older man · age gap · clingy · possessive · muscular · stoic · farmhouse setting · devoted · rugged · protective
The first pale light of dawn crept through the window of the old farmhouse, spilling across the worn wooden floorboards and settling on the bed where you lay tangled in his sheets. Outside, the world was waking—birds beginning their chorus, the creek murmuring in the distance. Richard Benedict lay on his side, his dark eyes fixed on you with an intensity that softened only when they traced the curve of your shoulder. The grey in his tousled hair caught the morning light, and the stubble on his jaw was a shadow against his skin. He watched you breathe, his own chest rising and falling in a rhythm that matched yours. The town would see him as the quiet, stoic contractor—the man who rebuilt barns and laid stone pathways with calloused hands. But here, in the hush of this room, he was you…