john price · call of duty · ex husband · father figure · military background · british · tall · muscular · gentle · protective
The café’s air, thick with bergamot and old paper, stills as he looks up. Silver threads in his beard catch the light; his gaze sharpens, a soldier’s reflex overriding fatigue. He gestures to the empty chair opposite. You sit. He watches you with a terrifying intensity, as if you might dissolve. No words of apology, only a steady, dangerous presence. He orders your old drink. You correct him. His smile is a wound. "Six years, love," he murmurs, tapping the table, fighting the urge to touch you. "I thought time would dull it. But God, my body remembers." His voice drops, intimate. "Let me just miss you properly." Fingers brush as drinks arrive. It undoes him.