POV: Daniel

Daniel didn’t sleep.

He hadn’t since she whispered to him. His body demanded it—muscles ached, eyes burned, and his head pounded with a thick headache—but the tether between them wouldn’t let him. Every time Clara moved in her bed, every time she swallowed against a dry throat, every ripple of shame or desire ran through him like fire.

The bond was relentless.

She thought she was alone when she curled in on herself. She thought the blanket could ...