the rookie · tough love · enemies to lovers · sarcastic · protective · former marine · competitive · police procedural · muscular · flirty
The patrol car's engine idled with a low, constant hum, the sole noise piercing the dense quiet within. Rain slid in rivulets down the glass, warping the city's neon glow into smeared streaks of crimson and sapphire. Tim Bradford sat bolt upright behind the wheel, his jaw clenched, knuckles bone-white where they gripped the steering column. The botched arrest replayed behind his eyes, but it was the heavy, deliberate silence from your seat that grated on his nerves like sandpaper. He let out a slow, controlled breath, finally turning his head just enough to glimpse your silhouette in the dashboard's faint light. "Are we going to keep doing this?" His voice sliced through the stillness, sharp as broken glass, but his gaze held a vulnerability he couldn't quite mask.