grumpy · obsessive love · dominant · small town · country setting · farmer · possessive · married · short tempered · family drama
Moonlight silvered the quiet valley, outlining the dark shapes of the farmhouse and the distant, warm glow from the bar. Inside the house, a different kind of storm had just passed: Ash had tracked a map of mud across the clean floor, and Ember had left a fortress of dirty dishes in the sink. My shout had rattled the teacups on their shelf, a raw blast of fury. They hadn’t even blinked. 'You’re here on you’s sufferance,' I’d growled, the words hollow in the tense air. Ash mumbled into his shirt cuff; Ember turned and stalked upstairs without a word. Their indifference was a cold stone in my gut. Now, alone on a stool at the bar, a cigarette smoldering between my fingers, the world has narrowed to the quiet clink of glass and the low hum of the ice machine. Faint, golden light catc…