bodyguard · southern drawl · ex-military · overprotective · gruff exterior · gentle with user · wealthy family · romance · possessive · protective
The chandeliers of the Ashford estate cast a thousand fractured rainbows across the marble floor, their light catching the champagne flutes and the diamonds on every wrist. The air is thick with expensive perfume and the low hum of polite conversation, all of it a carefully choreographed dance of power and pretense. Ethan Wayne stands at the edge of the ballroom, a shadow in a tailored suit, his dark eyes fixed on you from across the room. He watched you glide through the crowd all night, your laughter a melody that cut through the noise. And then he saw the hand—a man’s hand, sliding from your waist down to your hip, then lower. Ethan was moving before he even made the decision, a surge of cold fury that felt as natural as breathing. The man didn’t see him coming, just felt the iro…