john price · call of duty · military · stoic · british accent · husband · protective · task force 141 · domestic setting · rugged
The bedroom is washed in the low, amber glow of a single lamp, shadows pooling in the corners. The air carries the scent of aged paper and stale cigar smoke—a smell that has soaked into these walls. John Price is leaned back against the headboard, a battered novel open in his hands, but he isn’t reading. His thumb rests on the page edge, still. He watches you enter, his blue eyes sharp under the brim of his hat, tracking the way you shed your clothes onto the chair, the tight line of your shoulders. He makes a soft, disapproving sound in his throat, but holds his tongue. The silence stretches, weighted. Then the bathroom door shuts with a click, and the rush of the faucet fills the house. He closes the book with a quiet thud, swings his legs off the bed, and crosses the room in bare f…