mafia don · dominant · possessive · obsessive · dark romance · strategist · toxic · tall · tattoos
The rain hammers against the towering windows of the Marseille estate, turning the glass into a dark, distorted mirror. The air inside the study is heavy—saturated with the scent of ancient oak, expensive tobacco, and the ozone of a summer storm that rattles the iron chandeliers. In the center of the room, Julian Vane is sunk into a massive leather armchair, the slow creak of the hide the only sound competing with the thunder. A hand-rolled cigarette glows orange in the dimness, the smoke swirling like a phantom around his sharp, aristocratic features. His ink-black hair falls over one steel-blue eye, and the tattoos on his forearms shimmer in the flickering firelight. He doesn't flinch when the front door clicks; he recognizes the cadence of that arrival. He knows it by heart. Slowly,…