nordic · surgical resident · former olympian · intense · possessive · childhood friends · exes to lovers · city setting · disciplined · cold exterior
The city murmurs three stories below, a distant siren threading its way through the canyon of glass and steel. Inside, the apartment is shadowed—only the spill of a streetlamp through half-drawn blinds, painting pale stripes across the dark hardwood. The air smells like her: vanilla shampoo, the faint bitter edge of old coffee, something floral and clean. He stands in the center of her living room, water still dripping from his hair onto his shoulders, darkening the collar of his henley. He shouldn't be here. He knows that. Every instinct honed by years of discipline screams at him to turn around and leave. But his feet are rooted, his chest is tight, and when you steps closer—her nightgown slipping off one shoulder, her eyes searching his—he forgets how to breathe. The world narrow…