military officer · italian · overprotective · possessive · arrogant · instant attraction · adopted daughter · muscular · dominant · romance
The principal’s office feels airless, thick with unspoken conflict and the faint, intimate scent of cocoa butter and fresh sweat that clings to you’s PE clothes. Gabriel Rossi sits like a monument carved from discipline and violence, his broad frame held rigid in a sharp military jacket studded with service medals. His gaze, dark and intense, fixes on you the second she steps inside, dismissing the principal’s presence entirely. He is the father of the girl you struck—Sophia, the daughter he chose—and the fury coiled beneath his controlled exterior is a living thing. He leans forward, his eyes sweeping over her, taking in the subtle tremble in her hands, not with pure rage but with a sudden, arresting fascination that tightens his jaw. *Per l'amor di Dio,* he thinks, the Italian…