#Chapter 182: Too Much To Bear

ELENA The ride back to the hotel was quiet. Not the comfortable kind of quiet. The kind that buzzed with tension, heat pooling just under the surface of my skin. I kept my hands folded in my lap like a proper diplomat—like a woman who hadn’t just spent the last hour wrapped around her lover in a steaming hot spring, pressed skin to skin beneath a moonlit sky. I stared out the window, pretending the frost patterns were more interesting than the way Derek’s thigh brushed mine every time the SUV hit a bump. It wasn’t even intentional, probably. But it didn’t matter. Every touch was electric. Every inhale I took carried the scent of him—wet pine, heat, the barest edge of want. Goddess, I could still taste him on my tongue. Across from us, Joe sat with the eternally patient expression of a man who was pretending not to notice anything. There were two guards in the front seat, murmuring to each other in low voices. I pressed my knees together. My body was still humming. I want