He adored the way she could shift sometimes soft and kitten-like, other times fierce as a tigress. But this timid side of her? That was something he wanted no one else to witness. It was his alone.

Perhaps he’d gone mad.

Her words echoed in his mind, snagging his thoughts for a fleeting moment. Love.

Alarico had used that same word. Did he… love her? He wasn’t certain. Logically speaking, she was the first woman who’d occupied his mind every hour of every day, the first whose ...