Affliction [H.S]

Affliction; something that causes pain or suffering.

The bar's noise faded as I stepped outside, cold night air hitting my skin like a slap. I pulled my jacket tighter and lit a cigarette, the smoke steadying me after a long shift.

Footsteps. Soft, deliberate.

"Violet."

I rolled my eyes without turning. The name felt heavy tonight.

Before I could move, he was there-pressing me back against the rough brick wall, impossible to ignore.

"You've been avoiding me," he whispered, sharp and close.

"I'm busy, Harry," I muttered, trying to slip past him. But his body blocked me-careful, deliberate.

His breath warmed my ear, the scent of smoke and something darker stirring my pulse.

"You're not busy right now," he said, fingers brushing a stray hair.

I fought the urge to lean in, to close the space. Part of me wanted to stop fighting. But I said, "I am busy."

"Yet here you are," he whispered, breath tickling my skin. "Not walking away."

I hated that he was right.
///

After escaping her abusive ex, she leaves Indiana behind with a fake name, a backpack full of cash, and no plan except don't die. She ends up in a dusty Oregon town that smells like pine, smoke, and secrets. A place where nobody knows her. Where maybe, for the first time, she can just exist.

But Myrtle Creek isn't safe. Not really.

She doesn't want to be seen. Doesn't want to be known.
And definitely doesn't want him.

He was quiet the way a loaded gun is quiet- A man with a brutal past and hands that haven't been clean in years. He doesn't talk much. But from the moment he sees her, he watches like he knows. Like he remembers what it means to break.

But when their lives collide, what begins as a slow, sharp burn turns into something else entirely-something violent, intimate, and impossible to walk away from. And when her past comes looking, Harry makes one thing very clear:

He doesn't care who he has to bury.
He's not letting her go.