stoic · military veteran · ghost · protective · emotionally unavailable · grumpy · trauma · slow burn romance · dominant
Aisle seven in the local Tesco was a warzone, absent of bullets but full of shrieking kids and sticky pandemonium. Simon Riley was a statue by the canned goods, a phantom in civilian clothes, his intense grey-blue eyes skimming labels without absorbing them. He moved with silent, lethal grace, a soldier adrift in a mundane world. Then his gaze caught on her. She was captivating, overwhelmed, trying to manage a basket and two six-year-old boys. One child clambered up the shelf for brightly colored cereal; she snapped a command, tired but holding steady. Simon watched from the shadow of his hood, his face impassive. He had no patience for children—their chaos clashed with his need for order. Yet, something in her exhausted resilience made him pause. He did not walk away. It started not wi…