Semua Bab Dear Ex-husband, I Don't Love You Anymore : Bab 171 - Bab 180

The forest was quiet in that unsettling way nature sometimes chose. Peaceful, but carrying the kind of silence that made your skin prickle. Diana hiked along the narrow trail with the rest of the group, following the path that curved between tall pines and scattered ferns. Sunlight filtered through the branches, leaving moving patches of gold that danced across the ground. Her boots crunched on gravel and dried needles. She kept her eyes forward, steady, but something flickered at the edge of her vision.She froze.It was just behind a thick cluster of trees. A dark shape. Wide. Low. Moving or maybe still. She could not tell. Her breath hitched and she took a step back, her fingers curling around the strap of her backpack. Her mind ran through the frightful images she had seen online of hikers being chased, dragged, mauled. Bears were fast. Bears were terrifying. Bears did not care if you were a good person or a mother or someone who did not deserve to be torn apart.She blinked hard.

The guide’s voice cuts through the hush of the forest, loud enough to break the spell but not loud enough to calm the pulse still drumming in her throat.“Everyone, circle back. There is still more ground to cover before lunch.”Diana swallows and turns, pretending she had not just felt her world tilt on its axis. She pretends she has not just felt Mikhail’s fingers in her hair or the quiet praise that has been echoing inside her chest since he said she was beautiful.She walks toward the group with carefully even steps. Mikhail is a silent shadow behind her, heavy, steady, powerful. When she glances back, he is not watching her. He is staring at the trees again, that same frown carved between his brows, the one she saw earlier. The one she tried to ignore.It feels different this time. Sharper. More focused.The others are chatting loudly, laughing like they have forgotten anyone else exists, but the silence between her and Mikhail hums. It feels intimate and private and dangerous in

The ridge narrowed as they climbed, the air cooler, the trees swaying sharply below them. The guide was rambling about safety and footing and how the view ahead was always worth the strain, but Diana was barely listening. Her thoughts kept drifting to the shadow she’d seen earlier, the one that felt too solid to be a trick of the light. She kept glancing to the trees, to the shifting darkness beneath the branches.Mikhail stayed close behind her. She could feel it. His attention was sharp, not on the scenery, but on the perimeter around them. She wondered if he had seen it too.When they reached the top, the group spread out, taking photos, laughing, bickering over who carried the snacks. Mikhail moved beside her. His hand brushed her back in a quiet check. She leaned into it before she could stop herself.He was about to say something when the guide called for them to regroup. The group groaned. Mikhail exhaled slowly as if holding back a curse. Diane tried to smile but the unease in

“I love you.” he saidOne second Diana was watching him with disbelief, the next Mikhail’s hands were on her waist and he was lifting her clean off the ground. She let out a breathless gasp as her back met the rough bark of a tree trunk. The impact wasn’t painful, not with the way his body came with her, caging her in, holding her up, as if his hands were the only thing keeping her from falling.Her legs bent instinctively around him and the sound that left him was low and harsh, like he had been holding it in for days.His mouth was on her before she could speak.The kiss wasn’t gentle or hesitant. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. It was desperate and consuming and full of a heat that felt like it had been building since the motel, since the rain, since the knife at the manager’s throat, since the bar, since she whispered his name in her sleep.His lips claimed hers like he was starving for her. His hands slid up and grabbed one of her boobs through her clothes. She tasted the str

DIANAThe guide’s voice cut through the low hum of the camp like a bell.“Gear up. Tree climbing in ten.”There was a ripple of excitement through the group. Buckles clinked. Someone laughed too loudly. Someone else groaned. I stayed where I was, finishing the last sip of my drink, watching the way Mikhail stood when there was something to prepare for. Alert. Focused. As if the world narrowed to whatever task sat in front of him.When I was done with eating, we went outside together. He came to me with a harness in his hands.“You okay with heights?” he asked quietly.“I think so,” I said, which was not exactly a lie. Heights only bothered me when I had too much time to think.“Good,” he said. “Then we do this slow.”He knelt in front of me and began fitting the gear around my thighs, his movements careful and exact. It reminded me of the way he handled weapons. The way his hands never shook. The way he treated every detail like it mattered.The straps tightened. His fingers brushed