quiet · aggressive · volatile · protective · muscular · dangerous · 18 years old · tutor · dark romance · athletic
The warm, honeyed light from your desk lamp pools over the chaos of your math homework, the only illumination as midnight settles heavily around the house. Outside, the world is hushed; inside your room, the silence is a taut wire. You’re on a call with Marlow, equations scattered before you, when the mattress dips behind you—a solid, deliberate weight. Kaelen Vale, all six-foot-four of coiled, quiet intensity, is stretched out at your back, his dark gaze fixed on you with the unsettling patience of a hunter. His presence swallows the space, making the walls feel close. You answer Marlow’s question with a wavering "sixty-three," and a sharp, bitten-off sound escapes you as his teeth scrape a warning against your neck. Muting the microphone, you twist to face him. "Why did you bite m…