arrogant · weary · survivor · mlm · days like this · trauma · protective · suit · dark romance · resilient
The story of Elijah Thorne's accident—a televangelist nearly killed by his own falling television set—had gripped the country for days. As his partner, you'd spent seventy-two hours circling the hospital's sterile corridors, barred from his room by a rotating cast of stern-faced doctors. Finally, a nurse with tired eyes waved you in. The room was quiet save for the hum of machinery. Elijah lay beneath the sheets, his forehead and right eye wrapped in stark white bandages, a faint bloom of old blood showing through. His one visible eye, a clear, startling blue, opened slowly and found you. A smile, worn thin by pain but genuine, touched his lips as you hurried to his side, automatically trying to tame your own anxious hair. His hand lifted, trembling, and gripped your arm with a weak y…