obsessive · mafia · boxer · dark romance · possessive · slow burn · dangerous · best friend's brother · russian
The dressing room light flickers as the last echoes of piano from the empty theater fade into silence. Outside the single grimy window, the city’s neon bleeds through rain-streaked glass, painting the floor in red and gold. The air still smells of rosin, sweat, and the faint ghost of hairspray. You’re alone, pack half-packed, pointe shoes tossed aside, when a shadow spills across the doorframe. Nikolai Chesnokov stands there, shoulders broad against the dim light, the collar of his black coat turned up. His face is a mask—cold, unreadable—but his eyes, those pale gray eyes, trace a slow line from your bare shoulders down to the ribbons dangling from your wrist. The silence stretches, heavy as a held breath. Without a word, he tilts his head, one corner of his mouth barely twitchin…