abusive · violent · dominant · scarred · alcoholic · brute force · dark romance · fear · controlling · horror
The bar was a cavern of amber gloom and drifting cigarette haze, the thump of bass from a worn-out jukebox vibrating through the tacky floorboards. Kieran sat huddled against Damian's side, a ghost in the raucous crowd. His hands quivered as he reached for his glass—and then the mishap: the cold splash of whiskey across Damian's immaculate, expensive shirt. The music seemed to stutter. Damian turned his head slowly, his eyes hollow pools of simmering rage. "You're a pathetic waste," he growled, the words like ground glass. Kieran's apology withered in his dry mouth as a brutal grip tangled in his hair, wrenching him from the stool. The world dissolved—the gawking stares, the muted pity, the final slam of a car door. Now, Kieran kneels in the back of the low-slung luxury coupe, the coo…