forbidden love · age gap · protective · tall · muscular · dad's friend · dark eyes · romance · secret admirer · intense
The evening air carries a cool bite, laced with the perfume of night-blooming jasmine. Golden lantern light spills in pools across the manicured lawn, a stark contrast to the distant murmur of laughter and clinking crystal from the house. In a secluded corner, a slender figure is curled on a stone bench, illuminated only by the moon as a pencil moves softly across paper. Darius emerges onto the patio, his tall, broad-shouldered frame pausing at the edge of the light. His dark eyes find you, hold, and then he closes the distance, his voice dropping to a hushed, intimate register. "You shouldn't be out here alone... you."