My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12
Chapter 2. An Unexpected Turn (2)
Celia’s hands moved urgently, tucking the key deep into her sleeve.
‘Did he see?’
Lucius’s gaze—unreadable in its intent—slid beneath the hem of her skirt, then returned to her face with deliberate slowness.
While she bit her own tongue for the ridiculous excuse that had just tumbled out, he smiled softly, as if nothing had happened.
“You came to see me?”
Lucius laughed, a sound almost contemptuous. The tension in his brow eased, and a sharp curve bloomed at the corner of his mouth.
“I’m pleased.”
His voice was honeyed, sticky-sweet, and Celia found herself biting her tongue in earnest. Copper flooded her mouth.
……
He hadn’t seen, it seemed—yet she couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or bothered.
Perhaps it would have been better to remain a mysterious intruder in his Office, rather than a woman claiming to have sought him out. Regret washed over her in waves, snuffing out what little resolve she’d mustered.
‘I should leave.’
But before she could turn, Lucius was already moving past her with his characteristic unhurried grace, coming to rest before the door.
His long, elegant hand closed around the handle she’d been straining against moments before.
“My feet simply wandered here. Sleep wouldn’t come, so I followed where they led—and found myself at this threshold. And then… you were here.”
The heavy door swung open without a sound. Through the gap flowed a thick perfume of night air and moonlight.
Beneath the weight of leather hung the scent of dried herbs and subtle wine.
“Is it so often that we meet here?”
Lucius turned to regard her, his fingers resting lightly against the door.
The slant of his gaze and the absurdity of his words made Celia’s lips part in defiance.
“That’s impossible! You were a workaholic. Your body must have remembered and brought you here.”
The words burst out, trembling the air between them.
She drew a smaller breath and jerked her head away.
……
He turned from the doorway to face her.
Moonlight spilling in from the Office spread softly across the floor in his wake.
His shadow rose from her feet, climbing slowly up her body.
“Did I work so much, then?”
His voice was low.
The resonance made her fingertips flinch. She let her eyes dart to him, holding his gaze.
‘How should I know?’
“Yes.”
“How much?”
‘I told you—I don’t know.’
“All day long.”
The words came out almost reflexively.
She thought it reckless, but her composure reasserted itself just as quickly.
‘Well, it’s not entirely wrong, is it?’
A shadow crossed beneath Lucius’s dark lashes, but Celia, having turned her head, didn’t notice the shift.
“……If you worked so much, it seems you’d have had no time for me.”
‘Why is he curious about this, of all things?’
“That wasn’t really important work, was it?”
……
Lucius’s fingertips moved slowly along her nape.
After a deliberate pause, he turned fully toward her, his voice flowing like silk as he changed the subject.
“The evening air is cold. Shall we go inside and finish this conversation?”
Celia’s expression crumpled—she’d been thinking only of leaving.
She pressed her feet harder against the floor, her dissatisfied gaze boring into the back of his head as he turned away from her.
“You look cold. Have a warm cup of tea before you go. Won’t you?”
The refusal caught in her throat and died there unsaid. Some weak corner of her reason whispered that this would be her only chance to see the inside of his Office again, and so she swallowed the protest whole.
‘If it weren’t for Father’s orders, I’d just ignore this man and leave.’
Deep within Celia, something both cold and burning churned simultaneously.
It was not a pleasant sensation.
‘Why should I care what he thinks?’
He was opening the Office door willingly—she merely needed to take what she’d come for and be done with it.
Celia straightened her resolve and stepped past him, striding into the room.
The darkness of the Corridor fell away behind her as moonlight from within caught her hair and poured downward. The silvery strands swayed softly, scattering through the air, and met his shadow stretched long in the darkness.
His reflection lodged in her eyes as they turned. When their gazes tangled, he smiled—that useless, utterly useless fact that Lucius smiled more with his eyes than his lips seemed to radiate a subtle heat between them.
It was as though time stretched like glass, trapping the two of them within it.
‘……How annoying.’
