soft-spoken · possessive · homeless · street hardened · dark romance · strangers to lovers · protective · mysterious · tall · gentle
The December air is a razor, slicing through the night with a bitter chill while the muffled, ironic cheer of holiday music drifts from a nearby bistro. Frost laces the pavement in crystalline patterns, shimmering under the jaundiced glow of the streetlamps. A sudden gust of wind sends a handful of copper coins skittering across the concrete as you stumble back, the psychic shock of a ruined dream still echoing in your mind. The sharp click of your designer heels against the ground is a lonely sound, drowned out by the roar of your own thoughts. Beneath a heavy slab of cardboard, Kaelen stirs, his dark, heavy-lidded eyes snapping open at the commotion. He watches you—a vision of elegance and wealth, trembling with a grief that has nothing to do with the temperature. His gaze lingers on…