All Chapters of One Night Stand With My Hubby's Cousin: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Julian's POV“You’re handling this better than I am,” I muttered while glancing down at Lemon.She offered no response whatsoever. Lemon had no concept of waiting for someone. I did.Eventually I had no choice but to start walking circles outside the terminal with Lemon because standing still any longer would have made my anticipation too obvious even to myself.At some point I realized I had unintentionally become a very elegant airport haunting.Just a well-dressed man repeatedly circling the arrivals area with a rescue dog while pretending he wasn’t checking every opening door with the emotional stability of someone awaiting military deployment results.Honestly, if anyone recognized me right now, the image would probably feel deeply absurd.Julian Hawthorne—the man famous for never wasting time, never lingering unnecessarily, never waiting anywhere longer than required—was now patiently pacing outside an airport for over an hour because one woman was returning home.And to make ma

Evelyn's POVThe sun was already sinking low by the time I stepped outside.Golden evening light spilled across the airport roads and parking lanes in soft layers, turning the concrete, the glass, even the rows of cars into something strangely cinematic, like the entire world had been briefly filtered through warm amber.I was still half lost in my own thoughts when I walked down the steps from arrivals, my eyes drifting forward without really focusing on anything—and then suddenly stopping.Julian.He was there.Not far away at all.Standing near the curb with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his phone beside his ear, like he had been in the middle of a conversation moments earlier. His posture looked relaxed at first glance, but there was still that unmistakable sense of control around him, the kind that never really disappeared no matter how casually he dressed or how quietly he stood.And today he was dressed simply.A dark blazer.A clean shirt underneath.One button

Evelyn's POV“You’re worried we’ll wake her up?” I asked softly.“That’s part of it.”“Part of it?” I repeated.Only then did he finally look at me directly.And something about the way he looked at me felt different tonight—not intense exactly, not deliberate, but steadier somehow. His gaze lingered a little longer than usual, like he had spent the past two weeks getting used to looking at me through screens and messages and now that I was sitting here in front of him again, he wasn’t quite ready to look away yet.“There’s another reason too,” he said quietly.I waited.He glanced briefly toward Lemon sleeping against me before his eyes returned to my face.“You look like you need to rest too.”The sentence caught me off guard enough that I actually laughed.Small.Tired.“Amazing,” I said. “Do I really look that terrible?”“You lost weight.”The answer came immediately.Too immediately.Like he had noticed the second he saw me walk out of arrivals.I lowered my eyes instinctively to

Evelyn's POVJulian looked at me quietly.Then his throat moved once, subtle but visible, like there were words already waiting at the edge of his tongue that he ultimately decided not to let out.In the end, he only exhaled softly and leaned back against the seat.“So this is the second time you and Vernon have gone running into the wilderness together rescuing injured animals,” he said, the dryness in his voice returning in a gentler form now. “Sounds like very impressive teamwork.”I opened my mouth to answer, but he continued before I could.“Although honestly,” he added, glancing at me with the faintest hint of helpless amusement, “you’re basically incapable of resisting anything involving animals anyway.”His fingers tapped lightly once against the steering wheel.“You’d follow any injured creature into the apocalypse if it looked sad enough.”I laughed quietly under my breath.“That’s not true.”“It’s completely true.”His tone softened.“If there’s an emergency rescue, a docum

Evelyn's POVI think something in my brain short-circuited completely.Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him in too long.Maybe it was the warm scent inside the car, something dark and expensive and dangerously familiar after two weeks away.Maybe it was exhaustion from traveling and filming and sleeping too little for too many days in a row.Maybe it was the way the moonlight and streetlights slipped through the windows in fragments, catching along the sharp lines of his face until he looked almost unfairly beautiful sitting this close to me.There were probably a hundred perfectly reasonable explanations.Whatever the reason was, I stopped thinking.And simply moved closer to him instead.Not deliberately.Not bravely.Just instinctively.As though some quieter part of me had already made the decision before the rest of me could interfere.And Julian moved too.Slowly.Carefully.The distance between us narrowed inch by inch until I could feel the warmth of him clearly now, real en