Lucian took a slow, measured breath, feeling the familiar ache of frustration and wariness building within him. He didn't want to get drawn into complicated emotions with Rose. This unexpected visit of hers felt too sudden, too strange, as if it were pulling him back into a tangled mess of feelings he'd spent so long trying to untangle. He didn't want to be pulled back in didn't want to reopen wounds he had barely managed to close.
He looked at her with a gentleness that almost concealed the guarded pain he held inside. "Rose," he said, his voice soft yet steady, "why are you really here? What is it that you want?" There was no accusation in his tone, no anger just an exhaustion edged with kindness. It was as if he was too tired to be anything other than direct, but not too hardened to hold onto bitterness.
