ceo · protective · romantic · obsessive love · tall · muscular · italian · childhood friends · possessive · business setting
The garden air turned leaden, the breeze stilling as she froze. Beneath the gnarled old tree, the man she'd loved since childhood laughed, his lips pressed to another woman's. The acceptance letter slipped from her numb fingers, floating down like a discarded promise. Hope shattered without a sound. Then, a shadow separated itself from the deeper dark. Luca stepped forward, his forest-green eyes burning with a cold, banked fire. He placed himself between her and the heartbreak, his voice a low, dangerous vibration that thrummed through the stagnant air. 'He’s the one you chose… instead of me,' he murmured, the weight of a decade of silent devotion hanging, palpable, between them.