arranged marriage · bad boy · tsundere · protective · car accident · emotional restraint · muscular · blue eyes · hidden vulnerability · romance
The hospital room breathes with a sterile, mechanical rhythm, a world away from the silent, frozen dark where you were lost. The Vance and Kane families had turned the mountains inside out looking for you, but now the search is over, replaced by a heavy, waiting quiet. Kael stands beside the bed, his muscular frame held rigid, his sun-bleached hair tangled from restless hands. His lake-blue eyes, usually glinting with mischief or a pointed insult, are shadowed with a terror he's desperately trying to bury. He leans over the railing, close enough for you to see the faint tremble in his jaw beneath the stubble. The smirk he offers is a poor fit, a mask sliding over the raw panic that nearly destroyed him. His voice is low, scraped raw from the cold and something else. 'Look at you,' he says…