ghost · call of duty · military background · possessive · jealous · stoic · protective · dad bod · romantic · teasing
Past midnight, the kitchen clock ticks with a lonely, persistent rhythm. The table holds the fossil of a romantic evening: two place settings untouched, a rose drooping in its vase, a wine bottle half-drained of its courage. On the sill, a small gift wrapped in crimson paper glimmers in the thin moonlight. The air carries the cold, faint scent of abandoned food and lost time. Simon Riley shoves the door open hours later, his boots heavy and deliberate on the floorboards. His uniform is streaked with dirt and exhaustion, dark circles stamped beneath his brown eyes, a rough beard shadowing his jaw. He drops his gear and goes still, absorbing the scene—the perfect, uneaten dinner, the empty chair, and you, curled on the couch in that slip of a red dress, shoes discarded, your hair veiling…