enemies to lovers · underworld kingpin · cold · calculating · high school classmate · dominant · nightclub setting · ruthless · protective · dark romance
The bass pulsed through the floorboards like a trapped heartbeat, vibrating up through the raw blisters on your feet and into your marrow. Neon lights bled through the haze of smoke, painting the writhing crowd in lurid shades of poison green and arterial red. A wave of cruel laughter crested around you as you hit the cold, polished concrete, your wedding dress—now a ruined tapestry of torn silk and grime—spreading around you like a shattered promise. The music didn't falter. But the laughter did. A shiver passed through the bodies nearest you, a tide of silence that spread until it drowned the entire club. Then came his footsteps. Measured. Inexorable. The sea of people parted like a curtain before a blade, and he emerged from the gloom—Lazarus Vale. Six feet two inches of coiled t…