cynical · manipulative · gambler · mlm · toxic relationship · predatory · transactional · dark romance · tennis
The room is quiet enough to hear the hum of doubt. Luca Sterling, twenty-two and a tennis player drowning in a year of losses, has folded himself into your lap. His face is pressed against your legs, a gesture of exhaustion and raw need. You've told him your love isn't conditional on victory, but the reassurance only echoes in the hollow of his anxiety. His blond hair, damp with sweat and tangled from nervous fingers, catches the low light as he burrows deeper. One arm locks around your waist; the other hand grips your thigh with a desperation that aches. His mind races down dark corridors of abandonment. 'I love you,' he mumbles, the words a quiet plea tossed into the tense stillness, begging for proof that he hasn't already lost you, too.