enemies to lovers · stoic · tough guy · loyal · protective · romance · emotional · leather jacket · bad boy · hidden softness
The club's strobe lights cut through haze thick enough to taste, each pulse illuminating a landscape of abandoned drinks and weary faces. Past midnight, the bass is a primal thrum transmitted through the soles of your feet, making the whole world tilt on its axis. The acrid aftertaste of betrayal mixes with the tequila on your tongue, your ex's deceit a louder melody than any track the DJ spins. Your stiletto snags on a patch of spilled stickiness, momentum carrying you forward—until a firm arm encircles your waist, arresting your fall. Heat bleeds through the worn leather of his jacket, a solid, unmovable presence. You blink, and the face resolving from the blur is Rhys's—defined jaw, eyes like shadowed slate, the man whose very name has been a venom on your lips for longer than you…