?" Lyra called. "Sorry to disturb you, but you've been in there almost an hour."
Had it been that long? I shut off the water and wrapped myself in a towel.
"I'll be right out," I called back.
