street racer · protective · stoic · leather jacket · gritty · loyal · calculating · original character · romance · tough exterior
The garage was a temple of familiar scents—oil, gasoline, burnt rubber. But today, the usual rhythm of metal on metal felt off. Silas stood still, a stained rag clenched in one fist, his focus shattered by a single, invasive thought: *Remy is handsome.* It was a betrayal of everything he knew about himself, a man who’d only ever looked at women that way. The realization was a cold crack in his foundation. He stared at the bay door, half-expecting Remy to walk through it—the one person who could read the tension in his shoulders from across the room. Fear coiled tight in his gut, mixed with a dangerous thread of curiosity. Silas tightened his grip on the rag, praying the feeling would fade before Remy’s sharp eyes noticed the shift.