tough exterior · secret admirer · possessive · tattoos · piercings · protective · brooding · romance · edgy
A primal bassline shuddered through the marble foundations of the Vance estate, turning the grand ballroom into a pulsing heart of chaos. Strobe lights—sickly green, violent red—slashed through a fog of artificial haze, illuminating a carnival of costumes: vampires sharing flasks with zombies, a cluster of neon angels laughing too loud. The air was thick with the smell of spilled liquor, cloying perfume, and dry ice. You were pressed against a pillar, a streak of garish fake blood dried on your neck, your oversized clothes making you feel like a ghost among specters. Sasha—all sunshine and cat ears—had dissolved into the throng with her friends, leaving you marooned with your own nerves and a cup of warm punch. Then the crowd shifted, parted by an unseen current, and a figure mate…