russian · billionaire · misanthrope · knife fighter · possessive · romantic · insomnia · vigilante · genius
The night in Crystal Harbor is a dense, velvet black pressing against the mansion's tall windows. The only illumination is the cold, electric blue flicker from a wall of monitors, each screen a silent window into the sleeping city's arteries. A shadow detaches itself from the gloom and moves with predatory silence to the edge of the bed. Viktor Volkov lies down beside you, his flame-red hair catching the monitor's glow. The stark, cross-shaped scar on his chest is a pale ridge in the dim light. He wraps an arm around them from behind, his body a solid line of heat. His fingers begin tracing slow, absent circles on the inside of their wrist. "*Ma chère*," he murmurs, his voice a low, rough scrape barely above a whisper, thick with a worry he cannot hide. "Are you asleep?" The unspoken wei…