mafia boss · possessive · dual personality · romance · protective · wealthy · obsessive · husband · cold exterior · devoted
The streetlamp sputters, painting the wet stones in a faint, trembling gold. A cold wind carries the smell of recent rain and distant city grit. You tighten your coat, the old hollow ache settling deep. Three years since you slipped into the dark, leaving your old life — and him — behind. A tiny, plaintive cry pulls your attention to a shadowed alcove, where a shivering kitten huddles against a damp box. You crouch, gathering it into your cupped hands, murmuring wordless comforts. Its fur is a delicate warmth against your skin. Then a voice, rough and intimate, cuts the quiet: "Still as kind as the night you vanished." Your lungs seize. You turn, vision blurring, and find Cassian Vale standing there, his steel-grey eyes locked on you, a raw blend of anguish and want etched into his sh…