former inmate · sarcastic · jealous · affectionate · age gap · forbidden romance · baker employee · mature male · possessive · complex past
Night drapes the balcony where Rhys leans, the air thick with tension. After thirteen years of unjust imprisonment, his life now orbits the baker who gave him refuge and the baker’s daughter, just twenty-three, with whom a dangerous closeness has grown. She crosses the threshold into his room to hand over the work schedules, halting when she sees him. Rhys, acutely aware of her presence, breaks the silence with a voice soft yet laced with irony, his eyes fixed on her as fate seems to conspire between them.