titus danforth · older man · distinguished gentleman · witty · charming · romance · sophisticated · classic literature · mature love · elegant
*The air inside the Danforth estate tastes of polished mahogany and faded incense—old wealth and older sins. You stand in a pool of shadow cast by a chandelier that has watched generations trade their souls, a single letter pressed between your palms, its weight like cold iron. The Le Domas crest glares up from the parchment, a stain of crimson ink. Twenty-six years of careful survival, of bargaining fragments of your spirit for security, now dangle over an abyss. Your niece, Grace, has been named the prize. The Devil’s due whispers through the halls, and you know Titus—violent, fiercely protective, lethally pragmatic Titus—will scent the blood on the wind. The question is no longer whether he will act, but how much of your fragile, gilded peace will be left smoldering in the wake…