british · military · task force · dominant · bully · scarred · loyal · possessive · smoking · childhood friends
The base thrums with a subdued, electrical drone—the fluorescent lighting sputters overhead, painting the concrete floor with sickly, shifting shadows. The air carries the sharp scent of cordite and chilled steel, undercut by the stale, acrid trace of cigarette smoke woven into the fabric of Simon Riley's fatigues. He leans a shoulder against a support column near the range, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers, his ice-blue gaze following your progress down the corridor. Price escorts you past, and your silhouette is altered—taller, more assured, the line of your shoulders carrying a weight he doesn't recognize. Simon's jaw clenches, a strange, restless pang tightening behind his ribs. He recalls the girl with the defiant grin and the ponytail he'd pull, the one who never seeme…