Once past the threshold, Celia let her eyes roam subtly over his Office.
It was a space that bore the unmistakable imprint of his preferences—function over display, order over ornament.
Heavy bookshelves stretched along the walls, their volumes arranged by size in careful rows. A sturdy desk occupied the broad space before the windows, its surface scattered with stacks of paper and open books.
Everything was neat, orderly, and in its proper place.
This precise, austere structure—devoid of warmth—was precisely the sort of interior Celia despised.
“Don’t hover in the doorway. Come here.”
He guided her toward a heavy table in the center of the Office, and beyond it, a navy sofa facing the table.
His hand settled naturally beneath her arm.
The gesture was so familiar and fluid it bordered on impertinence.
Celia found herself moving without conscious thought.
“Would you like some warm tea?”
“……No, thank you.”
As she sank into the sofa, the shawl draped loosely across her shoulders slipped down her left arm.
“That’s not very convincing when your nose is red.”
Lucius observed the flush at the tip of her nose, then smiled. As his eyes curved downward, they caught the falling shawl, and his hand moved with instinctive grace.
Before she could even register that her shoulder was exposed, his hand descended carefully past the cushion’s edge. His fingers found her skin through the shadow he cast.
He gathered the shawl as his warm hand brushed her shoulder. The sensation spread like thin ice being drawn across her skin—a creeping awareness that moved slowly toward her center.
“May I ask what brings you here on such a cold night, dressed so lightly?”
Suddenly, the wound where she’d bitten her tongue began to sting.
“Celia?”
She gave a small, startled shrug.
His hand remained on her shoulder, and tension coiled beneath it—yet Celia only straightened her spine more firmly.
“Just… taking a walk.”
Lucius watched her profile in silence.
His gaze fixed on her and didn’t waver. Celia redirected her eyes to the floor. Irritation rose to the tip of her tongue, but her breath grew warm instead, and her toes curled of their own accord.
“I feel the same way. How fortunate, that my steps led me to you.”
He spoke a beat later.
At the same moment, his fingertips slid slowly along the edge of her shawl.
When he slipped a single finger between the folds of fabric he’d gathered, Celia’s eyes widened involuntarily.
The touch traced her warmth with unhurried care.
The sensation traveled down her spine, then descended her arm—crossing her forearm, her elbow, brushing her wrist before settling on the back of her hand. His light touch, without pressure, covered her from behind.
“You……!”
“Celia.”
The sharp word was swallowed by him.
“I want to kiss you right now.”
His low, unhurried voice brushed against her ear.
“Will you let me inside?”
His large hand covered her cheek, his thumb parting her lips. It was her limit.
“Stop saying strange things!”
Celia’s head snapped up. Her heart lurched, and her voice cracked.
“Is it strange?”
“Yes……!”
But her firm reply crumbled in the next breath. As she tilted her head back toward him, her hair shifted against his chest by mere centimeters, and the space between them narrowed to a single exhalation.
His jawline grazed her hair, and the infuriatingly sharp bridge of his nose nearly touched her cheek.
“We are Husband and Wife. What’s strange about that, hmm?”
“Not all couples do things like this……!”
“Is it because we became Husband and Wife from being friends, and that feels unfamiliar?”
Mmm.
His voice tickled against her neck
“Then let’s grow accustomed to it together. You teach me.”
He bowed his head slightly, casting his shadow across her hair, and his breath flowed quietly against her ear.
The motion of lifting her hand from where it rested near her leg was seamless. He brought her hand to his lips, holding her firmly against him.
“Tell me with that mouth what you don’t want me to do, and what you wish I would do.”
“Tell you… and then what?”
His gaze rose from her fingertips, taking her in completely.
“I will make you happy, for everything you allow.”
Lucius leaned into her palm as though burying his face there.
“And……”
The sharp lines of his face came into focus, and his eyes—like the breath of a dew-wet forest—drew closer.
“I will make you cry, for everything you don’t allow.”
The most terrible sound she knew flooded in.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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