CHAPTER 20
THE COST OF WAR
ALEXANDER
I did not sleep.
The image of her stayed with me long after I left the water. The way her body had melted into mine. The way her breath had caught when my lips brushed her ear. The way she had trembled—not from cold, but from want.
I had felt it. Her pulse racing beneath my fingers. The softness of her skin. The way she had pressed back against me without meaning to, her body betraying what her words tried to deny.
I wanted her.
God help me, I wanted her in ways that had nothing to do with reason and everything to do with hunger.
But Élise was circling. And Isabella—innocent, dangerous Isabella—was standing directly in her line of fire.
The morning came too fast.
I was in my study by seven, coffee cold beside me, phone pressed to my ear for t
