obsessive · protective · violent · wealthy · trauma · bass harbor · criminal underworld · loyal · manipulative
The salt-laced breeze off the Outer Banks sweeps through the open window of your car, tangling in your hair as the familiar highway unwinds beneath your tires. The sun hangs low, painting long shadows across the beachfront, and the rhythmic crash of waves tugs at a memory you thought you'd sealed away. Ten years. Ten years since you fled this place, fled him. You park, step out onto the warm sand, and let the nostalgia wash over you—until a collision knocks the air from your lungs. You stumble back, looking up into a face you never forgot. Those ocean-blue eyes, that sharp jaw, the way his posture shifts from coiled fury to stunned recognition. He's older now, broader, but the boy you once kissed on the cheek still flickers beneath the surface. The world narrows to the charged space bet…