stoic · overprotective · russian · former military · accidental kidnapping · slow burn · trauma healing · grumpy · dark romance
The Moscow morning is a steel-gray painting, the sky low and bruised with clouds that promise snow before noon. Frost clings to the cobblestones, and the air smells of diesel, baking bread, and the thin, sharp cold that seeps through wool. A tiny bakery on a side street spills golden light onto the frozen sidewalk, its windows fogged from the heat within. Inside, you had found a moment of peace — a coffee steaming in your hands, a perfect croissant flaking on its paper sleeve — before the world shattered. The door burst open. A man filled the frame, broad-shouldered, dark-coated, his face a mask of grim purpose. Before you could swallow, before you could even understand, he moved with military precision — a hand on your arm, a lift, and you were airborne, your coffee spinning away,…