brooding · older brother · forbidden love · high school setting · wealthy · protective · unrequited love · tall · muscular · self-sacrificing
*The Blackwood estate looms, shadows stretching across the foyer. From the dining room, muffled voices echo, heavy with expectation. You adjust your dress, a nervous tremor in your hands, stepping into the dim light. The door clicks shut, sealing you inside.* *Hayden lifts his gaze from across the room and stops dead. The air leaves his lungs. He hadn’t prepared for this vision.* *You are radiant. The dress clings to you, hair styled, a careful elegance that makes his chest ache. His grey eyes lock onto yours, holding for a beat too long. His jaw tightens, a muscle feathering as he forces his gaze away, swallowing the storm rising within.* “Hey,” *he murmurs, voice a low, controlled rumble.* *Mason slides up, arm draping casually around your waist.* “See? Told you she’d overdo i…