CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX – ALMOST CAUGHT

She swallowed hard against the prevailing lump of melancholy pushing against her throat, nestling deeper into the circle of his arms, the solidity and warmth of his physique anchoring her to this indelible refuge while it still persisted. Cassie's heart jackhammered in her chest, each ragged intake of air feeling like shards of glass scoring her lungs. She trembled violently from head to toe, entire body still humming with the searing aftershocks of their frantic lovemaking. Every nerve-ending crackled with lingering sparks of ecstasy in the aftermath of her and Florian's near-combustion. Yet rather than basking in post-coital bliss tangled in his sheets, dread and panic clawed at her throat, bunching her muscles into knots of visceral tension. Sweat beaded along her hairline, breaths sawing past her lips in juddering gasps that she couldn't quite muffle. It had all happened so fast - one careening, gut-wrenching instant veering from soul-shattering rapture to utter pandemonium wit