All Chapters of One Night Stand With My Hubby's Cousin: Chapter 211 - Chapter 220

Evelyn's POVThe fear still hadn't fully left my body.My legs were trembling so badly that I could barely feel them, and every breath still seemed to scrape painfully against my lungs, but instinct overrode everything else, sending me stumbling forward before I had time to think as I grabbed hold of Julian's arm with both hands.“That's enough!”My voice cracked.“Julian, stop!”His chest was rising and falling violently.He didn't look at me.Didn't answer.Didn't even seem to hear me.His gaze remained fixed on the man sprawled across the dirt, and there was something in that expression that made my stomach tighten all over again, because I had absolutely no doubt that if this weren't a public campground, if people weren't already running toward the commotion, if there weren't witnesses and cameras and consequences waiting just outside the darkness, Julian might genuinely beat this man until he needed a hospital.The man on the ground sucked in painful breaths through bloodied lips

Evelyn's POV“Evelyn, a woman who was nearly dragged into the woods by a stranger does not owe anyone strength, and she certainly doesn't owe anyone a performance where she immediately acts as though everything is fine, so if you're scared right now, if you're hurting, if you're angry, if you're overwhelmed, or if you feel like your legs can barely hold you up, then that's not weakness—that's a normal response to something terrifying that never should have happened to you in the first place.”I stared at him.For a moment, I couldn't say anything.The tears came before I even realized they were there, sliding down my face with such sudden force that I couldn't stop them, because what Julian had said struck something I hadn't allowed myself to acknowledge since the moment that man grabbed me.The truth was that I had been trying to look okay from the beginning.I had been trying to look okay in front of Maddie when I sat by the campfire and pretended I was handling everything better th

Evelyn's POVI had no idea how much time passed before my breathing finally began to settle.Little by little, the sobs faded into occasional shaky breaths, the frantic pounding in my ears softened into something closer to normal, and the overwhelming rush of adrenaline that had carried me through the last half hour slowly began to recede. It wasn't until my thoughts started returning in fragments that I became painfully aware of my surroundings again—and more specifically, painfully aware of the fact that I was still curled against Julian's chest, both hands clutching the front of his jacket as though letting go might somehow cause the ground to disappear beneath me.The realization made me stiffen almost immediately.Julian noticed.Of course he noticed.He always noticed.But unlike most people, he didn't immediately step back, didn't make a joke to diffuse the tension, and didn't tighten his hold as though trying to convince me to stay where I was. Instead, he simply looked at me

Evelyn's POVJulian remained nearby.Not so close that it felt like he was hovering over me, yet not so far away that I had to search for him either, and although he hadn't made any attempt to sit beside me, hadn't gone out of his way to join every conversation, and hadn't used what happened in the woods as an excuse to stay glued to my side, I always knew exactly where he was.The strange thing was how aware I was of that fact.Because only a few hours earlier, while sitting beside this very campfire, I had been mentally exhausting myself trying to figure out how to create distance between us, how to stop relying on him so much, how to stop mistaking comfort for something more dangerous, and how to remind myself that the safest thing I could do was learn to let go of all the tenderness I had begun associating with him.Yet now that he was standing quietly in the background, giving me exactly the space I had claimed to want, I found myself looking for him anyway.Every time someone wa

Evelyn's POV“Yeah, Evelyn, I'm actually a little offended.”Frank placed a hand over his chest as though personally wounded by the situation.“You go on a camping trip and don't invite me, which means I end up spending my weekend in the wilderness with nothing but this idiot for company, and let me tell you, if I wanted to stare at a grumpy man's face for forty-eight hours straight, I'd just schedule more board meetings.”Julian shot him a look.A very specific look.The kind that clearly translated to keep talking and I'll leave you in the woods.Frank ignored it completely.“Don't look at me like that.”He raised both hands in surrender.“I'm simply reporting facts.”His grin widened.“Objectively speaking, the drive out here was one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life, because every ten minutes this man would refresh Evelyn's Instagram story, stare at it like it contained classified government intelligence, and then immediately ask me whether a woman posting a campfire