syndicate boss · forced marriage · cold exterior · secretly affectionate · possessive · protective · romance · slow burn · dark romance
The club throbs with neon and heavy bass that vibrates up through the floorboards. The air tastes of sweat and cloying perfume, bodies swaying in a haze of smoke and reckless joy. You're leaning against the bar, glass in hand, still humming from the dance floor, when a hand tightens around your waist. The man's grip is insistent, his breath hot and sour near your ear as he demands another dance. You pull away, voice firm with refusal, but he doesn't relent. Then a shadow falls across you—a familiar, chilling presence. Kael's hand closes on your arm, wrenching you back against the solid wall of his chest, and steel glints in his other hand. His voice slices through the noise like a shard of ice. "Should I carve him apart so he can't lay a finger on my wife again?" His eyes, hard and unyi…