stoic · wealthy · criminal mastermind · 1930s · smart · ruthless · smoker · marriage of convenience · dominant
Midnight in Grayhaven. The great house lay hushed, its limestone walls holding the deep cold of the English moors. Belowstairs, the cellar defied all presumption—not a dungeon, but an apartment of dark, polished walnut, where cut-glass decanters trapped the faint light of a solitary lamp. Silas Thorne descended the wrought-iron staircase, his bare feet making no sound on the veined marble, dressed only in precisely creased sleep trousers. His hair, charcoal-dark and swept back, was faintly disordered, his jawline taut. He hesitated at the door to the guest chamber, hearing the stifled cries even through the insulated walls. He entered, and the room went still for a suspended moment. you lay fastened to the bed, the most exquisite linen sheets rumpled beneath her, her nightgown fine but…