74 Chapter 74 SUSPENSION BRIDGE EFFECT
74 Chapter 74 SUSPENSION BRIDGE EFFECT
If Lucian had been the one to fight off those rogues, if anyone had, I probably would have
felt the exact same way.
Lucian glanced at me, one brow raised in amusement. “That’s one word for it.”
He looked at me with an intensity so sharp it pinned me to the seat more effectively than
any strap could.
I wouldn’t entertain any other alternatives.
The shower was scalding hot, steam wrapping around me until the mirror fogged
completely.
That was it. That had to be it.
Any other night, the offer would have been tempting. I thoroughly enjoyed Lucian’s company, but tonight, it offered guilt rather than comfort, and I desperately needed space.
My stomach twisted so tightly with guilt I could barely breathe.
“There’s no need,” I said, my voice careful. “I’m just going to go to bed.”
The guilt pressed heavier.
The results were depressingly varied. Articles, forum posts, personal blogs-all of them
circling around the same core advice: ‘Don’t repeat past mistakes.’ ‘Remember why it ended.’ ‘People don’t change overnight.’
I rolled to my side and closed my eyes, trying to breathe evenly.
Lucian arched a brow. “You did this?”
I desperately willed sleep to break through the tangle of thoughts and emotions to claim
Lucian and I stayed seemingly suspended in time as we watched Kieran enter his car. The
engine sputtered twice before it came to life.
When I finally stepped out, the bathroom felt too warm, the walls too close. I toweled off,
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slipped into a loose T-shirt and shorts, and collapsed into bed with my phone in hand.
Lucian’s hand dropped to the side, and he nodded. “Still. Thank you. She’s in safe hands now.” The rest of his unspoken sentence was clear-Kieran could leave.
I didn’t know what I looked like. I couldn’t feel the pain from the injuries anymore, but I could feel…an awareness. And from the look in Lucian’s eyes, I got the feeling that maybe
he could too.
It was ridiculous. I knew it was ridiculous. But I still opened the browser and typed: ‘Is it
normal to have feelings for an ex-husband who never loved you?’
“I didn’t do you a favor,” Kieran ground out.
Heat warmed the left side of my body, and I instinctively bit my kiss-swollen lips as
Kieran’s deep voice rumbled through me. “Lucian.”
“I would have left some for you if you hadn’t been so slow.”
I winced slightly as he drove past us. I’d ruined the G-wagon once with my blood, and
now the bumper was ruined.
It never came.
I thought about the quiet peace I’d managed to build in the months since the divorce-the sense of stability I’d fought tooth and nail for. The idea of throwing all that away over one
stupid, heat-fueled kiss was unthinkable.
I shook my head and turned off my phone, tossing it away like it was the cause of the
tight knot twisting in my chest.
“Are-are you okay?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay even. His familiar scent wrapped around me, and I closed my eyes, breathing him in, hoping it would banish the Kieran’s scent that had inundated my senses and wouldn’t leave.
My pulse kicked into another gear as he came closer, my mind running wild with explanations for why my ex-husband was naked behind me and I looked kissed within an inch of my life.
But no matter how many times I dragged the loofah over my skin, I could still feel him.
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Lucian’s sudden appearance froze me mid-step, and my body seized up.
Just because Kieran was the one who got me out of the car didn’t mean he saved me any more than Lucian had by taking on those rogues at the restaurant.
I laughed softly, but it died in my throat when he took my hand and squeezed. “I really am sorry our date turned out like this, Sera. This was not the start I wanted to our
relationship.”
I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
The press of his lips. The strength in his hands. The warmth of his skin. The heat of his arousal. The low, rough sound of my name breaking in his throat.
I sighed softly. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Kieran.” Lucian nodded, like back in the theater, except this time, the gesture looked stiff.
Force.
I smiled, even as the word ‘relationship’ felt like a boulder sitting on my lungs. “It’s not
your fault, and you protected me.”
I shook my head a little too fast. “I’m fine. Really. Just tired.”
My breath hitched at the obvious bite in Kieran’s voice, but Lucian took it in stride. One hand fell from my arm and reached out to Kieran. “Thank you for saving her.”
Lucian killed the engine and turned to me. “Do you need me to stay tonight? Just in case?”
I ground my teeth so hard it would have been audible if the tension between both of them wasn’t humming at a deafening volume.
He placed a hand to his chest. “Scout’s honor.”
The drive started out silent, save for the low purr of the engine. I watched the streetlights streak past in blurred ribbons, the rhythmic glow matching the uneasy beat of my heart.
But instead, his attention shifted slightly, his gaze dipping over my body, pausing on my
arms, my temple. I tensed.
I leaned my forehead against the cool tile, water streaming down my back, and cursed
under my breath.
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“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lucian’s brows furrowed into a deep V. “What-”
Fuck!
“Well,” I finally said, forcing a crooked smile, “I’d say our first date was…eventful.”
It felt like I was taking my first breath as I watched his brake lights shrink to the size of fireflies and then disappear altogether.
Especially mere hours after Lucian asked to be my boyfriend. My stomach churned, and I thought I was going to be sick.
