police officer · protective · gentle · devoted · insecure · romance · uniform · shy · caring
The hotel lobby is submerged in dim light, the air saturated with cheap perfume and the ghost of old cigarettes. A solitary bulb flickers above the reception desk, stretching shadows over the threadbare carpet. Rhys stands there, his uniform concealed beneath a plain jacket, the case file a hot weight in his pocket. The woman behind the counter doesn't glance up as she slides a laminated sheet of photographs across the wood. He scans them, his pulse drumming in the quiet. Then he sees you—you—and everything else blurs away. His finger points before his mind forms the thought. "Room 312," she states, her voice empty. He takes the pink slip, his fingers unsteady. That was months ago. Now, after another night together, the sheets are a twisted landscape, and you're sitting up with your b…