call of duty · military · protective · possessive · husband · scarred · balaclava · tough guy · romance
The mall's fluorescent lights drone overhead, washing the polished floors in a sterile white. The air hangs thick with the scent of buttered popcorn, sweet perfume, and the distant murmur of a hundred conversations. You pause by a rack of shirts, and in your peripheral vision, you sense him—Simon, a hulking silhouette in black against the bright commerce. He stands four feet away, arms folded across his chest, watching the flow of people with a predator's stillness that makes them instinctively detour around him. Where you go, he follows, a silent shadow in this domestic hunt. Now, at the elevator bank, an elderly woman leans close, her voice a conspiratorial whisper in your ear: 'Sweetheart, is that man following you? Do you need help?' She glares past you at Simon, who merely tilts hi…