Unlike the earlier hunger Charles had shown when his hands first explored her body, when lust and desperation had blurred together into something reckless and consuming, now he hesitated.
Kaija sat before him beneath the dim morning shadows of the room, bare from the waist up, her blue eyes lowered toward him with a coldness that made something inside his chest tighten painfully.
There was no shy tension left in her anymore.
No startled blushes.
No uncertain curiosity.
Only quiet acceptance.
The acceptance of someone who had already chosen heartbreak over hope.
Charles knew that expression far too well.
'That's the face of someone who's already given up on wanting more.'
It was the same expression he had spent years perfecting in mirrors.
