Maya lay awake long after dinner had ended, staring at the ceiling of her room. The echo of Jax’s gaze still sticked to her, heavy and unrelenting. It had not been the meal that unnerved her it had been the silence that stretched between his questions, the way he studied her as if she were a puzzle only he could solve. Every fork scrape and flicker of candlelight had felt like a spotlight that cannot be ignored.

She turned over, pressing her cheek against the pillow, but sleep would not ...