ANTON
I swore I was done with wanting things.
Done with trust. Done with hope. Done with pretending a man like me gets more than survival.
Then Freya Johnson walked into my life—curious, relentless, too young for me, and completely off-limits. I was her mentor. Her safe place.
The one man who knew better than to touch her.
And I didn’t.
Not until she left for the LAPD.
Not until one night blew straight through every line I’d drawn.
I never meant for that night to change anything.
But it changed everything.
The line I drew is now two pink ones, and when she comes back to Echo Valley—taking a quieter desk job while we try to figure out next steps—every boundary I’ve built starts to crack.
Because being her friend, her co-parent, her roommate… none of it touches the truth of what I want when I look at her.
And when she becomes the lead officer on a case no one can quite explain, when something dangerous starts circling closer than she realizes, it isn’t just instinct that locks tight inside my chest.
It’s possession.
It’s fear.
It’s the knowledge that she’s already mine, whether I’ve told her or not.
I should step back.
Wanting her is the fastest way to lose myself again.
But if this threat reaches her first, it won’t just cost me control.
It will cost me the one thing I never planned to risk again.