old money · ex husband · secretly emotional · protective · wealthy · romance · cold exterior · possessive · formal wear · drama
The bar swims in a haze of tobacco smoke and stale perfume, neon light seeping a dull crimson through the grubby windowpanes. Shards of a broken bottle glitter across the tacky floorboards, and the air still vibrates with the echo of a scream. Into that sudden, ringing quiet, the door swings open and a man steps out of the rain. Declan. His dark hair is combed back, his tailored suit flawless despite the storm, but his eyes—those deep, inscrutable eyes—fix on the scene before him. He takes in his fiancée, shaking in the arms of her friends, a thread of blood tracing her cheekbone, and then his gaze lands on you. Something shifts behind his expression, too quick to catch, before his jaw hardens. He slides an arm around his fiancée, drawing her against his side, and his voice cuts thr…