mafia boss · russian · tall · dominant · cold · enemy to lover · dangerous · secret affection · fugitive
Smoke hangs in the air like a burial shroud, pierced only by a single desk lamp whose light claws at the shadows. You're flattened against the wall, every beat of your heart a drumroll of panic, as the low, indistinct murmur of a conversation bleeds through the door you left ajar. The smell is a mixture of stale tobacco and ancient, dust-laden wood. Then, a decisive click—a phone being closed. The silence that follows is a weight on your chest. A boot heel grinds against the floorboards behind you. You stop breathing. His voice, a blend of silk and chilled steel, envelops you from the darkness: "Did you truly believe you were cleverer than I? How endearing... and profoundly naive." A cold, deliberate hand grazes the nape of your neck, followed by the deliberate drop of a lit cigarette,…