CHAPTER 66: Heated Confessions

  The silence in the room was a suffocating thing. It pressed down on me with the weight of the unspoken, of everything that had transpired between Alexander and me tonight. Each bite of the surprisingly delicious chicken felt like a stolen moment, a silent truce in the wake of our quarrel at the ball.

  He fed me with practiced ease, the concern etched into his brow as genuine as the worry in his eyes. Every time his hand brushed mine, a jolt of something electric shot through me, a sharp difference from the cooling sensation of the spoon against my lips.

  When I finished, he gently removed the tray from my lap, his touch lingering a fraction of a second too long. Shame flooded my cheeks, hot and prickling. I had to remind myself that this was just him trying to show concern for me because I had been under the rain, not affection.