Chapter 65 Almost

Chapter 65 Almost

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Sleep did not come easily, well on a normal day sleep never came easily for Elowen but tonight was a bit different.
She spent most of the night staring at the ceiling above her narrow bed, replaying the realization that had split through her mental and emotional defenses with brutal precision.
She missed him..
The admission had settled into her chest like a live thing, warm and restless and impossible to ignore.
And honestly, it actually made no sense or so she thought.
Lucian Langford was still the same boy she had once blamed for nearly destroying her brother’s life, he was the same boy whose very name had once tasted bitter on her tongue.
And yet somewhere between panic attacks, fractured confessions, and the raw, terrifying honesty he had slowly begun offering her, something had shifted and it was something she no longer knew how to stop.
By two in the morning, she gave up pretending sleep would come and threw on a hoodie, shoved her feet into sneakers, and grabbed her gym bag.
If her mind refused to quiet down, she would exhaust her body until it had no choice.
The campus was eerily still when she crossed it.
The usual buzz of Harrington nightlife had faded into scattered pockets of distant laughter and muffled music drifting from the dorm blocks.
But the gym that was supposed to be dark had lights bleeding through the windows and Elowen frowned.
At this hour, no one should have been there even hough she told herself it could have been security, or some obsessive freshman desperate to impress a coach.. she already knew.
The moment she stepped through the side entrance and heard the sharp rhythmic crack of gloves meeting leather, she knew.
Lucian.
The heavy bag swayed violently under the force of his punches.
He was alone in the center of the gym, and he was wearing  black compression shirt that clung to every hard line of his body, sweat darkening the fabric across his back and chest.
His hair was damp to the point it fell messily across his forehead as he moved like he was trying to outrun something.
The impact of each strike echoed through the empty space.
Jab.. Cross.. Hook.. Pivot.. Again and again and again.
There was something desperate in his rhythm, it wasn’t sloppy or uncontrolled it just seemed like he was punishing himself.
As though he was trying to beat whatever was clawing at the inside of him into silence.
Elowen stood there longer than she should have, watching.
There was always something hypnotic about Lucian when he fought it wasn’t because of his brute strength it was because every movement carried restraint and control.
A careful precision that felt almost unnatural for someone built with that much power.
He fought like a man terrified of what would happen if he stopped holding himself back and that thought tightened something inside her.
Then.. Slowly, he turned and his ice-blue eyes found hers instantly and for one long second, neither of them moved.
Then Lucian exhaled sharply. “Well,” he said, voice rough from exertion. “Either I’m hallucinating from sleep deprivation, or you’ve finally decided to break into the gym after curfew.”
Elowen arched a brow. “You’re one to talk.”
A faint smile tugged at his mouth. “Couldn’t sleep?”
The question landed heavier than it should have because it felt too.. intimate.
She adjusted the strap of her gym bag. “No.”
His gaze lingered on her for a moment, as though trying to read the truth beneath the single syllable.
Then he nodded toward the ring. “Me neither.”
The simplicity of the confession settled between them.
And somehow that made her chest tighten more than any flirtation ever had.
She dropped her bag by the bench. “Move.”
His brow lifted. “Excuse me?”
“You’re hogging the bag.” He blinked the a slow smirk spread across his face.
“There she is.”
“Shut up.”
“Good. I was starting to worry you’d permanently replaced your personality with brooding silence.. Oh wow my coach wants to burst up a few moves.”
She rolled her eyes, but the familiar ease of the exchange loosened something inside her.
Lucian stepped aside and Elowen began wrapping her hands but sge could feel his gaze on her.
“What?” she muttered.
“Nothing.”
“Then stop staring.”
His mouth twitched. “You came here at two in the morning and expected me not to notice?”
Heat crept up her neck. “I’m here to uhm loosen up a bit.”
“Sure.”
She shot him a glare but Lucian only chuckled softly and for the first time in days, the tension between them felt lighter.. Sharp but lighter.
They fell into training naturally.. No formal structure, no coach and athlete dynamic.
Just movement as Lucian held pads while she worked combinations.
Then they switched and the familiar rhythm returned quickly, instinctive and smooth.
Their bodies moved in sync.. Correction and response.. Pressure and adjustment.
A quiet understanding forged through hours spent learning each other’s patterns.
It should have felt ordinary but instead, every brush of contact seemed amplified, every accidental touch lingered too long and every shared glance sparked flames nobody was ready to own up to.
By the time they stopped for water, the air between them felt charged enough to fracture.
Elowen leaned against the ropes, trying to steady her breathing across from her, Lucian tipped his head back as he drank.
A bead of sweat traced slowly down the side of his throat and her eyes followed it before she could stop herself which was a bad idea.. A very bad idea.
“Why’ve you been avoiding me?” His voice cut through her thoughts.
Lucian lowered the bottle and looked at her directly.
“I haven’t.”
He gave her a look it was the kind that made lying feel pointless.
“Yes, you have.”
Elowen looked away as the truth sat dangerously close to the surface because now she knew that she had been avoiding him.
Not just physically but emotionally as well.. Keeping conversations clipped, maintaining distance, building walls as fast as she could every time they threatened to crumble.
And she realized all this all because she had finally admitted what his absence did to her.
“I’ve just been busy.”
“Try again.”
Her jaw tightened. “Why do you care?”
The question came out sharper than intended and Lucian flinched although it was just a little but it was enough to make guilt hit her instantly.
Then he surprised her because instead of flinching and then retreating, he stepped closer.
So close that she could feel the heat rolling off him, so close that the space between them became something alive and trembling.
“I care,” he said quietly, “because when you pull away, everything feels wrong.”
His expression was raw in a way she had never seen before..
“Elowen… you’re the only person who makes it quiet.”
Her pulse stuttered. “What?”
He swallowed hard. “Don’t you get it.. When my head spirals. When everything gets loud.” His voice dropped lower. “You’re the only person who makes it stop.”
The confession struck her with devastating force because there was no manipulation in it.. Just truth.
And suddenly every wall she had spent weeks constructing felt paper-thin.
“Lucian…”
He took another step closer and now there was barely an inch between them.
His eyes searched hers “You calm me down,” he whispered.
Her chest ached because she wanted to tell him, she wanted to confess that he unsettled her and steadied her all at once, that his absence hollowed out her days, that missing him had felt like losing something she had not realized she needed.
“You affect me too,” she almost said.
Instead, all that came out was his name.
“Lucian.”
The way she said it must have been enough because Something shifted in his expression, his gaze dropped briefly to her mouth.
And then.. he lifted a hand to her face and his fingers brushed her cheek.
Elowen should have stepped back.. She knew she should.
For Kieron and for herself and for every complicated, impossible reason standing between them but she didn’t.
Instead, she leaned into his touch and his thumb slowly traced her cheekbone and when he lowered his forehead to hers, Elowen’s entire body went numb .
His hand slipped to the back of her neck, her fingers curled instinctively into the front of his shirt.
And then he tilted his head.. Slowly.
Giving her every chance to stop him but she didn’t.
Her heart pounded so violently she was certain he could feel it.
And then he moved another inch then another as she closed her eyes ready for what was to come and just as their lips were about to meet.. the gym doors slammed open.
Elowen’s eyes flew open and Lucian turned sharply toward the entrance, every line of his body suddenly rigid.
And then a familiar voice cut through the silence.
“Well.” Dorian Scott leaned casually against the doorway, his expression unreadable but his eyes.. his eyes burned as they moved between them.
“I hope I’m interrupting anything?”