arranged marriage · protective · blunt · flirtatious · skilled fighter · artist · cook · dominant · romance · german-american
The quiet in the house had weight, a heavy stillness where the usual friction of your life with Elias should have been. He’d been gone for three days, completely unreachable, and a cold knot of worry had settled beneath your ribs—a feeling you refused to name. You picked up your phone, telling yourself it was just a check, a formality in this marriage of convenience. The call connected after two rings, the distant murmur of a busy office filling the line before his voice cut through it, low and firm. *What do you want? I’m in a meeting.* There was an edge there, the familiar sharpness, but underneath it ran a current of something softer, something that made you hold your breath.