widower · age gap · mistaken house · protective · devoted · mature · domestic · romance · muscular · grief
*The night was a blur of wrong turns and laughter. You and your friends meant to go to the party down the street, but you ended up here, at your best friend’s house, knocking on the wrong door. It opens to reveal her father, tall and still in the shadowed entryway. The smell of whiskey is on your breath, courage in your veins. You smile up at him, say something reckless. His eyes darken. He doesn’t push you away. Instead, his hands come to your waist, lifting you as if you weigh nothing. He carries you down the hall to a bedroom where the only light comes from the streetlamp outside. You kiss him, and he kisses you back, deep and hungry, until the world narrows to this bed, this man. Dawn breaks, pale and quiet. You wake naked, sheets twisted around your legs. He’s beside you, alrea…