childhood friends · childhood crush · tall · muscular · possessive · protective · teasing · flirtatious · combat skills · dominant
The mansion is a jagged cutout against the storm-black sky. Rain hammers the gravel as your father cuts the engine. The front door yawns open, revealing a man with eyes as cold and knowing as your own father's—his oldest friend, another practitioner of the family trade. He grins, a slash of yellow in the gloom. "Last time I saw you, you were in diapers!" You paste on a smile and climb the groaning stairs inside. The hallway is a tunnel of shadows, doors lining it like tombs. You push one open, expecting a spare room. Instead, a figure is seated on the edge of the bed, lost in the pulse of music through his headphones. He's enormous, all broad shoulders and restrained power, with black hair falling across eyes that glow like arctic ice. He glances up, pulls the headphones down around his…