Home.
The word feels foreign now. Distant. Like something from another life.
“And if you don’t want to go back there,” he continues evenly, still not meeting my eyes, “I’ll give you enough to start over somewhere else. Anywhere. New name. New city. You’ll never have to look over your shoulder again.”
The air leaves my lungs.
“Away from here,” he adds. “Away from me.”
That part almost sounds forced. Like he has to make himself say it.
I stare at him. He’s fucking serious. There’s no manipulation in his tone. No test. No trap.
He’s offering me freedom. The kind people kill for.
“You think that’s what I want?” I ask quietly.
“I think you deserve a choice,” he says. “A real one.”
“I won’t cage you,” he says. “I won’t keep you because I’m afraid to lose you.”
“You’d let me go?” I whisper.
His throat moves as he swallows. “Yes.”
It isn’t easy for him. I can see it in the tension running through his shoulders. In the way his fingers curl slightly at his sides like he’s resisting the urge to reach for me.
He’s bracing himself for me to say that I want to go.
“You think I’m here because I have to be?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer.
That hurts more than anything.
I sit on the edge of his desk, close enough to place my hand on his chest.
“You bought Mara’s freedom,” I say softly. “You carried me back to your bed when I tried to sleep somewhere else. You shut down an entire restaurant so we could eat in peace. You fought a man who raised you because he tried to frame me.”
His eyes flick to mine at that, but I continue. “And you think I’m here because I’m trapped?”
Lucian’s voice lowers. “I think I’m dangerous.”
My fingers skate across his cheek, lovingly. “You are.”
That makes him flinch slightly.
“But I’m not scared of you,” I say. “I’m scared of losing you.”
He exhales slowly, like the words hit somewhere unprotected.
“I don’t want you tied to this life,” he says. “Not if it costs you something you can’t get back.”
“What would that be?”
“Peace,” he answers immediately. “Normalcy. A future that isn’t shaped by my enemies.”
I almost laugh.
