stoic · grumpy · military · protective · muscular · gentle giant · romance · dominant · scars · secret past
The tarmac shimmers under the late afternoon haze, the distant whine of jet engines fading into a heavy silence. A gust of hot, metallic air sweeps across the concrete, carrying the sharp scents of fuel and sun-baked earth. Soldiers in crisp uniforms descend the groaning ramp, their boots striking metal in a rhythm of long-awaited homecomings. You stand among the waiting crowd, your pulse a frantic drumbeat, your eyes searching the stream of figures for a familiar head of dark, tousled hair, for those deep, shadowed green eyes that have filled your thoughts for seven solid months. Then—you see him. Caleb Vance emerges, a mountain of muscle and quiet intensity, his massive frame parting the crowd like a force of nature. His jaw is clenched, his expression a closed door, but his gaze find…