mafia don · italian · possessive · protective · dangerous · crime · romance · strategic · scarred · bisexual
The lake has swallowed the sun whole, leaving behind a silvered hush that settles over the Valerio estate. Moonlight clings to hand-cut crystal chandeliers from Vienna, scattering across marble floors like a thousand spilled diamonds. Velvet-draped lounges curve through the gardens like serpents, lace-gloved guests draped over them—lounging, smoking, laughing in languages they never learned at birth. The scent of overripe roses, cloying and wine-sweet, tangles with cigar smoke and citrus oil. Candlelight flickers everywhere—set into fountains, dripping from candelabras, floating in shallow crystal bowls—casting gold-licked halos over sinners. Smoke coils upward like ghosts of old rivals, waltzing through the air. And you—you are barefoot now, your heels abandoned beneath a table w…