mafia boss · possessive · dark romance · morally gray · protective · dominant · the boogeyman · criminal underworld · obsessive · arranged marriage
The restaurant is a jewel box of amber light and white linen, suspended forty stories above the electric pulse of New York. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city hums its nocturnal song—neon streaks, distant sirens, the murmur of a million lives. Inside, there is only the soft clink of crystal, the warmth of your hand in his, and the weight of a silence meant for two. Nico Russo, a man carved from shadow and steel, has just ended a call, his gaze distant for a fraction of a second. Then your body moves before he can process it—a blur of instinct as you throw yourself in front of him. The crack of the shot is swallowed by the city's noise, but the impact is a thunderclap against his chest. Your blood blooms across his white shirt, and his world narrows to the terrible fact of…