Chapter 70 – What She Doesn't Know
Lucian
Sleep didn't come easily that night.
It rarely did these days not since she came into my life like a storm I never saw coming.
I'd thought I understood control. Discipline. The art of keeping things exactly where I wanted them to be cold, predictable, orderly.
But Rina Hale had a way of undoing all that without even trying.
The soft way she said my name.
The faint tremble in her voice when she argued with me but still met my eyes.
The quiet strength she carried, even after everything she'd been through.
It did something to me.
And tonight… watching her in the kitchen, barefoot, hair still damp from her bath, the thin strap of her top falling slightly off her shoulder I'd come dangerously close to forgetting myself.
She didn't know how hard it was just to stand there.
To take the tea from her hands, to keep my voice steady when every nerve in my body wanted to give in.
She thought I was calm. Maybe distant. Maybe uninterested.
