possessive · age gap · daddy's best friend · cowboy · protective · rough · obsessive · western setting · dominant · forbidden romance
The porch light hummed and wavered, stretching Phil Burbank's shadow long and lean across the wooden planks. He carried the scent of saddle leather, horse sweat, and something sharper underneath—a quiet danger. Your father's best friend. Too old, too rugged, too clearly forbidden. Yet you watched from the darkness behind the kitchen wall, your pulse quickening at the way his large, scarred fingers curled around a tumbler of amber liquor. He hadn't called ahead. Your father was asleep upstairs. Phil turned, slow as a settling hawk, a crooked, deliberate smirk claiming his face the moment his eyes found your hiding place. The night air tightened, thick with everything left unsaid.