Chapter Five
ZACHARIE HAD NOT SLEPT.
This was not unusual. Sleep had always been a negotiation rather than a surrender, his body too well-trained to let its guard down completely. But tonight, last night, the sleeplessness had taken on a different quality. Less vigilance, more...something else.
Something he refused to name.
He stood outside her door at six in the morning, a medical kit in one hand and a tray of breakfast in the other. The staff had offered to handle both tasks. He had dismissed them with a look that brooked no argument.
It was practical. He needed to assess her condition himself. Gauge her mental state. Determine the next steps.
That was all.
He knocked once. Waited. Knocked again.
“Come in.”
Her voice was different. Softer than yesterday, but not in the warm way. Muted. Like someone had turned down her volume overnight.
Yesterday, she had been all nervous chatter and wide eyes and that ridiculous moment where she had almost called him mine. He had caught the shape of the word on her lips before she swallowed it down, and the memory had lodged somewhere inconvenient in his chest.
He pushed open the door.
She was sitting up in bed, the silk sheets pooled around her waist. The morning light caught her hair, turning the dark strands almost auburn. Her oversized cardigan, the cream one, now ruined beyond salvation, had been replaced by one of his guest robes. It swallowed her whole, making her look smaller and even more fragile than she already was.
Zacharie noticed the way she avoided his gaze as he approached her.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Morning,”
Her voice was a mumble. And her face was...wan. No smiles, no-near blushes. Nothing that indicated she was still the same girl he had rescued.
Something had changed overnight, and Zacharie did not know what.
“I need to change your bandages.”
She nodded without looking up and shifted, turning slightly to give him access to her wounded side. The movement was cooperative but distant, like she was performing a task rather than allowing an intimacy.
Zacharie set the tray on the bedside table and lowered himself onto the edge of the mattress. The bed dipped under his weight, and she tensed almost imperceptibly before forcing herself to relax.
Not good.
His awareness of hers...
It made him notice everything about her.
