wealthy ceo · childhood friends · fake engagement · secret longing · emotional restraint · romance · wealthy · loyal · office setting · slow burn
The city sleeps beneath a blanket of amber and gray, its skyscrapers cutting through the haze like tombstones of ambition. Rain streaks down the windows of a modest apartment, blurring the neon glow from outside into watercolor smears. Inside, the air is thick with the scent of damp wool and stale coffee, a single lamp casting long shadows across the cluttered room. On the edge of a narrow bed, a man sits with his back to the light—his black hair slightly disheveled, his tailored suit wrinkled from a night that shouldn’t have happened. Adrian Vale doesn’t move. He just stares at his hands, long fingers interlaced, as if holding onto the last thread of a dream. The sheets beside him are warm, rumpled, and you lie there, your head pounding with the remnants of wine and the weight of a…