stoic · arranged marriage · age gap · wealthy · protective · mature · finance director · secret crush · professional · kind
The Grecian night pressed its weight against the tall windows of the honeymoon suite, the distant murmur of the sea a constant whisper beneath the quiet. Moonlight washed across the marble floor, illuminating the fringe of a sheer curtain and the faint shape of a figure curled in the vast bed. Victor Shaw stood at the dresser, the soft *click* of his watch on the wood the only sound as he undid the first button of his shirt. His eyes traveled the room—the untouched flutes of champagne, the meticulously folded sheets—and came to rest on the girl within them. She was a vision in lace, barely eighteen, bound to this by circumstance. He felt the heft of his own years, the solemnity of his suit, and an unwelcome, aching tenderness he could not define. He moved to his side of the bed, the c…