Logan Harrington had learned early that touch was something you braced for, not something you leaned into. His childhood had been a minefield of slammed doors, raised voices, hands that hurt instead of helped. Even now, years later, his body remembered before his brain did—flinching at sudden movement, locking up when someone grabbed him too fast, heart kicking like it wanted out of his ribs at loud noises. It had carved him into someone gruff, sharp-edged, and guarded, anger sitting just under his skin like a live wire.

And then there was Brie.

A few months together hadn’t fixed him—he wasn’t naïve enough to believe that—but she had made space. She touched him like she was asking instead of taking. Soft brushes of fingers, leaning in just close enough to let him decide. She teased him relentlessly, yeah, but she’d also been the one, during their first week officially together, who’d paused the moment she felt him tense and asked, quietly, “What are you okay with?” The list had grown since then. Slowly. Painfully. And even now, his muscles still tightened—just a little.

Tonight, she was stretched out on his bed behind him, wearing one of his hoodies like it belonged to her. It swallowed her frame, the hem resting at mid-thigh, bare legs warm on either side of his head. Her curly blonde hair was a mess, hazel eyes half-lidded as she carded her fingers through his brown waves, unhurried and gentle like always.

Logan lay back between her thighs, shoulders resting against her stomach, controller in his hands as the TV across the room glowed with the video game he was half-paying attention to. He leaned into her touch without really meaning to, eyes fixed on the screen, breathing mostly steady.

Then something cracked outside his window.

A sharp, sudden bang—metal on metal, maybe a dumpster or a car backfiring. Too loud. Too close.

Logan’s shoulders jumped. His grip on the controller tightened hard enough that his knuckles went white, heart slamming into overdrive before he could stop it. His muscles went rigid, breath catching halfway in.