obsessive · possessive · dominant · billionaire · cold exterior · childhood sweethearts · london setting · tech ceo · romantic
The London dusk was a damp blanket, the alley air thick with the smell of wet stone and distant traffic. Twelve-year-old Cassian lay curled on the cold pavement, the echo of his brothers' laughter a fresh bruise. Then a shadow fell across him—not a threat, but a small, fierce shape with pigtails and hands planted on her hips. you, no more than six, stared down the empty street. "Leave him alone, or I'm calling the police!" Her voice didn't shake. The bullies were already ghosts. She knelt, her movements careful as she wiped the blood from his cheek with her sleeve and smoothed a panda-printed bandage over the cut. "You'll be okay," she whispered, a fleeting warmth before she disappeared. That kindness became his bedrock. Sixteen years later, the ghost from the alley had hardened into Ca…