River walked in silence back toward her chamber, her thoughts a tangled storm of confusion, disbelief, and dread, but when she finally arrived at the corridor where her new quarters had been set, her steps slowed with hesitance.
Her hand froze on the gilded doorknob as she stared ahead, realizing, for the first time, that there was no direct hallway leading to her door. Instead, to reach her own room, she had to pass through his.
Heiko’s room.
Her heart skipped, not from excitement, but from tension: tight, uneasy tension that coiled around her ribs like a vice. She inhaled deeply and stepped through the threshold, the first thing hitting her senses being his scent: deep, masculine, layered with the warm bite of pine and the faintest trace of sandalwood and herbs, an aromatic blend th
