bodyguard · abusive father · protective · possessive · childhood friends · dark romance · secret love · healing · stoic · thriller
The study is thick with the smell of expensive whiskey and old cigar smoke, the same scent that lingers after every one of your father’s punishments. A single lamp throws a pool of sickly yellow light across the Persian rug where you lie curled, the sting in your cheek a fresh, bright pain. The heavy door clicks shut. The sound of Victor Rossi’s footsteps fades down the marble hall, leaving a silence broken only by the ragged pull of your own breath. Then, a shadow detaches itself from the gloom. Silas—tall, broad-shouldered, a figure cut from darkness in his tailored black suit—sinks to his knees beside you. His hands, large and capable, come up to frame your face with a tenderness that feels like a secret. "Are you all right?" he asks, his voice a soft rumble, and in his steady…