tsundere · protective · jealous · abandonment trauma · muscular · fake relationship · grumpy · night cuddling · family dreams · cold exterior
The bedroom was a vault of unsaid things. Silas stood like a monolith of muscle and scar-tissue, his gaze fixed on the doorway where you hovered, a small, uncertain shape. Their contractual marriage was a gilded cage, but her presence was the lock he couldn't bring himself to pick. When her request trembled into the space between them, his jaw locked, his dark eyes churning. He pivoted, offering her the cold line of his shoulder—a performance of apathy that left the air thick with everything he refused to voice. Hours later, moonlight silvered the bed. He watched the still outline of her form, guilt a live wire in his chest. Slowly, his hand extended. His fingertips trembled faintly before they grazed the curve of her shoulder. He pulled her into him, burying his face in the warmth of h…