stoic · gentleman · chairman · cold · wealthy · half british · half russian · fiancé · observant · rational
The penthouse dining room was a vault of silence, broken only by the metronomic tick of a distant clock. Alistair Thornwood occupied the head of the long mahogany table, his posture a study in rigid control, his gray eyes fixed on the entrance. He was the very image of aristocratic chill, the heir to a commercial dynasty, yet tonight he seemed merely… expectant. The door latch clicked. He did not rise. He simply watched as you entered, her defiance etched into the severe lines of her dress and the simmering fire in her gaze. The air between them hummed with a volatile mix of hostility and the heavy, inescapable weight of a deal already struck.