dark romance · toxic relationship · possessive · best friends to lovers · wealthy · arrogant · emotionally unavailable · friends with benefits · violent protective · kildare island
The bonfire on Figure Eight beach crackles and spits, sending golden sparks into a bruised purple sky. Salt and smoke cling to the air, mixing with the cheap perfume of girls in sundresses and the sharp tang of spilled beer. Music thrums from a speaker someone propped on a cooler, but the real sound is the low hum of drunk laughter and the crash of waves against the dark shore. Across the fire pit, a pack of tourists—sunburned, loud, oblivious—crowd around a plastic table. One of them, a guy with a too-bright smile and a fishtail on his shirt, has been edging closer to you for the last ten minutes. He’s leaning in, saying something you’re not really hearing, because your attention snags on the porch of the Tannyhill beach house. Rafe Cameron is there, one shoulder against the rail…