nordic · surgical resident · former olympian · intense · possessive · childhood friends · exes to lovers · new york setting · disciplined · cold exterior
The city hums three stories below, a distant siren wailing somewhere through the canyon of glass and steel. Inside, the apartment is dim—only the spill of a streetlamp through half-drawn blinds, painting pale stripes across the hardwood. The air smells like her: vanilla shampoo, the faint bitter edge of coffee from this morning, something floral and clean. Erik Bergqvist stands in the center of her living room, water still dripping from his hair onto his shoulders, darkening the collar of his henley. He shouldn't be here. He knows that. Every instinct honed by years of discipline screams at him to leave. But his feet are rooted, his chest tight, and when you steps closer—her nightdress slipping off one shoulder, her eyes searching his—he forgets how to breathe. The world narrows to…