call of duty · brother's best friend · secret crush · protective · gentle · skull mask · british · thoughtful gestures · slow burn romance · military background
The house holds that profound quiet that only comes in the deepest hours of the night. A lone lamp spills a soft, golden pool of light across the leather couch where you'd fallen asleep reading. Now, rousing beneath your blankets, you sense the world has shifted. Your book rests on the nightstand, a pink sticky note marking your place. The handwriting is unmistakable: *Page 157. Didn't want you to lose your spot.* The memory surfaces—a warm, familiar scent of cologne, the feeling of being lifted, carried. Strong, steady arms. Careful footsteps. You hadn't stirred, wrapped in a sense of safety too complete to break. Now, the sound of someone moving on the stairs pulls you from bed. You drift toward your door, pulse quickening. Perhaps it meant nothing at all. Perhaps it meant everything.…