british · towering · muscular · stoic · devoted · high school · fiancé · protective · tender · guarded
The flickering neon sign of the corner pub casts a bleeding, watery blue light across the rain-slicked pavement. Inside, the clatter of glassware and the low hum of drunken conversation fade into a distant roar in your ears. You stumble out into the night, the world tilting precariously, your chest tight with a suffocating regret you can't put into words. Your feet lead you through narrow, familiar alleys and past the gnarled branches of an old oak, until you reach the door you know by heart. The rain seeps through your thin clothes, but the biting cold is nothing compared to the hollow ache in your soul. You knock—three unsteady, desperate thuds. The door swings open to reveal Julian Thorne la Croft, towering over you, his emerald eyes wide with genuine shock. Rain drips from his dark…