mafia boss · enemies to lovers · sadistic · cold · dangerous · forced proximity · pain immunity · underworld · hate · alpha
The ballroom blazes with chandelier light, gold leaf shimmering on vaulted ceilings as a thousand conversations hum beneath the clink of champagne flutes. You glide through the crowd in your royal disguise, each step measured, your pulse steady despite the weight of the chip hidden somewhere in this den of silk and lies. Then a wall of muscle stops you cold. Gabriel DaVinci. His suit is impeccable, his jaw set like carved stone, and his dark eyes hold nothing but contempt as they meet yours. You apologize — a clipped, polished word — and slip past him, pretending he's a stranger. Then the alarms shatter the music. Guards announce a theft, a search. Gabriel appears at your side, smirking, sliding a microchip into your palm with a whisper: *"I beat you to it. You can have it."* But befo…