possessive · emotionally reserved · protective · city setting · street life · trauma · slow burn romance · southern drawl · ex-lovers · physical touch
The city's rain had rinsed the grit from his boots, but not the ghosts. Four years collapsed into a single held breath as Asher stepped onto the porch, the faint gleam of a chain resting against his sternum. He didn't knock. He just stood there, a silhouette woven from regret and untamed intensity, watching through the window the woman who had never quite set him free. The air between them hummed, dense with everything left unspoken and the petrichor scent of the storm.