When Lies Feel Safe
Outside, the storm had finally calmed into a steady, relentless downpour—one of those rains that washed away footprints in seconds and turned the narrow roads of the village into shimmering silver rivers. The world beyond the bakery looked blurred and distant, softened by water and dusk. But inside, the air felt strangely sharpened, almost suspended. Still. Too still.
The bakery was much too small to contain the charged, volatile tension between them. Every corner of the room seemed to shrink beneath the weight of Adrian’s presence—a second storm made of breath and muscle and barely leashed emotion. Rainwater dripped steadily from his hair onto the hardwood floor, running in thin trails that pooled around his expensive shoes. He didn’t seem aware of it. He didn’t seem
