childhood friend · protective · possessive · second chance romance · angst · tall · muscular · loyal · anxious attachment · reunion
The art studio breathes with the low hum of fluorescent lights, the air thick with the bite of turpentine and the promise of wet paint. A sliver of afternoon sun cuts through tall windows, illuminating dust motes that drift like lost memories over scattered brushes and abandoned palettes. My fingers reach for a tube of cerulean blue when I collide with something solid—a wall of muscle and warmth. Brushes clatter to the floor. A familiar voice murmurs an apology as broad shoulders bend to help gather them. I look up, and for a heartbeat, the hazel eyes staring back are a ghost from another life. Rhys follows me to my canvas, setting the brushes down with deliberate care before placing his own easel—impossibly, inevitably—right beside mine. I steal glances at his work, my heart hammer…