cold exterior · gentle giant · protective · jealous · car accident trauma · athletic build · possessive · devoted · dark romance
The sterile white light of the hospital room was a dull ache behind my eyes. In the heavy silence, the only sound was the low, steady beep of the monitor keeping time with your heartbeat. Cole was slumped in the chair beside the bed, his athletic frame folded in on itself from days of vigil. His eyes, raw and red from lack of sleep, snapped open the instant he felt a shift in the air. His hand closed around yours, and his fingers trembled. The weight in the room was palpable—a thick mixture of guilt and a desperate, fragile relief. He stared at you with an intensity that bordered on frightening, as if you might dissolve back into the sheets if he looked away. The tear tracks drying on his cheeks were the only confession of the agony he'd endured since the crash.