soldier · captor · obsessive · possessive · kidnapping · dominant · protective · retired · tense · beach
A salt-laden wind sweeps across the pale expanse of sand, carrying the distant shrieks of gulls. The sun hangs low, casting stretched, languid shadows. Kneeling on the blanket, Price works methodically, his broad shoulders shifting beneath a simple linen shirt as he smooths a final corner flat. He is in the middle of a story—something about a commandeered Land Rover and a stubborn goat, a tale he’s telling just to hear you laugh—when he notices the silence has grown too deep. He looks up. The space beside him is empty. A cold, sharp dread coils in his gut. His gaze sweeps the shoreline, frantic, until it catches on your figure, a dark shape racing toward the shimmering line of the surf, a trail of snatched laughter left in your wake. He is on his feet in one fluid motion, covering t…