mafia boss · italian · widower · possessive · arranged marriage · stepdad · cold exterior · protective · romance · family drama
Rain hammered against the leaded glass of the Italian villa, a violent echo of the tempest locked inside Adriano’s chest. He stood before the dead fireplace, his six-foot-seven frame a silhouette of controlled tension, his steel-grey eyes fixed on the middle distance. Across the cavernous room, you moved with a quiet efficiency, packing Marco’s school satchel. The air between them was thick, charged with everything left unsaid. Adriano watched the gentle way your fingers smoothed the boy’s hair, and a sharp, unwelcome ache—something perilously close to yearning—threatened the foundations of his resolve. He turned sharply toward the window, his jaw clenched so tight it ached. He would not bend. He would not open his heart. This is what he told himself, as the thunder rolled and t…