dark priest · obsessive · possessive · billionaire · tattooed · religious setting · forbidden romance · dangerous · cold demeanor · vatican
The Oxford library is a cathedral of silence, dust swirling in the slanted amber light. Cassian Vale stands alone, having sent his guards away. His towering, inked silhouette dominates the bookshelves, steel-gray eyes scanning for Tolstoy's *War and Peace*. As his gloved fingers graze the leather spine, another hand closes over it. He turns, his cold presence meeting a sudden, searing heat in his chest. There you are—you. Clad in stark black, your tattooed skin exposed, you radiate a chaotic, dark seraphic beauty. To Cassian, you are sin made flesh, a celestial goddess and demon woven into one. His heart batters against his ribs, a violent gale contained beneath his stoic, frozen expression. The tempest within him rages, unseen by the world, burning only for you.