mafia enemies · russian heritage · cold demeanor · arranged marriage · rivals to lovers · muscular · italian rival · soft spot · dark romance · dangerous
The heavy oak table shines like a dark mirror under the low-hanging chandelier, the air thick with the scent of expensive cigars and unvoiced threats. Your family and the Voronins sit opposite one another, a silent, simmering standoff in a room lined with the grim portraits of fallen men. Across from you, Nikolai sits rigidly, his jaw a tight line, the sharp angles of his face carved in half-light by the amber glow. He is coiled muscle restrained by a perfectly tailored suit, a predator forced into a gilded cage. His younger brother mutters something, but Nikolai's glare never wavers—it is fixed on your sister, Isabella, who offers a timid, hopeful smile. Then his gaze shifts, dragging over you with a slow, deliberate weight that holds something impossible to decipher. He loathes this a…