Once Thea was safely settled in the playroom, we returned to our hotel suite. By now, my buzz from the alcohol was beginning to wear off and the shame was setting in. The air inside the hotel room felt cold against my damp skin, and I shivered beneath my bathing suit coverup. Elijah closed the doo
Elijah I felt a little lighter as I stepped into the playroom, instantly surrounded by the sound of children’s laughter. The space itself was warm and cozy, with a plethora of toys, books, and comfortable furniture for the kids to play on. Thea spotted me almost immediately, snapping her head up
Agnes I stared down at the rose in my hand, unsure of what it was supposed to represent. It was a beautiful flower, but the red color also left my head reeling. Was it an apology? A romantic gesture? An attempt at taking back what he’d said? And then Elijah told me to get ready for dinner, and m
He was doting on me, yes, but there was no substance behind it. No acknowledgment of the things that had been said, the hurt that lingered just beneath the surface. It was all glitz and glamour, and none of it addressed the real issue. By the time dessert arrived, one of those chocolate confection
AgnesThe wall was cold against my back, but Elijah’s hand was firm and warm as he pressed it over my mouth. My heart pounded, the closeness of him doing nothing to steady my breathing. His eyes, sharp and serious, held mine as he leaned in, his body shielding me completely.“Shh,” he murmured.For
My fingers flexed against the fabric of my dress, my wolf’s earlier whisper fading into silence. She was gone again, like she had never been there at all. And with her also went the certainty that Elijah was ever supposed to be mine.I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat. “Right,” I said te
AgnesHearing Thea cry, even over something as small as not wanting to leave vacation, made my heart break.“Oh, baby,” I murmured, dropping to a crouch and pulling her into my arms. She melted into me instantly, her little body shaking as fresh tears soaked into my shirt. I held her close, rubbing
AgnesAs soon as I saw that headline, I practically bolted out of bed and ran straight to Elijah. I found him in the living room, his tie loose and his feet kicked up on the ottoman with a book open in his lap. I shoved the phone in his face without preamble.“Look at this.”He frowned, leaning clos
AgnesElijah and I skidded around the corner to the living room and came screeching to a halt the moment we saw the horrific scene that was waiting for us.The dollhouse now lay in ruins, its roof cracked straight down the middle. And none other than Olivia stood above it, her fists still raised.My
The very thought made me wince and look away. I didn’t want to think that Elijah could be shallow enough to fall for something like that, but the fact of the matter was, she was his mate. They still bore the mating marks and nothing was tying him to me except for a contract.She could manipulate him
AgnesThe moment Elijah said those words, Thea darted behind my legs and gripped my skirt as if Olivia might whisk her away if she didn’t hold onto me. I didn’t know what to say or do, but feeling her body tense against me made my heart constrict painfully in my chest.Behind her, Olivia stood in th
A few murmurs rippled through the room, but no one spoke up.“Maybe someone just didn’t finish in time,” one of the designers suggested with a shrug.I nodded slowly, figuring that was probably the case. But something didn’t sit right with me about that, although I didn’t know why. Still, I let it g
AgnesThe afternoon sun slanted through the office window, casting long shadows across the wood as I sat at my desk with my pencil in hand. For the first time in the past few days, the sketchbook in front of me wasn’t empty. I’d managed to scrawl a few decent designs across the pages; they were roug
Truthfully, I wondered if I could tell Elijah the truth—that I thought Thea might be my missing daughter and that I was the one who sent the samples in. But I couldn’t get the words out. I was too afraid—afraid that if I told him the truth, he might become overprotective and accuse me of trying to t
Agnes & ElijahAgnesElijah’s breath was warm against my neck, the faint scent of whiskey and pine curling through the small, dark space between us. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest against my body, and I didn’t know what to make of it.To make matters worse, my own pulse was entirely unh
“Sketching?” Gertrude eventually asked, nodding toward the closed book on the table.“Trying to,” I admitted with a wry chuckle. “But it’s not going as well as I’d like.”The librarian hummed thoughtfully, glancing down at the pages scattered beside me. Her eyes caught on one of Ava’s sketches that
AgnesI stared down at the sketchbook in my lap, tapping the end of my pencil against the blank page until even the sounds of the soft thuds were starting to irritate me. No matter how long I sat there, no matter how hard I tried to force inspiration to come, nothing was coming to me.No designs, no