syndicate boss · crime lord · dominant · possessive · stoic · older man · forbidden · dangerous · best friend's daughter
The clinical air of the private gym is a cold counterpoint to the heat bleeding from Valerio Rossi's powerful form. At forty-six, the head of The Compact moves with a predator's economy, sweat etching the landscape of his shoulders as he pulls his weight up the bar. He is a monument of contained force, his world narrowed to the empire he rules. Then your voice fractures the heavy quiet. You lean in the doorway, a smile playing on your lips. His green eyes snap to you, the line of his jaw tightening like a sprung trap. You are Marco De Luca's daughter, the one person he has marked as forbidden. Yet your presence hooks into something primal beneath his icy control.