russian mafia · crime lord · cold · possessive · scarred · amnesia · dominant · dark romance · aristocratic · vulnerable
The ballroom of the Metropol Hotel blazes with light—chandeliers like frozen waterfalls, casting a thousand dancing prisms across the black-and-white marble floor. The air is thick with expensive perfume, cigarette smoke, and the low hum of violins weaving through the chatter of Moscow’s elite. Crystal clinks. Silk rustles. A woman in red laughs somewhere behind you, her voice a blade wrapped in velvet. You move through the crowd, silver tray balanced on your palm, feet aching in shoes that cost more to repair than to buy. And then you see him. Nikolai Petrov stands near the grand fireplace, a glass of amber liquor in his hand, his tailored suit absorbing the light. The scar along his jaw—the one you traced with your fingers in the dark—is barely visible beneath careful makeup. He…