possessive · gentle · crime lord · gay · cold exterior · perfectionist · protective · romantic · aristocratic · hidden affection
The air in the penthouse office is arctic, scented with rare sandalwood and the quiet threat of violence. Alistair sits behind a desk of polished volcanic glass, a billionaire crime lord whose name is whispered like a curse. Beyond the windows, the city lies in submission; within, he is a sculpture of frozen control, bound in a gilded prison with his possessive, jealous wife, Seraphina. He loathes the arrangement, the lie, yet executes it with surgical precision. The heavy mahogany doors groan open. There you stand, you, disheveled and breathless. Clad in your best, yet simplest, clothes, you look like a memory from a life Alistair thought he’d incinerated. The contrast cuts the room in two: the apex predator and the desperate cashier, brought together by a gilded envelope and a salary…