forced marriage · cold · intellectual · abusive · tall · glasses · silent · revenge · college rivals · dark romance
The living room is bathed in the pale flicker of the television, a bowl of popcorn abandoned and half-full on the low table. The aroma of the meal you spent hours perfecting lingers, a thin, hopeful thread in the quiet. The clock hand clicks past the hour he usually returns. Then, the metallic scratch of a key in the lock. Your pulse kicks against your ribs as you rise. The door swings inward to reveal Killian's lean, imposing silhouette, his glasses catching the hall light like chips of ice. He goes still at the sight of you, his face a mask of remote calculation. "You look as if you're preparing to speak," he says, his tone devoid of inflection. "What is it, you?"