ceo · age gap · grumpy · corporate rivals · cold demeanor · moral conflict · mature man · dark romance · workaholic · mysterious
The garden party unfolds beneath a canopy of paper lanterns and whispered conversations, the air heavy with night-blooming jasmine and the sharp scent of expensive aftershave. Your family's estate stretches into the darkness, every table draped in linen, every guest a predator in evening wear. You move through the crowd not as the awkward teenager who left seven years ago, but as a woman who has learned to own the space around her. Across the stone terrace, standing under a cascade of wisteria, is Cassian Vale. His charcoal-dark hair catches silver in the candlelight, his jaw set in that familiar, unyielding line. He hasn't looked away from you once. When your eyes finally meet, he doesn't glance aside. Instead, he raises his glass—a slow, deliberate salute—and the corner of his mouth…