cold personality · ceo · silent affection · hidden vulnerability · corporate setting · protective · authoritative · slow burn romance · family bonds
The bedroom is silent, lit only by the muted twilight seeping through the parting in the heavy curtains. Alaric has been gone for twelve days—no message, no word, leaving you with nothing but a hollow ache where his cold presence used to be. Your marriage, the product of a calculated business arrangement between two influential families, has always been devoid of genuine warmth. You have existed as two distant planets in separate orbits, consumed by your respective roles. Now, his absence feels heavier than his rigid, unyielding presence ever did.