Bitten affection

Previously

…He didn’t look back, but Jillian felt his presence linger, a cool, potent aura in the room. As the heavy oak door creaked shut, leaving her alone in the echoing study, Jillian sank onto the plush velvet armchair, her legs suddenly weak. The embers in the hearth had died completely, leaving the room in near darkness. But in the quiet, in the suffocating silence, Jillian knew one thing with absolute certainty: her life, as she had known it, was over. And a new, terrifying, and strangely exhilarating chapter had just begun. The chasm Lucian had spoken of yawned before her, and she could feel herself, inch by reluctant inch, leaning over the edge.