When Emily reached her bed, she collapsed onto it with a low groan, the mattress giving softly beneath her weight.
Her whole body felt strange—restless, overheated, as if a hidden fever had settled deep under her skin.
It was a sensation she had never known before, unsettling and intimate all at once, blooming in her chest and stomach until even her breathing felt different.
She sat up slowly, tugging her dress off with distracted fingers and letting it fall to the floor in a whisper of fabric. Left in only her underwear, she drew in a shaky breath and pressed a hand to her forehead, as though that might clear the haze building inside her mind.
But it only made things worse. Her thoughts had begun to drift and scatter, turning soft at the edges, her focus slipping every time she tried to catch hold of it.
