When Tristan and Catherine meet, he immediately possesses her body, soon wants her mind, but has no interest in her heart. Nor his. While he happily feeds a darkness within him, she nervously runs from a past that predates her birth. Love, nice and stable are not even on the radar . . .
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Catherine physically escapes her dark past only to realize that the running in her mind, however, has not ended, and that, in order to cope with this continued racing away from a past that she refuses to recall, and from another that she could never fathom to be her own, strong emotions must never possess her. Remaining "even" must therefore be her normalcy.
Even. In order that she not emotionally swing from one extreme to another, and then catastrophically lose all of herself with the momentum.
Even. Because she believes that people suffer bad luck, or even die, when she is not.
When her self-imposed limited existence is nevertheless breached by Tristan, he owns no white horse, although he is seen upon one professionally, and he behaves in no way with chivalry, although he does own a suit of it for show. He, however, uses neither with her.
He possesses her.
He immediately sets new rules for her in his world, harsh ones, and she has no choice but to obey them. Him.
Soon enough, however, what begins to matter most is that she no longer runs alone, even if now being chased by their blend of demons.
What begins to matter even more is that he may know where the finish line is, and be strong enough to guide them there, eventually, with her as his muse, as his reason to want to reach it.
(P.S. Tristan first appears in chapter Four . . . )
Heart of Stone - Stone and Fire #1 [17+] (REWRITING)
45 parts Ongoing Mature
45 parts
Ongoing
Mature
Black eyes. Soulless. Unforgiving.
Grey. Ice-cold, but just enough that I'm able to melt it.
Both make me feel something. The matter was, which one out-weighed the other?
Rule-bound, my life feels more like a cage than it ever has. I have no opportunity to use my fire and break out- heat can only do so much.
And then like a fish out of water, I have to attach myself to this man- a man I know is dangerous.
But so am I.
The thing is, I don't know just how much. Only when he touches me, looks at me, talks to me even if his voice is laced with Russian poison.. that's when I realize just what agreement I've accorded with. It's a crippling touch of fire everytime he's near, and the most dangerous thing of all- even more than him, is the fact that I don't hate it.
Stone is what I see when I look into his eyes.
I wonder, is his heart made of it too?
Nikolas Volkov
When a bloody feud between the Russian Bratva and the Cosa Nostra ends with one outback- I'm forced to put myself in a position I have no other choice but to fulfill. With the Pakhan on my back, eyes everywhere mean complying is the only option.
Only when the moment comes, is when I realize just what I've gotten myself into.
She's.. indecipherable. I don't know what the hell this feeling is. I know it's not good.
But my body tells me it's not bad, either.
I try to stay away, but feeling her tremble and light like a switch underneath my touch when she's so used to staying upright, it awakens a dark, fulfilling part of me.
My heart's made of stone. It always has been.
So why do I feel it sway whenever she's near?
17+ Mafia Dark Romance *Standalone*