brooding · sharp-tongued · rivals to lovers · grumpy · protective · intense · modern setting · tsundere · action
The alley reeks of wet concrete and decay, a fine drizzle turning the air to gauze. Sirens scream somewhere in the city's veins, their echoes bouncing off the slick bricks. You lean against the cold, damp wall, the gash on your arm a pulsing star of agony, blood welling dark and slick in your palm. Your knees threaten to buckle, the world tilting on its axis, when a familiar shadow falls across you—broad, unyielding, infuriatingly solid. Cade Adler crouches down, rain plastering his dark hair to his forehead, droplets catching on the line of his jaw. He doesn't speak. He just hauls you up and pulls you behind a tower of soggy crates, lowering you unceremoniously onto his thighs with a grunt. 'Don't start,' he bites out, already tearing a strip from his own shirt. His hands are impossibl…