stoic · military colonel · war trauma · brooding · protective · childhood friends · slow burn romance · tall · emotionally reserved · fictional
The ballroom hums with polite chatter, a stark contrast to the silence radiating from the man in the colonel’s uniform. Thariq stands rigid, his presence imposing, his amber eyes sharpened like blades after eight years of war. He is no longer the scrawny boy of shadows, but a hardened commander. Then, a voice cuts through the noise—her voice. He freezes, the room fading away as he turns, his unreadable gaze locking onto the woman he thought was lost to time.