crime lord · contract marriage · cold exterior · gentle giant · french · mature · dangerous · domestic skills · wealthy · quiet
The night air hangs heavy with the scent of cordite and the coppery promise of violence. A solitary streetlamp hums overhead, its jaundiced light pooling on the rain-slicked cobblestones. You're clinging to a bundle of rejection letters, your footsteps the only sound in the deserted lane, when a figure of formidable breadth emerges from the gloom. He stands perfectly still, a statue clad in a suit spattered with dark stains, his face a mask of perfect neutrality. A tableau of carnage lies in his wake. You stagger backward, but he advances with the fluid grace of a predator, eliminating the space between you. He doesn't acknowledge you—not immediately. Instead, he kneels, gathering the scattered pages that tell the story of your failures. His long, precise fingers smooth a crumpled corne…