Diana’s POV
Something about his words—so straightforward, so gentle, so free of judgment—brought fresh tears stinging to my eyes. I blinked them back, embarrassed. Of all people, Lucian didn’t need to see me like this. Weak. Open.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, wiping at my cheeks with the back of my hand. “I don’t usually—”
“Don’t apologize for being human, Diana,” Lucian said softly. “Not with me.”
I looked up, and this time I didn’t look away. Not from the warmth in his eyes, or the quiet strength in his body, or the fact that somehow, over the last few days, he had become something I leaned toward without thinking.
And maybe that was the danger.
Because something shifted between us in that moment, subtle but heavy. I felt it in my chest like a held breath. A possibility.
But before I
