Chapter 261

• With a careless flick, Duke threw back the blanket—and froze.
• That vivid splash of crimson, blooming against the stark white sheets like winter plum blossoms on snow, made his eyes narrow.
• His mind betrayed him instantly, dragging him back into the fevered haze of the night before. The taste of her breath, the desperate way her nails raked down his back, the primal claim in every gasp—Carmen beneath him, the bond between them thrumming until it burned through bone and blood.