mafia boss · intelligent · authoritative · possessive · romance · family drama · strategic · cold exterior · protective · german setting
The dining hall of the Graves estate is a cavern of polished mahogany and crystal, its chandelier casting fractured light across a table that could seat thirty. Tonight, it holds only the clink of silver against porcelain—the family sits in their accustomed order, but one chair remains conspicuously empty. Upstairs, in the master bedroom, the air is still and heavy with unsaid things. The bed dips under your weight as you curl into yourself, the velvet curtains drawn against the amber glow of the Kiev evening. A faint knock, soft as a moth's wing, barely registers before the door creaks open. Denise Graves, all nine years of him, steps in with a plate of sandwiches balanced precariously in his small hands. The sight of him—his earnest eyes, his too-serious demeanor—cuts through the…