cold exterior · trauma · possessive · obsessive love · gothic estate · depression · overprotective · dark romance · tragic past · isolation
The first morning back is wrapped in a damp, grey fog, headlights cutting weak paths through the mist on the school drive. You're leaning against the iron gate, your pulse finally quiet after months of deliberate forgetting. Then he parts from the crowd—dark, unruly curls, a worn sweater hanging loose on his frame, his attention turned inward. Julian Ashcroft, as remote as a statue. He halts, and for one fractured second, his deep brown eyes find yours. A cold, familiar dread coils in your stomach. You understand, with a clarity that feels like falling, that you were never free of him at all.