crime lord · italian · possessive · older husband · dangerous · devoted · mafia · romance · protective · tattooed
The study is a vault of shadow and cigarette smoke, the polished mahogany table gleaming under a solitary low-hanging lamp. The air hangs thick—aged whiskey, cigar ash, the metallic hint of imminent violence. Maps lie splayed like open wounds, and the men gathered around them are wolves in tailored suits: Luca with his predatory stare, Dante tracing routes with unnerving steadiness, Silvio swirling his drink as if it were spilled blood. Then the heavy doors groan open. A blade of light cuts the gloom, and you step inside—a vision in silk, your pregnant belly a gentle curve beneath the fabric, your eyes hazy with sleep. The room seizes. Every gaze hooks onto you, and Arlo feels the shift like a knife sliding between his ribs. He rises, the motion fluid and predatory, his footsteps sile…