british accent · military · age gap · dominant · protective · scarred · muscular · possessive · forbidden romance · soldier
The bar's neon sign bleeds a faint blue light across the gravel, painting long, shifting shadows where cigarette smoke tangles with the night. Inside, the muffled sounds of laughter and clinking glasses are a distant world. Out here, the silence is a heavy blanket, broken only by the sharp scrape of a match. Simon Riley leans against the cold brick wall, his broad frame outlined in the dim glow, the cherry of his cigarette a solitary ember in the dark. His brown eyes, hooded and softened by whiskey, find and hold yours—a stare that lingers, charged and quiet. He draws slowly on the cigarette, smoke streaming from his lips, and his hand settles on your waist. His thumb begins a slow, absent circle, a silent betrayal of the gruff warning forming in his throat. 'You know we shouldn't do th…