CHAPTER 9
Burn
We watch the little paper boat drift farther down the river until it becomes just another shadow among the lantern lights.
Lucien exhales beside me. “Do you think it dissolves?”
“The paper?”
“Yeah.” He smiles.
I watch the current carry the lanterns along the dark surface. “I hope so.”
He glances at me. “Because it’s a way of setting your past free?”
“No,” I say dryly. “Because otherwise we’re technically just littering.”
Lucien lets out a quiet laugh.
“Great,” he says. “So instead of emotional closure, we’ve committed environmental crime.”
“Exactly.”
He watches the river again. “We should probably be punished for it.”
“For polluting a river with our emotional baggage?”
“Yes.”
I nod solemnly. “That feels fair.”
The laugh that escapes him is softer this time, warmer.
For a moment the heaviness between us loosens.
The river moves quietly beside us, lanterns drifting like small floating stars.
Then the laughter fades. When I look at him again, Lucien is already looking at me.
Not casually. Something in his expression has changed.
The warmth in his eyes has deepened into something steadier, more intense. It settles over me slowly, like heat.
“You know,” he says quietly, “you’re worth more than you give yourself credit for.”
The words land somewhere deep in my chest. I don’t know what to do with them. No one has said something like that to me in a long time. Not like this. Not like they actually meant it. The lantern lights flickers across his face. He’s still watching me.
Waiting.
My chest aches again, but this time it isn’t from anger or grief.
Because part of me wants to step closer.
Part of me wants to believe him but another part of me knows exactly how easily people can ruin each other.
I hold his gaze, caught somewhere between wanting and resisting.
Because the truth is, I’m not sure what would be worse.
Him ruining me.
Or me ruining him.
For a moment neither of us moves. The river glows beside us, lanterns drifting slowly into the dark.
Lucien studies me like he’s trying to memorize something.
Then, slowly, he reaches for my hand. His fingers close around mine.
Anchored and calm. The touch sends a quiet spark up my arm.
He lifts my hand slightly and presses his lips against the back of it.
The gesture is gentle. Almost old-fashioned. But the way his eyes stay on mine while he does it makes my pulse stumble. When he lowers my hand again, his fingers brush against my wrist before he lifts his other hand and tucks a loose strand of my hair behind my ear.
His touch lingers just long enough to make the moment feel quietly intimate. “Tell me to stop,” he says softly. It doesn’t sound like a challenge. It sounds like permission. My heart is beating too fast now.
“Lucien…” I whisper. The question sitting between us finally slips out. “Should we be doing this?”
He exhales quietly, the corner of his mouth lifting just slightly. “I think,” he says, voice low, “we’re way past that question.”
The honesty of it hits me harder than anything else tonight. And before I can think, before I can talk myself out of it, I step closer and kiss him. The moment our lips meet, it feels like striking a match.
Everything ignites.
His hand moves instantly to the back of my neck, pulling me closer as he kisses me back. Not hesitant. Not careful.
Hungry.
The world around us disappears. The river, the lanterns, the quiet voices behind us, everything fades into the background.
All I feel is heat.
His other hand slides around my waist, pulling me against him until there’s no space left between us.
My body reacts before my mind can catch up, electricity racing through every nerve.
The kiss deepens, urgent and consuming. Like something we’ve both been holding back all night has finally broken loose.
He moves us intensely backward until my back meets the rough bark of the tree behind me.
His hand stays at my waist, steadying me while his hardness pressed tightly between my thighs.
His hardness pressed harder against my mound, while kissing me, sending my mind into a dizzying spin.
More intoxicating was the way he rounded his back as he thrust his hips forward, pressing more against me.
The tip of his nose grazed mines, sending a shiver of goosebumps across my skin that hardened my nipples.
“You’re so beautiful, Sera,” he whispered. “Fuck, I want you so badly.”
He wanted me.
Badly.
My heart sang in my chest. His words fueled me, making me shift my hips, letting my pelvis join his rhythm.
“Lucien..” I groaned. His eyes never leave mine even as he slowly lowers himself to his knees in front of me.
The movement is deliberate, almost reverent, like he’s taking his time with something that matters.
My breath catches.
Lucien’s gaze lifts again, meeting mine with that same burning intensity that makes my pulse race. One corner of his mouth curves slightly, but there’s nothing playful about the look in his eyes now.
Only desire. His hands slide to my waist, lowering my jeans but not my underwear.
His hands drifting lower, slow and unhurried.
The touch sends a spark racing through my body.
He leans forward, his lips brushing lightly against my skin, leaving a trail of warmth that makes my breath falter.
My fingers instinctively find his hair, gripping softly as my heart pounds in my chest.
He kisses the intimate part of me between my thighs, licking it, savoring it.
He’s devouring it like he’s been starving.
My underwear is dripping wet. He’s tasting a part of me and I find myself wanting to surrender to his tongue.
I groan, my hips involuntarily rolling toward his mouth, desperately seeking what he’s so cruelly depriving me of.
I can’t handle this anymore. I just want him to make me come. So, I straddled his face and pressed myself harder onto his mouth. When I felt his hands grip my ass, pulling me closer to his mouth, my head rolled back for a delicious moment.
My head feels weightless, like I’ve stepped into a moment where nothing exists but the pulse of this feeling.
The night air is cool around us but everywhere he touches feels like fire.
He goes back up to kiss me. For a second we break apart just enough to breathe.
My chest rises and falls quickly. His forehead touches mine.
Footsteps crunch somewhere along the path behind us.
Voices drift through the trees, two people laughing, their conversation loose and careless, the way strangers sound when they’re enjoying a night that means nothing to anyone but them.
Lucien and I freeze at the same time. He pulls back slightly, his hand still resting at my waist as we both try to look like two perfectly normal people standing near a river instead of two people who were seconds away from forgetting the rest of the world existed.
The couple passes a few yards behind us, their laughter fading as they continue down the path, lantern light flickering across their backs before the trees swallow them again.
When they’re gone, Lucien looks down at me.
I’m already looking at him. A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. I shake my head, smirking.
“We almost got caught.”
The corner of his mouth lifts slowly.
“That’s half the fun.”
My eyebrow lifts. “You say that like you were planning it.”
Lucien’s gaze drops briefly to my lips before returning to my eyes.
“I don’t plan things like this,” he says quietly.
“Like what?”
His voice lowers just enough to send a shiver down my spine.
“Like wanting someone this much.”
The air between us shifts again. Lucien studies my face, his eyes moving slowly between mine. Not hurried, not uncertain. Just steady, burning with something I can’t quite name. For a few seconds he says nothing. He just looks at me and the way he does it makes my pulse stumble.
Then he leans down and kisses me. This time it’s different.
Slower. Not the kind of kiss that steals breath, but the kind that lingers.
The kind that feels deliberate. Like he intends to stay right here for as long as I let him.
His hand slides gently along my jaw, holding me there as if the rest of the world can wait.
The river moves quietly beside us, lanterns drifting farther into the dark.
And for a moment, the night feels endless.