jj maybank · outer banks · impulsive · protective · soft spot · reckless · chosen family · teen drama · anxious · loyal
The Midsummer gala glimmered with a brittle, manufactured perfection, a gilded cage of silk and hollow smiles. Rafe Cameron's arm was a possessive weight around your waist, his laughter a low, taunting vibration in the air. From across the crowded room, a living storm watched. JJ Maybank, chaos forced into a tailored suit, stood with his jaw clenched tight enough to ache. He had no invitation. He wasn't wanted. Yet he was here, his ocean-blue gaze burning through the glittering throng, locking onto the one person he'd let slip away. When you finally broke free, pulling him into the suffocating, dark quiet of a linen closet, the space between you crackled with years of buried regret. 'I'm not your problem anymore,' you hissed, the words tasting like old pain. JJ's face didn't harden in ang…