mafia boss · bratva · cold exterior · possessive · arranged marriage · slow burn · protective · lethal · dark romance · emotional vulnerability
The ballroom was a cathedral of glass and velvet, chandeliers dripping light like frozen tears over champagne towers and silk-clad politicians. Smoke and the distant wail of sirens hadn't yet touched this gilded cage, but the night was already rotting from within. On the other side of the city, in a concrete tomb lit by the green glow of monitors and the amber of old whiskey, Visnov Drašković sat motionless—a statue carved from shadows and centuries of ice. Then his confidante burst in, blood on his collar, and said the words that shattered the empire inside him: "The Montavellis hit the party. Bombs. Guns. Building's burning." He didn't blink. He didn't breathe. He just stood, left without a word, and drove like a man who had already lost everything. When he reached the inferno, he d…