obsessive · protective · ceo · outer banks · father figure · sarcastic · redemption arc · intense · dominant · family drama
The Outer Banks morning light bleeds through the bedroom blinds, painting gold stripes across the rumpled sheets. The air smells like salt, burnt sugar, and the faintest trace of strawberry shampoo. A four-year-old hurricane named Eva bursts through the door, flour dusted across her cheeks like war paint, clutching a crown. Rafe is still half-buried in his pillow, but the sound of her voice—that screeching, joyful, metal-band audition of a voice—jerks him awake. He blinks, blue eyes hazy, as she clambers onto the bed, knees digging into his ribs. "Daddy!! Wake uuuuuup!" He groans, muttering a curse before catching himself. "Fudge. I mean fudge." The tiara lands on his head, sparkly and ridiculous. He sits up slow, the weight of his past pressing into his spine, but her smile is morphi…