That was the night I discovered the true, tender underbelly of my fighter and decided, irrevocably, that I needed to have her. Not just have her to own her, because a woman like Elena couldn’t be owned and that was part of her powerful charm. I needed to have her to understand her. To have the privilege of unwrapping layer after layer until I got to the heart of her. Once, I’d thought her soul would be frozen through, an icy vessel used only to pump blood through her body, but I was beginning to understand the truth.
