LOGINThe next morning came quickly, with Morgana at the desk when Ethan woke up.Laptop open. Tea beside her. Notes on a pad she had been filling since three in the morning. She heard him move in the bedroom. Heard the shower run. Heard him come out. She didn't look up.He poured coffee and stood at the window looking out at the city below. Quiet for a long moment. She let him have the quiet. She was almost done anyway.She closed the laptop. Picked up her tea."Sit down," she said.He sat across from her. He looked terrible. Dark circles. Tight jaw. The face of a man who had spent the night fighting himself and lost.She had heard him moving around at two in the morning. She had staye
The day of the summit finally came, and Lumina was all over the place.She almost changed her outfit four times before finally settling on the third option. A deep burgundy dress that fell to the floor in clean lines, fitted at the waist, simple at the neck. The silk hugged her figure like it had been made specifically for her, tracing every curve as she moved. It wasn't trying too hard, but the way it sat on her made her look breathtaking. Elegant. And pure heat.Mira sat on the bed watching the whole process with her arms folded and the expression of someone thoroughly enjoying every second of it."The burgundy one," Mira said."I'm wearing it, aren't I?""I'm confirming you made the right choice." Mira tilted her head. "Dylan is going to forget how to speak.""Dylan doesn't forget how to do anything.""Tonight he might." Mira stood up and walked a slow circle around her like she was assessing a piece of art. "You look incredible. Genuinely. Like something out of a dream that men wr
CHAPTER 14The next day, Dylan's text came at noon.Come to mine tonight. I'll cook. Seven o'clock.Lumina read it twice. Then she typed back.You burnt toast two days ago.His reply came in under a minute.That was toast. This is different.How is it different?I'm trying to impress you. Higher stakes. Better focus.She stared at her phone for a second. Then she typed.Fine. Seven o'clock. But if anything burns, I'm leaving.His reply was just one word.Deal.She put the phone down and went back to her patient and absolutely did not smile for the next four hours.……………His house was nothing like she expected.She stood in the doorway and took it in. Large yes. But warm. Lived in. Books everywhere with broken spines and folded pages. A jacket thrown over a chair that had clearly never seen a coat rack. Boots by the door that hadn't been polished in recent memory. A fireplace with real ash in it from a real fire."You live like a person," she said.Dylan took her coat. "As opposed to."
The morning after felt different.Not in a dramatic way. Just quieter. Softer around the edges. Like the city had turned the volume down slightly and given her room to breathe.Lumina opened the clinic at eight. Made tea instead of coffee for the first time in weeks. Stood at the window for a moment, watching Crestwood wake up, and thought about last night. About the quiet street and Dylan's forehead against hers and the word okay that had meant about seventeen different things when she said it.Mira arrived at eight fifteen and took one look at her face."You're glowing," Mira said."I'm not glowing.""You're absolutely glowing. You look like a woman who got kissed on a street corner last night.""I look like a woman who slept properly for once.""Same thing sometimes." Mira hung up her coat and smiled the smile of someone who was going to be insufferable about this for the foreseeable future. "I'm just saying. You look good. You look like yourself. The real version."Lumina handed h
"Thirty seconds," she said. "Use them carefully."Ethan stared at her.She watched him search her face. Looking for the girl he remembered. The one who had loved him without reservation and would have followed him into anything. He was looking for her like she was still in there somewhere underneath everything.She wasn't."I just want to talk," he said. "That's all I came here for.""You're using your seconds.""Lumina…""Twenty-two."He exhaled hard. Ran a hand through his hair, and she remembered that gesture from a completely different life. It used to mean he was nervous. It used to make something in her chest go soft.It meant nothing now."I made a mistake," he said. "The worst one of my life. Every single day since that night, I have…""Fifteen.""Would you stop?" His voice cracked. Raw and desperate. "Please. I'm not asking you to come back. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I just need you to hear me say it. I need you to know that I know exactly what I did to you.""I hear yo
The cup hit the floor and shattered.Neither of them moved.Lumina stared at the pieces on the kitchen tiles. At the coffee spreading slowly across the grout. At the mess of it. Then she looked up at Dylan and something passed between them that didn't need words.He had known since yesterday.He had known, and he had taken her to a rooftop with jasmine and fairy lights and held her face in his hands and kissed her, and the whole time Ethan Cole had been two kilometres away in a hotel room that Dylan knew the address of."How long?" she said."Cain confirmed he was here yesterday evening.""Before or after you picked me up?"Dylan didn't answer."Before or after, Dylan!""Before."She turned away. Walked to the counter, pressed both palms flat against it, and stood there. The back of her neck was hot. Her jaw was tight. She was not going to cry. She had cried over this man exactly once, and she was not doing it again and definitely not in her own kitchen on a beautiful day."You should







