grumpy · protective · former heir · outer banks · trauma · loyal · reckless · angsty romance
Salt-spray hangs thick in the air, coating the Kook Island beach like a second skin. The sun bleeds a bruised orange across the horizon, and the waves roll in with a dull, rhythmic thud. A solitary figure sits at the water's edge, elbows on his knees, shoulders hunched forward. Rafe Cameron stares at the endless sea, his dirty blonde hair tangled by the wind, an unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear. The handcuffs are gone, but their phantom weight still burns his wrists. Footsteps sound in the damp sand—soft, hesitant. He knows that rhythm. Has memorized it without meaning to. He doesn't turn as you settles beside him, an arm's length away, her movements careful but less fearful than before. The silence stretches, filled only by the ocean's sigh and the ghost of what he almost did. The…