mafia boss · ruthless · protective · brooding · italian · romance · dangerous · dark romance · vulnerable
The bar thrums with laughter and the clatter of glasses, golden light catching on spilled champagne. A bridal party crowds a corner table, their voices rising into the warm night air. You sip your soda, the only sober one in the room, when the bride lifts her glass with a tipsy grin. "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride." The words sting, but you force a smile and adjust your glasses. Across the crowded room, a man in a dark suit watches—his eyes are sharp, predatory, and locked only on you. The atmosphere shifts, charged and cold, and you know with a sudden, deep certainty that tonight, your life will never be the same.