I wanted to ask what made him so sure-especially since there was a group of rogues who apparently had it out for me-but before I could, we were pulling into my driveway.
I blinked at him, momentarily robbed of words. “That’s…a bold promise,” I managed.
But Lucian’s expression wasn’t suspicious. His gaze swept over me once, sharp and
assessing, and then he sighed with relief.
I scrolled and scrolled, my chest tightening with each variation of ‘you deserve better.’
My first instinct was to react-to explain something, anything-as though I’d been caught doing something wrong. Like a teenager whose parent had just walked into her bedroom at the worst possible moment, and her naked boyfriend was hiding out in her closet.
Like he’d already carved the future into stone and dared the universe to try to change it.
I stared at the ceiling, telling myself over and over: Kieran is not the right choice. He has never been the right choice.
I chuckled under my breath. “You don’t think this is, I don’t know…an omen, do you?”
“I’m fine,” I said softly. “Thank you-again.”
“No,” he said, his voice low and certain. “Not an omen. We will be happy together. I
promise you that.”
Lucian gently pulled away but held me at arm’s length, and did one more once over. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.” His smile didn’t waver, but there was a shadow in his eyes that told me it hadn’t been as easy as he wanted me to think.
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74 Chapter 74 SUSPENSION BRIDGE EFFECT
Tonight wasn’t about Kieran. It wasn’t even about me in the way it felt. It was science. Psychology. A neat little phenomenon called the suspension bridge effect. Heightened arousal from fear and danger could trick you into attributing that adrenaline to attraction.
Right. The rogues
“I’ll be better prepared for our next date,” he murmured with a faint smile.
Instead, he nodded once, as if he’d noticed but decided not to pry. That somehow made
me feel worse.
He’d been right-in the ten years we’d been together, we’d never had heat so potent as
the two times we’d kissed since we divorced.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” he asked anyway, his tone light but edged with that same quiet intensity that made me think he already knew the answer.
His gaze shifted behind me, and I stiffened. I watched his eyes as he took in the dead rogues behind us. And naked Kieran.
My body was wired for survival-for latching onto the person who’d just kept me alive. It
didn’t mean I wanted him.
“Good.” He opened the passenger door of the Aston, holding it for me like the perfect gentleman. “Let’s get you home.”
Space to untangle my thoughts, to scrub the lingering feel of Kieran’s lips on mine and his hands on my skin.
And I’d…
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” he said, stepping forward to wrap me in his arms. “More rogues showed up, and disposing of them took longer than I expected.”
That was apparently the wrong thing to say.
I wanted to fill the air with something-anything-before the weight of unspoken things
crushed me.
I felt so fucking awful. What had gotten into me? Why had I let that happen?
His gaze softened, though the stubborn edge didn’t vanish. “I don’t make promises I can’t
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keep.”
I just had to survive tonight first.
While I was tangled up in Kieran’s arms, Lucian had been dealing with his own chaos-
fighting for me.
They were right. Of course they were right.
Lucian studied me for a moment, then nodded. “Alright. But I’m just a call away.”
The house was quiet, almost oppressively so. I didn’t turn any lights on as I kicked off my sandals and made my way to the bathroom upstairs, my body heavy with exhaustion.
Tomorrow, I told myself, I’d wake up and put all of this behind me.
“Sera?” I flinched at the brusque way he said my name.
But other than the sharp tick of a muscle in his jaw, his facial expression didn’t change.
He could have gotten hurt, and here I was, flushed and guilty over a kiss I never should
have let happen.
“Always,” he whispered.
I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.
I forced myself to turn to him and exhaled softly-he was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt he must have had stashed in his car.
I slipped out of the car before I could say or feel anything else I wasn’t ready for. I didn’t
look back until I’d closed the door behind me.
I braced for the question.
Maybe if I could forget the kiss ever happened, then I could finally look Lucian in the eye.
The sheets were cool against my skin, but not cool enough to erase the phantom heat
that still lingered underneath my skin.
My stomach twisted.
I scrubbed harder than necessary, like I could wash away the memory of Kieran’s touch if I
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just applied enough pressure.
“Lucian! What the hell?” I gasped, my heart in my throat.
Lucian’s eyes softened at that, and for a moment I thought he’d ask more.
The certainty in his tone caught me off guard. It wasn’t just confidence-it was
conviction.
“Sera?” Lucian’s gentle squeeze pulled me back to the present.
Kieran had never loved me the way I deserved to be. He’d spent our entire marriage pining after my sister, and now that he had her-what-he wanted me?
Before I could thank him, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. The contact was chaste, sweet-but it didn’t bring with it the rush of heat like Kieran’s kiss.
Lucian’s foot slammed the brake pedal hard enough to send my body lurching forward. The seatbelt locked across my chest with a sharp bite, and I had to catch myself on the dashboard to keep from smacking my head on it.
I managed a small one back. “I’m holding you to that.”
His dark eyes flickered with something I felt deep in my chest, but he tore his gaze away the next second and stalked wordlessly to his car.
What sick fucking joke was that?
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