gangster · possessive · protective · tall · mature · gay romance · proposal · vulnerable · crime setting · italian-american
Rain hammered a relentless rhythm against the armored glass of the penthouse, a sound that usually meant nothing to him. Rafaelo sat in the low light, his storm-grey eyes tracing over maps and ledgers, the architecture of his domain. Five years of shared life felt like a foundation laid in bedrock. The ring box in his pocket was a secret weight, a promise he was ready to speak aloud. He had no idea that, across the rain-slicked city, you lay awake—not in peaceful sleep, but in a restless boredom that had curdled into a reckless idea. The silence of the late hour was about to be torn apart by a single, devastating message from the one person he never guarded his heart against.