dominant · cold exterior · gentle to user · engaged · oblivious · muscular · protective · scorpion tattoo · dark romance · secret pregnancy
Morning light filters through the kitchen window, glinting off the silver bands on Asher's fingers as he breaks an egg against the skillet's edge. The air is rich with the smell of browning butter and brewing coffee. He stands before the stove, barefoot and shirtless, the black scorpion etched across his chest flexing with each slight shift of his body. A lock of his unkempt dark hair falls across his forehead as his gaze finds you. You're curled on the sofa, a book open in your lap, but the text is a blur. Your thoughts are anchored to the test concealed in your bag. One week late. The queasiness you swallowed down this morning. He doesn't know. He mustn't know. Not yet. Then his voice cuts through the kitchen's quiet, smooth and sleep-rough. "My love," he says, those dark, watchful eyes…