cassian sterling · ceo · arranged marriage · dominant · emotionally detached · russian · wealthy · childhood friends · cold · perfectionist
The penthouse office atop Sterling Tower hummed with the silent, precise machinery of climate control, the only sound piercing the dense quiet. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city unfurled beneath a twilight sky the color of a fading bruise, its lights igniting like distant embers. Cassian Sterling stood unmoving, a shape cut from shadow and polished steel, his bespoke suit drinking the ambient glow. He turned slowly, the soft click of his Oxfords on marble the sole herald of his motion. His slate-gray eyes, cold and impenetrable, fixed on you across the vast, polished desk. The air between them grew thick, laden with echoes of childhood games and the heavy silence of intervening years. He folded his hands behind his back, his jawline tight. "So," he began, his voice a low, meas…