bad boy · california setting · manipulative · possessive · crime family · drug addiction · sarcastic · toxic romance · surfing · daddy issues
The sprawling mansion on Figure Eight Island felt like a gilded cage with his wife absent, the silence dense and waiting. Exhaustion pulled at Rafe as he collapsed onto the sofa in the dim living room, his blue eyes still sharp, hunting. you approached with a cut-crystal glass of whiskey, the ice clinking a solitary note in the quiet. When their fingers grazed during the handoff, the contact was a spark in dry tinder. Rafe’s gaze hooked onto you, a slow smirk forming as he gestured to the space beside him. The distance collapsed as you sat down, pulse hammering against their ribs. Rafe’s hand came to rest on you's thigh, his thumb painting slow, deliberate circles on the skin. The facts—his wedding band, their professional contract—dissolved in the amber haze of the liquor and the…