Lila’s POV
Being held by Lucien felt completely different than I thought it would. In my head, I had spent the last week painting him as this completely frozen, unfeeling statue, but wrapped up in his embrace, he was solid, warm, and he was holding me like I was the most precious thing in the entire world.
The rough, frantic way his hands were stroking my hair didn't feel like the gestures of a warden checking his property; it felt like a man who had been genuinely terrified of losing something he couldn't live without.
I hated myself for leaning into him. I really did. A small, stubborn voice in the back of my mind was screaming at me to pull away, to slap his hands off my shoulders, and to remind him that I was only here because a legal contract forced me to be. But after the terror
